Throughout the entirety of producing our opening sequence, we were always learning how to do one thing or another. As media is spread over such a wide platform, we were taught so many different things.
Sony HD video camera
The main thing we needed to learn to use in order to make sure our film was produced to the highest quality it could be was a camera.
We had to learn how to shoot scenes and what angle the camera would work best at - we also used the tripod to help us keep the camera steady. One of the things I was most worried about when starting our media product was keeping our shots steady and, in our hand-held shot of Harriet walking across the landing, not making the camera appear too shaky and make it hard to watch. We also had to reshoot some shots due to the fact that they hadn't focused previously. From this we learnt to give the camera time to focus and to not move too abruptly.
We also shot scenes several times, even if we thought they were good the first time, in order to ensure we had the best shots possible. When filming three or four versions of the same shot we sometimes also moved the camera and tripod to a different angle just in case we thought that may look better.
Adobe Premiere
I found this the hardest piece of technology to use, mostly because of the amount of work that had to be done on the software and because of how new it was to me as I had never used it before. We did use it in the preliminary task also, however we were in different groups for that task and someone in my group was very good at using the program and so he told us what to do for the most part and if we were unsure he did it for us.
In our main task we were in smaller groups, without that particular individual, and so we had to learn to branch out and become more independent in our learning which meant we had to take the time to the learn how to use the program.
One thing that we learnt from this program was how to import video footage and cut it down into how long we need it to be. We did this by using the 'C' key to start the cutting tool and then crop before using the 'V' key to use the regular mouse again. We did this as a short cut for the 'mark in' and 'mark out' tool.
We also had to learn how to add in
additional audio: the voiceover and music. Again we had to crop and edit both of these, one of our biggest struggles was trying to balance out the audio from the voiceover and make it sound right in the final film.
We also shot scenes several times, even if we thought they were good the first time, in order to ensure we had the best shots possible. When filming three or four versions of the same shot we sometimes also moved the camera and tripod to a different angle just in case we thought that may look better.
I found this the hardest piece of technology to use, mostly because of the amount of work that had to be done on the software and because of how new it was to me as I had never used it before. We did use it in the preliminary task also, however we were in different groups for that task and someone in my group was very good at using the program and so he told us what to do for the most part and if we were unsure he did it for us.
In our main task we were in smaller groups, without that particular individual, and so we had to learn to branch out and become more independent in our learning which meant we had to take the time to the learn how to use the program.
One thing that we learnt from this program was how to import video footage and cut it down into how long we need it to be. We did this by using the 'C' key to start the cutting tool and then crop before using the 'V' key to use the regular mouse again. We did this as a short cut for the 'mark in' and 'mark out' tool.
We also had to learn how to add in
additional audio: the voiceover and music. Again we had to crop and edit both of these, one of our biggest struggles was trying to balance out the audio from the voiceover and make it sound right in the final film.
Adding in transitions was another thing we had to learn today, especially when adding in the titles as we wanted each of them to fade in and out to make it look professional.
After Effects/ PhotoshopWe learnt to use After Effects in order to create the opening titles for our opening sequence. This was done at the end of the editing for our film. We had to use this quite a bit in order to show all our titles. We also used After Effects, along with Photoshop to make our studio logo. I asked another student who is more skilled with using Photoshop to teach me the basics and get us started on our studio logo. He helped us make our studio logo more animated applied everything he knew into making what we envisioned as our studio logo into a reality, and we have him to thank for most of our studio logo.
Blogspot was something that was new to me and I had not used before. However, I was able to use other website that are similar to Blogspot and so I could easily pick up how to use Blogspot. Once learning how to upload posts which include photos and videos, you basically know everything you need to know in order to use Blogspot which was beneficial for us as we wanted to show off our work as much as possible. This was something that was crucial for us to learn how to use as this is our portfolio and we show everything off on our blogs.
Although sometimes difficult and confusing, we were taught some very valuable things through this task, things that we need to learn and reuse again in the future and in our other media work.
