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

When creating the final product, along with the ancillary texts, media technologies were an essential part as they were needed in the construction, research, and planning and evaluation stages. In every one of the stages I used a selection of media technologies due to the fact it helped with finding information, editing and making the products. Some of the media technologies I have used throughout the stages where Internet 2.0, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Slideshare and Microsoft office software’s. 

Starting off with the research stage and the way I used media technologies throughout, with the research stage I had to find out about horror films, get to know more information about the target demographic and research magazines, posters and trailers. I used google search engine to explore for information about codes and conventions of horror films such as Halloween so I could include these in to the final products, google was also used to help search for German expression and Film noir to find out information of film history and camera work. Learning how to use google successfully is not a difficult task, however searching for specific context has to be inputted in a certain format. Having such a massive search engine like google, has benefited work on research and helped to find other software’s to help throughout.

Due to analysing different magazines, posters and trailers I needed somewhere to search for these products; google easily allowed quick searches and found ranges of items which I have used or could have used to analyse. When analysing the trailers I needed to find a media technology which would let me search for a variety of trailers and allow me to watch them freely online I was able to do this on YouTube, this is a platform which allows you to watch videos online. Without YouTube I would have needed to find another online website that would help me in the researching but YouTube has a massive consistency of videos which was the best platform. In the past when platforms such as google and YouTube did not exist it would be hard researching about this area of horror films, from having these new technologies I was able to find trailers from the past Halloween 1978 trailer and new trailers such as Texas chainsaw massacre trailer. YouTube is an important platform used in the researching section, I have learnt how to use this software to find exactly any video I need. I have learnt that have websites that distribute videos online are very successful and without websites such as YouTube people would be unable to find films, videos and footage.

When researching my target audience it involved primary and secondary data, I researched this data and conducted it by. Primary was found by creating an online survey on WWW.QUESTIONPRO.COM another media technology used, this website allowed me and my group to create an online questionnaire about horror films and what the audience like then distribute it on social media websites such as FaceBook and Twitter. From the online software I was able to create a questionnaire, copy the URL link and post it on the social media websites so that a wide demographic would respond to the questionnaire and this will build quantitative results which I analysed of Microsoft Power point. Using media technologies such as Facebook and Twitter this helped me distribute the questionnaires to a bigger audience so that there was a bigger answer and more accurate data. Once gaining the responses, question-pro summed up the results into graphs which I was then able to put them into power point, with this media technology I was able create a presentation of the research I have found out about the audience and put the graphs and bar charts in with explaining each point. Power point as shown in the research process has allowed me to create a slideshow easily of what I have found and from this I have one of my presentations in slide share so it can be published onto the blog as a video show from a link and the other presentation I saved as JPEG.s to show different ways of presenting the slide. Whereas for the secondary data this included researching statistics and information in google, and the national office of statistics. From the research on these media technologies especially the statistics I arranged and copied them onto a power point presentation. I have learnt from using online software’s from the internet it is an easier way to find out important data and research, without having products to create surveys it would mean doing them by hand and handing them out give less responses. I have learnt how to appropriately create a survey online, with editing and distributing through social media websites with HYPERLINKS.
 

Coming to the planning, with this area I had to plan out what I will do when constructing my final tasks. The media technology I mainly used in the planning was Microsoft word, this was because I needed to type out the different task such as risk assessment or shooting scripts with word I was able to create tables and change page layouts to fit the preferences of each of the tasks. This software is easy to use for all users and easy to copy work onto my blog, it has ranges of designs and font sizes and font types. In the planning stage the group had to create a film synopsis of what will happen in the film, we did this on word as it provided us spell and grammar checks as well as providing us word counts and page previews. With word I was able to create boxes and table for all the health and safety checks to creating personal profiles for my casting calls as word creates shapes to add the information in, as well as being able to add images within the work.

                                                      

Next was the construction of the finals tasks, before constructing the trailer, magazine or poster I had to start with the creation of the title, The Return. It was created first on WWW.DAFONT.COM, This is a media technology which lets you test out a certain words in many different fonts, and to fit the right font then copy it into what you need. With the media technology we search for the horror category to find different horror formats, add our title into the search box, which came up with a list of horror texts in the name of our trailer and then picked the one that fitted best and saved it. From here we opened the title on Photoshop the next media technology used, to edit it, we had to get rid of the white background and change it to black, change the text colour to splashes of red and white to show the look of flesh and blood, and the comparison of innocence and experienced. From Photoshop we saved the title as a JPEG so it was able to be used consistently through the final tasks. With websites like DaFont I would not have been able to find an appropriate title for my movie name, website found from the Internet are freely use able, learning and searching the Internet to find a suitable font was learnt through the making of my title.

                           

The construction of the trailer, the first media technology used in the creation of the trailer was the camera. The camera was a Sony camera, as there has been a development in cameras in the recent years this technology helped when filming as it had zooms, filters and helped in having an easily transfer from the tapes into hard drives which were put onto computers to start editing. While filming in shoots, the camera was helpful because it has an inbuilt micro phone and being able to watch footage back rewind, play and stop to check if it was recorded right, this has been a success to the filming as when it came to some of the sound it was recorded on to the tapes with the footage, and if we filmed a scene wrong we could check and change it on the same moment. The last advantage of having these cameras instead of using old cameras or phone video cameras was the picture quality, this helped with the minor details of blood and to the close up of the actors as it was better quality and being a low budget independent film these cameras worked with the trailer. Having at least hardly any knowledge of how to use a video camera such as the one shown, I have now learnt how to effectively use this product, I am now able to focus in and out of shots, zoom in and out of shots and us the setting successfully. Without trying out the video camera before I would not have been able to film a trailer like the one shown on the final trailer page.

