Video Technology Evaluation: The Project

For the last six weeks in video technology we have been planning, shooting and editing a thriller short film/opening. Our brief was to plan shoot and edit a 3 minute sequence that went by the normal thriller conventions

The software we used was final cut pro and soundtrack pro. We used final cut pro to do the editing of the project, we edited both the audio and visual of the project. We used soundtrack pro to apply sound effects to the project to add emphasis to the scene. While we were editing we had a lesson on how to de-interlace and export our projects.

I think that the editing went really well because we used lots of techniques and used continuity very well. I feel that we communicated emotion very well through editing. I don’t think that the filming went very well because the park scene had a lot of background noise that distracted from the main focus of the scene. Also I think that we could of improved the script in a few ways because I think that it did not convey the ideas that we wanted it to.

My role in filming was controlling the sound in the shot by using the boom mic. I found this quite hard because the boom mic is heavy and holding it for a while is quite tiring but it worked really well and I got all of the sound necessary for the scene. In editing my role was to edit the audio, video and do the sound levels. We alternated between doing the audio and video editing but I did the sound levels for the whole sequence.

I think that we used the technology we had available to its full potential because we used the sony full high definition camera in as many shots as we could with the tripod and handheld shots. I also used the boom mic to get really close to the focus point e.g. the lighter lighting the candles, I put the boom mic very close to it as to get the full diegetic sound out of the scene as we possibly could.

I would have liked to have some extra lighting as in some places we had quite deep shadows and I would have liked to be able to use a fill light to give some more light in to focus points in the shot. I would have also liked to use a dolly in the park scene to give a good camera movement into showing the killer walking to talk to the second character.

If we had the opportunity to do the project again I would have filmed the park scene in a different location which was quieter and had less background attention. I would also have used a bit more light in the indoor scenes to give more detail in the shot but not lose the dramatic lighting we had in the first place. I also think that we could have done the edit between scenes a bit smoother than it is now.

I think that the music works very well. I think that it adds suspense to the scene and conveys the drama surrounded by the main character. I also think that it builds drama as the scene goes on.

I think that the project works very well as a thriller, it goes by all of the main thriller conventions and keeps good continuity. I think that it is a conventional thriller because it goes by most of the norms and conventions of a normal thriller. It does include some suspense and enigmas the suspense is built using the music and adds drama to the scene. If given the chance I would improve some of the editing and sound and a few camera shots but overall I think it was a good project. We received feedback for this project. We had quite a lot of confusion about exactly what happened but we thought that they were not supposed to fully understand what happened. We were also told that the camera shot we used were very good and that we used a lot of different camera shots

Exporting from Final Cut Pro

we learnt to how to export our projectsfrom final cut pro. first you have to mark the in and out points of your finished project to make sure that there is nothing left at the end of the sequence. you then have to apply the de-interlace filter over the entire project to make sure that it outputs in progressive and not interaced. you also have to make sure that there are no audio peaks throughout the sesquence. the you can either compress it as a quicktime movie or compress it into a self contained movie which you can the put into compressor which is an application that comes in the final cut studio package. putting your project into compressor means that you can convert the file into any other video format.

The Blue Banana Company: Equipment list

• Post 16 SONY camera (& 2 batteries + TAPE). (Mark)
• TRIPOD. (Mark)
• BOOM mic. (Mark)
• 2 Lamps. (Mikey)
• Candles x8. (Jude)
• Suits x2. (Sam & Josh)
• Assorted gardening tools. (Mikey)
• Girls clothes x4. (Jude)
• Police tape. (Mikey)
• Fake blood x1. (Charlie)
• Assorted food products. (all)

thriller conventions

Thriller conventions
• Normally white writing on black background
• Simple music normally played
• Not much talking
• Low different camera angles
• Low key lighting

digital technology

Digital technology has allowed us to drastically change what we can do in media. Now that we can compress digital signals we can have a lot more channels with much better quality. As well as being broadcast files can now be compressed to be put on portable devices such as memory sticks and ipods. This is a lot more practical because it takes up a lot less space. Being a lot smaller in size allows us to show films and shows everywhere and over the internet for example youtube. Digital technology has also greatly improved editing because now it has moved on from tape to digital you can now edit instantly. You can now also easily add effects on to the footage.