Preliminary Task to Opening Scene Evaluation

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 

The transition from our Preliminary task to our Opening scene has been huge. The shots and camera movements in our preliminary were very unstable, and there wasn't a huge amount of different camera movements and shots. I think that if we had a tripod whilst doing our prelim, the camera would have been much more stable and there would have been better quality filming, but because of doing it all completely free hand there was not a great result in quality. We also did not have any plan or storyboard like we did for our main opening. This allowed us to have much more fluent filming and continuity. From doing the prelim, I have learnt that a storyboard and plan is needed to get the best results and so is a tripod. 

*tracking/pan

Match on action was being practiced in our prelim task, which was good because we learnt how to create continuity in our final product. Match on action creates a 'visual bridge' for our audience so that they are not aware that there was an edit. 

Overall, I feel that doing the preliminary task enabled us to get the best result possible for our final product, for instance, the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. If we did not practice any of these things in our preliminary, we would not be aware of how to deal with an issue if one was rised or we would not have known what had gone wrong. The preliminary task also gave us a chance to mess with the cameras to get used to them and how to use them. 

Technology Evaluation

What have you learned from technologies in the construction of your product?
Technology has played an important role in our media coursework, from, Research, Planning and Construction. 

The Technology we have used overall has been:

• The Apple IMac's 
• The internet
• Survey Monkey
• Blogger
• YouTubeConverter
• Imovie
• Digital Camera 
• Tripod 
• Celtx 
• Prezi

Blogger was the main piece of technology that was used and is where everything that we researched, planned and constructed was posted onto. I have never used Blogger before starting our coursework. I have learnt now how to use Blogger and what it can be used for. I have also learnt how to embed videos, photos, prezi's etc. I feel that by doing this coursework I can use Blogger again and feel much more confident using it. 

Research

We used SurveyMonkey to get involved with our audience and get an idea of who they are and what they expect to see in a Psychological Thriller opening. This was important because they are the people we want to go and watch our film and they will be the ones paying, so we needed to create a Psychological Thriller that would interest them so we can make money and a good film. We relied on SurveyMonkey a lot as it was quick and reliable and gave us a lot of information. We emailed the surveys to our target audience, which was also quick as we could send them in bulk and not as singles, saving us time.

Google was used so that I could gather research about the history of Psychological Thrillers, what psychological thrillers there are, images for our documentary etc. Google helped with allowing us to know more about the Psychological Thriller genre and because of this we created a more effective opening which you can straight away tell is a psychological thriller.

YouTube converter was used in order to access the opening scenes from YouTube to analyse on my blog. It also allowed the clips to be accessed in Imovie when we did our documentary. We could also download songs which were also used in our documentary.

YouTube was used in our planning to look at other Psychological Thriller openings, so we could get an idea of what they are like and what is most of the time involved in one. It also allowed us to analyse them, of which we embedded onto our blogs.

Planning

Celtx was the main piece of software that was used whilst planning our opening. We used it to create the script, storyboard, shooting schedule and character profiles. Celtx was very important in our planning stage as the storyboard allowed us to know what kind of shots we needed and where and allowed for efficient, smoother filming. The script was important as the actors needed to know what to say and do, otherwise the opening would not have been very good and would have been all over the place. The shooting schedule was also very important as we needed to be able to get the actors in the same place at the same time and have the suitable outfits and mise en scene. 

Prezi was used in the planning stage to build ideas for what our opening scene could be. Prezi is a great and easy way of getting information across in a fun, easy, quirky and interesting way. I have learnt how to use Prezi and will be using it more in the future for projects. 

Construction

Imovie has been the most important thing whilst creating our opening as it allowed us to edit our film to give it the best continuity, sound, transitions and effects. This was my first time using iMovie and to start off with I had absolutely no idea how to use it and did not know how to upload the videos you make onto YouTube or any other place on the web. But by making our opening, I have learnt how to use IMovie and I feel I am very confident with how I can create and edit clips on it and will be making more videos via IMovie in the future. 

YouTubeConverter has allowed us to download the non-diegetic background music for our opening and without this we would not have had such an effective opening and would have struggled for music if this was not available. I had never heard of or used this website before, so by using it, I am now more aware of what can be accessed online and how it can help create videos etc.

YouTube allowed us to share our opening and embed it onto our blogs, it also keeps all our videos. Before doing this coursework, I had never uploaded anything onto YouTube, so it has been a new experience and I now have the skills and knowledge of how to use YouTube for other possibilities. 

We used my Canon E051100D
This camera had many zoom in options so we could get the best zoom ins as possible. I have only took pictures on this camera and have never really recorded anything before, so this was a big lesson for me. I feel confident now about recording and have learnt how to keep the camera still. I have also learnt how many times you need to record to get the best results and continuity. As it is a DSLR we were able to use the focus ring to give better, professional quality to our film. The focus ring enabled us to focus on certain aspects like the front ground rather than the background, like in the scene where Christian is walking past the missing poster. This was useful as it allowed us to show the audience the main elements we wanted them to focus on; like the missing poster, as this was important to our opening. (The photo does not show the lens on the camera)

We used the Apple Imac to construct our  documentary, evaluation and most importantly, our opening. We constructed our opening via IMovie on the Imac. Before doing our coursework, I had never used the Imac to its full potential and was not aware of some of the software that is available on the mac, like IMovie for instance. I feel that I can now use the mac for its full potential and do a lot more with it, for instance, I did not fully know the controls for the mac but since doing the coursework I now know the controls. I also used the mac to record voice overs and videos when creating my documentaries and evaluation videos. 

The tripod gave us the best results for filming as it kept the camera steady so we did not have a wobbly picture. We were also able to do more camera movements like pans and tracking. We still had to use hand-held camera movements for certain aspects like the arc and walking alongside the character. But by using handheld camera movement when walking next to the characters, it gave much more effect to the film. I had never used a tripod before the coursework and have now learnt how to use one and will be using one a lot more in the future. 





Looking back at the technology that we used in our opening has made me aware of how much I hadn't used the technology for its full potential before the coursework, although I used them; like YouTube, I just watched videos on it, but now I know how to use it for its full potential, like uploading videos. It has also made me aware of technology that I did not know of before like YouTubeConverter, Blogger, Prezzi, Celtx and SurveyMonkey and has created a new world of possibilities for me when I do college work or hobbies. 

Representation Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Codes and Conventions Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Whilst creating our opening we had to consider codes and conventions and where we are going to develop the codes and conventions and where we are going to challenge the codes and conventions. We mainly developed the typical codes and conventions of the Psychological Thriller genre but also challenged them at times to create an effective opening.