What have you learnt about technology from the process of

making this project?

Research and PlanningDuring the research and planning stages of constructing my project, I used various technologies to help me create a successful two minute film opening. I used my smart phone in order to take various location shots. This helped me as smart phone's are a lot smaller and easier to carry around as oppose to cameras. The capabilities of my smart phone also then allowed me to e-mail these pictures to myself which I then downloaded on a computer to evidence them onto my blog.

Additionally, websites such as YouTube, Art of the Title and Storyboard That helped me greatly with my research planning as by using these I was able to analyse several film openings to begin to get a sense of how mine should open. Storyboard That allowed me to put my ideas down onto a storyboard form using pre-loaded backgrounds and character, it also allowed me to easily remove and amend anything instantly making it a lot more simpler than having to story my ideas out.

Moreover, I learnt to use Windows programmes such as Microsoft Encoder, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and Windows Live Movie Maker.Microsoft Encoder allowed me to capture a recording of my screen which I the exported to Windows Live Movie Maker in order to create a voice over analysis. Both of these applications helped me as I learnt to convert files into the correct format and also how edit on these software's. I mainly used these software's to analyse film openings so that I could evidence them on my blog.

Software's such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint let me effectively create filming schedules, shooting scripts, call sheets and costume & location ideas. These software's were great help due to being extremely simple and easy to use. Through using these applications, I learnt to use the different templates available to me to create professional looking filming schedules etc.

Similarly, other websites such as Slideshare and Prezi also taught me how to embed my work so that I could analyse film opening as part of my research and planning.

Final Cut ProOn the other hand there were a large number of things that I was incapable of doing in the beginning however learnt through the help of YouTube tutorial videos and also my teachers and peers.

Increasing/decreasing speed is an example of this as some of my clips needed to be sped in order to make the clip flow smoothly and quickly. I did this simply selecting right clicking on the clip in which I wished to change the speed on. This then showed up a small list where I selected ‘speed’. According to how much I wanted to slow down or fasten up the clips, I increased/decreased the speedy percentage then clicked ‘ok’ to confirm my changes.

Furthermore, the cut tool and arrow tools were by far the most popular tools used by myself as these helped me select and cut down the clips in order to keep only the relevant footage for my opening. Both of these tools were great help to me as they were extremely easy to use and quickly did the job.

Moreover, I used the pen tool to add effect to my visual and audio levels. To do this, I clicked on where it would bring up the visual and audio levels creating a black line on the timeline for the visual levels and pink for the audio levels. The pen tool helped me create fades in areas such as the transitioning of the titles and also for to open up my film with a fade. This created gave my opening a professional look as through my research I learnt that all films open with a slow fade into the establishing shot. To add, I was able to adjust my volume level with this pen tool as I needed to balance out the music level and voice over level. The pen tool allow me to do this by creating dots the audio levels which I then dragged up or down according to how loud I wanted the audio in each clip to be. Through this I learnt how to create balance in the music and sound effects.

Moreover, I used the pen tool to add effect to my visual and audio levels. To do this, I clicked on where it would bring up the visual and audio levels creating a black line on the timeline for the visual levels and a light pink for the audio levels. The pen tool helped me create fades in areas such as the transitioning of the titles and also for to open up my film with a fade. This created gave my opening a professional look as through my research I learnt that all films open with a slow fade into the establishing shot. To add, I was able to adjust my volume level with this pen tool as I needed to balance out the music level and voice over level. The pen tool allow me to do this by creating dots the audio levels which I then dragged up or down according to how loud I wanted the audio in each clip to be.

In relation to sound I also learnt that the audio palette tool is used to identify whether or not the volume is appropriate in all clips. For example; some areas of the voice over used to enter the red zones which I learnt is wrong as this would result in the audience having to constantly turn the volume up and down while watching my opening. To correct these issues, I turned down the audio levels for whenever they entered the red zones after making observations.

I also learnt that there are errors in the playback if a number of clips haven’t been render, this taught me that it is essential to render every time a few changes have been made to prevent it from taking a long time to render in the end. This also then helps the sequence play normally.

Furthermore, I learnt that in order to clip the audio and visual clips in sync the link took must be turned on. The helps keep the clip together so that the sounds can be matched with what can be seen on screen. Similarly, I learn that the tool beside it should also always be selected as this makes it easier for clips to fit in together preventing slight jumps and black screens.

Additionally, during the editing process I faced the problem of media going offline due to changing the location of where the clips had been saved. This taught me that clips must not be moved around as doing so will create faults in the playback.

Lastly, parts of the footage filmed by my group had difference in lighting. To correct this I needed to learn how to use the colour corrector so that our opening doesn’t face continuity errors. Adjusting the blacks, mids and whites until all of the clips had similar lighting is an example of how I used the colour corrector.

Final Cut Pro

Garage Band and iTunesI used Garage Band to create the music and sound effects for my film opening. By doing this, I was able to explore many of the different sound effects Garage Band offer in order for me to select the sounds that will link in the most with my opening. After creating a test sounds I noticed that there loops could easily be heard. To correct this is I learnt to layer and add different sounds all throughout so that loops cannot be heard. At first, I was struggling with this however using Loops made it a lot more easier as it offered me different sounds and instruments that I could use to create my music which I used to experiment with in order to create music that is suitable enough for a film opening of teen comedy genre.

Once creating my music, I learnt that I must export it to iTunes in order for me to be able to successfully import it into Final Cut Pro.

LiveTypeLiveType is the application that allowed me to successful create professional looking titles for my film opening. I enjoyed using this application as it was simple and easy to use. This application taught me how to add different colours, animations and font styles to the text.

Another thing that I learnt through trial and error while using this application was how to change where the animation starts and ends. I needed to learn how to do this as I wanted my title to remain on screen for a couple of extra seconds after the animation had finished as this is a convention of teen comedy genre. To do this I simply extended the duration of how long the title will stay on screen for while shortening the length of the animation.

Furthermore, after creating test titles I realised that I had created them in the incorrect frame size therefore made sure to use the correct frame size for the final product.

Furthermore, during the process of creating the titles I also learned how to render the LiveType files so that I could save them and import them later on to my opening.

MotionMotion is an application that I was entirely unfamiliar with during the beginning stages of the production however I managed to build my knowledge on how to use this application.

I used Motion to create my institutional logo’s as I noticed that all films open with at least two institutional logo’s. This application helped me as I was able to add certain behaviours to shapes and texts in order for them to flow smoothly together to create a institutional logo that followed the codes and conventions of my chosen genre. I did this by selecting the ‘shapes’ tool to create and organise my shapes.

Furthermore, in order to animate my shapes I went onto library where I found the behaviours options to choose my desired effect. This also taught me that the order in which the shapes appear is important which is when I learnt how to organise my different shapes in order on the timeline.