Evaluation of Equipment

Evaluation Activity 6

Pinnacle Studio 15

The editing of our production was done on the video editing software, Pinnacle Studio 15. I had previous experience with working with this software so I had a basic knowledge of how it all worked. However, I had never previously used some functions such as the ‘lock’ on layers in the timeline, to create ‘J’ or ‘L’ edits. However, the software did have some limitations. Although it was designed to edit in full HD, the software became incredibly slow as we added video, so we had to make the compromise of losing quality by making the video into a ‘AVI’ file. This dramatically increased the speed at which we could edit the production as we may not have finished it if it was still in HD

The Tripod

We used a tripod for most of our filming to ensure that all of the shots we needed to be, were still. As any unwanted shakes of the camera would be very noticeable on the final production and would take away from the professional look we were going for. The tripod had a spirit level built into it, just under where the camera was secured. This made it easy for us to ensure that all our shots were filmed head on, and not at unwanted angles. Also it was collapsible so transportation to the warehouse location was easy. However problems did arise when using the tripod. Such as, it was difficult to produce a professional looking tracking shot due to the tripod having fixed feet. However we did the best with what we had and we believe the overall look of the production is of a good standard

The Camera

The Camera we used was the Sony handycam, It gave us the ability to record our production in full HD, which would hopefully add to the professional look we were going for with our production. It also recorded directly onto a removable SD card which could then be inserted straight into the computer we did our editing on. From there the video files could be downloaded directly into pinnacle in full HD which sped up how quickly we were able to edit the production. However due to the camcorder being a compact device, it did not have the same capabilities as a more professional camera, however it was the best camera available and the final production still had a professional feel, even after the reduction in quality due to the Pinnacle Studio software.

The Microphone

We used the Rode microphone in our production in an attempt to increase the sound quality which the built in microphone lacked on our camcorder. The use of this microphone did enhance the quality and therefore the professionalism of the production. As in our thriller opening, the warehouse location causes characters voices to echo, which adds to the eerie feel of it all, so the use of the microphone captured this sound very well, again adding to the professional feel. However due to the lack of a boom stand for the microphone, some quality was lost due to the microphone being some distance away from the actors.

Blogger

We used Blogger for uploading the pieces of our coursework. This Blogging site was very good and had many advantageous features, such as the ability to embed videos and other files onto our coursework. Also seeing as to use blogger all you require is a google account, we were able to easily and freely create an account and access it anywhere including the sixth form computers. Its simplistic design creates an ease of access for all users, meaning we were able to quickly upload our coursework onto our blog, reducing the risk of file loss, due to corrupt hardware.

Vimeo

To upload our production, directors commentaries and various other segments of our coursework which was in a video format, we used Vimeo and then embedded the videos to our blogs. Vimeo was a great choice for us to use, as it could be accessed inside and out of sixth form, unlike YouTube. Also Vimeo videos can easily be embedded to blogger using the HTML function, so it was easy to link videos to our blogs. However vimeo is not without its faults, it only allows 500 MB of data per week, which resulted in us having to drastically reduce the quality of the production again in order to upload it.

Google Drive

▪ For sharing files between the members of our production team, we created a google account which we could all access, so we could then use the Google Drive application giving us the ability to save 15GB worth of data to an online storage, which is much more than we would need. Below is our groups Google Drive, showing the various folders of coursework we have saved as a group, as a result we could all access the files needed for our Blogs.