Evaluation 6

Strengths and weaknesses of camera equipment:

 

A strength of the camera which we used was its very high resolution and optical zoom features - these helped to make our film look like a professional product, as without the high resolution which was afforded to us, we wouldn't have been able to make a product which was of as high a quality as we achieved.

 

However, there were also a couple of weaknesses which we found from the camera equipment. The fact that it filmed on SD was a weakness because it meant that shooting had to e occasionally halted, as the SD card was not of a high enough quality to be able to keep up with the large amounts of data which were being stored onto it. Another weakness of the camera was its ISO settings, because they meant that not much light came in on the default setting - this meant changing the settings to allow more light in, which reduced the overall quality of the film.

 

Equipment we used with the camera

 

We used both a tripod and a dolly in order to create smooth static and moving shots. The tripod helped because it allowed us to set an exact height for the shots - for example the CCTV shots wouldn't have been possible without the tripod, as this allowed them to be both high up and stable. The dolly was used for the scene where the camera approaches the front door - if we had had to film this shot without the use of a dolly, then it would have been considerably harder to pull off such a professional looking shot.

 

Editing software

 

We were able to use iMovie to really add character to our film. An example of this is the CCTV style shots, because we used iMovie in order to give them a sepia tone and to make them a lower quality. In addition to this, we put a title across the shots, as this made the CCTV shots look very authentic and as if they had been produced professionally.

 

In addition to this, we found that iMovie was very helpful when it came to creating the overall mise-en-scene of our piece, because it had options to change the colour of the clips - this meant we could make them look a little bit darker, and add atmosphere to the piece. Finally, using iMovie to edit with allowed us to perfect the timings of the title, because some of the earlier cuts of the film caused people to complain about the length of the words within the title.

 

Problems we encountered

 

The main problem which we encountered during our shoot was the issue of ensuring that we filmed every single shot we needed in the way which it had been planned out on the storyboard. Due to some changes in location and personnel, not every shot could be pulled off in the way that we wanted it too. Because of this, if we were to make this film again we would spend some time practising shots in the location which we had planned out, because this would mean that we can ensure that each shot will look as good as we though it would when it was planned on paper.

 

How we used Blogger

 

Blogger was incredibly useful during the production of our film opening, because it allowed us to store all of our content digitally for when we were filming. This meant that rather than carrying a storyboard around with us, I could access it from a phone or tablet, saving carrying around lots of paper. In addition to this, it made it much easier to include multimedia such as pictures, music and videos than it would have been if we had done all of our work on paper.