6. What Have You Learnt about Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

Technologies used in Pre-Production:

• Adobe Premiere Pro - to edit our animatic, which was interesting as I had never edited with photos on the software before, and we later needed this skill in our final edit
• New media like Facebook and Twitter to contact other members of our group (we created our own private Facebook group and email)
• YouTube to upload clips from our test shoot

Advantages	Disadvantages
Adobe Premiere Pro: -Allowed us to easily edit together our animatic -We could create temporary titles Social Networks: -We had to communicate a lot between Group members and our actors as well as our caterers -It meant that all our cast and crew could easily access information about our shoots -We could quickly communicate if any problems arose	Social Networks: -One member of our cast did not have Internet access so could not see our discussions on Facebook etc -Sometime group members would not receive the messages for a while

Our Animatic:

Our test shoot:

Technologies I used in Production:

• Camera - Canon Legria HV30 
• Tripod 
• Microphone - Rhode Shot Gun microphone

Advantages

Disadvantages

Camera: -Shoots in HD which improved the quality of our footage -Carried in a rucksack with all the other camera equipment we needed like spare batteries and tapes, so was easily accessible and portable Tripod: -Especially useful for our sunrise shots as we shot a great number of pans -Allowed us to shoot all your shots smoothly and steadily, creating a more professional feel -Easily portable Microphone: -Unfortunately because we were filming on top of Primrose Hill there was a lot of wind noise, which was reduced in part by the microphone -Picked up more of the dialogue than we would have done otherwise

Camera: -It is an older model now so the quality didn't look as professional Tripod: -If we had had equipment like a steady mount we might have been able to create more movement shots and exciting tracking shots Microphone: -It couldn't remove the background noises made by the many dog walkers and joggers that frequented the hill.

Sharlene and I shared the filming, directing and producing roles equally between us because the other member of our group, Emily, was acting in our sequence. We got round this by planning our schedule very carefully, and utilizing our shot log. We used natural lighting as our opening was shot entirely in Primrose Hill Park.

Technologies Used in Post-Production:

• Adobe Premiere Pro - For editing
• Microphone - To record a new version of Emily's song, Train to Anywhere
• LiveType - To create the titles, and we also had to download the 'Brainflower' font onto the computer
• Adobe Photoshop - For creating our 'REC' sign
• Adobe Audition - Also to record our soundtrack
• Adobe After Effects - To smooth out the Sunrise pan across (our first shot) as the pan was quite jerky

Advantages

Disadvantages

Adobe Premiere Pro: -Multiple tracks allowed us to create sound bridges -Allowed us to fade titles, clips and music in and out using the pen tool -Allowed us to grade all our shots -Able to edit using pictures and titles easily/could overlay them onto our footage Live Type: -Helped us create professional looking titles in the font we wanted (which we had to download as it wasn’t already on the system) Microphone/Adobe Audition: -Helped us create a professional sounding and high quality soundtrack

Microphone: -As we had to record our soundtrack in school we picked up a little background noise Adobe Premiere Pro: -The grading wasn't completely effective at smoothing out irregularities, and actor's clothing or skin often changes colour slightly in different shots

I had used most of the softwares and equipment before apart from Adobe After Effects, such as in our GCSE coursework, but we used new techniques that I had to learn such as:

• The Pen Tool - this allowed us to make adjustments to the soundtrack which helped minimize wind noise, as well as allowing us to fade up from black at the beginning and down to black at the end on our sequence
• Adding Key Frames - We used this in Adobe After Effects
• Three-way colour corrector - We used this during grading to alter the colours of our shots eg to improve the continuity of the colour of Noah's coat
• Procamp - Another grading tool, this time to change the brightness and contrast of shots to improve their uniformity
• How to make an Animatic 
• How to film a tracking shot

MUSIC:
One of the Members of our group, Emily, is a singer/songwriter with her own YouTube channel, so we decided to use one of her songs as it fitted the young and indie feel of our film and helped us avoid copyright.

We had to rerecord the song in better quality. This is  the process we followed:

1. Write out the lyrics
2. Practiced the song with one of our actors, Torin, on the guitar and Emily singing
3.Opened Adobe Audition and checked the sound levels
4. Adjusted Emily and Torin's positions and proximity to the microphone to ensure the best sound quality
5. Recorded several takes of the song, 'Train To Anywhere'
6. Imported them into Adobe Premiere Pro and selected the best take to put into our timeline.

Unfortunately,  while recording the song Emily and Torin made several errors, so we had to edit the different takes together which meant our soundtrack is not quite continuous.

Emily practising prior to our first recording:

Health and Safety:
While filming on the hill and number of accidents could have taken place:

• Assault/abuse by members of the general public
• Torin (who played Noah) could have been injured while jumping over the bench
• The large number of dogs on the hill could have got in the way of the actor's cues or attempted to interact with them, possibly in a hostile manner
• It was very cold on top of the hill, especially as it was early in the morning, so our cast and crew may have suffered from the cold, so we ensured that they all wore appropriate clothing
• Wind burn due to the very windy weather
• Falls or knocks when setting up the tripod

Skills I Improved:

1. I feel more confident capturing footage, especially as I now know the Razor tool which separates your shots automatically.
2. Slowing down and speeding up bits of the shots to either increase their impact or the scene's pace, which we achieved using the Razor tool.
3. As we went on numerous shoots I feel that my framing and composition of shots improved, as I had time to reflect on the shots I'd taken

What Would We Do Differently in Hindsight?

Advice I would Pass on:

• Think carefully before you choose to do shoot/scene outside
• Plan what time you will need to get to this location when it will be least busiest
• Choose actors who have previous experience of acting
• Choose actors who are dedicated to the project, and are willing to turn up to all your shoots (even if they are at 6 in the morning!)
• Try to resolve any prop and costume changes after the test shoot
• Film a front and back master for the whole sequence so you can cutaway easily
• Make sure you provide adequate weather protection (eg gloves) for your cast and crew if doing a shoot outside

What I could have done, but didn't:

• Checked each shot to make sure that our actor's costume was exactly the same
• Recorded the guitar and singing parts separately to make it easier to edit the soundtrack
• Used ADR to replaced the wind filled dialogue
• Used the shot log more during the shoot to ensure that Sharlene and I alternated jobs at the correct and most efficient time