6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Using technology is a very important part of producing a media product so we had to learn about this technology in order to use it to the best of our abilities. I have learnt much by completing this product; using a camera, setting up lighting, working with many softwares (Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Live Type etc.)

Camera: We were all shown how to perform a focus pull (using a small toggle on the side of the camera close to the lens) on the camera although Raef was the best at carrying this out so he has filmed the focus pulls within the opening sequence. The focus pull technique was applied to the shot where the phone is vibrating, but our protagonist ignores it. About 3 focus pulls were originally planned, one other being another phone focus pull, but we cut them out because they did not seem appropiate. If I had a chance to reshoot parts of 'Glitch's opening sequence I would try to make the shots more steady as I noticed a few jolted slightly when it was supposed to be stationary.

Tripod: The tripod was often too large and bulky to be used in shots as the room we were shooting in did not have much space after fitting three lights into it, so we often did without it. Handholding the camera was also more convenient when filming close ups. However for some midshots such as the shot of typing from behind from 0:27 and the shot at 0:59, we used the tripod to add viarity to our shots.

Lighting: As a member of our group, Raef, had prior experience with lighting, he explained to us the different types of lighting equipment and their function. Here is a Raef video explaining the setup used in our opening sequence test shoot, during our actual shoot we have three lights instead of one in order to reduce the graininess of the shots, although this did take up more space in the room. This was shot on the day of our test shoot.

Sometimes the lights would be taken off the stands in order to get the lighting effect that we needed. During shoots I was given the task of holding one of the lights or a reflector when necessary, if I wasn't directing or organising the shot. Some of the lights were quite heavy and was quite difficult to hold for long periods of time so we had to be considerate to anyone supporting them. The equipment also became quite hot and we had to be careful not to hold it incorrectly. At one point one during our shoot of the bulbs exploded, meaning we had to stop and clean up the shards of glass, although the glass had become so hot that it melted into the carpet. It also meant that we had to carry on with two lights instead of two.

Live Type: This is a software on the Apple Mac that we used to create the titles that were shown during the opening sequence. Together we wrote a list of names and titles that would be within the sequence, then Raef worked on this while Anna was editing and while I was animating graphics.

Adobe Premiere Pro: We had learnt the basics of Adobe Premiere Pro through the preliminary task so this time round we learnt some advanced aspects of Adobe Premiere Pro, such as grading and adding bandpasses, although this was done while I was animating.

For grading I was taught how to use the Three-Way Colour Corrector and ProcAmp which could be used to adjust the brightness, colour saturation, contrast and shadow colour in different shots. Grading was especially useful for when a shot did not look like it belonged in the sequence because if the different colours, or brightness.

Adobe Photoshop: Within Photoshop I composed graphics that would replicate a windows screen using screenshots of a real screen and Photoshop shape tools. This was something that I had learnt to do before this project so I was able to apply my knowledge to this aspect of the film opening. I also used Photoshop to design a poster that promoted the preview screening of the film.

Adobe After Effects: I then animated the graphics which I made in Photoshop so that it appeared as though the rookie hacker was typing and moving screens about. I did this by using the "typewriter" effect which made the text scroll, as though typing. Keyframes were applied for position and opacity in order to create the animation of on screen graphics. These were mostly skills that I learnt along the way; I've used After Effects before so I was familiar with shortcuts and functions of tools, but I had to learn about the effects and movement lines. If I had the chance to recreate the graphics, I would check the resolution they needed to be as I wasted time resizing the graphics when they turned out far too pixelated to use. 

Animating the graphics for the opening sequence was fairly simple after I'd learnt all the necessary tools, but very time consuming, as with any form of animation. My main focus for the editing peroid was to get the graphics sorted so while I was taught how to operate other programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Live Type, I was unable to practice these skills. Thankfully I had all of the graphics finished in time for the deadline.