The Evaluation Part Seven - "What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?"

Pre-Production:

Blogger:  Blogger is a software that was used continuously throughout the production of our media product. In pre-production, it was used in the planning and making of our opening sequence. For example, we have researched different British social realism movies, in order to get a fundamental idea of the genres/themes that are usually found in BSR films, then posted the research on Blogger. As a result, we were able to plan ideas and conventions to include in our opening sequence efficiently and without much trouble. Furthermore, Blogger is also easy and simple to use at the same time, meaning that it was quick to refer back to any planning and research I want to look back on. It was also more reliable then planning onto a folder or a physical portfolio, as the risk of losing the work and planning I have completed on Blogger is far less than if I were to plan on paper. However, there were slight limitations/problems during the use of Blogger. This was mostly during, uploading and moving pictures/screenshots onto the blog, sometimes the pictures wouldn't properly be uploaded onto the blog - consequently resulting in an error. And even when the pictures did manage to be successfully uploaded, moving them to appropriate places were sometimes difficult. As a result, the use of Blogger has been able to help me keep my coursework (planning, research, etc) all up to date effectively and I can edit any mistakes that I may come across in the future with relative ease.

Youtube: Before producing my opening sequence, Youtube was able to assist me in looking at other British social realism opening sequences for research and analytical material. Examples of opening sequences that I have looked on Youtube include Kidulthood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO6Blu2FxNc and Fish Tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b93T5l7glsg . The movies are both examples of BSR films and this assisted us in thinking of conventions, Mise-En-Scene and themes that we could get inspiration to incorporate in our opening sequence. Due to this, the plans and ideas that my group came up with were within a wider range, as each of us came up with different scenarios and genres that we combined to fit into our opening sequence: alcholism, teenage pregnancy and corruption of youth. Furthermore, YouTube is the best known website to search for a short clip, without too much trouble, such as opening sequences of movies. 
The limitation that arose from Youtube was that, most of the clips that did manage to show the opening sequence of BSR films we researched were of poor quality, so being able to clearly see what was going on in some of the clips were difficult.
However, by using Youtube more and more, I was able to search for the opening sequences and movies that I wished to research - leading to my researching skills on Youtube becoming more productive and rather efficient. 

Film 4 Website: ( http://www.film4.com/) By having a look at the Film 4 website, the film institution that me and my group believe is the best choice to produce and distribute our film, we were able to look at the different types of films that Film 4 produce and show across the world. The website had a clear and organised layout of the movies they show, along with a short synopsis and some images too.The benefits that my group was able to get from this was that by looking at various renowned BSR films that they distribute, it would let us think of ideas that were of a similar standard in quality and things that made films such as Slumdog Millionaire a world wide hits. The main point of it was to see what attracted and appealed to audiences in order to make them interested in watching the movie, so that we can too properly attract our target audience: 16-24 year olds. The problem of getting inspiration and ideas of the famous movies from the Film 4 website was that it is difficult to use the fascinating and wonderful ideas they have, in our movie because of the 2 minute limit we have for our opening sequence.  I also have to be aware of the limited budget and resources that my group have, compared to the box-office hits on Film4. My personal progress was able to develop by going on the Film4 website, as it allowed me and my group to see the conventions/methods that we can use/put in our opening sequence and the expensive, time consuming ones that we can't implement in our 2 minute opening sequence.

Apple Mac Computer: The hardware we used to complete most, if not all of our research and planning of our opening sequence was done on apple mac computers, for example: completing our blogs or researching different BSR films. We used them because the school provided them to us, so there really wasn't an alternative to these computers. These computers were extremely useful and conveninent to us; they have all the facilities and software installed that was needed in order to complete our 2 minute opening sequence, most importantly: Final Cut Pro. The limitations that arose from using the apple macs was that this was the first time I have used an Apple computer system, so it took quite a bit of time to adapt and get used to. In additon to that, I found it more difficult to navigate on and use than a Windows PC, which I am more comfortable on. However, as I continued using the apple mac computer, my personal development as improved on it - I am able to productively use the facilities on the computer, without as much time needed/trouble as I had before.

DVD's: Another type of hardware we used was DVD's in order to watch the whole movies of: Fish Tank and Wild Bill. We were provided these DVD's by our teacher in order to have an idea of what is found in rather recent BSR films. The advantages they have for me and my group was that, since the DVD was able to play the whole movies, without any buffering and it was  in high quality too. Consequently, this allowed me to look and analyse the movie as I watched it in greater detail and depth. The only problem that came up with DVD's was that there were only a limited number of DVD's, so we had to make use of what DVD's was available to us, as they are not free.

