Evaluation Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Having very limited knowledge about technologies at the start of the process I feel that I have learnt a lot about how to use different software programmes and equipment such as the camera and the tripod correctly to construct a high end product. I already had my own camera before starting the course so I had a little bit of experience knowing how to operate it and the different setting options that were included, however over the course I have developed my skills greatly and have become a confident camera operator/ director. What software/hardware did you use? The software that I used to create my product was Adobe Premier Pro CS6, this software is used by professional filmmakers and was the editing software that we needed to use to edit our sequence together. When we first started the course this software seemed incredibly complicated and the thought of having to try and create a piece of film using it seemed close to impossible. The only form of editing software I had experience using was windows movie maker which is a very basic editing product so the step up from windows to premier pro was very daunting. However, over the course I have learnt so many different techniques and discovered how things on the programme worked through basic trial and improvement methods. The biggest difficulties that I encountered whilst making this title sequence was probably how to cover up the mistakes Id made in my camera work through my editing. For example as Id made all of my own credits it was hard for me to alter the timings for how long they appeared on screen for. My teacher suggested that I freeze the framing of the shots where some of the credits were too short to extend how long theyd be on screen. I had to learn how to cut and extend each shot using the soft ware and we also decided to insert transitions called additive dissolves in between the frames to make the editing more effective and to give the sequence a quirky look. In terms of hardware, I used the Nikon D3200 Camera to film my piece, which I found very easy and simple to use as it is my own camera and I have been using it well before starting to work on this media product. The camera its self is light and there are clear directions and buttons on the screen and the body of the camera. The quality of the shots that I got were very good, they were not grainy and they presented the colours in a true light. The only problem I had when using it was trying to focus on certain areas and the shakiness of a lot of the shots as I rarely used the tripod at all. But the camera is high quality and I wanted to use this rather than use one on the school cameras as I knew exactly how to work it and what I could experiment with on some of my shots. The tripod that I used was actually broken so it couldnt be properly attached to the bottom of the camera, this limited how much I used it as it was hard to try and balance the camera on top with it moving halfway through a shot. I had the option to again use my own tripod that I have, however, this is very small and would have severely limited some of the shots that I wanted to take. Instead, for many shots I actually created my own steadicam I made this out of a denim jacket inside a plastic bag. This acted as a weight that I could then attach to the bottom of the camera to try to counteract the shakiness of the camera when I was doing my tracking shots-which are heavily used in my sequence. I learnt from this situation that it is always a good idea to have a back up plan when it comes to tripods and how you think your shots are going to turn out they sometimes dont go to plan. But I would also say that I shouldve tried to plan my shots more effectively so that I was able to use a tripod more so the quality of the shots improved.

Did you realise how much work went into creating similar media products? I actually did realise how much work went into creating media products like this as I had worked on creating a short film a few weeks before starting the project so I knew that a lot of preparation was needed to ensure that I had everything that I needed for a shoot. It also helped my to understand that sometimes not everything goes to plan and you may need to extend deadlines in order to create a piece of the highest standard. Having worked on this project before hand it really improved my pre production planning and ideas about time scales. Are there any shots you are particularly proud of?

Here are six of my favourite shots from my title sequence, I particularly like these shots because of there composition or the effect that they add to the sequence. I chose three shots from my opening scene and three shots from the title sequence. The shots from the opening scene tend to be a bit more adventurous to represent the character and the shots from the title sequence are more average shots I just really like how they turned out and how they look in comparison to the rest of the sequence. What would you do differently to improve or alter your product?

I would make sure that I had a better tripod and a professional steadicam in an ideal world. These would both drastically improve my piece and improve the quality of shots. I would also have made my actress do my voice over for my piece rather than do it myself, as the characterisation may have been improved as she really got the feel for the character and what she was about. Lastly I would actually create my credits digitally rather than make my own. This caused me so much hassle and made it really hard to re shoot any footage without having to re shoot the whole thing. But I do really like the fact I took on the challenge and made my own credits and Im happy with how they turned out. Were there any limitations to your creativity? I found there was very little limitation to my creativity with this project. I think that maybe props were a slight limitation. I wouldve liked to use more props within Rosies bedroom to represent her personality more through the titles; however, being so different from Rosie it was hard for me to find anything of my own that really reflected her personality. Clearly I need to be more rebellious! The only other slight limitation that I had was possibly that I wouldve loved to experiment with using some animation within my piece, like the sort of thing that is used in the Juno title sequence. However, I didnt have the skills to be able to do this and do it well so it couldve possible effect the quality of my work. Also I didnt have enough time to be able to teach myself how to use the animation software that we had at school. If I did this project again and had more time Id love to experiment with animation.