Film Opening Evaluation 6 - Use of Technology

Film Opening Evaluation 6 - 

Use of Technology

Task: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Let me start this blog off with some lists.

Hardware:

- MacBook Pro 13", Mid 2012

- MacBook Pro with 13" Retina Display, Early 2013
- MSI Laptop (model unknown)

- Canon 650D (Rebel T4i / Kiss X6i... depending on where you live)

- Canon 5D Mark II 

- Canon 50mm fixed-lenses (HOORAY FOR BOKEH)

- Canon 18-55mm lenses

- 2 more lenses (model unknown)

- GoPro Hero4 Silver (for the VLOG!)

- Free tripod (I broke this... oops).

- Cheap tripod

- Microphone

- Some lamps

- Various props

Software:

- Adobe Premier Pro CS6

- Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015

- Adobe After Effects CC 2015

- Pre-installed OS X Software (stuff that came with the computer)

- GoPro App (Mobile)

Online:

- ThingLink

- YouTube

- Dashboard (school network)

- Facebook and Line

- Blogger

- freesound.org

- SoundCloud

- casey.nyc

- Google services (Drive, Mail, etc.)

- Leagueoflegends.com (trust me it was for research)

- Various tutorial-based websites/forums

Okay, let's get to the actual stuff.

Research
We got our research from many many sources. Some primary, some secondary.

An example of some primary research would be our location scouting. Ten and Pooh went to the Bangna location, and all 3 of us did the HydePark survey (location we used). An example of the use of tech would be a GoPro to vlog this process, as well as Premier to edit the vlog. Another example is our own knowledge, for example Pooh and I's knowledge on how to operate the camera in a more advanced manner (e.g. exposure settings, rules, etc.); you may have noticed the lighting for scenes like the public scene was consistent even though the sun was setting quickly, and had very little noise.

Examples of secondary research would asking some of our parents; Pooh's parents work in the design and film industry, and Ten's grandmother knew a lot of good locations. Dashboard also helped us a lot. This is the school's website/network page, where our teacher(s) can post information and useful links in order to assist us with our work. Other examples include YouTube and other tutorial-based websites. I found them very helpful in assisting us making the opening, such as for the use of particles (title scene).

Technology also help us record our progress. As mentioned above, the use of a GoPro allowed us to record high quality video without the need to carry around a big camera. Something else that really helped us is this very website; blogger. It's simple to use and enables us to record our progress in our own style (e.g. customising the fonts, inserting a background, etc).

Planning

Unlike a lot of the other groups, we did quite a lot of our planning electronically rather than on paper. Partially because saving paper (#SaveThePolarBears), but mostly because we found it easier and faster to do it this way; I'm able to edit quickly as well as somewhat confidently talk to a camera (yes, it feels awkward walking around in public talking to a GoPro). However, other procedures such as health and safety, and some timelines we did on paper as it's easier to draw on paper than with a graphics tablet (we were initially gonna do this as most of us own graphics tablets, but decided against it). It was also convenient that two of us were/are art students (Pooh and Ten). A lot of the planning was done online. We recorded our process on Blogger and shared ideas and communicated through Facebook and Line, as well as by school email and Google Drive.

Filming

Filming was probably the most hardware-intensive task of all. This went very well for us. We had good cameras, good equipment (with the exception of the tripods), and other props readily available (a lot of the things we needed, such as the game controller and the lamps were things we already had). We even used some of our DIY skills for some of the props (the cigarette was simply some rolled up paper, obviously). 

With regards to editing, because the tripod was so bad, I had to warp stabilise most of the scenes shot on a tripod (don't judge). Also, the public area scene had to shot hand-held; we got told off for using a tripod... they were fine with me having my laptop setup, and some other people having a picnic and using selfie sticks though. I also had to use audio gain and other audio effects because the microphone that came with the camera was bad and had crackling noises caused by the wind.

The location vlog we did was shot solely using the GoPro, which was convenient because we did a lot of running around, and having our big Canons out would've been a huge inconvenience (and not to mention risky, as we may damage them when exploring some of the unoccupied houses).

Post Production

With regards to the post-production process, we kept everything simple and clean. This is because we decided that our camerawork was already good, and the shots were beautiful and so we decided to be minimalistic with the editing; only use small adjustments to give a better viewing experience, such as transitions, brightness adjustments, and making all the audio the same volume (similar to audio check).

Here are the settings we used for the final video file:

Format: Quicktime (.mov)

Quality: 90%

Size: 1920 X 1080

Frame Rate (FPS): 30

Field Order: Progressive

Aspect: Square Pixels (1.0)

Rendered with "Use Previews" and "Maximum Render Quality" checked.

A major post-production process we did was audio. 90% of all the audio did not come from the original footage. The only scene with original audio was the first public scene; we had to use this as there was the faint "sorry" that had to be included. The other bits of audio, for example the creepy looking back at Pooh scene had someone swearing in the background, so we couldn't use it and had to use some audio from another file where I was recording fountains in the background for fun (lucky!). Another big audio-overhaul was when we found that Ching's voice was too emotionless and lacklustre. We fixed this by asking Tanya, a drama student to do the voice over. We made sure she spoke at the same pace as Ching, so that the audio and video went together seamlessly.