Main Task Evaluation - Question 6

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

When we made our film, we were given the chance to use the new cameras which were given to our media department. These included the actual camera plus the new tripods. This was exciting for us as when we did our prelim the tripod was unsteady and the camera wasn't of great quality. When using the new camera we noticed alot of positive camera work and steadiness from the tripod. This created our film into a better, more professional looking film which improved our confidence of us creating a great film.
Another technology we used was the old iMovie. Even though it was the old version of the programme, we hadn't used it before on our prelim. We used it for one shot and one shot only. This gave us the option to edit the shot- to make it blurry to show that Auntie Babs couldn't see without her glasses. The old iMovie came in handy but we realised that we still prefered the iMovie programme we were using already as the layout was more understandable and the creation of the film was easier to do.
Using the macs in our media classroom was a new technology for myself as I don't own one. Others in my group have one at home, but for me it was a new experience all together. They are at great quality and they gave me great trust in producing my film. They were easy to use and I caught on very quickly on what to do and how to do the simple things. It also produced a wonderful piece of coursework for our group so we are pleased.

The benefits of using the tripod and the new camera was that it allowed us to shoot better shots for our film. We used the tripod to keep the camera still on important and steady shots, for example the seduction scene, and we just used it as a hand held when tension built or we when we produced a track shot when we walked with the camera, for example the opening of the film when making our way to Auntie Babs office.
The benefits of using the old version of iMovie was that it allowed us to create a different point-of-view shot in our film. This would give us another opportunity to put some humour into our film. We could us the old iMovie to make the shot look blurry, therefore showing that Auntie Babs can't see without the glasses she just threw out of the window. This turned out to be a great pan shot of the setting in her office, and at the same time a great point-of-view shot of what Auntie Babs could see or of what she couldn't see.
The benefits of using the macs was that it allowed us to create a film on a modern day computer that included the appropriate software on there for us to use. This software was iMovie which produced us with all different ways of improving our film just that little bit more. For example it helped us lay out all of our shots, trim them, cut them down, introduce sound into our film and credits. Also including the transitions to each shot. This software on the macs allowed us to make the whole film.

The limitations of using the tripod and camera was that we were only allowed to film for our film and it only could be used for about an hour before it had to be recharged again. Therefore we would had to of been quick with our filming or timed our shots so charge time could of been capable. Also, with the tripod we could only go so far with our shots. This is for example up, down, left and right. It wouldn't rotate all the way round or go very high. This meant we either had to shot it hand held or do two shots and place them together to make it look like one big shot. This wasn't a problem however for us because our shot where the glasses come out of the window the tripod reached the window so no hand held was needed.
The limitations for the old version of iMovie was that we only needed for one shot, but we could see what each effect did to the shot. We only needed to blur the shot but we saw different effects such as lightening, fish eye etc. We weren't allowed to make our film on this version of the iMovie however because the newer version produced a better film. This didn't effect us though as we only needed one shot anyway.
The limitations for using the macs was that we were only allowed to go onto iMovie. They were limited to softwares and programmes anyway, as they were school computers and their werent alot on there, for instance there was no internet. But still, we were only allowed to use the iMovie software because it was the only programme relevant to making our movie, and it was the only programme we needed.

Other technologies that could have helped us make our media product successful are stuff like tracks so we could produce good dolly shots. This would of improved our opeing shot to of kept it more steady. We could also of had a light that shot onto the characters as some shots looked very dark. For example the shot where Babs says "only if you are baby!" the shot appears darker than all the rest and it is quite difficult to make out her face. Overall though the technology we used made us proud of the film we ended up with.