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

I feel that as a group we have learnt a lot about different technologies from the process of constructing our thriller opening sequence. When we started, only one group member had any experience with Mac editing software, and only one other had any experience using a video camera, so there has been a lot that we have had to pick up along the way. Our filming went well, and we all learnt how to use the camera, and as our confidence with it grew we were able to get more creative with it. We were able to go from very basic straight on shots, to experimenting with high and low angles, sometimes taken to the extreme (e.g. filming over the edge of a staircase). We tried to do some fast-paced shots by running with the camera, but soon realised that the camera could not cope with that level of movement, and so instead we worked on varying our shot types rather than the speed. We got a range of shots; from extreme close ups to point of views to establishing shots. We learnt about lighting and how it affected our filming, and so we played around a lot with shadows and silhouettes to create darkness to the scenes. We also learnt about camera angles, and how they were key to show representations, but also how we could use them to create some interesting and unique shots (such as filming directly above the flight of stairs to create a disorientating view, whilst making our protagonist look vulnerable). However, the member of the group with experience on the Mac left the group before we could do any of the editing, so we had to try and figure this out for ourselves. We struggled with it at first, but after being shown how to do certain things (like adding vignettes and transitions, and rendering the film) we became better at it, and managed to work out some of it for ourselves.  We edited the saturation or all of our shots, to remove some of the colour and make them look bleak and eerie. We darkened the exposure on some, where it had been difficult to achieve low-key lighting during the filming, and added vignettes to darken the shots further, adding to the mystery. Towards the end of our editing we had all become comfortable with using Final Cut and we had successfully edited our product. Next, we had to use SoundTrack, again a programme none of us had used. At first it didn’t go too well, and our original soundtrack was not very effective. Our feedback from the first screening told us that it was too repetitive, and did not build any tension. We had focused too much on trying to create a beat that match a heartbeat, and then gradually got faster. We thought this would build suspense, however it was very ineffective and after a short time it became irritating to listen to. We didn’t want to put the audience off watching the thriller with this sound, so we scrapped this soundtrack and started again. I feel that our final soundtrack was much more tense and a lot more effective. The beat is irregular, and so makes it feel uncomfortable to listen to, as you cannot find a sense of rhythm to it. This is one of the effects we wanted to create overall with our thriller, so we were pleased that the new soundtrack managed to achieve this. Finally we had to learn to use Motion to create our titles, which again, took a lot of getting used to. At first the font we used seemed too obvious a choice (because it was disjointed and scratched). The movement of it was too fast and jittery, making it difficult to read. I feel that our new titles are much more effective. We went for a simple font called ‘American Typewriter’ and a quick fade in and out for the movements. This seems to fit the style and pace of Persistent Paranoid a lot better. Overall, I think we learnt a lot and considering how little we knew when we started, we created a good product.

 An example of a shot from our thriller which has been edited to reduce the brightness, lower the saturation and a vignette has been added.

 Some examples of titles that feature in our sequence.