Skills Development

This is the second cut of the promo video. I have inserted the institutional logos that I made into the start of the video, and inserted small pieces of text during the video when people are talking. I also used the transitions options to create fade-ins and fade-outs. I was suprised at how easy this seemed and I learnt a lot of techniques during the production; such as how to move many things along a timeline at once, and how to alter texts and where they sit in a frame.

This is a short video that I made using Final Cut Express and footage that I had not captured, but which we were given to make into a promo film for the media department at college. I found the editing of the footage quite a fun process, and I took it as an opporunity to play around with different effects like reversing shots, slowing shots down, changing the opacity of a shot and fade outs. We also had to make our own soundtrack using Garageband, which I wasn't really very good at using, but I think it adds a bit of depth to the video anyway. I didn't manage to make to make the sountrack come in and out smoothly, which I think is something I will need to pay attention to when making my own trailer. However, thankfully, I will be using songs which already exist, so I my lack of Garageband skills won't effect the quality of my trailer, and I will also have a much longer time scale to create my own product, which will hopefully mean that I can pay more attention to details such as music timing and smooth sound editing. Despite the fact that I wasn't massively pleased with the outcome, I really enjoyed the task and I think I learnt a lot during the process of completing it.

Visit to Teesside University - Monday 6th September

During the visit, we had a chance to use professional cameras (above), and were shown all the different features that these had. It was really useful and informative, giving many helpful tips, such as how to use the tripods, the different of microphones. The latter is something that I hadn't really considered, but is something that I am now aware of, as I want to use diegetic sound effects and monologues in my production. I also learned how to achieve focus the picture, change the lighting levels and achieve a smooth shot. It was a good opportunity to practice filming shots that I want to use in my trailer, such as different distance shots and framing.

We spent the other half of the visit working with Final Cut Pro (above) and were shown how to use the editing facilities that the program holds. I had never used this software before, apart from to create the animatic, so this gave me the opportunity to practice and use the different tools in the program. I learnt how to change the volume levels in the soundtrack and how to slice up footage and move different sequences/shots around. I also found out how to change the speed of shots and was told that footage can be transferred into greyscale (which is what I want my trailer to be in).

I began to start taking photos in the style I want my stills to be for the magazine front cover and film poster:
I needed to practice getting the angles and distances right, something which I didn't really achieve in terms of angles in the photo above.
With this shot, I achieved the right angle and distance for the photo for my film magazine cover. I also liked the shadows it created, both on and off the face, and this got me thinking about shadow in the cover I have planned to make - what I have planned is a bit 2 -D in terms of cutting and pasting things on to a photograph. However, if the photo contains shadows, it could give it some depth and improve it.
I initially found it hard to get high enough to take a decent shot and still be able to see what I was actually taking a photo of. It was also hard to do this without obstructing the light source.
After I found out how to do this, I experimented with closer shots, and shots that were further away. I liked this shot, but I thought it was too much of a close up when compared with the plans I made earlier.

I really liked this shot, but I was a bit annoyed that it wasn't in the centre, which I think is something I need to practice before the actual shooting days. However, if it was the real shot, I would probably cut it down a bit once I had found the right angle and height to take the image from.

The Breakfast Club Trailer Analysis on Prezi

As part of my skills development, I analysed a film trailer and tried to recreate it in stills. This helped me improve/discover what I need to improve; such as photography and logo creation. It also helped me to realise the scale of such a project as a film trailer.