Holly Wagstaff 13.5Media evaluation question 4

Q.4 How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,

planning and evaluation stages?

During the course I used a range of hardware and software to aid me in

researching, planning and constructing as well as evaluating my

media product. All of it was easily accessible as it was either provided

by the school or easy to acquire myself.

I used a range of different online platforms to view short and feature length movies such as YouTube and Vimeo and, while useful, were prone to buffering and slow to load. Apart from that, however, they provided reasonably good quality videos, Vimeo being the better of the two. I used these as a means to research the conventions of short films and films in my chosen genre; fantasy-thriller. I did this using an iMac computer with a large good quality screen to enhance the viewing experience of these short films.

I also used older technology, DVDs, and new online movie purchasing apps (iTunes) to download relevant media which were more reliable but obviously cost money which was a big disadvantage in comparison to the free video hosting sites. However, because I had an iPhone I could take these films with me anywhere making it easy for me to access them without the clutter of DVD’s (old media).

To further my research I created a questionnaire on word to hand out to people in my class to understand my target audience; teens aged 17-18. Looking back I wish I had used a website like www.surveymonkey.com to distribute my questionnaire to reach a wider audience and more people to get a more in depth understanding of what they want to see in a fantasy-thriller film.

I compiled all my findings into power point to create pie charts and collate my findings using the pie chart tool. It was very easy to use as I already had prior knowledge of how to use it from last years AS coursework research.

Production

When making our film we used a Pentax k-30 DSLR camera in white, which was the better of the two types of camera available. With an 18-55 mm lens which offered a respectable optical quality with a metal lens mount instead of trendy lightweight plastic made it feel well made and stable in our hands and on a tripod. This improved the stability of our shots. The microphone quality of the camera was also very good and enabled us to not have to do much automated dialogue recording(ADR) in post production.

EditingTo edit my film I used Final Cut Pro as it is one of the most advanced editing programmes available you could use today and also not very difficult to manipulate as it’s a digital media programme which allowed me to cut with a stroke of a key and arrange my shots in a ‘drag and drop’ style. I also had prior knowledge of final cut and so didn't have any difficulties using it.

The music I used in my film can all be credited to Freeplaymusic.com and iLife sounds that came with Final Cut Pro. With Freeplaymusic.com all i had to do was upon download state that i was a student and not using it for profit and they would grant me access to all music for a period of 99 years. These mp3. files would then appear in my iTunes folder ready to ‘drag and drop’ onto the cut version of my footage.

While in post production I also made use of the slow motion feature where I slowed down a section of my film to 50% of it’s original speed to create tension and suspense (2:54-2:59, 4:07-4:19) during the ritual scene to add to the enigma of the purpose of her ritual.

Magazine and posterWhen researching posters and magazines Google and Google images were my main tools to find inspiration for my ancillary texts. I also used online Magazines to find inspiration for my film review. For my posters I collated some images of posters that were from films of similar genres and analyzed them in word. I also did the same thing for my review.

To plan out the layout of my poster and magazine I created a flat plan on word using the shape tool and text boxes, this was a lot easier and less time consuming than making a flat plan either on Photoshop or sketched out on paper. I also wrote out the main body of text for my review on word to later transfer into Photoshop later on.

To create both products I used Photoshop due to the fact that I had difficulty using Indesign and I also had more experience in the Photoshop program. I used many tools in Photoshop that id never used before such as the transparency tool to create a transparent skull on top the image of my main character.

EvaluationFor my evaluations I used a few different types of platforms such as PowerPoint and Prezi.com. I also transferred my PowerPoints onto Slideshare as I’d looked to that website for inspiration for my evaluations and thought I could contribute back to the site by adding my own information and styles. This would also give me an opportunity to learn from the comments other people could potentially leave for further knowledge of how to compose an evaluation and/or PowerPoint presentation. I could also apply this explanation to my use of Prezi.com as I set my documents to public to garner new information.