What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout this process I have been introduced to a wide range of new programmes which have thoroughly aided our group in the creation of our opening scene. To make our film as interesting as possible, we used programmes such as garage-band and imovie, we did this so we could use a range of transitions and editing techniques, and create a solid sound track to go with it.

                                                         Video Camera

    

At first our group decided to do our filming with an iPhone, we made this decision because we believed that it would be easier to film on, and the battery life was longer, which enabled us to take more shots. However, we then decided that using a video camera for some shots would be more effective, as it was easier to handle the camera, and get the shot we needed. I think that it was useful for us to learn from that because it enabled our group to make a decision which was best for the filming of our opening scene. I was quite new to using a video camera, and it took me a while to work out what buttons meant what, however due to the short amount of time we had to film, I picked it up quite quickly. I found it quite simple to handle the camera, which was helpful as some of our shots needed to be filmed in awkward situations.

I Movie

Editing our opening scene was the first time that I had used imovie; at first it was slightly daunting as there were so many editing techniques , and ways to alter our shots. After a few tries and getting to know how to work the tools, we were soon under way with our editing. The first thing we did was connect the camera to the computer and import the shots onto imovie.  I then worked out how to save my video under a title which I would remember the next time I came to editing. I then selected all my clips from the library at the bottom, and selected the ones I needed to edit. This was quite simple to pick up as the instructions were clear, and the clips are easy to access. I then had to drag my clips into the project area, to see the duration of my video. I then began to start trimming the clips that were too long, or had errors in them. This was tricky at first as I had to work out how to actually trim the clip, but once I worked out how to do it, it was quite simple and quick to get it done. One problem we came across was that our video could only be a maximum of two minutes long, this was a problem because once I had dragged the clips into the project box, it was over five minutes long. As a group, we knew that we had to edit a lot of the clips, in order to make the video the correct duration. We discussed what clips could be edited, and then began to cut of parts of the shot we didn't need. Although at the time it seemed like we wouldn't be able to get it down to two minutes, we took the best parts of each shot and created a video that was two minutes. Once we had finished editing, we then began adding titles to make our video look more appealing and interesting. Throughout the process of making the video we each had our own role, we decided to put these roles on the video, as this is a typical part of an opening scene. Putting the titles on our video was simple once we knew how to do it. Personally, it took me a while to work how to  edit the titles, such as colour, size and font. However, once I worked out how to do it, it became easier to use. For me, one of the most important editing techniques is transitions, this is because it can alter the mood of the shot, and really attract the audience. As our opening scene is based around mystery and tension, we knew that our transitions had to be appealing and suitable for the shot. We spent quite a lot of time on transitions, because as a group we wanted to be sure that we had picked the correct ones. To improve, I think that we could spend less time on transitions as there are other parts of our opening scene that are equally as important. We also used techniques such as editing lighting, speed and sound. One of the last things we did to our opening scene was add the soundtrack. This was the most difficult part for me because we had to make sure it fitted the length of the scene, and we also had to edit the end of the track so it didn't just stop. To edit the end of the track I had to fade it out towards the end, this was tricky because I had to make sure that it didn't fade too quickly.

                                                                    Garage-band

My role in the group was to create the music for the opening scene, I put myself forward for this role because I really invested in the theme of the video, and liked the idea of creating a tense track. From looking at comments on the internet, I had the impression that garage band would be quite difficult to use, however after talking to other people, and discussing with teachers, I soon picked up the basics and was able to create a suitable track for our opening scene. The first thing I did was browse through the different loops to try  and get an idea on what sounds I want to use. Before I began to create the track, our group had a discussion on what we was aiming for with the music, we decided that we wanted it to be eerie sounding, but not the typical slow music. This is because we wanted to attract the audience, and make our opening scene stand out. The first thing I decided to do was find a loop which would act as the base sound. This is so that I could build up sounds onto it. This helped me a lot because I could test different loops against the base sound, and see if it worked well. I then just gradually added loops to create a track which would work well with the opening scene we created. I spent a lot of time creating the music, this is because it was very time consuming finding the right loops, and editing it to fit the clips. One problem I came across was making the loops fit to certain shots, for example, on one shot we wanted a bang sound, however this loop didn't really fit in with the rest of our track. I decided to make the sound slower so it was more suitable. Overall I really enjoyed making the music because it allowed me to be really creative, and at the end I felt like I had achieved a lot, due to not using garage band before. 

Me using imovie

In order to get feedback on our opening scene, we decided to put it on YouTube. This was so that if anyone had any and constructive criticism, we could take it into consideration, and alter our video to accommodate their views. Although we didn't receive any comments, we gained 27 views, which shows that people liked watching our opening scene. It was very simple putting our video onto YouTube, and as a group we are glad we did this as it shows that we are committed to making our video the best it can be. 

We also put our video onto Facebook to get more comments and feedback on how to improve the video. We received a few comments saying that we had done a good job, and that our video showed potential. We also received a comment saying that our music was slightly repetitive, to an extent we can agree with this as our music is quite continuous, however we believe that that the music adds to the tension.