Evaluation Q8: Progress Report

I feel that I have learnt alot through this process. Here are the main things I have learnt:

1. The camera and the equipment- I learnt the ins and outs of using the camera and all of its equipment (tripod, lights, memory cards, flip camera). We used all of these to film our bag swap, our prelim, and our final thriller opening. Also I learnt about focus, how to set up right frame, and the 2/3 1/3 rule.We also used the flip cameras to record us talking about something related to our film to make our own video blog and also to record the audience feedback sesion.
2.  Blogger- I learnt to blog, and the ins and outs of blogger. This was usefull because it helped us with our video, we posted research and it allowed us to keep in touch with our group members on research and other information relating to our thriller. I learnt how to post and embed videos, photographs, to change the theme of our blog, and to post blogs.
3. iMac and its programs- I learnt to use the iMac, which to my knowledge are completely new computers that were brought in for this year. Using the iMac allowed me access to programs like Final Cut Pro, Sountrack Pro, Live Type, Quicktime, Handbreak. All of these programs were used in order for our thriller to be put together. Final Cut Pro, is were we edited the clips and put them all together. We used fades and dissolves (although they all might not have been used in the final clip), i learnt about rendering, i also learnt when all the clips are put together how to export them for Live Type and Sountrack so that we could do the sound and titles. On Sountrack I learnt how to add sounds together, and i explored all the different sounds that were on the system that were relevant to the thriller genre, and also how to save the sound and import it into Final cut Pro to add to the clips. On Live Type I learnt how to add titles and change the colour and position and explored the different fonts and again, save it so i could import it into Final Cut Pro. Once finish the editing I had to export the video as a quicktime movie, and then use Handbrake to convert it into an .mp4 file for Blogger.com. Through all of this I used QuickTime Recorder to record all of the things we were doing, the editing, the sound and the titles.
4. Teamwork And Organisation- We learnt that we had to be very organised (e.g. timetable to film, planning and research, blogs, deadlines) and we had to work as a team in order to execute our task succesfully.
5. Theory- I learnt all about the more theoretical side of media. The camera angles and the focus (for the camera), diegetic and non-diegetic sounds (sound and video), titles and fonts (titles), editing, costumes and props which are essential to all videos, to have something realistic and credible and to think well of all of the props used and their meaning in the video (mise-en-scene).

Overall I think it was a very good expirience, and even though many may not see the best editing (we were not that big on editing) or the best story line, I think we did well and we kept in mind that the task was a thriller opening and not a trailer to a film. I think we could have extended it more, maybe hear police cirens or someone at the station talking about the murder but all in all i think we kept in mind what we learnt, we actually did an opening as opposed to a trailer (like some other student films may have done), and we kept it clean, clear and simple opening!