Hardware To create my trailer and related ancillary texts I used a Sony mini DV camcorder, Canon Digital SLR camera and an Apple iMac computer. These were predominantly used in the construction of my product where me and my group captured all the necessary footage we needed at the location using the HandyCam. To upload footage onto the iMac we captured it using a firewire, rather than a USB wire, meaning that we were able to do so at relatively fast speed and with control over which footage we wanted to import. The manual and auto focusing abilities of the handycam came into play when we needed to focus on a certain object especially when the intended shot involved extreme close ups of anything. An example of this is the shot of the eye at around 24 seconds in (see below).
The issue I faced with the camera was that it was controlled using touch screen rather than physical buttons which brought up a few issues as it would've been easier to focus with a simple push/pull trigger than digitally. On the majority of shots we used a basic camera tripod set up so that the camera was as stable as possible but on the desired shots it seemed right to use it by hand to get a 'paranormal activity' effect. I used a digital camera for the ancillary texts shooting a few low-key shots of a girl with a black background making the editing easier as I didn't have to crop out any out-of-place objects in Photoshop. The photos that I took were simply in the dark and lit using nothing more than a household torch which achieved the desired effect without needing any other artificial lighting. The camera was 14 mega pixels which is a generates a high quality image making it easier for me to make my ancillary texts look professional.
Final Cut Pro Final cut pro was the main piece of software I used for constructing my main piece combining the audio and visual pieces. I had never used this before so the program was completely new to me but the basics were picked up on quite fast by everyone in our group meaning we could all work together in the editing process. As Final Cut is a professional product it has the ability to do a lot of things that other programs simply do not have the capability of doing. However, the frame rate would occasionally drop due to physical restraints related to the iMac's CPU. This issue would occasionally be an issue as we could not properly see the final image without rendering it which is time consuming and wasted valuable time. The ability to crossfade images and transitions together also came in handy as our editing process involved a lot of cutting and fading footage together because of the style we wanted to recreate that we had seen in other horror trailers. The main idea came from the trailer for 'The Grudge' which used a variety of rapid shots in a very disorientating manner which would've been more difficult to recreate on perhaps a less basic program.
Adobe After Effects CS4
After effects is a piece of digital motion graphics and compositing software used in proffesional film making for anything from titles to extreme special effects such as explosions. I found use for it for the titles within my main task, the horror trailer. Having never used the program before I used trial and error to work out exactly how to create titles and edit them effectively. After a long time of experimenting I settled on an effect I found suitable for the trailer 
and set on making it look as proffesional and smooth as possible. As I only had basic knowledge of the program I dont believe I used it to its full potential but I do believe that if I had used the program before I could've utilised it for other processes than simply creating inter-titles alone. Involving this program in the construction of my group's trailer I believe set us apart from the other groups in the class because the titles stood out and were unique. Other programs such as Final Cut or LiveType simply do not possess the editing capabilities that After Effects does.
and set on making it look as proffesional and smooth as possible. As I only had basic knowledge of the program I dont believe I used it to its full potential but I do believe that if I had used the program before I could've utilised it for other processes than simply creating inter-titles alone. Involving this program in the construction of my group's trailer I believe set us apart from the other groups in the class because the titles stood out and were unique. Other programs such as Final Cut or LiveType simply do not possess the editing capabilities that After Effects does. Cubase 5
Steinberg's Cubase 5 is an Digital Audio Workstation recognised as one of the leading in the field along with ProTools. I was able to use Cubase in the stages after the visuals were complete in my trailer. We rendered the video and imported it into a new cubase 5 project. We were then able to create music literally along to the video track meaning we have much more flexibility than using royalty free loops. We were able to use the MIDI capabilities of the program to create and manipulated audio to fit the video source as accurately as possible. All of the music in our trailer was composed by my group and I and wasn't sampled meaning that it was unique and gave us the ability to emphasise certain moments within the trailer. This technology has the capability to run an
unlimited amount of tracks (depending on CPU) and an infinite amount of different sounds and effects. Garageband (the other program being used in class for audio) does not have the same capabilities as Cubase which meant that we were able to create a much more polished result than others. You also have the ability to record audio into Cubase alongside the MIDI meaning that we were able to add whispers to the video and manipulate the audio very extensively. Using a lot of reverb and some equalisation we were able to create an eerie whisper effect used in many horror films and trailers. Without the tools that Cubase has I do not believe we would've got a result similar to that.
