6. Evaluation of Equipment

 

For the editing and post production of our film we used Final Cut Pro X. Final cut pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by macromedia inc and later by apple inc for Intel-based OS mac computers.  Final cut pro provides non-linear, non-destructive editing of any quick time compatible video format, it supports a number of simultaneously composed video tracks, up to 99 audio tracks and multi-camera editing for combining video from multiple camera sources as well as many edit functions.

The software is industry standard and allowed us to perform many tasks that simply wouldn’t be possible on the other software option we had, pinnacle studio, such as colour correction, use of vignette, use of black bars above and below the clip to create a cinematic effect  and use of extensive audio enhancement etc…

Final Cut Pro X

  

Canon EOS 550D

 One of the cameras we used for filming was the camera we used to film was a Canon EOS 550D, this is a semi-professional camera that allowed to capture our footage in stunning detail that would hopefully be as close to industry standard as possible. The Canon shoots in high quality 1080p HD video allowing us to create a high quality cinematic effect. However there were some disadvantaged to this camera such as, it is very expensive and could easily be broken if not handled in the correct manner. The camera is also very complex to operate so the whole productions team needed to be aware of how to operate it correctly in a way that would produce the best results before filming could properly begin. 

 

Canon EOS 550D

JVC GY-HM100 

The other camera that we used to film was the JVC GY-HM100, this is also an extremely expensive and high quality semi-professional camera that we actually used to film the behind the scenes footage. The camera also shoots directly in QuickTime format which is the format used to edit in Final cut pro, the editing software we used for the post production side.  The same disadvantages apply to this camera as they did to the canon, as it is a very expensive camera it would be a lot of money for a replacement if it were to be damaged through improper handling. 

JVC GY-HM 100

Steadicam / shoulder rig 

A Steadicam is a type of camera stabilizing mount for filming; the main purpose of the steadicam is to mechanically isolate it from the movements of the operator allowing for a smooth shot. The smoothness of the shot is even maintained when moving quickly over an uneven surface.  The steadicam is basically a slightly more practical and more portable version of the dolly, only it can move anywhere the camera operator wishes to move for shooting purposes and is not fixed on set tracks like a dolly would be. 

Shoulder rig

Dolly

 For many of our tracking and other shots we used a dolly to create a smooth professional looking shot. Although we did not have in our possessional dolly, we improvised and created a homemade dolly and tracks with some plastic piping from B&Q. The homemade dolly worked very well in making the shot smooth so it was not distracting to the action taking place in the scene.  However as with everything there are also disadvantages of using the dolly such as, the tubes use as tracks to run the dolly were not collapsible so remained their full size the whole time during filming and transport which caused difficulties when transporting around the several locations that we were filming at.

Homemade Dolly

SD cards

The SD cards we used to store the footage were SanDisk Ultra 64GB. These cards allowed us to store masses of data in a small confined space in the camera which we could then manipulate later in editing.  By using cards with such a large storage capacity we did not have to change them regularly and were able to just use one in each camera, one for the filming and one for the behind the scenes.  However the disadvantages of using the small SD cards were that they are very small and could easily be dropped and lost along with all the date stored on them. There is also the danger that the cards could not be backed up or formatted properly, jeopardising the footage that we had shot, fortunately we did not encounter any of these problems.

SanDisk Ultra 64GB SD Card

Crane

The crane we used was an 8 foot long camera crane; there were many benefits of using the camera crane such as it allowed for a smooth shot that panned up and down to heights unreachable by hand held and dolly mounted cameras. This was particularly useful for the viaduct establishing shot where we wanted a full view shot panning up from the ground to the top of the bridge allowing the viewers to grasp the fully height up the viaduct. The impact of the film will be much greater if the audience fully understands the scale of the viaduct. However there were some disadvantages of using the crane such as, it is quite large and not particularly easy to transport, it is also quite complicated to assemble and operate correctly so required a lot of skill and knowledge from the productions team to work using the crane effectively. 

Crane

Boom and Microphone

The boom microphone that we used for recording sound was a Rode model, during the filming of the indoor scenes such as the scene in Kym’s bedroom we kept the microphone as normal and the sound quality was perfect. We were able to ensure there was no chance of distortion though the use of headphones while recording and also by visually checking the levels on the monitor. The boom poles were collapsible making the microphone very portable and easy to transport from location to location.  However the boom is not without its difficulties.  When filming within confined spaces it is all too easy to catch the microphone on the ceiling or a wall but this was something we became accustomed to very quickly and easily so it caused us no problems. It is also takes large amounts of physical effort to maintain the microphone at a height that will pick up the audio well nought but also remain out of shot.  For filming the outside scenes (which was for most of the filming) we used a ‘Dead cat’ cover for the microphone which compensated for the wind and avoided distortion of the audio. 

boom

Rode mic

Tripods

 The tripods we used allowed us to film steady shots on constant action. This was especially useful for shots that were either close ups or extreme close ups as it held the camera completely still while shooting when a shake would be particularly obvious and would take away from the professional effect that we were aiming for. The tripod contained air bubble levellers that allowed us to make sure the shot was completely level before shooting.  The tripods were collapsible and very easy to transport from location to location, the camera could be easily secured to the top of the tripod so we didn’t have to worry about it falling off and getting damaged. However the tripods can become impractical when wanting to track a shot smoothly for a particularly long distance as the tripod although very smooth in panning has very limited movement.  But this was when the Steadicam and the dolly came in. 

Tripod

Green screen

There was one particular scene where the use of a green screen was necessary. This scene was the viaduct jump scene where our character Joe jumps off the viaduct. Clearly this scene would be impossible to film exactly this way. So as a solution we filmed the scene up until just before the jump where Joe is climbing up on the fence.  We then filmed the jump from a different wall which was in reality only a metre off the ground as opposed to a huge drop on the other side like on the viaduct. However to make the jump still look authentic we held a green screen up behind Joe as he jumped from the smaller wall, we had also earlier taken a photograph of the background at the viaduct location. This was then transposed onto the green screen during post production editing to make the scene look authentic and like Joe really was jumping off of the viaduct. This complexity of editing was only possible on Final Cut pro, although it is possible to use green screen editing on Pinnacle studio it would not look as authentic as it did with Final cut pro and we wanted it to look as close to being real as possible and not look staged. 

The team with the green screen

We have used Blogger to post our blogs of our AS Media Production. This is mainly because this is available to us from both within Sixth Form and at home for free. This is a very good blogging site which is easy to use and I found the system quick to learn and use efficiently. One advantage of using Blogger is that we have complete control over the HTML, so we could modify or apply any external template if we wished. Also, as Blogger is connected to Google, if we forgot the password onto our blogs it would send us a text message with a security key on, which is useful as we don't lose all of our course work.

Blogger Logo

To post all of our films including the finished product, the behind the scenes and the rough edits, we used Vimeo. Much alike Blogger, we could access Vimeo from inside Sixth Form, whereas we wouldn't use its rivalry site Youtube. We could get high quality videos onto Vimeo and it not destroy the quality as YouTube does, and as we filmed in HD, we wanted to show our film in HD so Vimeo was evidently the best choice for us to use. However, each film that you put onto Vimeo, is limited to a maximum of 5GB of data, which isn't much considering we were shooting in HD, so we had to compress the file in Final Cut Pro and upload it directly.

Vimeo Logo