How did you use Media technologies in the

Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

Firstly, starting with the research stage of the coursework, I explored many websites on the Internet to find a good range of film posters, magazine covers and trailers that all followed the fantasy genre. I knew that due to the many films that will provide inspiration for this were being released in the cinemas at the time, so I knew that I could see them around many places acting as advertisements on bill boards, posters in magazines and off course in the local cinema. I looked at how they made me feel and the effects they used to do this such as the dark, eerie nature being produced via the mist.

I looked on many websites such as Odeon and the production company Warner Bros to find some ideas and how they seemed to present their media products. Throughout the process of creating our trailer we have used a variety of different media technologies.

Research

Not only did I use technology in the production stages such as filming and editing, but also during my initial research and planning as well. The internet is the biggest resource that I have had throughout the coursework so that I could research useful websites with existing media products such as the posters and the magazines.

It also provided me a fully working blog (WordPress.com) for me to present my work. I could record all my decisions and post pictures of any drafts to help me develop my work. To watch film trailers and become more familiar with the camera shots used and any special effects that I can gain inspiration from I used the popular video site ‘YouTube’. I think it played a key role to my research as you can search up anything you may want to find including some useful tutorials before you construct the product.

Planning

For the Planning stage I made use of some apps and Widgets that are available online, for example ‘Time toast’ which is a timeline website which allowed me to add in dates and times for when a section of my coursework was due in or help me plan what order I should do things so that I am better organised and shows I managed my time wisely.

Time toast

Bubbl.us

A mind mapping website which helped me create colourful mind maps for my idea.

Prezi

A website where you can make moving presentations and again mind maps.

Throughout these main construction stages, I had used a range of different media technologies in order to create my finished products. Firstly to capture images, I had to use an iPhone camera and a digital camera. Then to actually film the trailer I used a small cannon Video camera which was very practical because as the director I had to run around quite a lot when I was applying tracking shots and then attached it to the top of a tripod to capture the high shots and to make sure the camera remained still.

The iPhone technology is particularly developing the way we work in today’s times because of its fast email and messaging services that can go straight to a computer. So when my digital camera unfortunately ran out of battery on the day of filming, I was still able to take some quality pictures on the camera which could be emailed to me and edited to fit my print pieces.

Construction

Finally to edit the pictures and videos I used the available Adobe package software such as Photoshop, premier pro and In design. I also managed to create effective patterns and shapes on Illustration which proved to come in very handy whilst creating my magazine cover. When I was coming to an end with the production stage, I received feedback by using social networking sites so that my products could be distributed to a great amount of people at the same time. I was then able to print screen them and upload them to the blog as evidence and show how effective it is. Overall I believe that new media has been applied to my work appropriately and has challenged me in using some software more successfully then before. It has helped me create more professional pieces efficiently.

Evaluation In the Evaluation stage I wanted to publish my draft and final pieces so that I could receive any helpful feedback which could encourage me to improve and change anything in my work. I posted ideas onto the Facebook wall so that the public and friends can see it. I also used YouTube so I was able to upload the video onto my blog properly and so again I can get comments and also explore how many views it gets since being posted.