What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

Over this course, I have learnt to use the advanced program Adobe Premier Pro 5, which is used by professional filmmakers. I have learnt how to operate this and to use transitional effects such as cross dissolve, in which one scene fades to black and then back into another. Another thing I learnt was how to operate the timeline, and how different things can be threaded over each other, like fades directly into the next shot by overlapping the first shot with the next, how audio can be added and controlled over the shots, how to take away the audio from the original shot (We always had it in mind to have an overture instead of using actual audio from the shot so in the original shots we didn’t bother much about keeping quiet). I also learnt about the screen capture, so that we could capture the original video off tape, which is what we used instead of a digital camera, and also how to operate VCR’s to the extent where we could use them to take the film off the camera.

I also learnt about controlling the key of lighting to work in, We filmed our media product in a garage, that had only the natural light from outside (When the door was open) a fluorescent tube light, and a lamp at the far end of the garage. We opted to use low key light, so we decided that the scene would look spookier if the majority of the scene was filmed with the light coming from behind so that not a lot of light was illuminating the shot. We also used things like height angles, like standing on a step ladder to get a good over the shoulder shot.

This also meant that I learnt about what is conveyed on camera when you film something, and how to control mood, atmosphere, that even ambient noise can completely ruin the product if you don’t mean for it to be there. I also learnt about how media products can be improved by using tools such as the track and the crane, which would have been better that just walking along whilst holding the camera low and standing on a chair to get the high shot – also it would have been a lot more precise.