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

this product?

Alyssa Chhotu

Angles/Shots

I think I have learnt a lot in the process of making the opening because we had to look at a lot of different aspects in order to produce an authentic looking media production which was a horror/thriller opening. The main thing I feel I have learnt individually is editing as you are able to change a normal scene into a more harrowing one through adding sounds, jump cutting and adding different effects.

I also have learnt the influences different shots and angles have as they can inflict different meanings in the genres they have been placed in, for example, an extra long shot could express isolation or it could simply be establishing where the character is. This is useful when analysing media and using it n my own product to convey certain readings.

Editing/Digital Cameras

Editing with jump cuts and quick shorter cuts instead of using flashy edits will make the film seem a lot more believable, and when you are creating a horror or a thriller you need to make the audience believe that they are in danger to entice them and create an atmosphere that is full of adrenaline. We used a lot of black and white for the beginning of the scene showing the shadows and how empty and isolated the environment was.

Also with digital cameras I have learnt how to pan properly with the use of a tripod so it appears professional by using a swift hand movement to avoid a bumpy/shaky pan!

Macs

Macs have software which I had never been fully confident in using such as iMovie and Safari and at first I had found it difficult to understand. With the use of YouTube and help from my teachers I was able to overcome this and confidently edit a opening with the rest of the students in my team.

iMovie was difficult as we didn't know how to add effects on top of the shots so we searched on the application and it told us how to do it, this then meant that we could use them in our thriller pitch and add a more thriller genre look to our rural environment.

Music

We had found non-digetic music online and had to make sure it was un-copyrighted so we didn't breach any regulations. This was easy as websites offer this services frequently and the downloading of said music was a simple click-button action. I then had to import the music onto iMovie so I could use it on the shots I wanted it to be on, I could also adjust the pacing to make it at a certain tempo or pace to create the right feeling I wanted in the scene.

Problems

Technical problems we had encountered was with the final cut as it wouldn't let us upload the clips for the opening, which wasn't a brilliant start. However we managed to get them onto the computer though it had cost us a lot of valuable time that we could've spent editing our thriller opening.

The Apple Macs we had used to edit our programming also hadn't had software that was vital for us to use which meant we needed the technicians to come and download them onto them for us.

Although these problems had set us back we had learnt how to fix them if this should ever happen again which will benefit us because we wont then lose as much precious time.

Overall, I feel this editing had gone well and that the opening of our thriller pitch had gone pretty successfully. If we were to redo this in the future I would do it in a more isolated environment so I won’t have to edit as much to get the isolated sense we wanted for our thriller pitch. I feel like through the technologies though we had managed to create a thriller opening that was both powerful and effective.