Question 6: What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

EQUIPMENT

• Our group was appointed the following equipment to aid our assignment:

- A Sony HD mini DV camera

- PAG light C6 x2

- Tripod

- Mini DV tape

- Clapperboard

• I found that the Sony HD mini DV camera was incredibly easy to use, partly because of my experience with camcorders and recording from GCSE, and partly because it was so accessible:








It had a small screen that we could play our footage back on, on location. The buttons were all clearly labelled and easy to use, and there was nothing fiddly or awkard about it. It clipped with ease in and out of the tripod, and was very lightweight.

• Despite playing around with the PAG lights in different positions we actually didn’t use them as much as we thought we would. The scene where Georgia’s talking to the camera was brilliantly naturally lit, so we only ended up using them to light up the stair scene. They were however lightweight, easy to carry, and had a long battery life, which can be charged from a battery pack. Shutter gates and filters allowed us to create just the right lighting effects that we were after.

• Similarly, the tripod was lightweight and aided us immensely, as a large portion of our shots were steady and fixed, or steady pans, an effect which we just would not have achieved so effectively without the tripod. It had extendable legs, and was easy to clip in and clip out the camera.

Ideally, we could have used a shotgun microphone as well, to get up and close with the sound of Georgia’s voice in the video-diary shots. Sound in these shots however was not a problem so it was not a major worry.

We did three shoots, so we had the benefit of hindsight when shooting a lot. For this reason, there aren’t many shots I would, personally, would change, as we had the opportunity to do this three times over. I would perhaps have filmed the attack itself with more angles, maybe with a couple of hand-held shots, to really increase the dramatic effect, as I feel it was a bit of an anti-climax with just the one angle.

I was really impressed by the equipment provided – considered we did not have all of the massive camera equipment, special lighting and other high-tech equipment used in proper shoots, I think the quality of the footage we produced was fantastic.

SOFTWARE

• Adobe Premiere Pro was the main piece of software we used in our project 

I found it easy to use, as a lot of what I leart from GCSE came back to me quickly and easily. You could use it to capture shots straight from the camera, dragging and dropping them onto the timeline, where you could play around with the order, chop them up, fade or cross-dissolve them into or out of each other, add effects, and create titles, creating a seamless, continuous piece.