media evaluation 6 - "What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through the process of coming up with the idea of 'the river' to filming and editing I have learned a substantial amount of media through the use of physical equipment such as the camera to software such as
Adobe Photo-Shop. Below i will explain what programs and equipment we used to make 'The River'

This shot ->

is of myself filming the beginning scene with the camera on the tripod, holding the storyboard to keep track of the shots. The storyboard didn't take too long to create after i made a story, so this storyboard with a variety of shot types was very efficient in filming the horror movie because it planned every step of the way for filming the opening itself. The tripod was also very helpful when filming, it kept the camera somewhat straight however it wasn't the easiest thing to adjust due to the uneven ground and a stiff leg that the tripod has, it did pay off however as it kept the camera stable and overall made the piece more professional due to its varying heights etc, making it easier to take clearer shots/footage. We were able to do better looking pans and also make the camera actually static. Originally we wanted to use boom mics for the movie to give better sound quality however when these weren't available we just made do.

The camera was a very effective tool which is quite clear as it allowed us to film, both on and off a tripod, as sometimes it was used for hand-held shots, primarily POV shots giving the perspective of various characters such as the masked ones as well as the main characters such as Rowen Elliot's. Although I already knew how to use a camera like this, more practice is always helpful by giving more experience for future filming etc.The camera worked well however it didn't always pick up sound perfectly but we managed to get past this through louder speaking as well as holding the camera closer to the action itself.

Photoshop and other picture editing programmes like 'Paint' were effective in making the logo for our film production as well as putting pictures together for evaluations such as this,both worked well for these purposes, allowing me to be more organized with evaluations by editing pictures together and also to design a better logo, such as the one above by editing a picture, and creating writing in our chosen style to cover it.

Other programmes such as Microsoft publisher helped in arranging and displaying our critics' findings effectively also as shown in the graph below.

Adobe premiere was probably the most effective software of which we used for our movie, it allowed us to drastically improve the finished product by removing bad takes and sharp cuts which we replaced with smoother transitions, effects and edits like fades etc. Premiere allowed us to create a much better film overall with the additions to the movie such as putting in music appropriate to the genre of horror as well as putting in title sequences and special effects, generally making it flow better, too appear more professional and conventional to the genre. The programme has also added to my knowledge of editing which will become necessary for future media tasks.

The site 'Blogger' itself has been extremely helpful, allowing me to display my research into the genre of horror and the steps of planning to completing our horror opening and my general knowledge taken from the AS Level course. It's been helpful by allowing me to upload a variety of pictures and videos and display them in an appropriate, organized way allowing me to edit posts if i make a mistake for example, overall the site has allowed me to display my findings and my basic development in the course effectively.


The variety of mediums of which i have used to create the horror opening 'The River' have all been extremely helpful for both making it as well as displaying it on this site, they have all had there parts in making our opening what it is and we couldn't have accomplished it without one of these technologies both hardware or software, all allowing us to complete and display a conventional horror opening. We also used the site 'Free SFX which allowed us to find a free un-copyrighted but still a conventional soundtrack for our final production.