Evaluation Task 6: What have you learnt about Digital technologies?

To shoot our thriller we used the semi professional camera Sony NX5. We were taught how to handle this camera and learnt the basics when we first produced our prelim task, so when we shot our thriller my group felt pretty confident. These cameras enabled us to have extreme close up shots and wide, establishing shots, without having to change the lens. One of the many challenges we faced when using the camera was focusing the shot, the instructions are as follows: zoom in as far as you can on a white space, press the white balance button and pull out and frame the shot.

After the shoot we took our rushes and transferred them onto a Mac computer in the editing suite, just above the filming studio, which is an example of technology convergence. Once the rushes were uploaded to the Mac were able to open them up using the Non Linear Editing Software, Final Cut Pro. We firstly organised the rushes into two bins, the rush bin and the log bin . As we labelled the shots we determined which shots we were not going to use and which shots we were and putting them into the log bin. We never deleted any footage because we never knew if we were going to need it later on in the process. Once I learnt all the keyboard shortcuts, editing came to me a lot easier.


A screenshot to show how we produced the annotations onto our YouTube Video

Link to the YouTube video, including annotations

By using digital media technologies I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced a successful film opening sequence. This has made me a prosumer, a creator of media products to a near professional standard.  The use of Final cut pro as a piece of editing software has taught me how to select and organise a music video to a very high standard using semi-professional  media equipment.  I have also been able to share ideas and research global and industry standard products. Digital technology has made available to me opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using YouTube as a free online broadcast platform. It is also interactive – audiences have been able to leave feedback, like and comment on my products using features such as  the like button on YouTube. These new skills learned on this course have enabled to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also to also become a producer – important to an understanding of the media in an online age.