EVALUATION Q4 integrated technologies

How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

Throughout this year we have used different kinds of software and hardware:

• software/online resources used :blogger, FCPX, Instagram, Youtube, slideshare, Garageband, Quicktime Player, VLC for clip recording, search engines, websites like IMDB, BoxOfficeMojo, the-numbers.com, Wikipedia for institutional research, The Guardian, dafont.com, etc.
• hardware: cameras, smartphone, tripods, microphones, greenscreen, DSLRs, SD cards, Macs, PC, tablet, etc.

The software are all the programs that we used to create our film and to work together, whereas hardware are the actual computers, cameras and technologies we have used.

I saw / I did:

I saw Casey Aonso do these ratings of relevant topics in pop-culture. I wanted to recreate this with the technology I got to use. This video includes all the software and hardware we used as well as a quick word from my sponsor:

Tutorials that we looked at:

Hardware

I used the LaCie 4TB Rugged USB-C Portable Hard Drive to transfer our files between home and school as well as my MacBook to do all the editing and Post-Production.

After completing many practise exercises and the PRELIM where we practised to use DSLRs, specifally the Sony alpha 58, as well as how to export files to your devise using an SD card. We decided to film our opening on a smartphone since:

• They're compact/light.
• They're portable.
  
• They have a good image quality.
• There are lots of accessories, including lenses and camera stabilizers, microphones, built for them.

We used a series of tripods:

 

1. The amazon tripod with pan handle: the best one in my opinion, has the most stability and easy to pan

2. The amazon tripod with pistol grip: also a very good option

3. The Manfrotto tripod: the lightest i weight but harder to work with

We also used a monopod and dolly: 

1. The monopod is hand-held so its perfect for all tracking shot. 

It provided great stability for our shots.

2. The dolly was great for indoor shoots but didn't work in the forest which is what we needed the most.

For recording foley sound we used a Video blog MIC Lav Microphone:

We looked at this tutorial for how to set up the microphone:

This tutorial gave us a better understanding on how to us the microphone when re-recording our dialogue as voiceovers and recording foley sound.

Software

Web 2.0

To before using software to create our film we learned about Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 main agenda is converging the line between producer and consumer. 

My Blog post on Web 2.0

FCPX

I used my MacBook Air and got the 90 day free trial of FinalCutPro X. We used FinalCutPro X to edit all of our Vodcasts and The Final Cut.

First we started by learning the basic. Here is my tutorial o basic uses of Final Cut:

When editing the street scene we used the Day into Night effect and played around with the Colour, Saturation and Exposure:

We also used FCPX in the creation of our animated title. 

Garageband:

Photoshop:

I used Photoshop to create the town sign for our Hand of God sequence. You can import a PSD file directly into FCPX which was very usefull. I made the town sign blend in by playing with the saturation as well as with perspective, using the Perspective Warp tool. 

Greenscreening: 

We learned how to assemble the green screen. We watched many greenscreening tutorials and how to use the Keyer effect.

Although we are not planning on shooting with a green screen for our opening, we could consider using it for the burial scene, due to the difficulties with the winter weather.  

I go more in depth on my use of the keyer effect in the creation of our title:

Youtube:

I uploaded all of my creation on to my Youtube Channel SkyScraperProds in order to imbed thwm into blogger. 

KeyNote:

In order to animate my titles for my Ident I used KeyNote:

Online resources:

We used the websited dafont.com for all of our sample fonts and our final font for our titles. It has a good variety of free to use, copyright free fonts and a wide selection of Horror connoting fonts. More on our title research here. 

The website had a menu of themes that you could choose from so we could filter all horror fonts. 

Communication

We used social media like snapchat as well as the teams chat to keep the whole cast and Laura (L48 Films) updated on any changes to the script, costume changes, location, time etc. Using outlook we were able to share the script with each other. We also made physical copies of the script which we made with the cast and workshopped together. 

We also used OneDrive to share footage between each other.

Digitisation,  Convergence and Disruption:

Since we are an indie company we benefit from digitisation. Since technology is becoming increasingly cheaper and more accessible to lower budget productions, expensive devises no longer have to be bought to make films. Our production has been made digitally, using the supplies that we already had or that were inexpensive.

Disruption allows films with micro-budgets to have distribution. The importance of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime offer films directly to audiences, without theatrical releases, and are still massively successful.