The Evaluation: Question 6

Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learned many things during the course of this media project. First and most important, we have been working on iMac computers. I do however own a Macbook and am very familiar with the computers, however this has taught me many skills i am now able to use by my self because of this project. This is heavily due to the software we have used such as Final Draft to begin with. We used this software as it is a very easy and practical way to form a script. It has a perfect layout and simply requires detail just typed into the correct area, while also having the ability to rule off new scenes and shots. We used Final Cut in order to edit the film clips and piece them all together to create the film itself and using non-destructive editing to maximize efficiency in our editing as opposed to working on the timeline. Effects i had not used at all such as sepia effect and soft edges on the frame were used on Mr. Tates scenes in order to show it was separate from reality. We also understood how to export it from a series of clips looking like a film on the software to becoming one piece by exporting it as a Quicktime movie. I had never encountered this before and found it interesting an a pleasure to use. The animatic was also pieced together on this with the use of voiceover to enable us to record a rough guideline for speech over the top of the animatic. It is also something i would not mind toying with in my spare time. Soundtrack Pro is yet another piece of software key to producing the final product. It enabled the surreal sound effects in our film to become easy to do and helped master our sound in order to cancel out overpowering ambience noise and other unwanted sounds. We also found out about switching the sound file to Final Cut to incorporate it into our film by importing it as an AIFF into Final Cut. The only downside however was the lack of a hardcopy of our film and some of the planning. This meant if an iMac was to crash on us, work was lost without hope of retrieving it. This happened to us but we learned to cope and start afresh.

The cameras we have used were Sony DV cameras with a Sony tripod to hold it steady. Once the shots were recorded on tape, the camera was plugged into an iMac using firewire which works at a much quicker speed than USB cables to capture it into Final Cut. This took time but once it was completed the use of the tape was removed except for back up purposes if the worst happened and the whole machine crashed. During the first shot of Tate walking, we used a track and dolly to easily and fluidly record his footsteps. We also used three point lighting in some shots to accent certain parts of the shot, often actors to draw importance. I had not used this technology before and enjoyed learning how to operate it. Furthermore, although familiar with Youtube, I learned even more such as how to embed code into my blog to link a video to it. The blog itself was new to me and was something new in which i now have a profile for and know

how to use.