Ben Martin

1. What have you learnt about digital technologies from the process of constructing this
product? Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Coming into A-Level Media Studies, we we’re introduced to many different types of technology that we were
new to. This however did not take longto get the hang of and throughout the process of makingthe main task,
I learnt a lot about new digital technologies.
PremierPro
The firstpiece of software we we’re introduced to was Adobe Premier Pro. We used this to edit
our technical shoot,the preliminary task and our final main task.Wefirstly found the software
fairly difficult,but itwas then simplified and by doingsome research we found itfairly easy to
use. Despite some issues with the sizingof our frames, we managed to successfully editour
main task and even add in some of the software’s effects likea black and white filter and the
‘ghosting’ effect to really giveour main task a feel of horror.We also manged to successfully
use itto edit a soundtrack and incorporateitwith sound effects to create an opening to a filmthat we feel is of
a high standard
Camera
For our filming,the camera we used was a Panasonic HC-V720.We found that
this was a very simplecamera to use and got alongwith it very well. We found
that it successfully filmed in HD and was easy to use. However, we struggled
slightly with usingthe zoom on it as the person filminghad to be very careful
when doing so.But we overcame this and we feel that all the shots we got we’re
zoomed in a controlled manner. The handheld shots we used help give a very
authentic horror filmto our opening sequence and we think that the camera
was ableto keep them controlled and adds up to make a good shot.
Tripod
I was used to usinga tripod as I do photography, however I was usingitdifferently for the
filmingof each of my tasks.I got on with the tripods very well and they worked brilliantly to
create good, still,controlled shots thatmake the opening sequence look more professional.
We did however struggle with usingthe tripod for panningas itwas brand new and was
quite stiff.We overcame this by filmingthese type of shots many times to make sure that
they are steady, controlled and add up to make a good opening sequence.
SoundEquipment
We were all new to usingsound equipment, however itwas quite simpleto get
the hand of, and we did so very quickly.We used it in our preliminary task for our
dialogueand itworked well and was clear and crisp.We did not however use it
for our main task as we did not includeany dialoguein the sequence. We still
found that we had the option to use it as we had a good understandingof how it
works and when to use itto make dialoguesound its best
YouTube
Despite being a regular user of YouTube, I had never used itto upload a video. I did
not struggleto do so however as itis fairly simpleto use and guides you through it.
This helped to get our media onlinemeaningwe can shareiteasier and get
feedback from the video if we needed to make any changes to it

2. Looking back to my preliminary task,I can comfortably say that I learned a lotabout filmingand editing and
managed to minimizethe errors that we made in our preliminary task.In our preliminary task,the main
mistake we made was time and planning.We didn’trealisehow longthe filmingwould take and in return ran
out of time, and our camera ran out of battery meaning we we’re even more rushed. The meant that the end
of our preliminary task filmingwas quiterushed and not up to the standard thatwe would have liked. To avoid
this is our main task we made surethat we had plenty of time to filmand made sure itwas at the right time of
day so that our natural lightingwas authentic and suitingto the horror genre. We also made surethat we had
a sparecamera battery in caseit was to run out of battery again.
Another error we made was our consistency in our shots.In one of the
scenes in our preliminary task,a character is seen getting out of the car.
However, if watched closely,you can see the people filmingin the door
of the car,which is very unprofessional.Wecut this out of our main task
by takinga demo shot before properly filmingthe scene so that nothing
likethat happened again,and this worked successfully.
In another scene in our preliminary task,thedoor of the room we were in has mysteriously opened. This again
looks unprofessional and wewanted to remove silly errors likethis fromour filming.To avoid this we carefully
analysed outfootage before moving onto the next scene, which successfully cutoutthese kind of errors.
Our preliminary task madeus appreciatethe littlethings that can be seen in a sequence such as props and the
mise-en-scene. We used this to make our main task look as realisticand authentic as we possibly could,
therefore makinga high standard and high quality openingsequence to a filmto which we hope would entice
a viewer into watchingmore of our filmdue to its narrativehooks and uniquesetting and storyline.