TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE USED

Throughout the production of our media product we used different kinds of technology to film and edit our opening sequence. We used various cameras for the filming as they would give us different quality pictures. And for the editing we used the iMac.

The camera we used for filming was the Samsung OIS Duo, this was the camera given to us by the school and was used for the entire process of filming. After testing this out when taking pictures we all found that it was incredibly high quality and had great picture. We felt that this would be necessary to use for filming as it would be able to capture the pictures on the wall in an extremely high quality. As we also used a lot of close ups we felt that this camera was the best as it would be able to capture the tears from the main character and exaggerate the emotion felt in the opening sequence. We also used this camera to take some pictures that were put up on the wall, as we found that the camera on this camcorder was extremely high quality, so we thought we’d take a few pictures with it to show variation in the cameras used when the two characters spent their time together. We didn’t have any problems with this camera and would definitely use it again for further media projects.

We also used a Coolpix L120 by Nikon, which was Becka’s own camera. As this is also a high quality camera, we decided that we would also use this to take pictures that would go up on the wall of Becka’s bedroom. As this is a normal camera that is designed to only take primarily photographs, we thought it would be most appropriate as we wanted to make it look as authentic as possible and use a normal camera. We also used this camera to take the video of the flashback as the camcorder was unavailable during the time they were taking more photos. Because it was dark the camera didn’t produce the high quality picture that is seen in the other pictures taken during the day. I believe that this contributed towards the authenticity of the flashback as it looks quite blurred and looks like it just a memory. The only problems we had with this camera had been during taking pictures. As the lighting in some of the locations was different to others, this meant that some photos didn’t look as good as others because the camera couldn’t work properly in all ranges of light.

We also used my Fujifilm Finepix JX camera to take a couple of the pictures. As this camera is lower quality compared to Becka’s camera we thought that we would use my camera to show different quality pictures. We only used my camera to take pictures and not any videos because my camera does not produce high quality video footage and we wanted to create high quality picture with our videoed footage. When taking pictures, we didn’t have any problems with this camera.

For editing we used apple products to edit our footage together. The main piece of technology we used for our editing process was the iMacs in the editing suite at school. At first we found the iMacs difficult to use but we then got used to it and found it quite easy to use in the end. The only problems we had with these was we found it difficult to do certain things that are easily used on PCs. For example, we found it difficult to find a way to print screen what we were doing to put onto our blogs, but we eventually found out how to do this and took a couple of screen captures. We also used a portable iMac to record the voiceovers. We originally used mine and Catherine’s iPhone’s but we later found that the recordings on the phones were not suitable so recorded our voiceover on Michael’s iMac this gave us a better quality sound and overall, a better voiceover.

When filming we used a tripod to keep the camera steady and prevent any shaking that would have occurred with handheld. The tripod came in handy when filming the still shots at the beginning, as we had to keep the camera as still as possible and the tripod allowed us to do this. We used the tripod for all aspects of the filming apart from when panning over the pictures as we found it difficult to pan across the photographs using the handle, as it made the footage look quite shaky. The tripod had many useful features, such as the extendable legs, the handles which allowed us to tilt the camera in any way we wanted and another feature which told us whether the camera was balanced or not.

The software we used during editing was mainly Final Cut Pro. With this software we were able to add non-diagetic sounds and piece together our footage so that it would run as smoothly as possible. We found the software difficult to use at first, because we had never used this software before and we were unaware of how to use various aspects of the software, as we had only ever used Sony Vegas to edit footage together before the iMacs replaced the PCs. We also used Garage Band to record our voiceovers. We didn’t find this software difficult to use at all, as all we needed to do was to press record, do our voice over, stop recording then import the voiceover into our opening sequence. This was incredibly easy to use and it produced a very high quality sound.