Embracing New Technology

Jack Windsor and I have been doing a lot of research over the summer regarding film and film editing. The main reason we deemed this necessary is because with the thriller we didn’t need any kind of special effects however we had planned before the summer to do a post-apocalyptic action film. A lot of people advised us not to but me and Jack stumbled across a few YouTube videos showing just how realistic you could make a gun shot.
This was a major breakthrough for both me and Jack and the rest of the group because it meant we could now do whatever we like without having to worry about people just seeing another cliché sixth form short film. The program we will use to create the realistic action sequences will make our film look so much more professional as well as an exciting action film.
In the video below I and Jack both describe the impact that the software program we are going to use will have on the final film. We spent over £600 on the software so we aim to use it as much as possible in the final film.

The program we are going to use use is Adobe After Effects which is a special effects program that is used after we are done editing the film in Pinnacle. This program allows us to add in effects such as blood squirts, muzzle flashes, glass breaks and thousands of other effects. We were inspired to use this program after watching a video created by "freddiew2" on youtube showing how to create a professional muzzle flash. Harvey and I were very inspired by this video as the muzzle flashes created looked extremely realistic and he had a step by step tutorial showing how to replicate it. Below is the video:



As a group we all thought about using an HD Ready camera. We knew that whatever camera we used wouldn’t affect our marks, however by using an HD camera it would make our film seem more professional to our audience and hopefully wouldn’t seem like a mediocre school project. One of our influences towards this decision was last year’s film ‘The Quintessential Guide: To Dispose of a Body’ which was filmed entirely using an HD Camera. Our group were all very impressed with the quality of their footage and it made the film seem extremely professional.

However at this moment in time unfortunately none of our group owns an HD camera. Obviously without the HD camera we cannot film in HD. We are all trying to figure out a way of either buying or renting an HD camera as we want to make our film as good as it can possibly be.

By Jack Windsor and Harvey Young