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

As a group we used multiple technologies to help us create our film.

Blogger:
Blogger is a website I have used to help keep my coursework in one place. I have used Blogger to upload my research for evidence. I learnt many things from using this such as how to upload YouTube videos and pictures onto my blog.

Mac:
We used a Mac computer to upload our drafts and film footage on. We used a programme called Final Cut Pro. this programme is what we used throughout the whole time filming. This programme enabled us to use transitions such as fade and dissolve to improve our footage and help it flow easily. Using Final Cut Pro allowed us as a group to edit our film a lot. We included titles such as 'Directed by' and 'Future Productions present'. We were able to explore different fonts and colours to place our title on our film. We decided to use the font Vintage in multiple colours for our fonts. We used bright colours such as red, pink and blue to associate with young people. Another editing technique we found which was really effective was a speed up on scenes. We were able to select a clip and make it slower or faster. We decided for a couple of scenes we wanted to use this effect. We chose a speed up x4 on a scene outside school to make what we filmed alot quicker and more appropriate. This programme also enabled us to add non-diegetic music to our film such as 'Clear' which we downloaded from www.freeplaymusic.com. You are also able to cut scenes which are too long which is what we decided to do. We cut several scenes to make them flow as some were too long and boring.

Phone:
An iphone was used as iconography. We used the iphone as an alarm clock as it is a modern device many teenagers own. Teenagers usually use their phones in order to wake up for school. I know this from friends and personal experiences. We also used our own iphones to make a group chat. This group chat enabled us to get in contact with everyone at the same time which made it easier than messaging eachother individually. The group chat involved reminding eachother dates when we were filming. It also helped as when someone was off ill, we could update them on the group chat of what was going on. We were able to send pictures of the story boards, shot lists and scripts when we were at different places and see what others thought we needed to include.

Email:
During our planning, we thought of a song which would be a perfect match for our teen angst film! We wanted to use 'Love is easy' by Mcfly! This was because it flowed well and many teenage girls enjoy listening to that type of music! It is easy and catchy to sing along too. We went on Google to find Mcfly's email address or their managers! We emailed the company who works for them to ask if we were able to use their song as we needed permission. However in the end, they did not reply which is why we decided to stick with music on the website music free play!

HD camera:
In order to film, we used a HD camera. This helped us catch all the footage we needed! I was very cautious due to another group task, we ended up taking photos instead of a video however, this time round, we made sure it was on video the whole time. The help of a tripod ensured we had a steady shot. Using this, we explored different heights the tripod could go which helped as shoot a successful High angle and birds eye view in the beginning scenes. This links into our risk assessment as we were not able to climb anything to get the correct height of a shot so the tripod did help us.



Voice recorder:
A voicerecorder was an important device we used. When we were filming, there were some speaking scenes involved however, the camera did not pick up the speech as well as we liked it to. It was very bad quality. Therefore, we decided to mute the spoken parts and used a voice recorder to put over such as Seans scnene when he speaks saying "Yo Caitlin". Using the voice recorder made the speech more clear and proffessional! We did not plan to have a voice over on Danni's scene when she walks down the corridoor on her own. We felt it would make the story line a little easier and make it more interesting if we added a voice over. I recorded Danni saying her lines which took around ten seconds then uploaded it onto the macs and imported it into our film. We also used the voice recorder to record an alarm clock to make the sound better quality. We could not find a suitable one on websites we were given.




Photoshop:

Photo shop helped us create our logo. We drew our ideas from scratch onto paper. We wanted an image which showed strength to show as a company, we would grow. We thought of an anchor or chains at first then Joe came up with an idea of a figure outline of a man like Superman. As a group we all agreed! We opened photoshop which enabled us to create our logo with the image and fonts with different colours. Using phot shop was easy, quick and efficient!


Website: 
As a group we used a website free play music, to choose and import our music! We were able to search different genres and moods of music. We spent days searching making sure we had the suitable one. We also used another website called free sound. At first we used this website to find an alarm clock but could not find a modern, stereotypical iPhone alarm sound. When we uploaded our company logo onto our film, we wanted a sound effect which is when this website came in handy! We searched for a 'Whiz' sound and found a suitable one which fitted and uploaded it onto our film.

PowerPoint:
We used Microsoft PowerPoint to pitch our ideas for our films. This enabled us to get feedback on what to improve on and to get our ideas across. The PowerPoint includes a brainstorm of our initial ideas including the plot and characters.