What have you learnt about

technologies from the process

of constructing this product?

What I would do with the benefit of hindsight?

Filming

1. Improve zooming in and out. It was very hard to zoom while filming; so next time film, pause the action at the intended focus, then zoom, then continue.

2. Steer away from seemingly random music just to go in the background as sound can drastically distort the viewing experience. Also no swearing in the middle of acting because half the time it turned out to be a good shot despite the acting.

Props/Lights

1. Book out more to enhance the filming quality.

2. Stock up on batteries. Those little LED lights are effective for 15 minutes then after that the iPhone utility light is better.

3. More realistic props / Mise-en-scene. It looked pretty stupid the antagonist shooting someone without gloves on, so paying more attention to mise-en-scne and not trying to cut corners would be a good idea in hindsight.

Editing

1. more attention to after effects.

2. Editing out fake parts of gun barrel to make it look more realistic, in turn making the metaphor of Magnum being told through a gun barrel easily comprehendible

What I know now that I didn’t know before?

Editing:

1. Is actually more important than filming as it can enhance the filming quality anyway. I naturally thought filming was more important until I realized the possibilities that premier pro has. Evidence being the black/white effect to signify a flashback.

Props:

1. Lighting can make or break a scene. The fixation of lights is needed to highlight a focal point. The lighting coinciding with a zoom and a suitable camera shot will attract the audiences attention, therefore giving lighting the power to sway the audiences interpretation of the shot.

Filming

1. Cameras lie to you. They sell you the dream of your picture having adequate light then you import the scene into Premier Pro and it’s as if no external light except street lights were used at all.

2. Time will creep up on you. It seems during dialogue and filming the certain scene isn’t actually that long. However when you are; crossing streets trying to answer the phone to your detective superior whilst trying to hold a newspaper and drink eggnog you’ll find something you thought will be a detriment to characterization of the protagonist is actually seven minutes long… and above all pointless.

What advice would I pass on?

Whatever you do please refrain from random sound tracks to

fill time

Don’t leave After Effects till last minute because it takes a

surprising amount of time and if that time is allowed it can

really create something resplendent.

Do not procrastinate on filming schedule. Just get it over and

done with because editing tends to take longer.

Pick typical English weather for continuity

What are the advantages/disadvantages of different

technology used - EditingGarage band:

Quality issues/possibilities: Had water droplet and police siren effect which we used to benefit – Advantage / Possibilities were slim considering our theme and my meticulous nature. Couldn’t find the low tone, low tempo piano track I was looking for. Plus on a maccreating a beat without a keyboard plug-in is virtually impossible – Disadvantage.

Ease of use: It was impossible to create a beat because your mouse/hands can't move fast enough to press the piano and loop it at the same time. - Disadvantage

Premier Pro:

It was actually really easy to edit considering lessening footage and putting footage in. - Advantage

Rendering was too long for my impatient mind. - Disadvantage

Possibilities wise does the job however the quality of it is arguable. At the end of the day we have effective titles, however inevitably using After Effects would be much better for this. - Both

Flexibilities worked to an advantage as well, this is evident in the order change of the sequence appeasing both the audience and ourselves.

After effects:

Ease of use: Verging on impossible, it was far too time consuming. We explored the possibility of creating the production companies label on After Effects and it turned into a ribbon and an energy ball, it’s fair to say it was a failure. - Disadvantage

Quality Issues: None, it would have been perfect if we used it. – Advantage

E-Creative possibilities: The possibilities were perfect suited to my ideal titles – Advantage

What are the advantages and disadvantages of different

technology used - Filming

Camera:

Quality Issues: The little HD cameras did the job but nothing too special. The quality was sufficient. – Both/ Naturally a camera is no where near the quality of the human eye so there were major lighting problems due to misinterpretation when put into premier pro. -Disadvantage

Ease of use: It was impossible for me to zoom and zoom out, well for me anyway – Disadvantage

Handling Issues: Fit loosely on the tripod and was hard to track along – Disadvantage / Due to being small the camera was easy considering portability - Advantage

Tripod:

Ease of use/Quality Issues: Very misleading. You’d think it would be easy to move a camera left and right, but no, it was far from. In fact the main camera man found filming easier handheld - Disadvantage

Handling Issues/Portability: Unfortunately due to the location my team had to carry one or two tripod(s) on two buses and lug them around my estate which was both uncomfortable and the constant fear of them sliding down their place of rest and breaking into a million pieces as scary. – Disadvantage

Flexibility/Creative possibilities: It had different variations in height which worked effectively to do worms eye view shots. – Advantage

Health and Safety: Sometimes it would slide off the wall and fall on your foot but it’s not like that’s a real problem. – Neither really

What are the advantages and disadvantages of different

technology used - Props

Lights:

Quality Issues: Due to environment and location we needed around 4 LED lights and it wasn’t even near what was needed, it was merely useable. However it did work to our advantage as it made sure not to lose the dark/gritty feeling of our film consequently adding to the conventions of the genre. – Both

Portability/Flexibility: They are small however an awkward shape so at times they got annoying to carry around. - Both

Ease of use: You’d think using lights is easy but it’s actually an intricate technique of perfect planning and fixation. Yet if done well works well. – Both

Health and safety: Only a real moron can hurt themselves with an LED light. However shining them in Niro’s face too much led to deterioration of his eyes and him thinking it’s raining all the time. - Advantage

What could I have done but

didn’t

Putting a CCTV effect on the progression of the antagonist to the interrogation scene would be niche, thus making our sequence stand out due to variety and add more marks due to use of effects. However we left this possibility too late and didn’t get to capitalize on the gold mine of an opportunity.

Due to time we couldn’t use Adobe Photoshop to edit out the barrel of the gun. Due to being a plastic toy Magnum .44 replica it had a cross in the middle of the gun, which can confuse the metaphor of the sequence being told through the eye of the gun barrel.

Unfortunately we we’re running out of time and couldn’t properly explore more specified titles with After Effects as Premier Pro have notoriously bad titles. So we ended up with pretty basic titles, however they suit the theme being grey like the colour of a magnum.

Used sound to a better advantage. Instead of throwing on a looped emotional piano (which sounds pretty misguided and pointless) it would have been better to bridge over visuals with a police siren, traffic or maybe just normal prerecorded environmental sounds.