Evaluation: Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media technologies used in the construction of the film poster, magazine and trailer


Adobe Photoshop

I used Adobe Photoshop to create my film poster and film magazine. I had some previous experience on this software as I used it last year in order to create my magazine for AS year Media and so I felt more confident on it this year and was able to  experiment more with tools such as layer effects in order to create the kind of poster and magazine I wanted.


 
Image Capture

I used this program in order to transfer images from the SLR camera and the canon camera that I had taken for my film poster and magazine. It was a similar programme to iPhoto that I used last year and was very easy to use.





iMovie

Even though I did not directly use this programme as my roles were mise en scene and cinematography which didn't require me to use it I know that we used this program in order to edit our film trailer. This program was very useful as it allowed us to split clips, add sound specifically where we wanted it and change some of our clips to black and white to show they are flashbacks from the past. I will also be using this programme in the evaluation.


 

Garageband

Again even though I did not directly use this programme as my roles were mise en scene and cinematography which didn't require me to use it I know that this programme was used in order to create all the non-diegetic sounds and music that was used in our film trailer. This programme was very useful because it allowed us to use lots of different instruments digitally on a computer in order to add tension and suspense to the trailer.



SLR camera

I used the SLR camera to take photos of the main character in our film for use on my film poster and film magazine. I had experience with these cameras last year in AS media and so this time around I was able to take good quality focused photos fairly quickly and could work the camera very easily.



Mini DV camcorder

We used the DV camcorder to film our teaser trailer for the thriller film. We each were assigned a tape to record all of our footage on. Although I haven't ever used one before I picked it up very quickly and was able to film using this camcorder fairly easily as it was simple to use.






Media technologies used in the Research and Planning and Evaluation stages of the film poster, magazine and trailer

Blogger

I used Blogger to document all the Research and Planning I did in order to create my film poster,magazine and trailer. I also used it to record all the progress and drafts of my film poster and magazine whilst creating them. I also added extra genre research posts and independent research posts to my Blogger to help with the creation of my media products. I used Blogger before in AS media and found so had previous experience on it. Also the website itself is very straightforward and easy to use.

Prezi

I used Prezi to do some brainstorming into ideas for my publication plan before I created my film magazine. Also I used it to present ideas for magazine coverlines. I had used this programme before in AS level and so was fairly confident with it this time around.




Microsoft Powerpoint

I used Microsoft Powerpoint to create the pitch for the film trailer  including details on the mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing as well as a few ideas on genre and narrative. I will also be using Powerpoint for some parts of the evaluation.I have a lot of previous experience on Powerpoint last year in Media and on my AS  level ICT course at college and so I found it very easy to use.





Microsoft Word

I used Microsoft Word to write up my location recces, risk assessments,actor release forms and shot lists for my poster, magazine and trailer. I have lots of experience on Word and have used it for many years and so found it very easy to use this time.





Microsoft Excel

I used Microsoft Excel to do my Production Schedule. This document was useful as it gave me a plan of dates I could stick to to get each task completed throughout the year. I have had previous experience on Excel but I used them to create spreadsheets instead but the basics were still the same and so I found this programme very simple to use for the task I had to do.




Slideshare

I used this website to upload the powerpoint presentations for my pitch and parts of my Evaluation questions onto the internet and then embedded the slideshares into Blogger posts. I haven't used this site before but found it fairly easy to use and a useful website.





Word it out

I used this website to brainstorm ideas for the genre of our film trailer and to think of ideas for what conventional things we should include in the trailer to make it fit the genre. I had never used this site before but found it very easy to understand and a useful site to brainstorm ideas on.





Solvr

I used this website to list ideas for possible names for the film trailer we were going to create. I found this useful as I could just type in any idea or bit of an idea and that could eventually lead to a wide range of options for the title. I had not used this site before but I found it very simple to use and very straightforward to record my ideas.




iShowU

I used this program to create podcasts showing how far I had got at different stages of the year by going through my blog and narrating throughout to explain what I had done on each post. Also I did an ishowU podcast with my partner Nyle where we both talked through our blog and decisions we made together for the film trailer we created.  I had previously used this program in AS year and so found it very easy to use.







Canon camera

I used the canon camera to take some test shots and some photos of the sets used in the trailer. I also used it to take pictures of the written audience feedback we received from the screenings of our film trailer to upload to Blogger.






Facebook

I used Facebook in order to gather feedback from my target audience about my film poster and magazine. I found this feedback very helpful as it told me which bits people liked and which bits needed improving and ways in which they could be improved. I use Facebook on  regular basis and so am very familiar with it and so using it for gathering feedback was really easy and straightforward.





Internet


I used the internet to do some genre research for the film trailer we made.  Also I used Youtube to search for thrillers trailers such as law abiding citizen and memento for inspiration on the types of shots and scenes to include in the trailer.


 







IshowU video showing the technologies I used for the construction of my media products

IshowU video showing the technologies I used for the Research and planning and evaluation stages of my media products

Video showing me explaining the use of the camcorder which I used to film the trailer

In this video I explain the different functions and buttons on the camcorder and what each of them do.

Also in the video I forgot to mention about us using a tripod for some of the shots especially in the bedroom and on the laptop scene. We did this by attaching the camcorder to the top of the tripod and this was very useful for the steady camera scenes.