Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Use of the blog

    I used blogger to record the process of my coursework, which is accessible and easy to use; collating all of my work in one place. I sometimes used Powerpoints to present my planning and research on my blog as it switches things up from just writing a post on the default blogger template. The use of Powerpoints not only enabled me to present my points in an interesting way, but also enabled me to keep my work concise. I also used 'direct' blog posts (default blogger template) as this enabled me to include images and video clips from YouTube to help illustrate any inter-textual references or particular references to points in our production. Similarly, I also used premier pro to make a voice over video of our aerial shot, of which I uploaded to YouTube - also helping me to present my work in an interesting and engaging way. 

An example of my use of blogger

Research and planning

    The most imperative use of technology for my research and planning was the use of the internet, for a number of different reasons. In regards to research, the use of the internet helped me expand my knowledge of thriller texts and the history around certain aspects of our thriller production, such as the fact there was a dead body that washed up in 1990 on Weybourne beach - our exterior beach location used in our thriller opening 'Beach Comber'. It also enabled me access to YouTube, which allowed me to review and analyse clips from other thriller texts, possibly giving inspiration for my own production as well as exposing me to a plethora of new and different media texts.

YouTube Homepage

   In regards to planning, technology such as digital cameras have enabled me to take stills of locations and characters/costumes used in our production, as well as taking practice shots for camera training as to help later on with the filming of our production in regards to what camera angles and movements we would want to use. I also used YouTube to upload a voice over video of our aerial shot that I made with another member of my group, which enabled me to further explore the use of this platform for myself - as well as presenting my work in a more interesting and engaging way. 

An example of my camera training still images on my blog

The Shoot of our production

    To produce our thriller opening we used a Nikon D90 DSLR camera, which was very easy to use and produced clear, quality sound and video - enabling us to explore the use of shallow and deep focus. The use of this camera also enabled us to review our footage as we were filming, which was extremely useful and allowed us to make quick amendments to anything we felt didn't quite work how we intended it to.

     In our production we also used an Octocopter to enable us to get some aerial shots for our production, adding interest and aesthetic appeal to our thriller text. This equipment is a fairly new technology, controlled by one remote that steers the frame of the Octocopter whilst another remote controls the camera itself harnessed onto the frame, allowing the change of camera angles. The camera then sends a live feed to a portable screen, enabling the operator to see what the Octocopter is filming. To make sure that we captured the action we wished to show in our production, we used mobile phones from the beach surface to the camera operators on top of the cliff; giving them a cue of when to fly the Octocopter over the cliff edge to catch the action from the actors on the beach surface below. This ensured that we had correct timing in order to get the shots that we wanted, adding to the appeal of our production. 

Editing 

    To edit our production we used the programme Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, a programme that I had a little bit of experience with from using it for previous productions in GCSE; which made it slightly easier to conduct. In order to give our production a more gritty tone, much like Paddy Considine's 'Tyrannosaur', we used colour correction and the adjustment of brightness and contrast to darken our shots, adding to the eerie feel of our production. 

    We also used dissolve and dip to black transitions in our production to help and create a fairly surreal and dream-like feel to the transitions between shots; juxtaposing the authenticity and realism within the actual shots from our narrative themselves. We also used the website Freesound to choose the non-diegetic sound featured in our production, and then inserted it into the 'timeline', as well as matching up the second non-diegetic piece of sound we used with the shot of our antagonist Ian Moone's face, reinforcing the importance of this shot and feature of our narrative. We then rendered the video, and it was exported and uploaded to YouTube.