Using Technology

How have I used technology in my coursework?

Technology played such an important role in the success of our whole film opening project and throughout the whole duration of the creating process, we had to learn how to use the technical equipment to our advantage, eventhough we faced some problems.
The video camera was of course the most important piece of technology, because we had to use it to film all of our opening. We used the camera to capture scenes, including specific shots such as over the shoulder and match on action shots, which, when edited, made our opening more edgy and impressive.
After capturing all of the required shots, we used the computer programme, 'Pinnacle,' which enabled us to upload and edit our film. Pinnacle was an editing programme that my group and I were quite new to and it was something that we all had to experiment with. There were many features of the programme that benifited us, especially when we had to cut certain scenes and add typical thriller conventions, such as spooky music and titles. However, at times it could be rather temperamental and as a result, hindered our progression.



We used the computer a lot throughout our film making, taking advantage of video uploading websites and programmes such as powerpoint to present our work on slides in preparation for our group presentation. We also used the computer to view popular thriller films and to research the certification of films and collect pictures of costumes and various elements that would enhance our film.

How had this helped my Director's commentary?

With our project complete, it was now time to record our Director's commentary. We achieved this by using an 'Edirol,' a recording device that allowed us to reflect on the overall project. This certain type of technology helped greatly when it came to explaining what we had done to our audience.



Overall, we used a wide range of technology to form and enhance our film opening. At times there were problems we faced because the technology could be quite temperamental, however, it was all part of the creating process and the technical problems we had were things that we could reflect on during out commentary. For me, the project was all about experimenting with different types of technology and learning how they all play an important part in the media industry.

Audience Feedback

My group and I felt it was time to get some feedback from our target audience in order to see what they thought about our film opening overall. To acheive this, we decided to put together a series of questions that we thought would be extremely useful when finding out our audience's opinions on the different aspects of our opening, including the thriller conventions and the overall storyline. We then summarised the answers to our questions so we gained an overview of what the majority of our audience thought.
Our first set of questions asked our audience what they thought was happening and what thriller conventions were used in the film so that we could see how much they understood. Our audience seemed to be aware that a stranger was following the two girls in our film, although it wasn't clear why and because of this, many people were intrigued. Our viewers managed to pick out the main conventions that made our opening a successful thriller, such as darkness, close camera shots and black and white titles. From our questionnaire, they all agreed that the black and white titles suited the genre and consequently showed my group and I that we didn't have to make things extremely fancy. Another question we asked concerned the music and what atmosphere it created to the viewer. After analysing all the different comments we found that most people thought an eerie and tense atmosphere was created and in some cases made our audience nervous, which is what my group and I wanted. We also wanted to know what the costumes told our audience about the characters and most of them noticed that the girls were what you would call average teenagers from the clothes they wore, whilst the person playing the 'stalker' appeared rather sinisterly dressed in dark, black clothes.
Another way we tried to show our characters were typical teenage girls was by mise- en-scene. Some of the people who took the questionnaire noticed how homely and comfortable the setting appeared with the character snuggled up whilst watching tv and the use of props, such as make up, fairy lights and mirrors in the girl's bedroom, gave the impression that that particular room belonged to a girl.
The main purpose of our questionaire was to ask our target audience if they had notcied any mistakes in the opening and if so, what could my group and I do in order to improve it. In general, there were no major mistakes that became apparent, however, our audience did notice certain aspects of the opening that could have been better, especially the brightness of the shots. When projected onto a screen and after the lights were dimmed, it was too dark to see what was happening and it was quite disappointing when the audience missed an impotant climax in the film. Although the lighting was a slight let down, the problem still taught my group and I to make sure that the brightness was just right when filming and editing projects in the future.
When asked if they would consider watching the rest of the film, the majority of our audience said that they would like to see what would happen next and the response to our opening was overall, very positive.