Evaluation 6

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

Hardware

I used a Nikon D3200 Camera to film my piece, which proved to be quite easy and simple. After a lot of hassle trying to get a camera from school, there were none available in the time I needed it, so I used my friend Laura's.
The camera its self was light and there were clear directions and buttons on the screen and the body of the camera. The quality of the shots were extremely good, they were not grainy and they presented the colours in a true light. The only problem I had when using it was trying to focus on certain areas. For example the close up shot of Kieran washing has face is slightly blurry:

 



I also used a tri-pod for the non close up shots. I found that the tri pod was incredibly small and did not leave much room for different types of shots. When I needed to film from higher than 1m I had to do hand held shots as the tri pod would not reach. If I was to do this project again I would make sure that I get a large tripod, preferably from the school. So this lead to  a few shots being slightly wobbly, however I think that I managed quite well giving the situation. The shots are not obviously wobbly, the only problem that came from this was that I had to cut down some of the shots that were too wobbly, so that these parts were cut out.

Another problem I encountered with the tripod was the fact that the panning lever was stiff, leading to pan shots being wobbly and jerky. To counter act this problem when it arose, I decided to pan myself without the help of the lever, this give me slightly less jerky shots, however they are still rather wobbly. For example the first shot of the piece where he is sat on the bed looking out the window had to be cut down on either ends so that it looked fluid. It was also slightly tricky filming the shots in the walk in wardrobe as it was quite tight attempting use a tripod and to fit me and Kieran in the door way. This was especially tricky when I needed Kieran to leave the room past me so I could then pan down to the corpse on the floor. We had to do this take quite a few times as he kept knocking the tripod as he left, or he was walking out of the way of the tripod which obviously meant loss of verisimilitude. However, we managed in the end and it resulted in a shot that I am quite proud of.

 

Software

As for software that I used, I used Adobe Premier Pro CS6 to edit my piece. I found this quite easy due to the fact I have used to edit all of my other tasks, including my preliminary task. I learnt how to change the colours, contrast and brightness of the shots which came in handy as I need to make all my shots look bleaker, yet more defined. Other than this I was quite accustomed to this software and encountered minimal problems.

Despite all the effects that are available on the software, I didn't really use many of them. This is because I wanted the mise en scene to be as ordinary and normal as at it could, so that the abnormal murder weapons and corpses would stand out as the real feature of appeal.
On the majority of the clips I made the contrast 17.0 and kept the brightness as 00.0 so that the picture didn't look too faded and edited. This was quite time consuming as I had to change each of the clips individually. I also made the saturation 70.0 as this made the colours look grim, matching the tones of the narrative. I made two versions of my final piece, one where the saturation wasn't changed and the colours were more vibrant, and the one that I used for my final piece where the colours are darker. I asked a few people what looked better and I came to the decision that the one with the changed saturation looked more effective. It was subtle enough so that it didn't look like the saturation had been changed, but that it was just set in an extremely grim atmosphere.


I did not realise how much work and editing went into making title sequences, which makes me admire the people who manage to make entire films, never mind just the beginning three minutes.
I also realise how important it I for professional producers to have a team of people who each have a specific role to play. I would imagine shooting and planning a whole film would be incredibly hard, probably impossible, for one person to do on their own. Saying that, throughout the planning, filming and editing processes I felt very much in control of my work and I believe that I managed my time well in order to produce the best final piece I could produce.

As for the shots that I am particularly proud of, I really like the long shot of my character walking through to he bathroom. I feel that it looked completely symmetrical which enabled the strange character to stand out and it also created irony, as the perfectly shaped shot and setting held brutal murders and twisted experiments. The shot also symbolises the materialistic lifestyle that I wanted to portray in my piece.

 

 Another shot I was particularly proud of was the second slightly low angle shot of my character sinisterly staring out of the window. I really like how this shot looks as he looks quite ominous and powerful.

 

This shot is another one of my favourites, I love the colour of the juice and how is connotes blood and symbolises how he craves and needs to murder to sustain himself, just like a human needs to eat and drink. Also, the shot is tilted slightly which enters the audience into his twisted world and suggests that the character is unstable. The lighting is also satisfying here.

 

 

What would I do differently?



I would make sure that  had a larger tripod in order to get steady shots. I  also wish I made sure that when I asked around of actors to portray the corpses I told them the exact date and time, as all but one had to cancel on me, leaving me with Ellie Nixon and my mum. However I did improvise and I had Ellie play two different girls by changing her hair and costume.

I wish I had considered the music before shooting, as the music I chose in the end is quite slow and it would have been effective to match the black gaps with the sound of the music.

 

Limitations

The biggest limitation was travel, and living so far away from my main actor. This meant that I only had one chance to film and any bad shots would have to be edited or cut out. However this was not much of a problem in the end as most of the shots were fine and any bad ones were either salvageable or unnecessary.

Time was another limitation as it meant that if I wanted to film another small scene after finishing editing my main piece, I couldn't, meaning that I did not display my ability to use the 180 degree rule. It was suggested to me to shot a short 30 second conversation between my character and another so that I could use this technique. However I was unable to do this as I needed to have my final cut uploaded. Another thing stopping me from having this small add on was the time limit for my sequence. The recommended time scale was 2 minutes, and mine was already 3 minutes long so I couldn't afford to extend this time.

I would have liked to put more blood on the floor and on surfaces around the bathroom however this would have stained the surfaces so I was unable to do this.

The lack of people to portray the corpses was also a limitation as I had planned to have various girls lying around the house. For example in the shot of him walking down the stairs I wanted a corpse hanging down the top of the steps.