Evaluation Question 6

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

Since the begining of our product, i feel that i have learnt various things about the technology that will be of great benefit to me. Previous to filming our footage, i had very little experience with the camera's and camera equipment. Therefore i feel i have learnt a lot about the cameras and how to use them to achieve my desired intention, i have particuarly found the use of a dolly very beneficial for the tracking of the male character of our film in the second scene. However, it did take several attempts with the dolly to obtain footage that wasnt shaky. Learning how to use the cameras and equipment was very time consuming at the start but it has enabled me to use them to achieve the maximum effect that i set out to achieve. I have learnt to record and manage my work on Blogger which has helped me to understand the hard work and time that goes into the production of a film.

During the production of our film, we encounted many problems with the editing software Adobe Premiere Elements and found it very difficult and time consuming to finish our film. However, we have found the program to be very useful and i have enjoyed watching our film progress from each stage. Using Adobe Premiere Elements has enabled me to be precise in working from our shot list and also how to frame each shot to achieve optimum mise-en-scene. I have also learnt to video merge still images with videos to create a distorted effect that we aimed to achieve in the first scene of our film. I have also learned how to record sound effects and insert them into our film, this has helped us to adapt the sound effects to fit with our film and the heartbeat along with the callaboration of the still images has enabled us to achieve a fast paced distorted effect to create suspense and fear in our audience.

We also encountered a problem during filming when the white contact lense for Rachel's character teared and cause discomfort for our actor. To overcome this problem we decided against using the contact lense, and therefore would have to make it explicit in the rest of our film that the attacks on Rachel had left her blinded in one eye. If we had more time on our product, we could of edited each frame in photoshop and coloured rachels iris white to make it look like she had the contact lense inserted. However the contact lense was not primarily important to us and due to the problems we encountered with the editing software crashing constantly, we had to use our time wisely and prioritise what we needed in order to achieve the desired effect we wanted for our film.

If we had more time for our film, we would like to have changed the speed of some of the shots in scene 2 and also to change the audio to backwards speed because we feel this would have maximised our chances of achieving the distorted look to portray how Rachel is disorientated after being tortured. We wanted to use the backwards audio particuarly to accompany the jump cuts used when she is struggling in the chair, we discovered the effect when playing the film backwards when experimenting with the program and found that the distorted sound really complimented the jump cuts in the scene.

On the whole, i have enjoyed the experience i have gained when producing our film. Despite the problems we encountered, i have learnt a lot about the technologies and equipment used in the film industry and this has been very beneficial to me because it has enabled me to experiment in my filming and editing. Everything i have learnt will be practical for when i get the opportunity to film another product and it has prepared me for all the prepartion work i have had to do on Blogger in order to create my film successfully. I particuarly have enjoyed working with the cast who i found to be very talented actors and working with my media partner has been an entertaining experience, i am particuarly grateful to the close relationship i had with each member of the cast and crew and i think this has added to the success of our production.