Question 6

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

The first time I attempted filming my thriller I used a handheld camera which filmed bad quality footage and after looking at our footage on the Mac ready to edit, we realised that we needed to re-film our thriller with a different technology in order to get the clearest picture possible. We decided to use a phone because we discovered that the video on a phone has a much better quality picture than a handheld camera. The phone we used was an iPhone 5 which had a much clearer picture and the quality of footage was much better. below is an image of our old footage after being uploaded to a Mac computer. We also realised when looking at the footage that we would need to change our location because the current house we were filming in was too dark even on a bright day with the curtains open and the lights on.

After using a smartphone to film my final thriller titles I have learned a lot about how to use it to make my product look effective in the way it has been filmed. Using a tripod helped to make our shots steady while hand holding the phone helped to make our shots look like a point of view shot. Some shot types worked better without the use of a tripod while others such as a pan shot needed a tripod in order to remain steady as the camera panned around the room.

Lighting needs to be kept consistent throughout the sequence if your are filming in the same location and this can be effected by weather changes or filming on a different day. To keep the lighting consistent you can change the saturation or brightness while editing which is what we did to create consistent and natural lighting

through out our shots. Different shot types should be suited to what you are filming and why you are filming it. For example, a long shot is appropriate for an establishing shot so that the audience can see the whole setting. In our product we used a high angle shot and the meaning of this was to make the later-ego character look weak and vulnerable.

Different shot types can also be used to add interest to a sequence and make it flow better. For example if a sequence contains only long shots and mid shots, this becomes dis-interesting for the audience to watch at they are not being stimulated by what they are watching. Using a variety of shots allows the audience to be entertained with artistic shots while also pointing out important details. In our thriller production we used our iPhone to film extreme close up or tilt shots and this gave the audience an interesting image to look at while breaking up the sequence of shots to add variety. The choice of shot type greatly depends on the composition of the shot. For example in our thriller production we wanted the audience to see only one magazine with blood dripping onto it and not the character which was dripping the blood so we decided that the use of an extreme close up would give the effect we desired. We used framing to compliment the shots we used and create balance, for example we used the rule of thirds in the close up of the magazine and this placed the magazine points of interest where the rule of thirds line cross.

While using iMovie we learned that it was important to keep in mind that the audience must understand our narrative and shots. We filmed our thriller opening titles on an iPhone and then connected the phone to a Mac computer. We moved the videos into a file on the computer and then uploaded these to a new project on iMovie. Each individual shot then had to be moved onto the project board in the order we planned them using our drawn story board to create our narrative structure. 

We cropped some shots which were too long and any shots were deleted which seemed to make the sequence dis-interesting. We then edited the speed of our shots and this was done to increase the tension. We shortened some clips so that they appeared more quickly on the screen in flashes. We also split clips and changed the order which is shown at the beginning of our thriller when the tilt shot of the magazines on the floor plays with various shots flashing on and off screen of an extreme close up of the magazine with blood dripping onto it. This creates tension and an enigma for the audience while the two different shots flicker on the screen. We edited the sound to make certain points louder or quieter and this was useful when making sound effects such as the 'bang' from upstairs and the door creaking more audible over the soundtrack we used:

Our credits were created with text and these were made effective by trialling different colours and fonts.The font we chose suited our thriller and it was clear to read over our different shots.Transitions were used to make the sequence flow and these were usually jump cuts to create a fast paced sequence of tension building. We used a filter over our whole sequence in order to make the shots look sinister with shadows and darkened corners:

The last screen shot below shows how I exported my final and completed project:

Another technology apart from iMovie which we used was 'Art of the Title' and this website allowed us to look at other thriller opening titles and analyse them while planning our own. The website 'YouTube' allowed us to used one of the videos posted as the soundtrack for our thriller. We also used 'Garage Band' to edit this piece of music to suit our thriller more and edit extra diegetic sound into the music, such as a door creaking. The website 'www.dafont.com' allowed us to choose from a wide range of different fonts to use as our titles typography and we used the website 'Poll Everywhere' to ask which typography we should use for our main thriller title. This allowed the public to text in their answer for free and the typography with the highest number of votes was the one we chose for our title. The screen shot below includes the different typography's we chose from the website 'DaFont' and the number of polls from the website 'Poll Everywhere'. We chose the fourth typography down as this had the most amount of votes from the public:

We used the website 'Prezi' in order to present our Thriller Pitch in a way which was unique and interesting for the audience. A 'PowerPoint Presentation' is less stimulating than a 'Prezi' because Prezi allows the presenter or audience to zoom in and out of slides and images while using bright colours and artistic arrows or footprints leading to each slide.