Q6 Technology

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

To produce the films that we are making in school non of this would happen without the technology we have these days, people 20 or 30 years ago could not even imagine the amount of technology which is available to us now as back then. The Technology we use to create our film opening is as followed;
(this is a vodcast of this post)

• Apple Mac's
• Blogger 
• Youtube 
• IMDB
• Final Cut Pro
• Video HD Camera's
• Garage Band

Apple Mac's are the main key piece of technology that we use in our Media work as they hold all the things we need in terms of editing and finishing off and creating key parts of the film opening also the Apple mac's hold all the information we need for research which is all stored on the internet and

various blogs to help us.

Blogger is the place where all the information goes on how we progress and share what we have found in terms of research and the process of making some footage of the putting together of our film openings also all the vodcasts and podcasts of how the process and coarse is going.





Youtube is a very good and useful place to get video clips
to compare and to post video's of how the progress of the film making is going also we can share and embed previous video's of what are relevant to the subject for example video's of already successful slasher film openings

IMDB is the place which provides the most relevant information for film making and what sorts of things from old already made films, IMDB is a online website which lets you look up any film or director from any t
film and shows you the cast. This is ideal for when we are assessing or analysing past film opening's.

Final cut pro is where the footage of the filming gets edited. This is the sort of technology that the pro directors and production company's use for the major films in the world wide industries. It just shows how the world has been subjected to digitalisation and it benefits the people like us who do not have a lot of funding to produce the massive smash hit films.

HD Video camera's that we use to shoot the footage for our film openings are so high tech that major film producers didnt even use them about 10 years ago and they are more advanced than the one's they used back then. They provide us with an endless amount of opportunity to shoot the key footage and right frames to put our film openings together

Garage Band although i have not used it fully yet i have seen the effects of it and seen enough clips of where the sound tracks from it can be applied to the film openings as a form of background music either diagetic or non diagetic and sometimes providing an audio bridge. This is useful for creating sounds rather than having to pay for a full band to play for your benefits.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since the prelim task at the start of the year my knowledge and understanding and also skills to do much more from the basic task where there was no real planning or effort put into making the prelim video the only basic things we were taught for that were the three concepts of shot reverse shot the 180 degree rule and the match on action all of which we had to include in the prelim task, then moving onto the microdrama with the rest of the guys in my class and taking in vital information from Dave in class time.

For the microdrama task we were not told to do much but that we had to produce a short film that lasted between 5-10 mins and we did it over a day when we were all free, this was all done over the social network site of Facebook to arrange a location and place where the short film was going to be filmed, the site was my house and the cast was all of the lads in the class due to all of them being in a group with me. The micro drama was good and got a lot of praise from various different teachers and was said at the time was the best micro drama produced to date in the media class of Dave

Also not only just the camera work but the different sorts of information and techniques and terminology was worked on and developed over the year and this was all done in class time to gain the full advantages sheets with the different bits were provided by Dave of which all the notes and techniques are on which we have used to help remind us of the different things learned. Also the exam techniques and explanations of what we have to do and need to include in various different essay questions and how to go about answering and in detail produce good answers with all the terminology and examples to gain the top grades

Moving on to our coarse work which was the main and key aspect of the years work where we were able to show what we had learned in terms of camera work and editing and soundtrack skills also it was a good way to see what different correct decisions we made and what would need to be worked on in terms of developing and improving areas that needed changes, The cinematography and miss en scene that was used in our film opening were good as told by Dave and the various different feedbacks we got from viewers, also the effects and editing were good as well and they worked well with how we used different things to create more of an atmosphere and sense of tension throughout the film opening, However what we felt that the sound track could have been better and was fairly rushed and as some of our feedback suggests so did other viewers. However we feel that the film opening was a success and we are proud of the work that we have created.

BN: Shooting Schedule

This is the schedule we used to secide which shots we were going to used in our filming of the slasher film opening

BN: Violent Scene

For the violent scene in our slasher film opening it has had to be changed three times just to create and get the effect we want and need to create a sense of realism and to make it more believable to the viewing audience.

Fast Pace Editing



Fast Pace Editing on Final Cut Pro



To create an authentic and real life effect within the violent scene the longer takes needed to be cut up and put into an order of which the flash backs and the real time could be made to fit in. Also the fast pace causes the audience to feel that but of tension and fear build up in this scene due to the editing



Heartbeat Sound on Final Cut Pro



Heartbeat Soundtrack



The heartbeat was used to build up the audiences heart rate along with the heart beat of the characters on screen, this gets the audience to sort of feel some of the emotion on screen with the charcters. Also the heart beat increases during the violent scene which raises awareness of what is happening on screen at the time

Slow Motion

We added slow motion to create more of an impact for when the chopping scene is intercut between that and the violent scene so that it doesnt show the violence however the significance of the chops incidactes or signifies that the violence has taken place but is being hidden by the chop.

 

BN: Editing Titles

At the start of our film we have put in titles, which have needed thought with the font and colour of them, Below are some of the few ideas we have been looking at and what thoughts we have had of why we should use them at the start of our slasher film opening.

This Font we used was the Capitsalsd font in Final cut pro and we used this font because it was a serif font and that signifies the sharp knife effect of the slasher genre with the little serif edges of the lettering and indicates the cutting edge horror. 

For this title we have again used the Capitals Font however in this one we have used a colour effect on the Font and this is the Scarlet effect which is a preset colour which has been applied to signify the blood and gore of the slasher film opening. We also feel that the chosen colour of this title has got some intertexuality to the film A Nightmare On Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010) due to the red colouring of the title.


For this Font we have used a completely differnet Font where by we have gone with the Eccentric STD Font which makes the title look like that from the film Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) showing some intent of intertexuality from this title example as well as the previous one.

Props Used in our Shoot

For our shoot we needed some main props to give our film opening the effect it needed to show any signs of success and to have a significance, these were as followed;



The Meat Cleaver we used in the film opening was used as an iconic piece of weaponry we chose this weapon due to its significance to the occupation of the killer and the relevance of it was to show his power and authority. This was chosen also to show some intertextuality with the knife used in the slasher film Scream ( Wes Craven, 1996)





The Apron or Piny of the killer was also a significant piece of prop work, this helped the audience pick up and know who or what the killer was and the occupation of the killer however it doesn't give too much away about the character other than a violent one due to chopping up meat.






The Black Boots were used to create a sense of power and authority with the sounds they made going down the stairs into the basement and across the basement floor this was also used to make and set a good image of the butcher uniform as apose to trainers or just normal shoes this was intertextuality from the film A Nightmare on Elm Street where by the Killer in that who was Freddy Cruger wore boots of a similar style and type

DE- Soundtrack

Soundtrack

To make the soundtrack for Black Nightmare we used a software called 'Garage Band'

Selecting software instruments for soundtrack

When making the soundtrack for Black Nightmare we used a ambient soundtrack of rain falling to emphasise the setting and also to add diagetic sound to the opening scene.

Using different types of soundtracks over one another

We also used different types of instruments such as stringed and drums. This enabled us to use long drawn out notes and also use fast tempo beat to build suspense and tension. By mixing the two various types of tempos and beats this added exaggeration to the scene and helped build the tension. 

When the killer walks down the stairs we used Leitmotif music which links to the killer when he is visual on screen or when he is about to make a appearance.

Leitmotif music for when killer is visual