Question 6

Question 6

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

Canon XAHi

While making our opening sequence, we had to use a lot of equipment and hardware. We used a Canon XAHi camera to record our opening sequence. we had previously learnt how to use this camera and how to set it up. Setting it up included inserting a battery, removing the lens cover and inserting a tape as well as adjusting the setting to ‘A’ which stands for automatic. Using the camera on the automatic setting meant that it automatically adjusted itself in the different lightings and surroundings it was exposed to while filming. The camera was portable which made it very convenient in our location as we had to take it back and forth. It’s also very light to carry so it didn’t cause any inconvenience. However, the battery did cause a lot of inconvenience as we had to keep coming back to get another battery as our battery life wasn’t very reliable. The camera has a microphone as the edge of the camera, and because our opening sequence consists of mostly music and sound effects, we knew that we didn’t need perfect sound and therefore this was convenient for us. The tripod we used was called the ‘Libec SL200’

As the director, I had to use the clapper board regularly to state the shot and take we were recoding. This comes in handy when editing as it prevents confusion of what shot it is and what takes were recorded.

We also learnt how to use the windshield system along with the boom pole. This is used when in areas where sound is able to be heard very well. It increased the sound and audio so that when it comes to editing and the finishing piece, audio and voices are heard very well. I learnt how to set up the windshield system along with the boom pole. In addition, i learnt how to set up the camera connected to the windshield system along with the Sennheiser headphones and microphone. It was very convenient to carry as it comes in a portable carry case and the boom pole extends and shorten which also came in a carry case and it folded so it was manageable to carry when needed.
To edit, we used Adobe Premiere CS4. When starting, we had to digitalise all our film footage from our tapes onto the computer and onto the software. After doing this, we had our shots that we wanted onto the timeline and cut shots, or mark them in and out. We used effects such as ‘dip to black’ when the title ‘Forsaken’ was shown, the ‘dip to black’ effect carried this shot onto the next shot, which is a good effect to use in our thriller genre of our opening sequence as it created suspense. The majority of our opening sequence was in black and white and this is another effect we used. Shots were trimmed so that the shots were more creative to add tension. Some shots had some relevant footage, along with irrelevant footage, which meant shots would have to be cut and would have to be timed in order to make a successful opening sequence.
An audio effect such as a fade out was used at the end of the opening sequence to give a sense of mystery to the audience. Sound effects are easily imported into the software and are also easily added to the timeline. The volume can be changed and so can the speed of the audio, making it much more effective when it came to the final item.
When using the camera, I learnt that I needed to constantly adjust the spirit level as it constantly moved out of place and so the camera movements and angles wouldn’t be correct and effective.