WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF

CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

A variety of technological aspects were used throughout the

pre-production, production and post-production phases of my AS Media

Coursework. Some proved to be extremely useful and reliable whilst others

turned out to be more difficult to

get the hang of. In this evaluation I shall

analyse the effectiveness of each piece

of technology used throughout the project.

APPLE MACS

STAGEPre-production & Post-Production

USE AND CHALLENGESInternet – Constant, quick access to the

internet was a necessity with the variety of

online services used, such as Blogger.

File Storing – Although these computers

contain a fairly large amount of HDD space, it

showed problems with storing towards the end

of the project. This was due to the amount of

work on there from previous year groups.

Software – These devices are known as some

of the best for video editing and rendering due

to their speed and power. However, due to the

amount of use they have experienced, they

held up editing at times by being rather slow at

opening the software and rendering the

footage, especially after colour correction.

RELIABLE?

YES

NO

SORT OF

FINAL CUT PRO X

STAGEPost-Production

USE AND CHALLENGESEditing – The software provides a quick and

efficient way to edit that is very user friendly

and has helped me to edit the footage with

speed and precision.

Colour Correction – For the majority of

shots, due to lack of time after a second

shoot, I used simple colour filters to create a

more cinematic effect. However some of these

shots I further developed with colour correction

whilst other shots were purely transformed

using colour correction.

Sound – I found cutting and layering sound to

be fairly simple and easy which helped with the

lack of time. But I did not think that it was as

precise and efficient as other software such as

Sony Vegas Pro 11.

RELIABLE?

VERY

YES

SORT OF

CANON EOS 700D

STAGEProduction

USE AND CHALLENGESQuality – Image quality is shown to be of a

good standard. Due to the lighting of both

locations, ISO was not a problem as I mostly

kept a wide aperture to brighten the image and

create a more cinematic effect with a shallow

depth of field.

Firmware – The Canon EOS firmware is very

reliable and user friendly. As I have had this

camera for a few months I have had the time to

get to know it. I did originally plan on installing

Magic Lantern firmware for better features such

as sound control but decided not to as I knew

Canon was reliable.

Ergonomics – This camera is light and solid so

was easy for handheld shots, especially the

long take of Character B running.

RELIABLE?

VERY

YES

YES

RODE VIDEOMIC PRO

STAGEProduction

USE AND CHALLENGESQuality – The majority of sound was recorded post-

shoot as this allowed better quality audio capture. This

microphone allowed me to capture good audio for the

hyper-real diegetic sounds and the ambient

background noise. I found that I could capture even

better audio by using an external sound recorder

rather than the camera.

Ergonomics – This microphone is small, light and

easily attachable to the Canon 700D. It was something

I could carry everywhere just in case it needed to be

used and this was very helpful as I did use it at

unexpected moments.

Common Sense – When recording the background

noise at the exterior location, after waiting in silence

for 5 minutes I realised I had forgotten to press the

record button. This meant we had to do it again but

this worked out better anyway as there was the sound

of a passing plane in the first attempt to record.

RELIABLE?

VERY

VERY

NO

LIGHTING

STAGEProduction

USE AND CHALLENGESINT Key Light – For this I used a bright, white light

attached to the roof. It made the scene bright

enough to shoot with a low ISO to avoid grain.

INT Fill Light – For this I used a small, soft white

lamplight that provided low level light to soften

shadows or fill them in.

INT Kicker – This helped in terms of separating

the subjects from the background and to enhance

the brightness of the location so it can be made

darker in post production rather than shooting dark

and making it brighter, causing grain.

EXT Lighting - It was midday and the weather

was overcast so a constant white, bright light with

no direct sunlight was present. The lighting was

bright enough to allow a low ISO and it stayed at a

constant light level due to the time of day.

RELIABLE?

YES

YES

YES

VERY

LOGGER

STAGEPre-Production, Production & Post-

Production

USE AND CHALLENGESBlog – This online blog website was used to

post the entire process of my opening

sequence for a thriller film. It has a strong user

interface for organising blogs however it does

have issues with creating posts.

Posts – Unfortunately, this website doesn’t

contain the number of features that Microsoft

Office programs do such as Word and

Publisher. Instead, it is very basic and often

causes problems with positioning of images

and text.

Presentation – I believe that the presentation

of the blog is very appealing and simple to

view. I found it easy to adapt my blogs layout

and make it more suited to the thriller genre.

RELIABLE?

SORT OF

NO

YES

STAGEPre-production & Post-production

USE AND CHALLENGESPresenting – This creative, glorified

PowerPoint method of presentation proved

very useful in creating visually interesting

formats of showing my work.

User Friendliness – The templates were

easy, go-to methods to create my presentations

but I found it much more open to start from

scratch and that way I could modify the content

and layout to my liking. It took me a while to get

to grips with it, but eventually it was a huge

benefit to my media blog.

Look – To me this is a great, free way of

presenting information. It’s full of animation and

opportunities for visual prompts that keep the

reader much more interested than a simple

block of text.

RELIABLE?

VERY

YES

VERY