The NikonD3200 exceeded any expectations I may of had. It is 24 megapixel and shoots in FULL HD. The quality of the shots were fantastic. However, the medium of which I shot through made a difference to its performance. For example, when I shot through the six inch bullet proof glass at The Shard to capture my time lapse the quality was reduced slightly. Another problem I had with the NIKON is the focus pull. I don't have the steadiest hands in the world, so when I attempted the focus pull in the very first scene after the time lapse, the camera shook a little. If I could repeat this task, I would invest in a remote or something that will change the focal length on the camera automatically to ensure a smooth focus pull.
The tripod was sufficient enough in all terrains. The biggest problem I faced with the tripod was when I was filming the murder scene. The ground was all wet mud and the tripod began to sink a little and wasn't very stable. I rectified this situation by placing some bricks that were near by under the tripod to secure it in place. This seemed to work fine. The stabiliser takes a while to fine tune. If the camera isn't calibrated on it perfectly, it becomes useless. So my only criticism I have of the stabiliser/steadicam is how long it took to set up.
The GOPRO HD BLACK EDITION, shoots in 4K. It is very small, smaller than I expected in fact it fits in the palm of a hand comfortably. This wasn't a problem, but what was, is the fact it did not have a screen or a peephole to view footage live. So this meant I had no idea what I had filmed until I reviewed it on a computer later. Also, I have mentioned this before but when it is designed to float in the event it is dropped underwater. Buoyancy meant that every time I dived to the bottom of the pool to get far beneath the victim floating, i would naturally float back up again. Juggling trying to dive and hold the camera, whilst looking at the actress and trying to judge where to place the camera because it had no screen was no easy feat.
There were several problems I faced with some of the footage, and I had to implement some editing genius to get away with it. Perhaps the most notable example of this was the Time Lapse which I mention in detail in a separate post.
EDITING SOFTWARE
To create my final piece I used both Final Cut Express 4 and Final Cut Pro. They are both hugely different. Final Cut Pro has an 'adobe' feel to it. It is more similar to adobe premiere than its predecessor. However, there were benefits to using Final Cut Pro.
For example, colour correcting in Final Cut Pro is far more advanced than Final Cut Express. When colour correcting the underwater footage, so that it looks more genuine Final Cut Pro was definitely the program of choice. One problem I had was alternating between the two. So eventually, I left Express behind and went all Pro. Express has some time consuming irritating qualities such as rendering all its footage, where as Final Cut Pro does not. So in my opinion Final Cut Pro was more time efficient.
The editing of my piece is fairly simple. Jump Cuts and simple fades (in and out). Perhaps an interesting editing point was when I overlaid the P.O.V shot at the murder scene. That took time because I had to move than scale the close up of his face so that it would be harmonious with its background. See Below.
As you can see his face is in the middle of the screen and his eyes are on either side of the tree. They fit the shape of the background rather well. This was deliberate so the transition is just a little smoother and to really show how tormented the girl is by this murderer. It puts the murderer on a pedestal almost, making him appear omnipotent. Editing is so important in conveying character traits and personalities. For example, his fragile psyche is reflected in the jump cuts and hectic/quick transitions during the murder scene.
Garageband
I made a very elaborate soundtrack via garageband using a mixture of loops and short compositions for my first draft. Garageband can be very time consuming and requires a certain basic level of musical knowledge for a product of any quality to be made. I made the soundtrack from scratch and applied it to my first draft. However, upon heading the advice from colleagues and people who viewed the video, I changed it. Generally, the soundtrack was met with negative feedback. Due to time restriction, I had to download a royalty free soundtrack and apply it. So although I used Garageband for my first draft, I did not use it for my final product.
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