Production:

Camera Recorder: This was the hardware we used to film our opening sequence, so it was important that we made great use of it. The benefits that came with this camera recorder, provided by the school was that it was a HD camera recorder, making it look more professional and easier for the target audience to see - appealing to them. However, many problems occured when my group received the camera recorder to film. Firstly, the camera's battery pack was not working, so we had to waste a lot of time waiting for a new battery pack to arrive. During that time, me and my group decided that we should use one of our own personal camera recorders in order to make the best use of the time we had. The quality wasn't as coherent and great as the school's one and it didn't manage to capture the sounds as clearly too but we did manage to get filming done rather well, even without the HD camera recorder, which we did eventually manage to use. Also, at the start of filming, we had to take some time to adjust to filming certain scenes because there were either errors in what we filmed or the angles/rule of thirds were incorrect. Nevertheless, the continuose use of the camera recoder has led me to become more confident and able in my ablility to film scenes and even refilm scenes that I deemed too low quality to make use of.

Phone: Our group also decided to make use of a phone during the production of our movie. We incorporated it into the scene, where the protagonist receieves a text from his girlfriend: Bethany, about wanting to talk to him and abruptly telling him that she is pregnant. I thought this was a great idea beacause we used the idea of the phone at the start, to draw the target audience's attention - almost like a smash-mouth opening but to a far less extent. The use of phone was also easy because we all have phones so there was no problem in adding it in. The Limitation that came across was during the filming of the phone that displayed the text message. The quality of the text message wasn't of a high standard but this could also be due to the factors of the darkness of the room and the camera recorder we used for that recording was our own personal one. (not the HD one.) There wasn't really any personal progression for me from the use of the phone in the production of our opening sequence. This was due to the filming of the phone in the scene merely lasting a couple of seconds and it was a one time scene.

Art Of the Title ( http://www.artofthetitle.com/ )  : This was another website that me and my group decided to use as we were producing our opening sequence. From this website we were able to denote and analyse the credit timelines of various professional movies and have a fundamental idea of what order our credits should appear in. The benefits of this is that, we will be able to replicate the (chronological) order of how an opening sequence credits should appear like, due to the clear and structured way of how Art of the Title lays out important credits in a 9x9 grid. To add to that, another benefit I gained was seeing the background different opening credits and how they correspond to the themes/genres of the movie. For example in a horror movie the opening credits' background is very dark and eerie to add a rather scary atmosphere, or in a comedy movie the opening credits' background is filled with vivid and bright colors and effects. Personally, I was able to expand my knowledge and develop my skills of the opening to a movie because of Art of the Title has thoroughly guided me of the placements of credits in an opening sequence.

Final Cut Pro: Final Cut Pro was the software we used to import our recording of our film onto the computer. We used Final Cut Pro because the school provided it to use and it isn't free, so we were very fortunate to be able to use such a a great editing software. Final Cut Pro wasn't as complicated I thought that it would have been due to the wide variety of features and techniques used to edit clips imported on. But it was rather straight forward, as the teacher and my fellow group members told me the main features required to edit our opening sequence. Another benefit of Final Cut Pro was that whenever we edit our movie, there is no need to save it, as it is automatically saved onto the computer, so we can edit our movie at any time we wish. However, the problem that came about when using Final Cut Pro was getting the cuts between two scenes we wanted to use. Sometimes when we tried to get match on action between some of the scenes didn't flow perfectly, because we either cut one of the two scenes too much or too little, leading to bad professionalism and match on action. This was due to having to perfectly moving the mouse and pressing the cut key where we needed it to be and this required a very high amount of accuracy. By testing and trying out the features of Final Cut Pro I was able to develop my editing skills and correctly apply it onto certain areas of my opening sequence, so that in the future I can confidently use Final Cut Pro to edit other things too.

Post-Production:

Apple Mac Computer: The apple mac computer was still one of the most important hardware used, as it was used in all 3 "pre-production" "prodcution" and now "post-production". This is because it contains Final Cut Pro: the editing sofware needed to edit the opening sequence. We also still need to use apple mac computers after finishing producing our opening sequence, in order to complete our eight-part evaluation on our blogger. I am now more efficient and productive on the apple mac computer than I was before because I used it for long periods of time leading up to the Post-Production. 

Final Cut Pro: Final Cut Pro is also the most important softwarre used and needed during the post-production. This is because after finishing producing and uploading our opening sequence, me and my group had to make sure that it was the best it could be by checking and editing it to the best of our ability. This meant going through the whole 2 minute clip numerous of times in order to spot any mistakes or where we could make improvements, so we can edit it.

MP3 Unsigned: (http://www.mp3unsigned.com/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1)  MP3 was a website that we used to download unsigned audio tracks, that may potentially be used in our opening sequence This is because Film 4 asked us in the brief to not include any tracks without copyright permission, so this meant that unsigned audio tracks was our best alternative. The benefit is obviously that we got to download and use the audio file we wanted for free but the variety of audio tracks on MP3 unsigned was a rather surprise to me. This was because the amount of genres there were to look for a specific song was rather high and this meant me and my group could click the criteria wanted our song to be in. The limitations that arose from using MP3 Unsigned to look for a song fitting for our opening sequence, was that the quality of the songs were not of a standard was deemed adequete enough to include in our opening sequence. Most of the audio of the songs were too low or the lyrics didn't suit our opening sequence. However, we were eventually able to find a song that was synchronouse, adding further saddness and tension in our opening sequence, as it had lyrics that could personally identify to the audience - drawing the target audience to watch more.