Technologies used in my Film!

1. Pre-Production

1.1. Celtx: This script writing software allows you to instantly format you script turning it into the industry standard layout. It was professional and useful when giving it to clients or working off of it.

1.1.1. Project specifications

1.1.2. End User requirements

1.1.3. Action points sign-off

1.2. Celtx: On the other hand this software was very difficult to use at the start as I had to learn how to use a whole new workflow.

1.3. StarNow: This is a great website to find actors who perfectly fit into your casting bracket. We entered a brief description of our film and our characters and got many responses.

1.3.1. Define actions as necessary

1.4. StarNow: It was a but disheartening when we contacted some of the actors and they did not get back to us. Yet the website gave no other contact information.

1.5. Google StreetView: This software allowed us to perform location scouting and plan exterior shots whilst navigating through a scene. It was very useful in the planning stage and allowed us to visualise a scene when it came to storyboarding.

1.6. Google StreetView: One problem that we found with streetview is that the images are often out of date and things have subsequently changes at the location.

2. Online Presentation & Research

2.1. Youtube: This platform is a great way to share content as it can be embedded into other websites such as wix. It now also has the capabilities to support 4K.

2.2. Youtube: It often takes a long time for things to upload to this platform. Especially with the 4K quality of the final film.

2.3. Skype: Skype allowed us to have meetings when various members of the group were in different areas of the country or world.

2.4. Skype: Skype was not always the easiest platform on which to have a meeting as both the video and sound quality is often poor.

2.5. Soundcloud: Soundcloud is also great for sharing content as their are no time limits. It also let me embed my audio into other sited, such as on my Wix blog.

2.6. Soundcloud: Soundcloud is not the easiest software to use as it does not have many options like youtube does. It is however a good software.

2.7. Wix: Wix is the software that I used the most as it was where I published my blog. I found it very easy to use and that it had a wide range of features. It allows for imaginative workflow and presentation.

2.8. Wix: It is not the fastest of softwares as it takes time to buffer and render and often lags when working which interrupts workflow.

2.9. Prezi: Prezi is good from presentations as it allows for creative presentation of work as well as allowing the viewer to interact with it.

2.10. Prezi: I felt that Prezi was not that self explanatory. It took quite a while to learn the layout and how to use all of its features.

2.11. Facebook: We held group chats over Facebook as it is instant, accessible from many converged devices and allows you to send pictures, files or videos.

2.12. Facebook: Requires internet connection and this was not also possible or reliable so it was used in conjunction with other messengers.

2.13. Email: Email is a professional communication platform and allowed us to professionally connect with cast and send scripts and other important documents.

2.14. Email: One of the biggest let downs was that email it not instant. You have to log on to see if you have received and email and are not prompted if you have. Their is also a limit of the size of pictures of video that you can send.

3. Production

3.1. Blackmagic 4K Production Camera: The quality and dynamic range of this camera are its two biggest attributes. It is also very easy to use with its touch screen.

3.2. Blackmagic 4K Production Camera: This camera is not the most ergonomic thing to hold and the audio that it records is pretty much unusable. It is also very heavy.

3.3. Rode NTG-3: This microphone was great for capturing sound without any distortion. The sound was very clear and crisp.

3.4. Rode NTG-3: The microphone had to be very close to the actor in order to capture good audio. It was also hard to record dialogue between characters as it is a directional microphone.

3.5. Slider: The slider allowed me to capture smooth motion whilst retaining interest in the movements.

3.5.1. Included

3.5.2. Included

3.5.3. Excluded

3.6. Slider: The slider was very heavy to carry and also took a while to get properly set up.

3.7. Steadicam: I love the steadicam as I gave me real fluidity in my movements making the film look as though it could have been from a point of view.

3.8. Steadicam: The steadicam was heavy, cumbersome and took a very long time to properly balance.

3.9. Samyang Lenses (14mm, 35mm, 85mm): These lenses gave great depth of field as well as being of the highest build and video quality.

3.10. Samyang Lenses (14mm, 35mm, 85mm): The lenses limited me slightly on set as none have the ability to zoom.

3.11. Lighting: The lights were great as they allowed me to give the film the visual look that I was aiming for. Have many of them meant that we could have a strong lighting set up.

3.12. Lighting: The lights became very hot after a short amount of time and were hard to then move around.

4. Post-Production

4.1. Final Cut Pro X: I found this non-linear editor very intuitive and feel that it contains a plethora of devices that will improve my film.

4.1.1. Dependencies

4.1.2. Milestones

4.2. Final Cut Pro X: The software often struggled with the high quality of our recording format and subsequently in playback many frames were dropped which was frustrating.

4.3. Logic Pro: This software was great for creating a custom film score as you can record whilst watching the film and then edit after the recording has finished (it saves the track in layers.)

4.3.1. Schedule

4.3.2. Budget

4.4. Logic Pro: This track produced has to be exported and sent to Final Cut where it has to be re opened and this takes time. When this audio was in Final Cut we had to make sure that the levels were between -30 and -6 dB in order to maintain best quality which took time.

4.5. Grading: Grading allowed me to give my film a specific tone which would generate a particular feeling towards a scene. It is all about manipulation of emotions and overall aesthetic.

4.5.1. KPI's

4.6. Grading: Colour grading takes a lot of time to perfect. The colours should be clear but subtle and this is hard to achieve.

4.7. Final Cut Effects: Final Cut contains a range of effects to add to the footage to give them style of a particular effect. It is useful as it is simply a drag and drop process.

4.8. Final Cut Effects: The problem with these effects is that they are not exactly subtle and not all of them are customisable.

4.9. Final Cut Titles: I think that the ability to layer titles was useful in my film as adding subtitles to things was an important part of my concept. The titles were also easily customisable.

4.10. Final Cut Titles: You were unable to preview the fonts before selecting them which takes valualble time out of the edit.

4.11. Final Cut Sound Effects: Their are thousands of sound effects and they are all copyright free.

4.12. Final Cut Sound Effects: It takes a lot of work to make the sound effects sound as though they are diagetic sounds.

4.13. Uploading and Transferring Footage: The transfer was good and very high quality. Having multiple SSD cards on set meant that we could do this throughout the day.

4.14. Uploading and Transferring Footage: The 4K footage took up a lot of space as well as a lot of time to transfer.