2. The camera we used to film our opening sequence was the
Panasonic HC-V100EB-K, a HD 1080p video camera. These are the
cameras we have in school, so we were grateful to have such good
resources that enabled us to film high quality footage.
I had never actually used a video camera in a way that wasn’t
entirely for amusement before this; only using it previously when
messing around with friends, so it was my first time actually filming
a project using a camera and I was interested in learning how to do
so.
Although I hadn’t properly used a video camera, I’ve had experience
with camera technology for the majority of my life as people my age
have grown up in a technology-based world, so I hoped I wouldn’t
find it too difficult to grasp the main concepts of using the camera
4. I quickly figured out all the basics in using the camera, for example using the
record button or playing back shots. Beth, our group’s main camera person,
also knew exactly what she was doing so we didn’t find the production stage
too difficult in terms of technology
We quickly learned that you must make sure that the camera is definitely
recording when you want it to be, as we thought that the first shot we
filmed (busy corridor) hadn’t filmed and were extremely annoyed as we had
the camera running for 6 minutes! Fortunately it had filmed, but it made us
extra careful for the rest of the process
We learned that it’s best to keep playing back the scenes at the time of
filming in case of things such as lighting issues, as you can quickly re-film
there and then instead of having to arrange to film another day
We also learned that its best to film lots of shots even if it’s more than you
need, because when it comes to editing you don’t want to be using shots
that you don’t feel are very strong / not have enough shots
5. The editing software we used to edit our sequence is ‘Adobe
Premiere Elements’. This is the software installed on our school
computers, and again, we were grateful to have software that is
semi-professional.
I have had plenty of experience using less professional editing
software in the past, such as Windows Movie Maker. I have used this
for multiple things, for example creating photo movies, school
projects and even editing music for a school event.
Having said this, these types of software are very basic so there isn’t
much you can do with them other than create short, simple videos,
therefore I was very excited to learn how to use a more complex
software- especially as I have a keen interest in editing
7. Having used the software to produce the chase scene and preliminary task, I knew
how to use the basic elements such as cutting a clip, fading a clip and adding sound.
However for my role as main editor, it was my job to figure out how to achieve the
more creative things we had planned to do with the editing.
The first new thing I learned using this technology was how to create a freeze
frame. Admittedly I did turn to Google to help me do this, but I got there in the end
and it was actually quite simple; all you need to do is create an image of the frozen
video, and insert that onto the timeline.
8. Another new thing I learned was how to place 2 clips side-by-side, playing at the
same time. This took me a while to figure out, but I got there in the end, having
realised you must add second video to the ‘video 2’ part of the timeline, then crop
both videos to make them fit next to each other. This took a lot of time to perfect
and was extremely fiddly, however I got there in the end and it is a good skill to have
for next year.
Finally, something I learned about the software was that you must save frequently!
This is because sometimes, the software decides it will close/freeze for no reason.
Luckily, I only had this problem once and I only lost around 10 minutes of editing,
but either way I still lost time and you never want to lose any of your hard work.