Thriller opening sequence – Evaluation: Question 6

‘What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?’

Which technologies have you used in the production of your thriller?

The camera we filmed the fast half of the film was a Panasonic LZ30. We used this camera, as it belonged to my production partner Harry Ames. The camera has a good quality, and microphone on it which meant we didn’t have to use separate microphone. Although the camera quality isn’t as good as a Canon Legria HFR26, we weren’t too bothered about this as the shots only really focus on one thing, the characters. However for the second half of our thriller we did use the Canon Legria HFR26. We used it because the scene was set outside, and the quality of the camera allows all the different components of where we filmed to be included. Also, when filming outside we used a Rhode microphone that we had mounted to the top of the DSLR. This allowed the dialogue outside to be clearer, and the dead cat on top meant that even on a windy day the dialogue would still be crisp.

Which technologies did you use in post-production of your thriller?

To edit our film we used Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro is a great programme to use as it has so many features that we had planned, and did use when editing our thriller. One of the effects we used in post-production was the overlay effect, to create our flashback. We overlaid an extreme close-up of the

characters face over the actual flashback. This allowed us to give the audience an indication of who’s having the flashback, and the audience could read his emotions as he had it. Another feature we used on Premiere Pro was making the text flash/move. We did this on premiere pro as it created a feeling of disorientation. The idea was that it would put the audience on edge as it connotes the idea of a flickering light bulb, which connotes the idea of tension and uncertainty. In terms of sound on premiere pro we simply overlaid some white noise. The

white noise, had a dark tone and would flicker in and out of a lower and higher volume. This was, again, to connote the idea of uncertainty and confusion, as well as tension as the dark tone connotes this. Premiere pro was a very good programme to use, as you have the option to zoom into the bars where the videos and sound are. This allowed for the continuity editing to be very smooth. Overall premiere pro was an easy programme to use, and meant that we could create a good film with good continuity editing, and allowed us to conform to common thriller conventions.

Which presentational devices have you used on your blog?

On my blog I have used mainly, word and power point documents to present my work, as well as Prezi’s. The advantage of using a Prezi is that you get to create a spider diagram type effect, which for me is a great way to present different ideas. Prezi also allows you to embed videos and add screenshots, this means that I can explain my ideas in greater detail. I used this for Question 4 of my thriller opening sequence as I wanted to give a profile of my target audience, but I didn’t want to make it a boring essay. I used power point as it is like Prezi, I put my individual ideas on each slide. This meant that I could make each of my individual ideas clear and concise. Using power point stops all my work from becoming a boring essay. I used power points for some of my evaluation question responses, this was because it is easy to add screenshots which meant that I could project my ideas and use specific examples of my and other films when talking about them. I have said about how I have used power point and Prezi to stop my work from

becoming a boring essay, but I have used Microsoft Word, which would contradict this. The times I have used word have been those when I am doing a research task or an evaluation question that is a general question, rather than a specific one. By this I mean I used word when the question/general responses are not specific and don’t need to be laid out to be clear.

How has technology helped in your research?

Technology played a massive role in the research done on my blog. YouTube allowed me to access specific clips to study and makes them easy to access which made blog posts a lot easier. It also allowed me to interpret different opinions on scenarios from different people which taught me different interpretations of different aspects of media products, which I could then integrate with my own and gain a deeper knowledge. YouTube is just a smaller aspect of the internet itself. The internet itself has many websites that I used to find information. The internet was very helpful, overall, in my research as it allowed me to integrate my knowledge and other people’s interpretations of existing media products to deepen my knowledge of media which meant I could improve the quality of my research.

How has technology helped in your planning?

Digital cameras made planning easier as it made picking the location of the filming easy. On camera, we could decide what location looked better in what lighting. This was the same with the different aspects of my film such as the mise-en-scene, for example what lighting looked the best. All of this was decided to use a digital camera. Technology played an important role in planning as using our phones kept our group in contact. Using apps such as Facebook messenger and FaceTime meant that me and my group could work on planning outside of school hours.