Q6. what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

Leanna Ioannou

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Types of technologies we used whilst completing our product during the production construction. Where the following: whilst filming we used technologies such as Studio lighting, this helped us to create a mysterious, tension building atmosphere, we used still cameras, HD canon 600d film cameras these cameras where amazing in creating a sharp high quality image more appealing for our audience to look at and also made our shots of a much higher standard tripods and a dolly (for arc shots) again helped us massively in producing high quality shots such as close up shots without shaking, a 180 degree shot without shaking or moving unevenly for example when Anastasia and Laurence are in the interview room we are able to build up the tension between the two characters through the use of lighting, various close up shots like their eyes/lips just by having these technologies. We used a crane whilst filming high birds eye view shots. we also used a microphone to capture sound quality to a high standard so we wouldnt have to voiceover our entire film. We also used a boom and camera rig.

The types of software we used on the apple mac computers where: Garage Band whilst making our soundtrack: we used this to make our atmospheric background soundtrack that we have playing throughout the whole of our opening sequence, whilst using this software we was able to slow down section of our soundtrack when appropriate for example when characters begin to speak. We also learnt how to mix appropriate instruments that suited our chosen genre, to do this we looked at relevant products similar to ours, that we picked ideas from, one of the main conventions of a mysterious suspense creating soundtrack was slow pace, with sudden sparks of high tempo varying up and down in order to create suspense and anxiety within our target audience. (uses and gratification theory ) as we have caused our audience to be entertained, informed and interact with our characters emotions and story line. IMovie to upload our footage: on this we learnt how to upload our footage before transferring our film to final cut before editing. Final Cut was used whilst editing our whole movie: we learnt a variety of skills when using final cut for example we learnt how to merge camera shots whilst our characters voices played over both instead of just one by adjusting where our shots where positioned and then allowing our speech to play on top, in order to make our film flow more smoothly. We also learnt how to cut shots as well in helping us create this sense of flow more precisely. We also on this software learnt how to put our tittles, voiceover and soundtrack all together making our end product come together.

Photoshop whilst designing our production logo. We learnt basic skills like how to put special effects on letters in creating more of a professional higher quality standard. Making our logo look realistic. Live type to create our film titles and film title: on live type we again learnt very many skills such as how to make the titles of our film appear on screen in a variety of different fonts, live fonts such as moving fonts like jumping across the screen. We also learnt how to change the colours, speed rate at which our title will appear on screen , how they will emerge and disappear, and what fonts where appropriate in order to suggest mystery , and stereotypical conventional. Cuebase (software we used in the recording studio) when recording our voiceover we leant how to record a voiceover and testing what appropriate levels of sound was appropriate for a film, the speed at which our actress should say her lines and the persona/attitude that she should convey in order to achieve what we wanted in our movie.

What skills I developed:

Types of skills I developed when filming and editing our final product where whilst filming how to create realistic shots for example not crossing over the 180 degree angle whilst filming an arc shot. For example when the interview is taking place with both Anastasia and Laurence to create a sense of proximity between the two characters and sense of dominance in role and which has the more powerful role this arc shot helps to show this. The whole of the Mise scene is very powerful in connoting a sense of mystery tension in the atmosphere, the lighting shinning dominantly on Anastasia and Laurence being in the shadow shows who has the main attention.
I also learnt things such as creating a steady zoom in shot by using the camera rig over my shoulder or holding steady resting on a table which I used whilst filming close up shots in the interview scene of Anastasias eyes and the lips of Laurence whilst they spoke, again in helping our moving to build up tension and attracting our audiences attention as they begin to interact with our characters and are entertained by what they are watching. This relates to the uses and gratification theory.

Whilst editing I was able to learn how to use each of the following softwares on the mac computers for example final cut I learnt how to cut the different shot and merge them together with the next shot, for example here where the arrow is pointing,

we have layered to shots together so at the same time at which Pc Laurence is talking we see 3 shot sat once one of Anastasias face then back to them talking in the interview and then whilst he is still talking we see a shot of Anastasia playing with her hair in a sexual manner. Also on this software I learnt how to add in footage and editing techniques such as fade in and fade out effects between flashbacks. We also learnt how to add in our titles and soundtrack and how to change the levels of our sound when speech is involved for example when the interviewer commences the soundtrack sowers in volume so we can hear Laurence clearly and then rises back up again when it goes back to no speech. When inserting our titles we learnt how to go to black screen in-between footage for a white contrasting titles working in binary to our black background (binary oppositions) the way we chose our titles to come up was a conventional element of most mystery films I looked at. Its conventional way of building up tension and atmosphere making audiences want to watch on, as footage flashes between titles and footage.

Whilst using the software live type I learnt how to create titles and change the effects, durations, colours, font and size of each title. Here where the arrow is pointing is where you would type in your chosen title for example director by and using the buttons below we was able to change the style of font, effects we would wish our titles to come up in, the duration at which we would want them to come in.

In our case we wanted a slower pace especially as our film is of the mystery genre having this slow pace was one of the generic conventions of mystery movies that I looked at, slow movement, causing an anxious atmosphere. We were able to choose where our text was positioned by moving it around on the white piece of paper to the left of the screen. And below is the order, the name of our title, and the effects and times of how each font comes up.

Whilst using garage band I learnt how to assemble different instruments together in order to create the mystery genre feel. To do this I watched a variety of films opening sequences of the mystery genre to help gather relevant research into how we should create our music in order to be successful in creating suspense, tension feel to our opening. Also we made sure that the soundtrack went down a touch in tone and harsh heavy sounds of instruments whilst our interviewer spoke this was so our characters could be clearly heard. Specific editing techniques I applied to our final product where the way in which the titles would fade in and out of our film opening. I also edited shots so that they would flow into the next nicely without jumping. I also designed the logo of our production company using Photoshop. I did this by combing all of our initials together and composition them in a way that our initials looked best compositionally. I then put a white ring behind our initials and using the glow tool made the ring have a slight glowed edge to it, causing our logo to hopefully stand out against others. I also tried to express this through having the binary contrasting colours of white against black which we continued as a theme throughout our film, with our titles.