Question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process

of constructing this product?

Pre Production: IMDB and YouTube

During pre production, production and post production of our film we used a significant range of technological programs and websites which constantly helped us.

For the development of the idea, websites such as YouTube and IMDB contributed towards the enhancement and constant development of our idea. This allowed my group and myself to dig up details, key elements and analyse the main themes of other films which is of the same genre to help our research. IMDB provides people with all the information about a film. YouTube is the largest video-sharing website in the world. It allows users, such as ourselves to upload, view and share videos as well as allow people to comment their opinions.

Pre Production Continued

YouTube allowed us to research into other gangster films, such as ‘The Departed’, we were able to look on YouTube about the key themes, the trailer and then view the comments where we could view peoples responses to the film and where they believe the film is good or bad. YouTube allowed us to upload and share videos where we could then gain feedback. As well as this, YouTube allowed us to download videos which can then be modified by us and used for the benefit of the film. Another example of this is the embed feature which allows me to easily share videos onto my blog.

Furthermore, by looking at a lot of videos on YouTube we can generate our own ideas by analysing other film openings; before we as a group decided what we like and what we don’t like. Overall, I would say these two websites were highly informative and useful. This therefore had a beneficial effect upon our final project.

Pre Production: Celtx

IMDB and YouTube were not the only forms of technology in the pre production stage of the film which we used. Celtx was another pre-production software which we used to design, create and organise some of our products; for example, our script.

Below are screen grabs I have taken of the homepage of Celtx, you will find there is a large list of established well known films where their scripts are available for viewing. There is also an image of the script of “Corporate Identitiy” created on Celtx.

Celtx contributed to the enhancement of quality and detail of our script. This meant that we could develop our opening sequence even further in leading to the construction of our final film.

Pre Production: Blogger

Blogger enabled us to all individually post about our progress and research which we had made throughout the development of our film. This could range from posting our script and storyboard, changing certain parts of the film, analysing other opening sequences of both our genre, and others.

Personally, I enjoyed using Blogger as a place to save my work, no matter whether it is a picture, video or an audio note; regardless of the scale or size. This could then be adapted and modified wherever we were, even if we had our phones with us as we had downloaded the Blogger app for iPhone.

Blogger was a simple way of being used as a notebook, it allowed us to constantly go back and refer to the work which we had done, enabling possible changes which we desired.

Production: Sony HD Camera

For the production stage of our film there was not an entirely wide range of technologies which we used; we filmed using a Sony HD Camera to film. One negative, out of the many positives is that the battery power on the camera is significantly poor. This problem created a disruption in our filming which caused us to work for more time than required.

On the other hand it is questionable that the quality footagewhich we gained from this camera made up for its major battery fault. After becoming more comfortable with this camera; how it works and what final quality it provides, we are all relatively happy with the final footage we received.

Production: Zoom Recording

Another piece of technology which we became more aware of after creating our 2 minute opening sequence is zoom recording. We discovered that zoom recording would provide the group with the close ups being done at a far more convenient fashion. This was achieved when we filmed in the office, with Vince spinning around in his chair and facing the camera, before we zoom out to create a more intimidating atmosphere, instead of constantly changing the camera angles.

Using zoom recording meant we were able to perform this shot at a steady pace, making the atmosphere slightly more intense and therefore adding to the conventions of this genre.

Finally, the zoom recording’s main use was maximised by our group as we used the shot to show Vince’s facial expressions, his whole body posture and his surroundings in once take.

Post Production: Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a further application we became familiar with, this was our chosen software to edit our film. Initially Final Cut Pro came across as daunting to use, but Brad (editor) managed to overcome the complexity of it and gained a vast understanding of it rather quickly.

This section of Final Cut shows all footage we have, making it easier to choose from the large amount of video takes.

The screen on the left shows the film, giving us a preview of what the film will look like at the moment.

This is the editing panel where the film is created and formatted to the way in which we intended too. Here is a screenshot of the Final Cut Pro software, taken whilst editing our film, shown in their clips differentiated by the size and placement.

Post Production: SoundTrack Pro

The final form of technology which became very useful and has lead to a drastic alteration of the quality of our final product, is SoundTrack Pro. This is the main feature of

Soundtrack Pro and probably most important aspect as just like Final Cut Pro this is where the placement and modification of sound takes place.

This is a very effective part of SoundTrack Pro as it provides all sounds which can be placed in the film.

When deciding on where to place the sound in SoundTrack Pro, a video of the film is provided in the top left hand corner of the sceen. This enables us to perfectly match the sound with the video. Therefore, reducing the risk of mistakes.