What have you learned about technologies from the process

of constructing this product?

Cameras
We originally used a camera supplied
by the school. This camera was a
SonyHDR-CX210. However, after
playing around and using test shots we
felt that the quality and zoom in/zoom
out feature wasnt as smooth as we
wouldve liked.
This lead to us using a Canon 1100D
SLR camera for our filming of
Omitted. This camera had a much
smoother zoom in and out feature,
which was a key element in our
opening.
The camera was very clear and showed images on the
investigation board very clearly, but also had a manual focus.
This meant that in some images when we wanted background
images to be slightly blurred we could focus on closer shots
and give an element of narrative enigma in the background
as parts were unclear.
We used two different lenses through the filming process, one
was for focus on close up shots, with a further zoom and the
other was for wider shots. We used the smaller lense for the
forest walking shots as we didnt want that much zoom for
this. Whereas, most of the missing poster shots and the
investigation board shots we used the bigger lense.
Final Cut Express
Final Cut Express was the software in which our opening
sequence was edited on to. The software allowed us to add
effects, transitions, credits and sound onto out initially filmed
footage. We started with uploading the clips from the SLR
camera to the MAC in which we would be working on. We
began by cutting parts of the clips that we liked, this involved
missing the start or end of a video and was often due to
untidy camera movement or shaking.
After this, we experimented with using some of the video
transitions in order to make the clips flow into one another
better as a posed to lots of short little clips put in a row. This
made a huge effect as the clips began to look much more put
together and logical at this point. We decided to use mostly
the dissolve transitions as we felt they captured the right
movements to emphasise and tie in with the plot. Additive
Dissolve adds the two clips so that the first clip fades out and
the second fades in and Fade in, Fade out fades in the
incoming clip as the outgoing clip fades out. Reveals the track

below the current track in a transition. These were often

used in our piece to show a link between scenes and to
emphasize the continuity editing/ invisible editing. We
also used a Non-Additive Dissolve transition that
compares the pixels in the two clips and displays the
lighter of the two as the first clip
fades out and the second fades
in. This was used to enhance the
montage when a missing poster is
shown as being more destroyed
as time passes. We used a
mixture of short take and long
take(s) in our opening sequence
as we felt that this would
constantly keep the audience on
edge and engaged. We did this by
changing the speed of the clips. For example- our opening
shot of clouds moving was sped up to imply that time was
passing, whereas another shot panning from a photograph of
Molly to her name on the investigation board was slowed
down in order for the audience to consider any deeper
meanings behind her disappearance.
We used sound in order to further enhance our opening
sequence. On Final Cut Express we could change the volume
of the soundtracks we had selected by dragging the red line
up and down at different points. This allowed us to make
Mollys footsteps louder and quieter as she walked further and
further away.
On Final Cut Express we put in the text: credits, film title and
Production Company name/logo. Most of our credits we used a
fade in, fade out effect for them to appear on the screen at
different times. However, for the title Omitted at the end of
the opening, we wanted to have a typewriter effect in which
letters appear on the screen one at a time. We felt this built
anticipation as to what the film is called until the very last
letter is shown in the last few seconds of the entire video.
Overall, I feel that my knowledge of final cut express has
increased drastically as I can now edit video footage recorded
on cameras to add credits, transitions, effects, sound and
much more. One negative of Final
Cut Express was that after each
clip was edited in any way, we had
to render that clip. This was a very
time consuming process, but did
enable us to get high quality clips. I
really enjoyed discovering many
new methods in which films can be
edited and developed through Final
Cut Express.

Blogger
Before this, I had never used any blogging websites at all.
Overall, I really enjoyed using blogspot to record my research,
developments, filming, editing and evalution process. I found
that using a varity of different multi-media softwares and sites
to present my work online as a posed to basic essay writing
without images was much more exciting to complete. I found
that adding images, prezi presentations and videos to my
work enhances it and makes points more relevant and easy to
follow.

YouTube
I had a small amount of experience with
uploading to YouTube prior to this, however
never from Final Cut Express. We had to
ensure that the settings were correct before
uploading the video as without this, it would not have worked.
We had to change the file formal to MPEG-4/ MP4 and make
the image size 1920 x 1080. This allowed the video to be
exported in a compressed high quality version.
I learnt that in order to put YouTube videos onto our blogs, you
have to copied an emedded code of this and paste into the
HTML on our blogs. This is done by pressing share just below
the video on YouTube and pressing the blogger icon. This is a
great way of making lots of different social media sites link
together.
Prezi/Scribd/Slideshare
I did not realise that you could import powerpoint and word
documents in this way onto blogs. Using Scribd/ Slideshare
enabled me to upload these files to my blog easily and
quickly, again through copying HTML codes and pasting them
into my blog.
I also used Prezi which is an online presentation site. I
initially felt that this would be extremely difficult to use, but
after paying around with the site, found that it was a clever
way to present information in a chronological order with
images and videos to reinforce points. The site helpfully gives
you templates which you can select and imput and images
and text you would like.
This was a great way to demonstrate the wide variety of multimedia ways in which text can be presented.