Evaluation Activity 2

In our production of ‘Higher’ – we used several different forms of software. Our main form of editing software was ‘Pinnacle Studio 10’, we used this software to edit and add cuts and stylistic editing such as cuts and fades. We used this software for adding transitions as mentioned and also to add sound effects and our soundtrack. We also used it to edit the speed of shots, as this added to the realism of the trailer production. The speed editing made our production follow the conventions of the thriller genre, as it gives a sense of fast-paced action or suspense. Another form of editing we used in the software was the ‘Night’ setting, which darkened one of our shots, which was originally lighter – this was used as it keeps the shot in low key, high contrast lighting, which doesn’t distract the viewer’s attention. Another function of ‘Pinnacle’ was the ability to cut sounds shorter and adjust the speed of these sounds which made it more flexible to alter. We also used ‘Pinnacle’ to record our director’s commentary over our film production. ‘Pinnacle’ was used to edit our production shots, and we had many problems with it. Firstly, it often froze and we commonly lost editing through this. The other problem we had was the speed of the software, as we found ourselves waiting for the software to catch-up – which was especially difficult when we were cutting sounds or clips.

We also used ‘Audacity’ – we used this software to get smoother transitions and also a wider range of sound effects which were in better quality. This software allowed us to see a variety of transitions, and select the ones which would be best suited and also fit the genre most effectively. We used ‘Audacity’ as it’s known for being the simplest of mixing software, and we had no issues or problems with it.
 The final software we used was ‘Adobe Photoshop 7.0’ – this was used for the titles; including the film production logos and our title. The ability to add such things as layers, colour filters and fonts gave us the appearance of a ‘real’ film production, as we could look at examples from films in our genre, and follow the colour and style conventions. The most ideal function of the software was the magnetic lasso tool – which allows the moving of a picture from somewhere to our film title, we used this with our font from ‘dafont.com’ – this creates more flexibility in our titles and creates a sense of realism. ‘Adobe Photoshop 7.0’ did challenge our group, as none of us was experienced in the software, and it was difficult to create the looks we were planning which resulted in an amateur look which is what we were trying to avoid.

The equipment we used was our DCR-HC35 Sony Handycam camera, cassette tape and tripod. These allowed us to capture our footage and also keep the camera still and straight for better quality footage. Unfortunately, the DCR-HC35 camera wasn’t able to capture high quality footage, as it made many shots appear grainy and often the colours weren’t shown clearly. If a better quality camera was used, we would have been able to record with more clarity and efficiency. Also, a con of the tripod was the size of it, this prevented us from doing effective close-ups as it would have to be handheld, and that would likely end with an unsteady shot. By using a cassette, we did encounter problems as it's very easy to over-write footage already recorded by trying to be efficient - this wouldn't be possible with more advanced technology such as SD cards or disks.