6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of

constructing this product?Media Evaluation

I have constructed many products throughout the course of this media project including the preliminary task, our main project (The Insider) and commentaries on the film ‘The Birds’ and ‘Wait until dark’, all of which added to my knowledge of technology. Through this presentation, I will show the different methods of technology that I used and the effects I gained from using them such as depth of field.

I have learnt a lot about The Canon EOS 1100D throughout the course of this media project. One way in which we used the Canon EOS 1100D to achieve high quality shots through adjusting the focus. To achieve this we first placed the camera in the correct position to achieve the frame we wanted and then pressed the button shown by the red circle.

Through pressing this, we were able to see a zoomed in version of what was in the frame and whether it was of good quality.

We then moved the rim of the lens (shown through the red arrow) right or left to adjust the image into the clearest focus possible.

If this look was not to a clear enough standard we would press the button above again to zoom in even more and then adjust the lens to the required focus.

The Canon EOS 1100D

Here is a shot in which we adjusted the focus using The Canon EOS 110D

We placed the focus on the word ‘danger’ shown in the newspaper title which is circled. To change the place in which we wanted the focus we used the arrow keys

Due to the claustrophobic nature of the protagonists thoughts, we wanted to use many close-ups and extreme close ups which we achieved through using the zoom on the camera.

In order to zoom in, we used moved the lens to the right until we achieved the desired frame.

Using The Canon EOS 1100D to zoom

Examples of the use of the zoom in our project:

Changing the depth of field allowed us to focus on one certain aspect of a frame and makes the rest of the shot blurry.

To achieve this we changed the focus of the part of the shot we wanted highlighted to be extremely clear (as explained in a previous slide). To highlight this even more, we changed the overall focus of the shot through moving the rim of the lens to make the background blurry.

Examples of how we used this technique are shown in the next slide.

How we achieved depth of field on The Canon EOS 1100D

Examples of the use of depth of field

The tripod was extremely useful throughout the project since it enabled us to get shots which were level, at the correct height and still in order to prevent a shaky cam.

To achieve a level shot we used a spirit leveller and for every shot (excluding different angles) we ensured that the bubble was within the circle to indicate that the shot was appropriately levelled.

Tripod

To change the height of the tripod to achieve the shot wanted, we adjusted the locks on each of the legs. By opening a lock on each side we were able to adjust the height of it and after matching it to the appropriate height we closed the lock in order to fix it into position.

When doing this, we had to keep referring to the spirit level in order to ensure that the height was not affecting whether the shot would be level or not.

Using the tripod to achieve a specific height

Examples of shots at different heights

To achieve this high angle, we held the camera in place at the correct angle

Due to not having a large budget, our film did not involve the use of much other professional hardware. However, for the shot below we tried to improve the lighting through use of mobile phone lights and use of lights in the room. However, we ended up using editing techniques to improve the lighting since due to the backlight coming from the garden (in the shot below) the newspaper title would not have been shown without use of editing.

3. What other hardware did you use?

We used Final Cut on the Apple Mac’s in order to edit our project which allowed us to do a range of things including adding sound, desaturating our shots and adding effects such as making the red stand out amongst the black and white.

Use the tools to ‘Cut’ clips- Razor Tool, or alter sound volume ‘Pen Tool’

apply different filters for effect apply text tracks apply transition effects

4. What software did you use?

In order to keep clips organised, we created bins to hold clips for each scene to prevent confusion between shots and also give us a better understanding of where each clip was meant to be placed.

Using Final Cut to organise our footage

Since many of our shots were of a long duration, the use of marking in and out points were extremely useful to our project. They allowed us to select the parts of the clip which we wanted to be used and due to the fast pace of our opening, in and out marks were used a lot.

Marking in and out points on the canvas in Final Cut

Through using Final Cut we were able to sequence clips and sounds to make it easier to change the timing of clips with the sound and also place clips in the right order.

The use of the zoom button on the timeline allowed us to sort out the quick cuts to make them the right length of time. This is especially useful to the part of the opening in which there are various shots of newspaper articles are shown quickly.

Sequencing clips and sound on different tracks on Final Cut

There are many tools on Final Cut which helped us improve the quality of the project such as the ‘Razor Tool’ (in the red circle) which allowed us to cut clips to a more specific length in order to edit it. This allowed us to have more continuous editing which helped with the alarm clock shots which were initially extremely disjointed.

The ‘Pen Tool’ (the blue circle) allowed us to change the sound on certain clips whenever needed. For example, towards the end of the clip we wanted the music to progressively become louder in order to build suspense and the ‘Pen Tool’ was used to create this effect.

As stated in the previous slide, the ‘Zoom’ button (circled in green) was used to help add precision to cutting certain clips which was especially useful when we had to cut down the short clips of the newspaper articles flashing towards the end of the clip.

Using the tools on Final Cut

We made the most of the availability of the different filters on Final Cut since we wished to make our film in black and white. We achieved this look through first desaturating the image.

Applying different filters for effect on Final Cut

After desaturating the clips, we then adjusted certain settings on the colour corrector to perfect the look and ensure that any small variations in lighting within the shots did not effect the continuity of the black and white effect.

In order to conform to the thriller genre, we wished to highlight the colour red amongst the monochrome effect and achieved this through editing effects on Final Cut. To achieve this we duplicated the same clip and placed it on top of the other (as shown in the image below) to ensure that the desaturated clip was transparent enough to highlight the red in the clip.

Applying different filters for effect on Final Cut- Highlighting the colour red

After doing this, we changed some setting on the colour dial to ensure that the colour red was as highlighted as possible whilst also allowing a monochrome effect.

We used Final Cut effectively in order to create text tracks for the titles of our thriller opening. For the opening titles for roles such as director, we had to duplicate the clip on top of the same one in order to allow for the name to be a different size and position of the role it plays.

Applying text tracks on Final Cut

We also added in transitions such as ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ to add to the professional look of the titles as this technique is often used in film openings. We added these transitions at the beginning and end of the clip to allow the audience a good amount of time to read the title before it faded out.

Applying transition effects on Final Cut

We used many different web technologies throughout this project in order to enhance our learning and ways of presenting our pieces of work.

WORDPRESS- Used to present our media work through our blog and also get feedback from our teacher

SCRIBD- Used to allow us a way to upload documents such as from Word and Powerpoint onto our Wordpress account

YOUTUBE- Used to upload our commentary on ‘The Birds’ as well as our Preliminary Task, Rough Edit and Final Task

SURVEY MONKEY- Used to allow us to gain feedback about our Final Task (through the form of a questionnaire ) from our target audience.

5. Web technologies