Cameron Price Foundation Project
Friday, 30 January 2015
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Monday, 12 January 2015
Q7
Q7: Looking back at
your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
I feel like I have developed
massively from knowing nothing when we before filmed the preliminary task to
being quite proficient at all skills involved in producing the final product.
All I knew when I started this course and up until the preliminary task was how
to start recording the camera and the basics of movie maker, but when starting
the final product, I had learnt how to use all aspects of IMovie 10.0.6, the
importance of composition and framing, all shot types and why and how they are
used, and the use of Mise-en-scene. I still have areas that I can improve but
on the whole I have developed a lot and will continue to develop.
The strengths of my preliminary
task were that it was entertaining, met the brief I was given, and I used a
variety of shots, editing and sound. I made it a quite over the top satire of
traditional spy movies, with antagonist with a terrible German accent, which
everyone found quite funny and even though the acting wasn’t amazing, they
found it entertaining. I was asked to use shot-reverse-shot, the 180 degree
rule and a good level of continuity, which I followed and it worked a lot
better than if I had just filmed something. I used a variety of shots, such as
close-ups, editing techniques like the flashes to white, and non-diegetic sound
effects such as the gun shots. These were effective at making the piece look
more professional and entertaining for the audience. The weaknesses of my
preliminary task were that the camerawork wasn’t perfect, it could’ve been
edited better and there could’ve been more shots. The camera work and editing
wasn’t the best as I did not know how to use iMovie or the cameras very well
and with the time constraints I had to film and edit it without much practice.
The preliminary task would’ve looked better if it was faster paced which meant
I should’ve filmed more shots.
One skill that I have definitely
developed the most is my camerawork/filming skills. I didn’t know much before
the preliminary so when it came to it all I knew was how to point and film. Working
up to the final product I learnt many skills including framing, composition,
match on action and shot reverse shot, which are all important filming
techniques which add to the continuity and make it aesthetically pleasing.
These skills were very useful for filming my final product so that it was more
professional looking and more entertaining for the audience.
When planning the preliminary I
didn’t plan a lot, I had a script, a shot list and a storyboard but not much of
the Mise en scene and sound was planned, and I also didn’t go into too much
detail with my planning which is why I think it was lacking in terms of overall
quality. However when it came to filming the final product, I planned every
detail out in detail, from the Mise en scene to the risk assessment, I made
sure I had everything so I knew exactly what I was filming when. I think
because of this the final product was much better, with a lot more quality and
professionalism to it.
I believe my opening is very
successful overall, it meets the brief given and I am pleased especially with
certain elements of it. One element I am especially pleased with is the
editing, a lot of hours went into editing so that it was a faced paced thriller
and I think this made it look more professional and entertaining. I am also
especially pleased with the camerawork, as we had a variety of different shots
but also followed the conventions of having many close-ups and extreme close
ups, which is why it was faster paced but also interesting to watch. Some areas that I would have liked to improve
are a few shots and the music, as some shots could’ve been re shot to look
better and the music isn’t as synchronous with the visual aspect as I would
like.
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Q6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Digital video camera: for my
thriller opening I tried out a few different types of cameras, looking between
normal cameras that can take video, video cameras and mobile phone cameras, in
order to see which would be the easiest to operate and have the best video
quality. I finally decided on using the IPhone
6 64 Gb phone’s 8 mega pixel camera, for its HD 1080p Quality video, digital
stabilisation (automatically stabilises the video as you record), autofocusing
with auto-exposure, to allow the right level of light and focus for the scene
being captured, and that it was simple to operate with one touch video
recording. Using this I learnt how it’s not always easy to use a tripod to keep
the camera steady, so using your surroundings such as a branch or walk or even
another person to steady yourself works just as well and any messy camera work
can be fixed with stabilisation. I also learnt that with this camera even
though you could zoom in the quality is a lot better if you just move the
camera to the distance required, and it’s a lot steadier. Some shots however
were hard to achieve such as the high angle shots, where I would have to
position myself up higher in order to be able to film it. As we were only
filming one person, the 180 degree rule didn’t apply and so we could film her
at any angle and not ruin the continuity of the piece. I chose to film in the
woods as I wanted a setting that would feel unnatural to the character and
would provide a good level of lighting for shooting. I also wanted to use the
weather, since it being autumn, there as a lot of rain and it was usually
overcast however on the day it was a lot sunnier so I had to use that to my
advantage with it seeming to contrast what was going on. I also used many close
ups in order to create a sense of mystery with a lot of the scene being hidden
from the audience so I would have to move close to whatever I was filming and
sometimes crouch on the ground. I also tried to stick to the rules of thirds
when framing so that it was aesthetically pleasing compositionally. I also had
to do a lot of tracking and panning when following the character so the
stabilisation on the camera was useful in keeping the video from becoming
jittery.
Editing software: I chose to use
IMovie 10.0.6 to edit as it was easier to use and had many more options than
most other editing programmes I researched. I had to edit a lot of the footage
so that it worked continuity wise and also with the close ups, keeping them
frequent so that it was fast paced but also making sure the meanings I was
trying to convey through the use of Mise en scene apparent. It was easy to
import the footage as I was using a Mac air laptop, which is compatible with
IPhones since they are both Apple products, so using the lead we transferred
the videos straight to the hard drive and then to IMovie. I had to edit the
footage so that it fit the structure of the narrative. For the most part I had
the shots in chronological order on the phone so all I had to do was transfer
them straight to the software and almost all the unedited footage was in the
right order. Having it edited like this helped build up a tense atmosphere that
was released at the climax. We sometimes slowed down areas to create better
visual/sound effects, like in the last shot, where having it at normal speed wouldn’t
work. We used a lot of flash to white
transitions in order to create the effect of transferring to a flashback shot. We
also used a lot of visual effects like filters, like black and white to show
that it’s a flashback or editing the filter to make the scene look more eerie
and build suspense. We used mainly diegetic sound but we added non-diegetic
sound effects at the end for the sound effect of the antagonist hitting the
protagonist. Using this recent format of iMovie allowed us to create idents
easily, that were individual to us. Exporting the final project was easy as we
could upload it straight to YouTube without any problems.
I used other technologies to help
with my work. The biggest help was the internet which is where I got most of my
research, from a variety of websites which I don’t think I could’ve gotten from
any other resources. I also used Facebook and its messenger to communicate with
the rest of my group and coordinate what we were filming, editing etc.
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