Week 5

WEEK 5 - (PRODUCTION: WRITING & SHOOTING)

 How are you using media technologies in the construction of your product?

During the first week of filming we had found a dilema. We forgot the whole process of setting up the camera before filming to avoid pixelation. After recording and entering the editing suite, we discovered that the clips had included a lot of unwanted pixelation, including the points where the camera would move. Putting aside the frustration and anger that we felt due to the fact our time was wasted on bad quality footage, we decided the quickly find another alternative. We asked our teacher what we could do to resolve this situation. This is what he replied:

"It is important that you first leave the lense cap on the camera and leave the camera to record. This way, the camera will be still and have a blank screen for the whole duration that you leave it on play. Afterwards, you must rewind to the beginning of the recording tape and play over the black image, this will somehow effectively get rid of the unwanted pixelation. Good luck."

Having fully trusted our teachers advice, we decided to give it another go on the camera and look back at our footage just incase it didn't have any effect on the footage. 

Our second alternative was to use a digital camera as back up, as todays technology can never be trusted. For example, if the current camera we were using was the break or not film properly, we would use the digital camera as another alternative as a just incase solution. In doing this, we made sure all our plans were secure so that nothing would go wrong during the process of shooting our trailer.

Here is the camera that we used as a back up :

Just to make sure and prepare for the spare camera, I adjusted the camera to match the same quality and colour as the other camera, so that when editing, the clips would not show such a great difference. I adjusted the Sony Handycam by adjusting the brightness and contrast, making sure I new how to change the settings depending on whatever location I was in e.g. Indoor lighting / Outdoor lighting. All these settings helped make a difference in the quality of the camera:

Regarding the writing and planning whilst shooting the trailer, we wanted to make sure we used as many techniques and skills when shooting different types of shots at different angles. We used this shot angle and type of shot leaflet that helped recall our memory of what would make our trailer storyline look more attractive and professional:

In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We thought that having roles, like the professionals, during the process of making the trailer would make us more successful as the planning would be well organised. Within my group we were all assigned  roles, we thought we would challenge the normal process of filming by exchanging these roles every week. This was in order to combine all three skills that the different people may have, and to also get a grab of an all round perspective of each role. For the first week of filming I was the director. Directors are responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film under the film producer. Throughout my time as a director I developed the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look, in other words making my vision of what was to be in the trailer to come to life. My responsibilities were to turn the script into a sequence of shots. I also directed what tone I thought it should have and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. I was lastly responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting with the help of the cinematographer.