Advanced Portfolio Evaluation - Jess Garman - Question 4

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Digital cameras:
In our group we were very fortunate to have Charlea, who is also a photography student and therefore had a very good camera we could use. We all took this as a great opportunity to take plenty of photos on set. Both as evidence of our filming and in preparation to get the best shot possible for our poster. We also took photographs to show elements such as mis en scene, for example photos of the seagulls and the different locations on the beach we could have used but chose not to. (examples below).

Filming Equipment included:
• Camera
• Tripod
• Torch
• Dolly

We were generally pleased with our rushes because we had quite a high quantity and a large variation of shots to choose from. However in some of our more essential shots (the conversation between the two characters), we had obviously forgot to set the white balance, therefore the colour saturation and lighting were distorted and highly noticeable. To overcome this we first attempted to repair the damage made, but when that proved unsuccessful we edited the storyboard to fit around using different shots, this was only possible due to our quantity of rushes.

We aimed for continuity in our editing as it is a social realism we wanted the audience to be able to relate to the recognisable locations and be able to get involved in the characters journey without distraction. We tried our hardest to be as detailed and precise as possible with our editing. However, I feel that because we had watched our film so many times we were missing little details and in places our broke continuity. For example we were so distracted by repairing the sound in our shot –reverse-shot conversation part that we failed to notice some mistakes. In one particular part a couple walk past behind the elderly man and then when it goes to the young boy they have disappeared. Also in terms of the traffic behind them a red double-decker bus is driving past behind the elderly man, and again has disappeared by the time we see the younger boy without a significant enough time lapse. We worked hard to ensure we stuck to the 180° rule, by reminding ourselves of it whilst filming and discussing how it would look in post production, this we succeed in. In terms of sound we also used non – diegetic sound in recording an acoustic guitar to go over the action towards the end of our film. I feel that this helped to pick up the pace that was lost when we had to get rid of the conversation and replace it with a voiceover, as in places the viewer may start to get bored.