Question 6

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

2. Pre-production • Research – when we were first starting our research we used search engines such as google to look at thrillers and find out about thrillers and what type of other sub-genres go into thrillers, then going onto Wikipedia it gave us a list of thrillers starting from 1920’s all the way to 2010 and when clicking on one we could learn more, like the sub-genre of the film, the director, the cast and even the country it was filmed in.

3. Pre-Production • Research – then we looked more closely at the film Collateral and we did textual analysis’s of it and watched YouTube clips and using these we wrote why certain props, locations, costumes, lighting and the way in which the characters acted all were used in certain ways to give off that mysterious thriller type look, we also did this with brick by just looking at the OTS to get a feel of to different types of thriller films

4. Pre-production • We then looked at a scene from the film sexy beast and had to re-create it using key filming techniques such as the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match on action and we learnt how to use the tripod and set up a camera, using the white balance, focusing it and the exposure so that when filming it didn’t look dis-coloured or too blurry to actually use.

5. Pre-production • When that was done we then got taught how to edit our small sequence together so that worked, like we had to work very closely to when our actor was walking up the stairs so that when she moved the same legs was in the same place in the shot before as people would notice and when doing match on action as she walked through door we had to make sure the door was at the same sort of distance from closing when we filmed from outside as she entered the building and then from the inside as she was walking away from the door. • These skills would become useful when filming our OTS so that they were shot in a typical thriller type way and knew how to work a camera and got the best quality shots.

6. Pre-production • When planning to go for our shoot we had to think of things that could go wrong and that we should be weary about and our shooting schedule, we also had to take photos of the areas we wanted to shoot in to check they would be ok

7. Production • When filming we used white paper so that the white balance was correct, although we had trouble with focusing the camera and so some of out shots look a little out of focus, although we can just about get away with this because of the genre of our film.

8. Production • On the day of filming we had great difficulty getting enough footage due to the fact that it was pouring with rain for the vast majority of the day and all of our filming was outside so that caused a big problem. • Also originally we going to have shots of the gang getting into trouble and of some sort of police officer figure who was setting them up, but on the day we didn’t have an actor to play the police officer or the props that we wanted to use. • Known of the footage is actually some sort of footage where we needed to think about continuity and had to be careful when editing it to make sure it flowed smoothly and made sense.

9. Production • For our sound recording we used a dub-step type of soundtrack as this went with the genre of our film and every time that titles would appear we’ve also put in the noise of a gun firing to create more of an atmosphere this is all non-diegetic sound and used to create atmosphere while the audience are watching it. • Because we did not have enough footage the first time round we had to go and re-shoot all though this didn’t go to well as we then lost the tape so had to work with the footage we originally shot. This is an example of where the gun shot would be heard.

10. Production • We chose close ups of characters to show that they would be the most important during the film. • We also did establishing shots to show the location of our film and to show the audience what type of place our characters would have grown up in. • Wide shots of the whole group were used to show the audience the group that would feature in our film throughout.

11. Post Production • The software we used when editing our OTS were ‘adobe photoshop’ and ‘adobe premiere’. • When first editing our film we cut out a lot of location footage we got as we didn’t need it all and footage of the group walking around the streets and we only used the stuff of them in the park instead because it was so central.

12. Post Production • When looking for music we used sites such as http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/ and typed in tags such a grunge or dub-step to find the sound track that we wanted to use but later used a track that someone we know had made. • The same with when looking at fonts, we went on a site called www.dafont.com and looked at graffiti fonts as this went with the genre of our film, we had to make sure that the font was easily read but had the gang type crime look to it.

13. Post Production • Some of the effects we put in after was a flash every time there was a scene change and when there were titles the shot would look black and white made up of dots and using the graffiti writing in red when it’s around actors or names of people to make them stand our more as they’re important.