Question 6

Question 6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The hardware we used was Adobe Premiere and Canon XHAI. The filming techniques I have learnt and used while filming was a reaction shot which is basically when the camera focuses on the reaction of the characters face and body action after an action. We used a reaction shot in our opening sequence when the camera focused on our character after he had seen the time on his watch. I have learnt that reaction shots are important because it can play a key part in keeping the audience interested and to help engage with the emotions of the characters. I also learnt about the rule of thirds which is basically positioning the main subject whether in the middle, left or right. I have learnt using the rule of thirds portrays different characters and also gives the audience a sense understanding to the character. An example of this is in MATRIX. The front cover of the film there are three characters, if I did not watched the film I would tell the person in the middle would be the main character and characters on the sides would probably his/hers companion or enemy. This is why the rule of thirds is important. I also learnt about the 180 degree rule which is basically staying within an imaginary and not crossing it, especially for continuity. This is something that i have learnt because before in my preliminary task my group did not follow the 180 degree rule. But then learnt how to use it in the main task. We used this in our work when there was a conversation scene and we chose to do an over the shoulder shot but by not crossing the imaginary line. I also learnt continuity is important because it helps keep the film realistic and also so the audience does not feel awkward or misunderstood. In the prelim task there was a lot of continuity mistakes. But on the main task I learnt from the mistakes and the feedback I was given and we directed it on through the main task. An editing technique I learnt was “Match on Action”. This is when one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates the impression of a sense of continuity; the action carrying through creates a “visual bridge” which draws the viewer’s attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. Another editing technique was the “shot reverse shot” which is used in conversations or characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character supposedly looking at either a point of view or over the shoulder shot is, followed by a reverse angle shot of the characters looking back at them for example. Shot reverse shot often ties in with the 180 rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience’s sense of location of characters in the shots. They key lessons I learnt while using the technology and equipment was that I should be careful while handling them because they were fragile and expensive. I also learnt the simplicity of the equipments and how effective they were for our main task such as the camera, tripod and the software. I also learnt how precise you should be when taking care of equipment for example for the camera you would have to make sure the bubble was in the centre otherwise the clarity and focus of the camera would not be clear and could possibly mess up the film.