Q6: DRAFT

Different Technologies

To film our thriller opening sequence we used a Nikon D800, which gave us very high quality shots instead of using an IPhone built in camera. What I learnt about using this camera was that in order to achieve high standard shots, you needed to make sure that the camera was fully in focus, and needed to be incredibly stable. We achieved this by using a tripod, which meant we could get very still shots instead of holding it by hand. None of our group produced any shaky footage, which was good, and instead of using a dolly for tracking shots (because we didn’t have one) we found ourselves being extremely resourceful and attaching the tripod to a skateboard, so we could follow the characters with a steady camera.

The weather was good for all the days we filmed, however it didn’t affect us at all since we were inside most of the time. Our opening sequence took us about 3 whole days to film, but because we didn’t like the last shots we did, we went back and re-filmed them.  Most of our shots were close ups/extreme close ups, although I personally felt like this worked effectively since it captured the tension and excitement a thriller should show.

Our group kept in mind about the rule of thirds and golden rule when filming since it would mean that our audience would focus specifically where we would want them to focus. For instance, if we used the rule of thirds then our audience would focus on the middle of the screen, whereas if we were using the golden rule then they would focus on anything lining up from one of the corners of the shot to the other corner.

We decided to use IMovie to edit our videos in. Matt was skilled in this area so he took on most of the editing. IMovie is Apple based videoing software that allows you to trim, structure and import footage so you can edit it. It is basic software so that means it’s pretty easy to use and get the hang of.

I designed the ident, and used the software Photoshop to complete it on. I started off by researching all about idents to get some inspiration, and then drew a black rectangle with the shape tool and tried out different sans serif fonts until I liked it.  To create the music to the opening sequence our group also decided to use Logic Pro. We used the recording studio at school and Matts house to record the guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Logic Pro is an excellent piece of software for producing, editing and mastering music, and found it very useful when composing a piece for our project.