                                            

 

The next media technology used in the creation of the trailer was serif movie maker plus, this is an editing software in making the trailer it changes the footage in our trailer to a non-linear format and edits, cuts and add captions, logos and the title. This media technology was the main technology used in the creation of the trailer, it was the editing technology so that we could chop and change the parts that where needed and not needed. The movie software was good as we could make scenes look different to what was shot, especially the shoot when the camera flashes, like a picture, this was the changing to brightness to contrast. The media technology was good because it helped with adapting the speed of the trailer, as the trailer starts slow, then builds speed, this was done on the software as it allowed us into speeding up the footage into creating the tension within the scenes. With the technology there was difficulties in using the software as it was new to us, and some of the editing would look to fake due to the adding of the filters or the colour levels. When using serif movie plus, we had to learn how to use tools within the software that can work with the footage, this included learning how to change/add filters, colour balances and captions within the programme. We also had to learn how to insert images and footage onto the software, this has helped with the construction of my media trailer. One of my biggest changes was when I learnt how to use such a complicated software like serif, however it has successfully help to follow aspects of other trailers as it helps with cutting, pausing and adding footage. With software like this I have found how digital editing gives you far more options and freedom to manipulate your footage to create a specific effect, google and serif both allow this.

When making the trailer we needed to consider the creation of sound that needed to be added on top such as voice overs to soundtracks. This was done on Cubase software, this is a software where sound can be recorded, added and changed. In this bit we had to add the diegetic and nondiegetic sound being voices or mood music such as party sound. Within the trailer there is a car, on the software we was able to add sound of a car speeding and the sound of the crash. The sound of cracking a neck of jay needed to be made on the software, as when filming we could not really crack the neck of a character, the sound needed to be added to make it feel more realistic to the audience. Having a software to create the sound of this on was better as we could test what would fit better with the footage. Lastly the scream of the main character Frankie had to be recorded in the studio because the one filmed did not sound scary, we recorded and adding in a new scream into the trailer, making it fit into the diegetic sound of the trailer. Editing sound on a trailer is not easy, being part of group and having the help from a fellow music teacher is has allowed us to test the software and learn how to add and edit music within our trailer. The tempo of music is an important convention when creating music for trailers, with this software I was able to adjust the tempo exactly to the exact points within the trailer.

With the poster and magazine I created it was done on publisher, a Microsoft product, with this product I was able to edit pictures, add shapes such as texts boxes, or reels and to adding titles of magazines and posters. Publisher allowed the creation of the magazine and poster because I was able to move the picture or text around freely without disturbing the whole page. With the images on both the magazine and poster I used the technology of Photoshop this was because I had to change the background to black, I had to change the brightness and contrast to black and white, or to give the killer more colour so the pictures standout. Photoshop allowed me to get rid of blemishes and add more blood to the killer, I was able to brighten the eyes with selecting just that part of her and making them supernatural like the killer. From here I had to convert the images as JPEGs and put them into publisher which allowed me to edit and crop them into the place on the pages. Publisher for both my products gave it a professional appearance because It was user friendly in the way I was able to change the images and texts. With creating my magazine and poster on publisher, I have learnt I am more able to have freedom with this technology as you have creation skills and editing skills. With using Photoshop I gained knowledge from this software and learnt how to edit pictures to a high level, without learning how Photoshop works I would have been unable to edit these pictures that are used. Photoshop is an amazing technology allowing you to change, add and edit any picture. If you look on the contacts sheets, it shows how Publisher and Photoshop changed my final pictures I have used.

Once all my three task where complete I needed to get feedback from the audiences, this was my qualitative data. I had to post my three task on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. From this I was able to get massive feedback from audiences who used social media websites, they would comment and add responses off what they thought about each task. With having availabilities from technologies like Facebook and Twitter I was able to increase my chances of getting bigger responses for my feedback, I have learnt from this without new digital technologies, digital resolution I would not have been able to find such answers.

         

Lastly the evaluation, through answering the questions I have used the technology of Microsoft word as I was able to spell check and insert links into the work, and freely copy it into the blog. In the evaluation I had to use the technology of Slide share and power point because I created another presentation of the response to the final product the trailer from audience feedback, the presentation was transformed onto Slide share and linked onto the blog. The trailer was also posted on social media websites such as FaceBook and Twitter where I recorded the responses and understood audience feedback, this gave us the qualitative data of the products. Throughout my whole task the technologies I have come across, especially Serif and Cubase, have successfully helped me create three of my texts, from learning from software’s like them I have felt more comfortable and able to use them if ever needed in the future.

There is lastly the media technology, made on prezi. This is a presentation website where you add a powerpoint presentation and it presents the slides one by one. This website has taught me a new way of presenting slideshows. http://prezi.com/t0o1el6lst3k/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share From this website i was able to learn a new software for inputting slides, so the consumers are not bored. I used the website by adding each slide on to the different sections of the layout. This was done in my research and planning stage.