During making this film I have learnt a lot about certain aspects of the technologies and techniques used when making a film. One of which was the 180 degree rule. This is one of the most important rules you have to follow when making a film as if you break the rule it can take the viewer out of the film completely as it looks unnatural. The 180 degree rule is a basic rule for filming but can easily be broken as we originally found out, we filmed a conversation between two people and thought that you had to change shoulder when changing shot from one person to the other, this turned out to look as if both characters were talking in the same direction. If we did this in the actual film the viewer would be taken away from the atmosphere that had been built up and they would not be so stuck into the film as before.
When filming for the film we needed to use a tripod to keep the camera still. If we did not have this piece of equipment and didn't know how to use it then we would have to of filmed free-hand with the camera. This would have made the footage shaky and look amateur meaning our film would not look as professional as it should. Using the tripod enabled us to keep the camera in a steady position and I was able to focus the camera at the depth of field wanted without too much hassle as I didnt have to try and do this whilst trying to keep the camera steady.
Another thing I have learnt during making this film has been making fancy ways of presenting text onto the screen. I learnt several ways but in the end chose the one which I believe fitted the feel of the film more than any of the others did. This was to have the text 'burst' or 'crack' out of the wall. I felt that this was a very professional piece of text and made the first few shots of the film look a bit better. To make this I had to learn how to use Adobe After Effects properly and to be able to make keyframes at the right times for the text wipe. This took quite a while as I was learning how to do it the whole time I was making it.
Whilst editing the film I learnt how difficult it was to get the cuts looking smooth and learning where to cut it was the thing I had to learn. This took a bit of practicing as it isn't anything I've really tried much in the past. As well as learning where to cut the clips I had to learn when as some shots may look better longer and some may look better shorter, on noticing this I decided to make a range of shot lengths to create the smoothest outcome.
At the end of the film we have a gun shooting at the camera and as we cannot shoot an actual gun, we had to use a BB-gun and add in sound effects later on. This is something I have never done before and it was not as tricky as first thought, all i had to do was find a gun shot sound effect and sync it with the clip so that it is in time with when the gun fires. This provides a clean end to the two minutes and looks as if the gun is actually shooting.
In the film we have a flashback and a flash-forward. To show that time was being passed I had to learn what transitions would do the job best and create an authentic feel that time has gone by without taking the viewer out of the moment and out of the film. We chose a flash of light to show the changes in time as they look the most professional of the transitions available and show a clear change of time.
The whole time filming I was learning more about how to record effectively with a camera. I decided to experiment a bit with depth of field and changing that as the shot progressed. The outcome of some of these shots was actually quite good and we even used a few of them in the film. This effect helps delay the way the action is brought into the shot, instead of instantly being able to see what's happening, it enables me to create a suspense of what is coming up. This looks very clean and very professional.
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