6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Over the course of this project, I have learnt how to use different types of technologies to create my final outcome. Firstly, I made the most of my camera's video setting to record the whole of our film opening. I used a Canon 500d to record the clips as this was readily available to me and meant I didn't have to book the school camera which was limiting in terms of when I could use it as others wanted to use them too. this meant I could record when best suited for myself and Becky and also my actors as some of our times were very last minute planned. By using my camera, this also means we could shoot in 720p HD which meant that our film looks of a higher quality, however combined with editing and titles, Youtube can only show it as 420p which is still a very good quality.

The majority of what I have learnt about new technologies comes from working with the editing software 'Final Cut Express'. This was a much more professional and complex program that ones I have used before so it was as if learning from scratch. We firstly imported our clips into the program so that they were there and available to use in our project. We mainly used the V1 bar to put our clips in however some clips that we wanted to overlay we used them on the v2 bar and changed the opacity using the motion tab in the Viewer (square window on the left). I used the A1 and A2 bars for the same purpose except for with audio tracks that I used. By using the Viewer window, I was able to add filters and effects as I went a long and apply these to each individual clip. I used effects such a RGB balance to change the colour and Black and white filters. I also used the motion tab to change the opacity of a clip when doing an overlay or when fading a clip in and out, adding key frames.

When editing my video, I used various tools to help edit my film together to get a good finish with as little continuity error as possible. I used the Razor blade tool to cut clips to the right length and to cut out the parts I didn't need. This meant that I could cut down my footage to fit the time restriction and to cut parts together to show good continuity between clips. I used the snapping tool to make clips fit right after the other without gaps so that my film played continuously without blank parts in between clips and a seamless finish. Where clips looked slightly odd fitted next to each other, I added a transition effect. I stuck to used very simple and natural effect such as 'Cross Fade' which meant that these transitions didn't detract attention from the film itself yet meant that the clips flowed smoothly and looked good together. I used the pen too to mark points along both the audio and video clips where I wanted the video to fade in and fade out and where I wanted the audio track to do the same. To do this I marked a point at the beginning of the clip and the point where I wanted it to reach it's normal state and dragged the first clip down to the bottom so that it created a smooth fade. Similarly, I did this for the end however dragged the end point to make it fade out.

One thing I specially learnt was to create a split screen effect where two clips played simultaneously side by side. I learnt how to do this by watching a tutorial on Youtube. I was surprised to find out how quite simple it was to create however think it looks very effective when used in out film. I applied what I learnt from the tutorial to my film and am very happy with the result, however I think it could be improved by cropping the clip to add borders as I think this would look more effective when fading out as the central overlap doesn't fade out with the rest of the clips as fast as there are two layers.

Blogging has also helped me throughout this project. It has helped me to put and and portray my research and planning and ideas that I have come up with in this project. It has allowed me to present my work neatly and clearly so that others can view and see the progression clearly. By blogging, this can help audience feedback as it allows anyone to view and leave a comment. This means I can get a wider range of people giving me feedback rather than just feedback from friends which can sometimes be biased.