Jess' Evaluation - Question 6

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

I have learnt a lot more about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Although we learnt the basics on how to use a digital camera for the preliminary task, I feel that I was still very clueless on how to use one and the techniques that accompany it. I hadn't had much experience in operating a camera before, therefore after constructing the thriller sequence my confidence has massively increased.

• I have learnt that when using digital camera to film, in order for it to be successful you need to 'make a sandwich'. This means  that you leave excess footage on the beginning and end of your recording in order to edit and trim them at the end. This gives you more footage to experiment with and doesn't leave any risk of not having enough footage.

• I have also learnt to use the white balance, which is something that I learnt before the preliminary task however only incorporated it into our filming for the main thriller task. This needs to be done so that the colours are presented correctly, and not yellow - which is what happens if the white balance is not set.  

• Due to some shots in our preliminary task being hand-held, resulting in the camera wobbling slightly, we used a tripod through-out the sequence which looked a lot more professional, especially when filming a tracking shot, or a pan shot. A tripod enables the camera work to look stable and the quality wouldn't have been as good without it. 



• The use of framing was highly effecting in our main task 'Omniscient' because our use of composition is a lot more advanced than it was in the preliminary task. We discussed how various shots should be composed in the frame and what effect this would have on the audience, which is something we didn't think about when filming the preliminary task. In 'Omniscient', it was obvious which parts in the frame were significant to the story as a whole through the use of composition and framing, whereas in the preliminary task composition wasn't an important thing on our minds when filming. This meant that it wasn't clear which part of the filming to focus on and that the didn't link well together, however in the main task parts of the frame were outlined through composition and shallow depth of field.

• In regards to editing, we expanded our knowledge and expertise in it by advancing from basic cut transitions to fades, and dissolves. This has a much greater effect on the sequence as a whole and on the spectator as the transitions could signify something that would cause spectator positioning. For example, a fade to black could signify death. I found that editing was very time consuming as I didn't realize the full extent of the time that goes into it in order to make sure that it is a success, and also how difficult it is to get the filming and asynchronous sound to fit together as we didn't do post-production editing for our preliminary task.  

• Also, I have learnt about titling from the process of constructing this product. The title 'Omniscient' dissolves in therefore it has a very transparent effect when it first appears, which gradually becomes bolder and more visual. The font is spaced out, and the background picture is of trees from the forest, taken from a very low angle. The background image then fades to black, and the font then changes to white. This adds an element of quality to the sequence as a whole as titling in highly important in the post-product process.