Evaluation Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I learned things relating to both hardware and software during the course of the construction of the film opening.

Hardware

• I used the Canon Legria HF G30 camera during the filming of the project.  I had used this type of camera before during GCSE, so it was quite easy to use; however I still learnt new things which I could do with it, such as changing the focus while recording to do a focus pull, this was a very cool new thing which I was able to try out during the shoot.

• The Camera Jib was something which I had never used before, though I was somewhat familiar with the concept. Using this piece of equipment, we were able to get shots from very high angles. However, despite the usefulness of this piece of equipment it also took a long time to set up and because of this, we weren't able to use it in our back up shoot as we were so pressed for time.

• Lighting- we used both lights on stands and studio lights. These were both used to a good extent during our shoot; the spotlight from the studio lights provided the lighting for the table, while the other lights allowed us to light up actors individually as we saw fit. The lights on stand were probably one of the most useful pieces of technology we used since it allowed us to light our scene very well, which helped us connote the neo-noir genre.

Software

• The software I used the most was Adobe Premiere Pro, and I definitely learnt a lot about how to use it. I had used it during GCSE, so I was able to place shots and cut them with relative ease. The real learning I got in relation to this software was grading, which was done with ProcAmp. This allowed me to change the contrast, brightness and saturation of shots, and through experimentation I eventually became confident in using this to alter our sequence. A disadvantage of Premiere Pro was that we were only able to use it in school - although Eddie and I did have it at home, it would have been a hassle to have been constantly moving different versions of the edit and showing it to the other members all of the time. This limited the total time we could edit and also meant that we usually had a very tight editing schedule.

• The other piece of software I used was Adobe After Effects, which we used to add special effects into our shots. I had never used the program before, so everything was quite new for me, thankfully Eddie already had some experience with it and was able to help me use it. This software was quite flexible, as it allowed us to both add in visuals such as the flash of a gunshot and allowed us to manipulate the lighting as well. Furthermore I found that we could put the edited shots straight into Premier Pro, showing the synergy the two products had with each other.