DETAINEE 238

How did you use the media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research

InternetIn order to get hold of the props that were used in the film, we had to find out where we could get them from. The main prop/costume we needed to get hold of was the orange suits. Using the internet helped us locate which company kept hold of some of these suits. We then came to know that ‘Amnesty International’ which is a campaigning organisation had some of these suits and so we were able to contact them in order to ask for them.

Research

Survey MonkeySurvey Monkey is a website which allows us to make questionnaires online through simple steps. This website is very easy and fast to use and therefore we used it to create our questionnaires. It allows us to get results rapidly and therefore it was a wise website to use.

Research

FacebookOnce our questionnaire was made in Survey Monkey we was able to embed it onto social networking sites so that friends and family could carry out the questionnaire. I posted the link onto my Facebook wall so that people could see it and take part in it.

Research

YouTubeDuring the production stages of our film, it was important that we gained knowledge of the different camera shots and editing techniques in order to be efficient whilst shooting and editing. During this time I used YouTube several times to research on Montage Editing, Rule of Thirds, Camera angles etc.

I also used YouTube to research on other drama films and trailers so that I could identify which conventions we had used in our film.

PlanningHotmailUsing Hotmail I was able to contact ‘Amnesty International’ to request the orange suits. I was also able to attach the ‘actor appeal’ poster onto an email and send it out to all of my friends and family so that people who were interested in taking the main role could contact me for further details. After finding an appropriate actor, I was able to keep contact with them through Hotmail to arrange our shooting dates.

Planning

PhoneMobile phones allowed me to keep contact with all members of my group as well as the actors. This use of communication was more efficient when it came to arranging shooting dates and meeting up as it was much more reliable in the way that if we needed to have an urgent meeting, calls would reach the receiver faster than an email would. Not everyone may have internet on their phones to be able to access their Hotmail on the go.

Planning

Microsoft WordBefore we would go out to shoot, it was important to carry out health and safety checks. I used Microsoft Word to create a table of all the possible dangers in each location to make sure that all the locations were safe for us to use. We also used Microsoft Word to write up our film script.

Planning

Camera’s After our final scripts were written up on Microsoft Word, we needed to create a storyboard. The primary stage of producing this was by using a paper and pencil and sketching a storyboard and then snaps of the storyboard was taken using digital cameras.

Construction

iMovieAfter the storyboard was produced an Animatic was needed to be made. This was done using a software called iMovie. Other software's such as Windows Movie Maker could have been used to create this Animatic however iMovie contained all the sound effects that was needed therefore we chose to use it.

YouTube link for Animatic:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yaZRxqW8Ug

Construction

Final Cut ProWe used Final Cut to edit our film and cut the length down to a maximum of 5minutes. It was a great software to use as it had all the tools we needed for our film and it also was a very enjoyable software which gave me a whole new level of skills which I can enhance if I were to take it into further practise.

Construction

QuickTime PlayerThe storyboard, animatic and film was changed into QuickTime so that it could be uploaded onto YouTube to be shared with the audience. This was very useful to us as it allowed us to get feedback on our film from the audience, which helped us make improvements to make sure that our film is made to the best of our capabilities.

Construction

iMac iMacs were the computers that we used from the beginning till the end of our course. For easier tasks which use Microsoft software’s the iMac computers were not needed and these tasks could have been done at home however for more complicated tasks which needed media software’s such as Final Cut, Photoshop and iMovie it was necessary to use the iMac. Not only are iMac’s fast but they also allowed us to use Bluetooth connections so we could easily Bluetooth sound files that we had stored onto our phones to use for our film.

Construction

External Hard DrivesExternal hard drives were used throughout our course to store our work. This was useful to us during the production stages of our film as most of the files that we were producing were very large therefore they would take up a lot of space on USB sticks causing us to either use more than one USB or keep deleting old files and saving new ones. External hard drives avoided this hassle.

Evaluation

Microsoft PowerPointMicrosoft PowerPoint was useful during this course as it allowed me to create quick and easy slides evaluating the work that I have done during the production stages of the course. Using software’s such as PowerPoint are very handy as you are able to upload them onto SlideShare and post them anywhere you like using embed codes.

Evaluation

BlogSpotBlogSpot was used to create blogs on all the things learnt throughout the course from beginning till end. This was a productive way of evaluating our work as through this we were able of keeping an up-to-date account of all the work that we done.