Q6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through this project my knowledge of different types of media equipment and their functions has grown greatly. I have been placed in a position were I had no other option but to adapt to the equipment we was asked to use which at first I found difficult as it was like nothing I had used before. We knew that the equipment we would be using would be similar to what they would use when making an independent film , this for me raised the expectations of our audience and ourselves as there would be no excuses for either bad video quality or sloppy filming.
Before we started to film we were each given a role in the terms of what we would be in charge if , for example I was the director , Daniel was in charge of camera and Antoinette was in charge of sound. Each role meant you was in charge of certain pieces of equipment and that it would be your responsibility to look after it during filming. We had all learnt about the equipment before hand and so was confident we could all do our jobs well.

The equipment varied from sound , camera and editing software. The camera we used to film was the cannon xha1 camera which provides great video quality for films such as ours. As I had never held one of these before everything I learnt from just picking it up and turning it on was new to me. The camera was simple to use and had many different functions to it. There was a circle rod placed at the side of it and this where you was able to switch from actually recording to reviewing the rushes on the small screen placed above it. To view my rushes all I had to was switch the rod to VCR PLAY which would give you the options of rewinding, forwarding or pausing the rushes when viewing them. When actually using the camera on set as a director I found it easy to move it around as it was light , this played to our advantage as we needed to the camera quite a lot during our opening sequence. Overall it taught me that it's not always the biggest camera that you see on the TV which are the most effective , especially when making an Indi film. We placed the camera on top of the Vinten Pro Touch Black Tripod which helped us use different levels and kept the camera stable. The tripod included a spirit level which I learnt you had to make sure was level at all times during use.

Moving onto sound equipment we found this the hardest equipment to use as it had so many different aspects to it. For sound we used the Sennheiser K6 Microphone which was placed in a Rycote Windshield System connected to the Boom pole. None of us had used this equipment before and to us it was alien for the first few days of using it. What I learnt was that his highly sensitive to the smallest sounds, for example someone closing a door in the corridor would interfere with the sound. When actually using it during filming it was even harder as you needed to place it in the right position to get the correct level of sound. If the levels were too high the sound would not be correct for the certain scene in the film. To make sure this didn't happen the person in charge of sound would have a pair of Sennheiser HD 205 headphones to check what the microphone was picking up.

Once filming was complete we had to edit our rushes. This is where we were introduced to even more new technology. First we was given a 80GB Lacie Drive which would be where we store all our rushes and our actual finished product. The portable drive was useful as it allowed all of our production team to gain access to the rushes at any time on any computer. To edit of opening sequence we used the Adobe Premier Pro software which was simple and easy to use. It allowed you to add numerous effects and helped you when actually creating your film. To place your ruses onto the lacie drive we had to connect a fire wire from the camera to the computer. You then digitize your rushes onto the computer and you’re ready to go.