Gould's: March 2012

This blog publishing web service is where it all began. Blogger became the biggest tool in keeping track of progress throughout the pre-production, main production and post production period. It not only allowed me to structure my research and evaluation but, through providing picture and video applications, made my profile as informative as possible through a variety of visual mediums. The online service, alike youtube, allows people to see your profile from practically anywhere in the world, which allows perfect opportunity for a variety of viewpoints. You could be browsing the web in Australia and be watching 'Atypical Superhero Story' within a few clicks of the mouse. Comments are allowed on blogger, so criticisms of my work may be seen and taken constructively to further improve my work. Overall, blogger has been a huge help!

I'm going address both wikipedia and youtube at once, as i rarely utilised one of these web services without using the other at any one time. Youtube and Wikipedia became the most benefitial of tools used in planning and construction. Whether it was to research camera techniques, editing techniques or even to take note from previously made short films ('The Crusader' being a favourite), both contributed to improving my construction. Youtube was used more predominantly during the editing process as step by step tutorials were widely available on useful tips and tricks within 'Final Cut' and 'After Effects', for example- a good couple of hours were spent during the eye animation creation at the end of mine and Paddy's piece, as i would constantly chop and change between the tutorials directions and my editing software.

The Canon HF M306 HD camcorder that was used to film my AS level piece, was pulled out of it's box once again to capture some creative imagination. For capturing film at the level I'm at, this piece of kit has proved to be more than adequate. The interchangeable automatic and manual settings on the camera allow you to freely adjust focus, white balance etc. or allow the camera to adjust these factors automatically. This allowed a lot more freedom to capture the shot you want, the way you want. However, one problem which arose was the output file format of the video clips- The MTS. format which became noticeable among all the other students in my class was very difficult to import into certain editing software. For the Files to actaully be accepted by Final Cut, I had to convert them to .MOV files, using the file conversion software 'Prism'. The quality of footage after conversion was hardly HD and rather grainy, but i did the best i could to make the video files usable.

The 'Photoshop' editing software was used in creating our ancillary tasks (Two posters and film review). Paddy and I relied entirely on this software during the creation of the posters, as it allowed us the most freedom. From importing the raw images of Ram (played John) and Josh (played Neville), we progressed in applying an appropriate background as we cropped around the face etc. and layered in the colour black. Then the 'black and white' effect was applied to the faces themselves. After which we focused on the key element-the eyes. Changing the hue the eyes was a highlight of the two designs. We then simply had to add the title (tilted to the side) and production company to finish. Although photoshop was needed in creating the background and 'pelican man' picture for our review, the majority of the spread was created within 'InDesign'. This software allowed far more potential when creating a combination of documentation and graphics. Margin tools, extensive text formats etc. became very handy when structuring the design. This user-friendly application put far less pressure on the production of the review and gave enough freedom to present the film's unique style the way we wanted to. Overall, We were very pleased with the outcome of our ancillary tasks

Both 'Final Cut Express' and 'After Effects CS5' were used in the editing process. To begin with, Final cut was utilised for it's user friendly tool pallet and clip maneuverability. This is where the main bulk of editing was done, as the piece was sculpted to become a 7 minute, 4 second film. Once this process was completed, I progressed onto using After Effects. As implied by the name, this software became very handy in adding special touches and additional effects. I took advantage of colour correction, filtering indoor shots with a warmer feel and colour-burning a shade of blue onto outdoor shots for a colder feel. The vignette effect was also applied to draw more attention to the focal point within each clip, making certain on-screen factors more significant e.g. Neville, the action figure. The most tasking job within the After Effects process had to be animating. Both the opening film title sequence and green eye animation were made from scratch, using multiple solid layers, null layers, a few tweaks here and there, plus a whole lot of patience. This advantage taking of new software allowed a great deal of improvement from my foundation portfolio, giving my advanced portfolio an animation induced edge over previous work.