The Coalition

Utilising all technology available to us, a truly multimedia production is what we aimed for so choosing and using them effectively is key.

A wide range of technologies were involved and used thoroughly throughout our project; a very good example of this is blogger, a more interactive and intuitive way of logging/document what we as a group see, discuss and act on. In regard to the research stage, we used blogger to share what we were all seeing individually, our different ideas and outlooks on the project itself. With planning it allowed us to upload images of our storyboards, scripts and other important pieces of information; it also allowed us to input a filming timetable which enabled us to keep each other on track and manage our time more efficiently. During the production stage blogger really did help us keep a focus, it held all the information we needed to film and allowed us to note down where we were whether ahead of schedule or not and whether to make adjustments before it was too late. During the evaluation stage Blogger made it easier to looks on our years work in hindsight, placing everything in a an orderly, accessible format that helped with comparison and marking out the birth of an idea and it’s route onto our finished piece.

During the production, research and planning stages we used the Canon 7D to capture our surroundings as well as the final shots that we eventually used in our final piece. Blocking is vital because it gives you a real feel for your scenery giving you the knowledge on what is truly possible to capture in your selected location effecting along with enhancing our shot list and shot plan. An example of this would be for our final scene there is a shot of Rhys, the boyfriend walking down the hallway which could only be achieved by the camera moving in time with the actor, to do this a big enough hallway was needed. That was a scenario where we had to block in search of the perfect hallway that fitted the atmosphere of the scene and was big enough to fit the equipment and technique we planned on using.

[Screenshots of blocking]

We truly did utilise the Adobe Creative Suite 5 package provided during the production stage; using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Soundbooth. After effects allowed us to even the colours throughout the composition and then colour code as well as adding special effects effectively while Premiere Pro was used for the continuity edit making sure that all the composition does make sense. While Soundbooth was used to clean up previously recorded audio that had background chatter or that had noise that made cuts between shots more obvious.

YouTube was a major piece of technology used throughout being an open creative platform people frequently upload their own short films as well as trailers for Hollywood films that we used for inspiration while during the production stage we used it as a learning tool, teaching out how to achieve the contra zoom (dolly zoom) shot we used as well as the special effects in addition to the motion tracking used during the title sequence.

The adobe package and Canon 7D were also used in the production of our ancillary pieces. We used the 7D to hold a photoshoot with our actors to be used on the film poster and the magazine review page. We used the images, manipulated them in Photoshop to create a excellent film poster. We used the same images but imported them into InDesign to create our magazine review page which was quite a successful adventure as well.