Evaluation - Question 6

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

Hardware

I used a Canon PowerShot SX510
to film my piece, and as a beginner to camerwork I found it easy to operate. The camera had a very light weight and instructions were made clear on-screen to help me film. The overall quality of the shots were very good, considering the camera's size. The quality was sharp, clear and performed well with natural lighting. The only problem I did encounter, however, was the audio; I found battling with the wind sound on some shots to be difficult. This issue was most evident in shots that took place in the car park:

In addition to this, I also used a tri-pod for a majority of the still shots. I found the tri-pod to be very useful as the length of the legs could be altered to suit most shots. I found the tri-pod to be useful when filming moving shots; I used the tri-pod to essentially replicate a stedi-cam. This proved to be very useful as just holding the camera itself resulted in shakey footage. The tri-pod was a suitable size and could be used flexibly during filming. However, a problem I did frequently encounter was the stiffness of the panning lever; this led to some shots being stuttered. This, however, didn't greatly effect the quality of the shots. Another method to combat this issue was to cut down the shots; more often than not, the stiffness was visble at the beginning or end of the shot, thus allowing it to be cut. Despite this issue, I felt as if the tri-pod was a vital piece of equipment for my final piece. It allowed me to achieve shots that would have proved difficult without it.

This is a shot from my final piece in which I utilized a pan shot. I cut the first couple of seconds from this shit to combat the stiffness of the pan lever.

In this shot I used the tri-pod to replicate a stedi-cam. This proved useful as it kept the camera steady whilst I was following the character.





Software

 For software, I used Adobe Premier Pro CS6 to
edit my piece. I found the editing software easy to use as I had previously used it for other projects, such as the preliminary task. I improved my ability to edit through the use of this software and learnt many things. Effects such as transitions and audio manipulation were very useful. However, despite the large amount of effects there were available, I used very few. I did this because I wanted to keep the mise-en-scene, lighting and setting as ordinary/realistic as possible. I used very few sound effects throughout my clip as I didn't see them as necessary additions for my piece. I did, however, used a song in the background of my final piece. The song added was 'Made of Stone' by The Stone Roses; I chose this song because it linked closely to the time period I took inspiration from and I felt as if it fit well with the main protagonist.

A shot that was particularly proud of was the the long-duration shot of the character walking into the kitchen and find 'Miramax' spelt out in flour, to simulate the appearance of cocaine. I liked the idea behind using the 'found credits' next week as it appears organic and natural.

 

 

 

Another shot I liked was when the protagonist was walking down the stairs and light was behind his head. I like the idea of the light behind symbolising that he is pure, perhaps innocent, but he is making his descent down the stairs suggesting his decline into drug abuse.

What would I do differently?

I think I would use a greater variety of shots in my final piece, as I think I could have used more. I also wish I had been better with my actor management because I would sometimes found that I was working different times in around them, which proved to be complicated. One actor had to drop out of the final piece, however I improvised and had my other actor use some of his lines.

Limitations

My biggest limitation was shooting when my actors were available. Both actors were quite busy with football and various other extra-curricular activities when I was available to shoot; however this problem was overcome. The entirety of the outdoor shots were filmed on two seperate days, one successful and the other, not so much. I would have liked to include a scene in which the drug dealer uses a pistol to shoot the protagonist. However, this couldn't be shot because I struggled to get a hold of a prop weapon. In the end I didn't include this scene in the conclusion of my piece.