1. QUESTIONS 6 and 7 of EVALUATION
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
During the process of filming our horror opening we had to use camera
equipment such as a camcorder and a tripod. Both were fairly easy to pick up on
but the tripod was slightly tricky to use at first. However, after a while we picked
up on how to use this.
As well as the actual equipment we had to use software on the computer in order
to edit our final video, including cutting footage, adding sound and creating
editing techniques such as jump cuts (evident at the start of our sequence). We
used Final Cut HD to do this. At first this program was a bit difficult to use as
there were many different buttons that allowed you to do different things
(including the ‘razor’ button), some of which were not needed in our video
editing, but after our Subject Tutor had given us a quick demonstration on the
basics of the program it was easy to edit the video on. All in all, our ability to use
Final Cut improved over the process of editing the sequence.
We also used other software such as Garageband to experiment with sound and
make a soundtrack for the background of our video. This was fairly easy to use as
we had already had experience in using it for our prelim task. We made a
soundtrack for our sequence by adding different sound effects found in the
different categories on Garageband and put them together. We also used iMovie
to convert videos imported from the camera into .mov files. We had already used
iMovie for our prelim task so I do not think our skills improved much with this
software as we already knew the basics of it.
An example of our sequence in the editing process on the Final Cut HD program.
The sequence in more detail – this is the timeline of the sequence. Video footage
in blue and sound clips in green.

2. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
In comparison to our first prelim task at the start of the course, we have
progressed excessively in the process of making our horror sequence.
First of all, we included research and planning as part of our coursework. This
involved getting together as a group and discussing mise-en-scene, locations,
story ideas in advance as well as researching on box office figures and popular
choices of horror sub-genres on websites such as thenumbers.com and box office
mojo. This was very useful as we felt as if we had much more time to plan our
video and think of how our video could appeal to the target audience and make
sure we had all the best detail possible to make it to the best possible standard.
The storyboard planning was also a very useful planning technique, as this
meant we already knew the camera shots and angles before we started filming so
when we started the actual filming we would be able to stick to the plan instead
of improvising and being unorganised during the process of filming and allowed
the process to be more smooth and to be done quicker. However, there were
some shots that we decided to change and add, but these were later added onto
our blog as changes to the storyboard.
Our specific shot choices have also improved in the process of the coursework.
After learning the terminology for the exam we were introduced to a lot more
techniques and editing skills which we could apply to our video to make it look
more varied and different.
We also felt more confident using the camera equipment and software as we had
more practice using it than before.
All in all, we feel our final product suited the brief well and we stuck by the
guidelines and suggestions given to us by our tutor. We suited our target
audience well and feel like our sequence was easy to understand and make sense
of.