Evaluation; Question 4

4. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your media products?

In this project, I had decided to use Adobe Illustrator to assist in the design of my products, particularly my ancillary tasks. This was due to the fact that Illustrator is more suited than other software I have previously used in my coursework (Photoshop) to create magazine pages. Illustrator features layout guidelines and grids which makes for neater and a more professional organised layout which proved very helpful with achieving a suited design aesthetic for my film review magazine page. On previous magazine pages that I have designed using Photoshop, measurements haven’t always been equally set out, resulting in unintentional unsymmetrical aspects to the product. I believe using Adobe Illustrator to construct my film review magazine page was very beneficial and resulted in a more professional looking ancillary task.

Technology, as expected, was heavily used in the process of designing my film poster. I initially took a photo of medication bottles that are used in my short film to refer to when drawing, even being able to do this made the creative process much easier. After I had drew my image I then scanned it onto my PC and imported it into Illustrator to create the layout of my poster, and also import my own font as the masthead, alongside other details such as director credits and a website for my short film.
I then exported the design from Adobe Illustrator to Adobe Photoshop to begin the next step in constructing my product. I decided to use Photoshop to digitally colour my design, as it had a vaster colour range so it allowed me to use my colour theme that is existent in each product. By having the knowledge and access to a range of software I was able to determine which is most suitable to use for each part of constructing my film poster.

Main Task; Pre production

Before I began shooting my short film I had to complete a range of tasks in order to prepare for the first shoot. One of the these tasks included developing certain props, such as the medication bottles that are located on Tim's desk. I decided to create my own labels for the bottles. In order to do this, I hand drew the designs and then used a scanner to create a digital version to which I could import onto Adobe Illustrator. Using Adobe Illustrator I was able to colour each label design effectively.

The next step to creating my medication labels was to print them onto labels that would stick to bottles. I used a printer to print out each design and then placed them on existing medication bottles. Technology has allowed me to create realistic and professional looking props which made my short film a lot more effective in it's aims and concept.

Here are the finished medication bottles...

Production

To produce my film there wasn't a big range of technological factors involved, other than using a DSLR and SD

 cards to shoot my film. However, If I had a bigger budget, I would have invested in more production technology

such as a steadicam. Instead, I had to compromise on certain shots and use a Tripod to hold the camera still, I

also attempted to build my own Steadicam.

Here are the instructions I created and used for my home built steadicam.

1. Put holes in the side of the shoebox then thread string through either side.
2. Tie string together to create the holding point of the steadicam.
3. Measure distance to the middle and place another piece of string at this point (sitting above and hanging below the box)
4. thread the string that you just placed on the box through a 2.5kg weight and tie.
5. Cellotape the string in place.
6. Use CD cases and bluetac them down to raise the camera above the string on the box, to prevent a slanted angle and also to add extra weight to the steadicam.
7. Place Camera on top of both CD cases.
8. You now have a functional home-built Steadicam!

After building my steadicam, I used a spirit level app on my Iphone that measures the angle at which the iphone is positioned. This would show me how steady my D.I.Y project really was if the degree of angle didn't change drastically as I moved the steadicam up and down (pedestal down shot). I found that my Steadicam only had a degree change of 1°; flicking between 2° and 3°. I was rather suprised at how accurate my home built steadicam actually was, considering it was made out of materials found around the house. It would have been more appropriate to have a professional steadicam, however that was not possible; building one was a suitable alternative which I believe was fairly effective and beneficial. Below is a video, of the spirit level app in use, measuring how steady my Steadicam was.

Despite not having Steadicam technology, I was able to use other means of technology, such as Apps, to help develop my own Steadicam.

Post Production

the Post production phase was probably the most reliant on technology. I had to use Adobe premiere pro to sort through all of my captured data and delete, crop and render footage. I then organised my clips into the desired sequence that would portray my story in most effective way. I could have used other software to edit my footage, such as windows movie maker, however Adobe Premiere pro is considered to be the industry standard and also the most technical production software that I had access too.
The next process was adding in the orange effect that I wanted to overlay the whole film, in order to do this I used the colour correction tools that are available Adobe Premiere Pro, this was a process that I have never done before, so it required some experimentation with the different colour levels and application to the scenes. However, eventually I was able to find a suitable tone that wasn't to overpowering creating a rather satisfying result.

Here is video tutorial that demonstrates colour correction on Adobe Premiere Pro;

Creating my title screen really challenged my post production ability whilst also learning me new technical skills. I initially produced my text to over lay over a particular scene of my short film, this was easier enough to do as it is not complicated to do so. However, I decided to overlay my text over the scene, but have a subject (Tim's feet) overlay the title text afterwards. This is more advanced skill that I had never done before or even attempted. To begin the process I had to use search engines to find some information on what the process is called and discovered 'rotoscoping'. 'Rotoscoping' is the process of using the Roto Brush tool on Adobe After Effects in order to cut out whatever is desired, allowing you to create layers of video. I had to teach myself how to do this process with the help of the internet and spent several hours processing different versions of the roto scope. Eventually, I was successful in creating the video layer and then exported and imported the file into premiere pro, where I created my title screen.Throughout the process of constructing my media products, I have learnt a whole new range of abilities and even
 been exposed to new digital software, that I was previously unaware of and also incapable of using, as well as

developing upon my previous technical ability. Creating my main task and ancillary tasks has been a great way of

learning and applying new skills.

Technology software and hardware used:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects
Apple Mac
Canon DSLR
Apple Iphone
SD cards
Digital Scanner
Printer