Evaluation Question 6 & 7

This is my Evaluation Question 6 and 7 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? and, Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main task?
I will make this a blog post.

Over the course of creating my thriller opening with my group, I have learnt to use a various amount of different sites and programs to not only complete my evaluation but to complete my thriller opening. Firstly, my group and I had to become familiar with Premiere Pro, an editing software that is simple to use once you know where all the tools are and how they work which can offer a various range of features which are useful to create multiple effects. We learnt how to use the crop tool where we could fit the different clips to certain points in our thriller. We used the ghosting tool which kind of blurs the camera to give it a supernatural feel. We decided to use transitions such as fading in and out at the end of clips to make the production run smoothly. We also used to saturation tool to make clips of our thriller gloomy and very suitable for the genre of our thriller.

In addition, we used Mix-Craft, another editing software but this time for music. We was able to create our own music on this program to gain better marks and avoid using any copyright soundtracks. My group and I had to spend a lot of time working on Mix-Craft, as to begin it is was a difficult to figure out just how to use it, but over time we grasped it enough to make a soundtrack for our thriller. My group and I gained a huge learning experience from making our thriller as before our media course we had never been faced with the challenge of using editing software to create something that was worth a huge chunk of our course and were complete beginners at the start. 

We also had the opportunity to work with some of the best quality cameras our school could offer, along with additional pieces of equipment that I had never heard of before. We had previously used a camera and a tripod for our preliminary task but I feel as though, we didn't use it to its full extent and therefore, our thriller was the true test of what we could do to enhance our thriller so it could gain the best possible grade. We used a Nikon DSLR camera to shoot our thriller opening. By using such a high quality camera we are now able to frame a good shot and have to produced to a very high resolution. This definitely paid off in our final product. 

In regards to our preliminary task, our biggest mistake was our time management. Unfortunately, this was the main factor for why it was of such a poor quality. The filming was left till the last minute and we were still editing it on the day of the deadline, therefore I believe it was not mine and my group’s best efforts as we did not quite know what we were challenged with. The ideas of the preliminary task changed that many times that I am unsure of whether the end result matched the original plans, this was another factor that put us down on time management. However, in contrast, when it came to planning and filming our thriller we were better prepared and knew exactly what to expect and myself and my group are very proud of the product we have produced.

I think the editing and learning curve of using the editing is what we did best at when making our thriller. After going through stage of not knowing if we would meet the deadline, we finally achieved it and was able to produce something we could be proud of. We spent multiple hours trying to understand how the different programs work and even though, we are not experts just yet, we were able to excel in completely our thriller.

I definitely think that my group and I made huge progress from our preliminary task to our thriller opening, as you can just tell from the quality of videos. We have learnt a various range of different camera skills and editing techniques that we will be able to use to produce something better in the future.