What have you learnt about technologies when constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot throughout the production of our opening sequence, I have also improved my technological skills a lot since our preliminary task. I have mainly developed my skills within Blogger, iMovie, specific sound recording with a boom, using high quality DSLR cameras, YouTube, Prezi and briefly with the screenplay formatting website Plotbot.
Blogger
During our coursework we have kept a blog on blogger to record our work throughout the year. I had no idea what blogger was before this process and have thoroughly enjoyed setting up and updating my blog frequently. I have particularly taken an interest in designing my blog to look how I would like it to, by changing the theme, background and the various widths and lengths of the webpage. I have learnt to embed videos, slideshows and prezis as shown throughout my blog. Having created my blog has allowed me to explore blogging and share my coursework and our group work with my family and friends.
iMovie
Having only used Windows Movie Maker before starting the as level media course, I was apprehensive as to getting used to the iMovie controls, seeing as it makes editing extremely easier when you get used to the many (at first) complicated functions that iMovie possesses. At the start of the production I found it frustrating and had a lack of control in achieving the product that we had envisaged. However, after watching various YouTube videos and working on my other evaluation questions I gradually started to get used to and really enjoy editing on iMovie, both in and out of school. I now feel confident in editing and have enjoyed being able to create a more professional product due to the technology. I have learnt about exporting and importing files, downloading YouTube videos and using them for my shorts films, cutting shots, adding soundtrack, sound effects and utilizing the effects that you can add to pictures and shot sequences.
Sound Technology
We weren't expecting to have used any sort of specific sound equipment due to a lack of experience in the use of high quality diegetic sound within moving image. However when Miss Moore gave us the opportunity we took it and I was the designated sound person for the first afternoon of filming. I was responsible for carrying and setting up the boom for filming, which at times was trying due to the attention drawn to us because of it, and because of there being more important things to consider with time being a massive issue. I learnt which position suited the sound best after reviewing the sound and which was the most appropriate position for the boom with relation to the camera. Due to the mic jack not being the right size we unfortunately couldn't listen to the sound while filming, so that when we got back to the editing we realized there wasn't much point in using the boom again, especially as there was no dialogue it seemed a waste of time and effort. I still did learn as mentioned before the importance of good sound in a piece of film and the positioning of the boom being appropriate. I have enjoyed attempting to develop sound and make it the highest quality possible
DSLR Camerawork
Another technology I would say I learnt something about would be the DSLR camera we used. Having only used a DSLR previously at home to take pictures and to film our preliminary (I mainly edited on this task), it was important to get to know the new camera we used. Jake kindly let us film on his camera which was hard getting used to due to it being harder than I thought to achieve the shots you imagine during the pre production planning. I suggested that we tried a dolly zoom after seeing the one implicated in jaws as an example. We then got some advise on how to actually achieve the dolly zoom and had a go at it (this is shown as a blog post further down my blog with mine, Connie and Jake's attempts collated together). This proved to be an extremely challenging camera movement but when it is executed correctly it can look very professional and serve as an even bigger moment of realization for a character (as it does in our opening sequence). I enjoy using these high quality cameras due to the level of detail that they capture and have learnt quickly to operate them efficiently and effectively.
YouTube
YouTube has massively improved the quality and depth of my blog posts, providing vital links and examples of thrillers so that we could keep close to the conventions of the genre while also trying to challenge these stereotypes. We took inspiration from many media products that currently exist and YouTube's 'suggested' playlist has really helped us to explore many different examples of thrillers and get a wider range of examples. We have also been able to upload our work and publish it on the video sharing site, allowing us to show our film to a wider range of people including family members and friends, highlighting several different opinions on the film itself as well as our preliminary film.
Plotbot
We were introduced to a screen play formatting sight called 'Plotbot'. This may have helped some screenplay writers but we found it very fiddly and we weren't very efficient whilst using it, so we switched to writing our screenplay on Microsoft Word. We felt much more confident with Word and successfully created a detailed screenplay of our opening sequence as shown in an older post on my blog. I am glad I was introduced to this new technology but I did learn that it wasn't software I felt comfortable using.
Prezi
The final example of how I think I have learnt through technology would be through the presentation site Prezi. At the start of the course I was very reluctant to use Prezi due to the other class members creating what looked like very challenging ways of presentation. I put using Prezi off until my evaluations when I realized that it would have to be used if I wanted to be successful in 'Multimedia blogging'. I used Prezi for my evaluation question two about representation of social groups, seeing as I could find a theme that I liked and fits with my blog and completely customize the paths that the Prezi would take I found myself getting quicker and enjoying myself more on the website. I can now confidently use Prezi on future projects and think of it as a very professional way of presenting.
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