Picker-Mix Productions: March 2015

Monday, 16 March 2015

Evaluation Question 6: Evelina

Evaluation Question 6: Anbish

During the process of constructing this product, I have learnt how to use many technology, software and equipments. In this process I used camera, tripod,phone, blogger, Imovie and photoshop.

Camera

In order to get good video quality, we used a Canon DSLR 600D to record the footage for our opening sequence, which allowed us to shoot in full 1080p HD at 24 frame per second. This was perfect for us because most TV , smart phone, computer monitors supports 1080p video content, meaning the video quality will be clear.Learning how to use DLSR was little challenging, as it had many buttons and features which I had never used. However, with practice and researching I was able to learn about different settings such as ISO, shutter speed,frame per second and white balancing. These all helped me produce the best quality video I could.

Tripod

Another useful equipment I used was a tripod. It was useful because it held the camera at a fixed position, which minimized the camera from shaking.Furthermore, using tripod allowed us to adjust different level of heights, which was extremely useful when doing high and low angle shots. Moreover, it was also useful when panning and tilting the camera, as it was smooth while panning and tilting.

Phone

Smartphone was another technology we used to communicate with colleagues. In order to

communicate with each other we used Whatsapp. We communicated by creating a group chat and adding all the members in one chat. This was extremely successful way of communicating as it allowed us to share ideas, help each other and share pictures.it was easy and fastest way of communicating.

I also used my android device to present one of my work. In order to present my work I used screen cast which allowed me to record my screen and as well as my voice. It was great way of presenting my work as it showed creativity and use of technology at the same time.

I think that use of phone is extremely useful as there are more apps that allows you to do things that you would normally use computer to do. For Example, to make collages I downloaded apps Pixlr, which is a photo editing app that allows you to edit pictures and make collages. Using this apps was helpful to create collages that I had made because it was portable, less time consuming and easy to use.

Sound cloud
I used sound cloud to record my voice for production logs. I was able to access sound cloud on my computer and my phone. I chose sound cloud as everything as everything was stored in the cloud, meaning I would be able to access it from any device that has a internet connection. I found it great as I could embed that code directly in our blog.

Blogger

Blogger was the most used website to post our work. In Blogger we had to post our research, opening sequence and evaluations. Using Blogger helped me learn how to embed html post from website such as Slideshare, Youtube, Prezi and Pow toon. Furthermore, Blogger was great because we could customize it by changing background, colour and layout.

Powtoon

Powtoon was a web application that I used in order to create video that contains animations. Using this has helped me learn about continuity. For example, when I made powtoon for the first time , I would change the background in every slide. However, after a feedback I received from my teacher, I made all the background the same colour and positioned the characters and the text at a same position through out the slide. This made the powtoon content look more professional and there was no weird placement and change of colour.

IMovie

IMovie was what I used to edit audience feedback. However, I could have used Adobe premiere pro to edit the video but I decided to choose IMovie as it was less time consuming. Keeping up with the time was vital because of the deadline set by our group, Therefore I thought I would use Imovie to meet the date line of the audience research. IMovie was fast , easy and usually had everything I needed to edited short clip such as audience feedback.

Photoshop

Photoshop was what I used to to edited the poster. Using photoshop helped me learn about tools such as lasso tools and magic wand which I used to crop a picture without a background. Making poster was fairly easy but it was time consuming as we had to take pictures before hand then follow the convention of the movie poster to make it look like a film poster. For the poster I had to write down movie title, credit block and tagline. To make the title and credit block, I had to get a font from Da front.com. Finding font in Dafont.com helped me learn that there are san-serif and serif font, which are used for different purpose. For example, I chose a san serif font because it looked modern and clean.

Weakness

The weakness that I faced during making the opening sequence was video that would come up as too blue. To overcome this our group changed the colour balance in premiere pro to make it look more natural. The reason why it turn blue the colour balance of the camera was set as shade.Thought this experience I have learnt about colour balancing on my camera and through the editing software such as Imovie and Premier pro. Through this process , I learnt the colour balance is important and a part of a convention. For example, Blue colour balance are mostly used in action film. However, Natural looking colour balance is used in Drama.

Strength

My strenght of mine was being able to use software such as photoshop and Imovie . I found it easy as I knew some basics on how to use it.

Conclusion

Overall, I have learnt that using technology is a building block for constructing of any meda product. Without computer, premiere pro,IMovie,Garageband, Photoshop and blogger, we would have difficulty to produce, create and publish our media product. From using Camera such as DSLR I have gained more experience on the different type of shots and how to use the camera. Furthermore, Using website such as Dafont, I was able to choose font that would fit the convention of poster and our film opening sequence. Finally, with the help of blogger I was able to present my research , process of production and evaluation digitally.