unlimited amount of tracks (depending on CPU) and an infinite amount of different sounds and effects. Garageband (the other program being used in class for audio) does not have the same capabilities as Cubase which meant that we were able to create a much more polished result than others. You also have the ability to record audio into Cubase alongside the MIDI meaning that we were able to add whispers to the video and manipulate the audio very extensively. Using a lot of reverb and some equalisation we were able to create an eerie whisper effect used in many horror films and trailers. Without the tools that Cubase has I do not believe we would've got a result similar to that.Adobe Photoshop cs4/5
I used Adobe Photoshop which is one of the most comprehensive image editing and creating programs around to construct my magazine cover and movie poster. As I have used photoshop before I did not have to learn the basics meaning that I could start constructing the ancillary texts as soon as I could experimenting with different ideas. I prefer to use photoshop to develop ideas rather than pen & paper because it is much more flexible when u
sed right and if you get the desired look first time you do not have to remake it like you would if you sketched it out. The adjustments you can make to images on Adobe Photoshop allowed me to manipulated my original images to look more scary/horror-esque whilst still making them look realistic.
sed right and if you get the desired look first time you do not have to remake it like you would if you sketched it out. The adjustments you can make to images on Adobe Photoshop allowed me to manipulated my original images to look more scary/horror-esque whilst still making them look realistic. On top of the image manipulation abilities of Adobe Photoshop there are extensive tools for creating graphics and vector shapes if needs be. This was very handy on the title font for 'The Necklace' as I converted the font layer into a vector and literally dragged the vector points in different directions to create a unique and smooth font. If I used image creation software without vector editing functionality it would be much harder to achieve a smooth and proffessional look. The ability to add layers with different blending options was also helpful in my ancillary texts as I was able to add textures over other images subtly adding another dimension to the plain original images. Another effect I found useful was the ability to render lighting effects on seperate layers which allowed me to edit any problems with the lighting on the original photo to reach the desired effect.
Youtube
During pre-production I used youtube to research horror trailers just to get an understanding of the codes and conventions used within both teaser trailers, and horror fil
ms. Youtube is currently owned by Google and is the largest video website in the world with literally millions of video uploads from the public and companies alike. It is utilised massively by most media platforms as it has grown at a huge exponential rate since its introduction to the world wide web. I also published my group's trailer on youtube because it's simple and free and allows the embedding function so I can place it on the blog. Blogger
ms. Youtube is currently owned by Google and is the largest video website in the world with literally millions of video uploads from the public and companies alike. It is utilised massively by most media platforms as it has grown at a huge exponential rate since its introduction to the world wide web. I also published my group's trailer on youtube because it's simple and free and allows the embedding function so I can place it on the blog. Blogger
I used the blogging site 'Blogger' to create my portfolio documenting my progress with my ancillary tasks and my main task the horror trailer. I did this because of many reasons, the main one being that as a multi-media platform I was able to host images, videos and audio on the site resulting in my portfolio being a multimedia experience rather than a multitude of essays which can get long and monotonous and dont represent 'media' very well. The site allowed me to make a custom colour scheme and even add my own title header to the page to make it look my own and to create a horror blog rather than a standard one. It also allowed me to organise my blog posts into different portfolio sections which make it much easier to navigate around. Without blogger I would just have many blocks of text which are hard to read and hard to find specific areas. The ability to embed videos and images means that I can really use my blog to demonstrate some of my points and of course showcase my work as best as I can.
Traditional Essays vs. Web 2.0
In the majority of subjects any cousework is done in the form of written essays containing detailed written explanations but very little visual and aural information. The inclusion of the web in the coursework allows me to utilise pictures to help emphasise and detail written evaluations in a way which you cant using traiditional essay writing techniques. Personally, i much prefer using the web in my coursework as it is much more flexible and allows me to expand fully on my points without the need to write an excessive amount as i am able to simply post a picture as a demonstration of my point. I don't believe that using web 2.0 really effects the detail of my write-up about my product as i am able to cover in detail the same amount as i would using traditional essays. I am also able to expand on that detail by including other things such as pictures, videos, flickr analysis' and audio.
Please capitalise your use of "I". Good work but needs development in a couple of areas. Firstly organise it so that you are discussing each of the three elements of the project: research and planning; production; and evaluation. For production be much more specific with your discussion, particularly of Final Cut Pro. How did your group's growing understanding of this software affect the development of the project? Also discussed some specific things that you learnt how to do with it. Perhaps explore the use of effects or of editing for pace and to work alongside the music.
ReplyDeleteFor the evaluation part you need to reflect upon using a blog as the principal means of evaluating your work. How does this differ to work you might do in other subjects? Which method do you prefer? You are someone with great computing creativity and skill. But do you think that anything is lost by evaluating your work with web 2.0 applications rather than say writing a long essay about it? Which would you prefer? Why? You can write what you like here but it is important to reflect on these issues.