Evaluation (Question Six) – Media AS Course

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?What technologies have you used?

Rebecca Scott

Plan

TechnologiesI have used

Blog

Filming

Editing

Hand Held vs.

TripodCameraShots Sound

YouTube

Before starting Media AS I hadn’t used different types of media. When starting Media AS one of the key technologies to use was Blogger, before Media AS I hadn’t ever used a blog or understood how to use it. Throughout this course we were told to upload everything on our blog, this then consisted of me learning how to upload PowerPoint’s, pictures, videos and word documents. I have now learnt that Blogger is a very effective way of documenting my work. Although sometimes there are problems, I have now learnt how to overcome these and continue with the work. The Blog is a very good because, it saves organising the folders. Finally the blog is now something I am very confident with and one of the technologies I have had to learn how to use. Blogger is a very quick and clean way of showing your work, for example down the right side of the blog page you can see all the document titles and the dates, this is called the Blog Archive and it shows the journey of Media AS – Opening to a Horror Film.

Blog Work

Another technology we had to learn was how to use was the editing software. During Media AS we had to learn how to use Microsoft Expression Encoder 4, Also Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. At the beginning of this course I had never even heard of these programmes, it was difficult to learn how to Encode, Edit and Render films. When I opened encoder for the first, I struggled to use it; I had a lot of help off Media teachers. After the help, I could encode any clips I needed done, for my horror film I managed to encode all the files. After the original encoding, I had to begin editing on Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. This was another problem because again I didn’t know how to use this programme, before Media AS I only ever edited something on movie maker, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 was very hard to understand when first looking at it. When editing my film I needed to use different effects to make the film better, so when using a new programme, I needed a lot of help of the teacher but when I got the help I completed editing. I now think that premiere pro is very good editing software and I now can upload clips on premiere pro and edit without any help. After editing on premiere pro I needed to render and export my film, I followed step by step instructions which helped me. Finally this is another new technology I used in Media AS.

Editing

When starting the AS Media course, we had to learn how to upload video’s on YouTube. Before AS Media I had watched video’s on YouTube, but I had never uploaded anything. At the beginning of the course I had to create a Google account and then YouTube. When I had made the account, I learnt how to upload and share them on the Blog. I now believe that YouTube is an effective way of show casing your work and also a good technology to use for AS Media. This is one of the many technologies I had to learn for AS Media. Finally, I now understand the YouTube account and how to share it, so I can show case my final project. I now know how to log on to me Google account which then goes onto my YouTube account.

YouTube

Camera Shots

During my filming I used a lot of different camera angles to show the girls emotions through out, at the begging I used close up/ over the shoulder to show the relaxed tension between the two girls. Also I used a medium long shot of the two girls hugging to show that they don't feel in harm or like anything bad will happen. As  the tension builds the blonde girl "Laura" walks alone and I use a long shot to show how small and innocent she looks. From behind "Laura" a dark body comes from behind her and as this happens I zoom into her face to show her worry. I used a short shot of her to show her emotions growing. At the end of the, I shot a scene of the water as I see the coat of the side I zoom in, until it is a medium long shot of her. I used a medium long shot of the coat because you can guess its her coat but still unsure, so it leaves the audience in a unstable, worried feeling towards the girl. From this screen shot we can see the girl

smiling, which shows the atmosphere is fine and happy.

Sound

Sound was another technology I had to understand when editing my horror film, I had listened to music before and put them with videos. This was one of the technologies I was most confident with. For our course we had to find some horror music which was uncopyrighted. This involved a lot of research, when I found this website he said I can use his music as long as I put his name of his credits. The website I used was sonnyboo.com and I found 4 tracks which sounded good for my horror film. Although I do use music in my film, I preferred to use natural sounds which are called diegetic sounds, I chose to do this because my film is called "silent death" and the vague sound of trees moving and foot prints sounds quieter and more tension building.

Filming

When beginning AS Media, in had used a camera phone but I had never used a camera. Before I starting filming my film, I chose to take a day to chose where I was going to film and how the camera worked. After this day I picked another to do the actually filming, this time I was a lot my confident on using the equipment. On filming day I got a lot of footage when I got home I had to learn how to upload videos on my computer, again I hadn't done this before, with help from my teachers I managed to get all my footage up and ready to be encoded and edited. This was a significant technology I had to learn to use during this course, now I am confident in using a camera.

Hand Held vs. Tripod

Through filming I used both hand held and tripod because when I was filming the beginning credits, I needed a smooth slowly panning shot of the old bridge. Although later in the scene, there is a shot where I am filming the water and a smooth in to the coat, during this scene I used hand held because the shaking points in this scene shows the tension building. When the two girls are talking I used the tripod because its smooth, calm and relaxed atmosphere. As the tension builds I started using hand held.