Type of Technolo

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Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

Panasonic HDC-HS300 HD Camcorder

Monopod

I used this camcorder to film the kaleidoscope footage for the choruses and the last section at the end when the clown reaches the fair. The kaleidoscope footage was filmed on the carousel.

The raw footage of which is used in the last section and the coda.

The camcorder was a great choice for these shots, the carousel ones especially. The camcorder is lightweight so could be used on the end of a monopod with an extended arm.

This was great for getting a (sort of) crane shot when the clown is walking around the fair. Also it was invaluable for the shots on the carousel as I had to stick the camera out at arms length to film her front on. The camera had a good auto focus which was vital when holding it at arms length on the monopod as you couldnʼt change the focus during recording manually if you needed to. Also itʼs low light recording wasnʼt great but when lit by the fair ground rides, it captured sufficiently.

The quality isnʼt great in low light but improves greatly near any decent

Type of Technolo

gy

Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

light source, as you can see below.

This camera was only going to be a backup to my DSLR, however I think because of the low weight and autofocus this would have been the best choice for these shots either way.

Type of Technolo

gy

Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

iPhone 5 / 4s

We used our iPhoneʼs to FaceTime each other so I could tell her when/where/what we would be filming. It was great as she could show me her makeup and costume so we could decide on exactly what she had to bring and wear instead of bringing a whole mix of things and deciding on the day.

Russia and I used our iPhones to communicate over iMessage.

I used iMessage a few times to send her a video of what Iʼd edited or done to give her an idea of what I was going to film.

FaceTime was great as she could show me her makeup and clothes so we could decide on exactly what she had to bring and wear instead of bringing a whole mix of things and deciding on the day. It made the process a lot more efficient, saving a lot of time.

Type of Technolo

gy

Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

Final Cut Pro X

I decided to use Final Cut Pro X as my primary editing software as apposed to itʼs sister, consumer level, program iMovie. This is because of FCPʼs advanced features and wonderful UI. The precision of editing on its timeline and layered visuals was something that really sold it for me. The colour is easily manipulated and there are an array of other visual, aural and graphic effects that arenʼt possible in iMovie. FCPX has taken the UI from iMovie and merged it with the advance effects and tools of Final Cut to make an easy to use, well designed editing program.

FCP was a great choice, I got the exact look for each shot using the colour levels. I spent some time experimenting with my production, and the best thing about the new FCP is that you can preview an effect so you donʼt have to select it then wait ages for it to render to view it, this saved a huge amount of time and hassle. Another great feature is that you can carry on while it renders in the background so thereʼs no wasted time. Exporting is also a lot quicker than FCE or iMovie which saved time running off drafts and of course the final piece.

As I was new to this software I did have some teething problems, however, as the structure was the same as the previous Final Cut and the interface was basically iMovie 09 it wasnʼt hard to work around it.

Type of Technolo

gy

Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

Blogger In Pre-Production Blogger was an invaluable tool. It acted as the 21st century paper folder. It allowed me to express my ideas and research using new media technology, posting videos, pictures and linking to other works on the internet so I had all my work and ideas in one place where it could be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

In production it acted as a place to post my call sheets and production logs and just to keep track of filming and organising my footage.

In Post-Production it allowed me to post my evaluation, again with images to back up my points, screenshots of my production and other music videos for comparison of conventions, mise-en-scene etc. It also allowed me to hyperlink previous work in to my evaluation to show the extent of my points with examples.

It truly was invaluable. It would be backwards to use anything but an online blog for a Media A level course as by using a blog I was able to utilise fully, new media technologies. One set back was that the user interface changed halfway through the course, which could have been easily set back to the previous but I felt the new one was far more effective and time efficient so I decided to stick with it and learn as I went along.

Type of Technolo

gy

Pre-Production Production Post-Production How effective was it?

Nikon D3100 DSLR

50mm Prime lens

18-55mm lens

I used my DSLR for the majority of the filming. All the way up to when Russia actually gets to the fair.

Quick start up time to catch spontaneous moments where Russia interacts with people. The prime lens captured a great shallow focus for the beginning where she is putting on the makeup and costume, in fantastic quality.

I love depth of field and the prime lens gave me some great shots. I think shallow focus is a great way to show emotion and single out emotions and images from the background and surroundings such as the shot above ^.