Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During this project, we used a variety of technologies to develop and construct our film opening. Here are the examples of what we used:

Hardware used:

• Tripod - we used the tripod to film high angle shots and panning across all 3 of us in the 3rd last shot. The tripod helped us get stable shots and we were able to film in any space that we wanted to.
• Lighting - we used lights from the Seward Studio, because wanted it to look high key but also get a sense that this is taking place at night, shooting after 5:30 until 10, getting a dangerous & ominous look to our film. 

Software used:

• Edited our final film using Adobe Premiere Pro, which was easy to use. Premiere Pro is fast, precise, and the end product was exactly what we aimed for.
• Using Adobe After Effects to get the security camera effect following a YouTube tutorial, edited the screen to make it look like the guard was watching the security camera: 

• Grading - wanted to have a lot of contrast between our dark clothing and the white of the walls, making the audience question who we were, whether or not we were "good" or "bad", etc. This was extremely easy with the technology that we had.
• Hindsight: would have changed the lighting at the actual shoot so there isn't a harsh concentration of light reflecting off the door, so it would be easier to correct later.
• I now know how to make footage look like it is security camera footage, how to colour grade our footage to make it look darker and give it the right ambience for our film.
• Advice: plan the action sequence thoroughly, if the actors are not already fighting experts, make the action sequence simple unless you have a lot of time to train them.
• Advantages of technology: After Effects did make the footage look a lot like security camera footage but it took a lot of time to render, and was not extremely easy to use. Camera footage was slightly grainy but is probably more to do with us not lighting the shots correctly.

Social networking:

• We had a group on Facebook, where we would post our research and planning documents: 

• We also had a message thread to organise our shoots, change our film opening or to tell the other group members quickly about any ideas that we may have had:

• This was incredibly beneficial to us as it was quick and easy to contact people, and we had a log of everything we had discussed so we could look over it if necessary.

The technology that we used hugely impacted our film, as we would not have been able to achieve as much as we did without it. With the time constraints that we had, it was very important that our project was finished quickly and any changes that we made could be executed in a short amount of time, and Premiere Pro made that possible.