Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

For my film opening, I used a few different programs that I have never used before. The main program I used was iMovie on my MacBook. I uploaded the videos to iMovie and started experimenting with the order of shots, and learnt how to do different transitions and chose a few to use in my opening for it to look smooth. I also learnt how to put music over the top of the film and adjust it where need be.

I also used the program Final Cut Pro X to make my titles at the beginning of my film opening. This program was completely new to me and I learnt several different techniques. Firstly, I learnt how to change the font of the title and the size and where to position it on the black background. I then could start making effects so that the titles would either move or glow. I then merged Final Cut Pro X together with iMovie and added sound effects to the titles, putting them with the rest of my film opening.

I realised a lot of work went into creating a film opening, but not how difficult it was, so using different programs meant I learnt a lot through the process.

With the camera I used, I could adjust the focus to make the depth of field more clear, and I am particularly proud of the close-up shots of my protagonist playing guitar and when he writes the titles. Here are a few of my favourite shots:

I am also proud of the editing, in terms of matching the music with the different camera shots and actions the character makes. This was difficult, as I had to start the music at the right time so that the guitar matched exactly what the character was playing so that it was not out of sync. This helped the continuity of the opening.

There was however a few limitations to my creativity. I obviously had a low budget, so I couldn’t use high end filming equipment, as it was not available to me. To fix this however I made my own dolly by using the tripod with only 2 legs, and holding the 3^rd to guide the camera when filming the wall shots. Also, the protagonist in my film opening is my brother, and he went to University straight after filming, therefore I couldn’t film anything extra if I needed to change anything and so I had to work with what I had. This was a limitation because I could not improve any shots, and had to work around it. This mainly included the voice-over I chose to add nearer the end of the process, where I had to use somebody else’s voice to act as his. This wasn’t too much of a problem as the audience would not be able to tell it is someone different, but it made the process a little more difficult.