Development from AS to A2:
My use of software has improved greatly since AS, both in terms of the software used and in the way I used it. The software which has been consistently used over the two years has been Final Cut Pro, the way in which I've utilised the features of Final Cut has changed dramatically and the speed at which I have done so. Whereas initially I was mostly using the trim tool for editing and a fade to black, at A2 I have utilised many more features such as the Blade tool, Ken Burns effect, masques, cross fades, colour matchings, clipping masks and various other features. As the course went on I also had a greater understanding of how the program worked and therefore for the A2 trailer I was able to do far more effective sound layering.
Previous to the course I had never used Photoshop, and therefore over the two years my development in Photoshop has improved dramatically. I wasn't aware of how to use photoshop originally but through practise I have been able to produce two very successful ancillary tasks along with extra images for the blog such as artofthetitle-esque set of images. The learning curve was very steep due to the time constraints that were placed on particularly the ancillary tasks and my lack of prior knowledge, however it was fascinating and extremely enjoyable to get to known and understand how to program works.
My improvement in the hardware used is also very important, at AS our use of hardware was limited to basic lighting (the LED's) and the use of the Panasonic camera and tripod. This allowed us to experiment and be creative with a range of shots, however was fairly limited in the lighting. This year we took ourselves further and employed a wide range of lighting techniques, such as day-to-night filming of night filming in general, using flashlights as the main source of light. This helped create engaging and visceral images for our audience to remember. Our use of the camera has also also developed over the two years primarily in relation to our cinematography and positing/framing of shots. This was greatly helped by our extensive research and planning where we worked out the range of shots which we can utilise such as low and high angle shots to suggest the inferiority or dominance at certain moments. We also thought carefully about the positing of each character in each shots making sure to place the character who in control at that moment in the centre and the highest up in the frame. Due to our improvement in ability in Final Cut meant that in A2 we were also able to effectively utilise sound layering, this meant we record a wide range of foley sounds such as panting, gun cocking, doorbells etc. These were all recorded using handheld recorder, at AS although we recorded foley sounds we didn't require nearly as many.
There has also been a clear development to be found within our research and planning, especially regarding the convergence of software while using blogger. The embedding of Youtube videos, Prezi's, SimpleBooklets, SlideShares and various images allowed a far greater and comprehensive plan of our trailer and ancillary tasks to be made. This not only helps our blogs look better but also allows makes for a easier read and visually interesting experience. This is shown by our Anamatic which we produce which combined many elements, I've previously mentioned as each shot had to be drawn (70 in total) and then scanned in and edited in Photoshop to be able to differentiate each character. Once imported into Final Cut each shot got edited to the desired time frame, with some mock music placed over the top from one of our key influences. This video was then uploaded to Youtube and embedded onto our blogs.
Below a presentation can be found that we all produced showcasing the technologies we have used this year, and explaining how they have helped us.
AF
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