JVC-1500 E, Final Cut Pro editing software, Adobe after effects, Apple and PC computers, mobile telephones and digital cameras for stills. Using this equipment we could access websites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter as well as basic emailing which was crucial. All this equipment is digital technology based on binary code. Digital technology was used extensively at all stages of the production from: research and development, planning, construction (shoot), post production, distribution and evaluation. Digital technology dominated the production, without it the project would have been much slower and at a poorer quality.
For both my As thriller project and my A2 pop-video project digital technology was particularly for research and development. Pc’s (especially the internet) was key in researching other thrillers to get an idea of the atmosphere and messages that are stereotypical of this genre. Knowledge of good sites for this such as Youtube and sites of sons and bands such as Myspace were useful and were accessed through the computers available to me, from theses websites and digital technology It was possible to save stills and use them to discuss ideas. Other methods for getting ideas across to my class included printing and using mobiles to call when not in the classroom which would have not been possible without this digital technology. After we had an idea our storyboard which was drawn up, shot on camera and then edited in Final Cut Pro so we could have a basic idea of what the final product would look like and also to use as a template when editing the real footage, digital technology allowed us to do this.
In the planning stage of both productions call sheets were constructed on computers and then e-mailed to anyone involved, because of this the shoot was well organised and it also limited problems on the shoot day (for example individuals knew where they had to be located at what time, and all props were accounted for), digital stills were also taken of the actors/performers so that we cold get an idea of how they would look together which was important for the star image.
For our As project we used a compact and easy to use camera, in comparison to the equipment the Sony PD170 is of a slightly lower quality to the JVC-1500 E that we used for our pop video but as we were new to media this was a suitable choice for basic film making elements and suited our needs well. Tracking was one of the key issues outside as we tracked in a semicircle and found it challenging to keep focus and also to have a smooth track on the unstable terrain, this meant we hade to repeat the shot several times to get a clean track. Another focus issue was the focus pull on a dolls face, which again we repeated until satisfied. The atmosphere that we wanted to create in the production was hard to achieve as the light was very warm at the time of day despite using bin liners and redheads it is clear that the light is not the same through the product, this was a continuity issue, we tried to avoid this in after effects but were fairly unsuccessful, a couple of the shots were also over exposed especially a shot of a doll in the shed which was the effect we were trying to achieve but on reflection and with the higher experience that we have now the shot should have been less exposed.
For our pop video we used higher quality camera. The JVC-1500 E is more complicated than the Sony PD170 but was suitable for our improved skills. The JVC-1500 E provided us with more control and overall better produce for our final product. The performance side of our video was shot in front of a blue screen so that we could apply a narrative in after effects. For our narrative we shot on an outdoors location at night which created problems with lighting especially because in the shots were light bulbs that we key to the storyline, once it got dark we used generators to light redheads in order so that we could light up the shot for an appropriate atmosphere and so that we could work on the location, the lighting for our performance shots in the studio was successful despite direct shots into the light we managed to still create the proper silhouette of our actress that we wanted and not overexpose the shots, this was because of the camera we were using and our improved skills. Pop video conventions usually follow the rule of a lot of short and sharp shots that cut with the music, this means that with the fast passed cutting we would have to shoot more, with the JVC-1500 E this was possible. For our thriller the ratio was 3:1 this was due to the longer shots required for an audience to take in the mis-en-scene, our pop video follows a convention of shorter shots cut with the music and because of this the ratio was 6:1, because of the digital JVC-1500 E’s mobility and with our higher experience and knowledge of film making we were able to capture a much higher amount of shots thus creating a bigger ratio, new media technology made this possible, we could also spend longer on different stages of the production. Older analogue cameras were much larger and simply moving the equipment around would have been very time consuming and would have stunted the production of the shoot.
In postproduction for our thriller we learnt how to use Final Cut Pro software and the process of editing took around 8 weeks as we were new to the process. On reflection of our As project we know test that there are qualities such as shot times and credits that are poor quality, for example the shots of the dolls towards the end of the product should be edited shorter, another issue is that the credits are to short and to small. In comparison our pop video only took 3 weeks to edit, in this time we also learnt how to use Adobe after effects which was crucial in our product as pop videos need a lot of effects in order to adjust colours ect. For our product we could use both the Final Cut Pro and Adobe software to edit in the shots on the blue screen, match the colours and light of the narrative and performance so that they blend well and also edit to the music, as the Final Cut program is non-liniar. Continuity editing could also be done well because of this digital technology.
Digital technology was fundamental for the Distribution of our product, without it the process would have been extremely difficult. We transferred the video on to a website called Youtube on and Facebook, two very popular social networking sites, this ment that we could get a lot of good quality feedback from audiences of different demographics and age groups.
Throughout the production of both projects new media technology was essential and without it every stage would have been significantly more challenging.
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