MEDIA EVALUATION – QUESTION 4

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

I used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages in many different ways such as:

Blogger – to update and show my workPhotoshop – film poster and magazine front coveriMovie – film trailerGoogle, Wikipedia, IMBD.com - Search EnginesYouTube – Conventions of a film trailerGarageband – Edit soundtracksCameras/GoPro – To film scenesiPhone 6 – Take images of work to upload to my blogMac computers – MacBook Pro

I used “Blogger” to update all my work on, this way I am able to show all my work through the use of my blog. This is an easy way for my teacher and the examiner to have access to my work. This enabled me to upload my work such as images, videos, powerpoints and soundtracks easily. This way of uploading my work was a lot more efficient as it took less time to upload my work to my blog than sending it to my teacher and examiner as well as I was able to have access to my work from loads of locations as long as I had internet, making the whole process a lot quicker.

In order to create my magazine front cover and film poster I used the software “Photoshop”, this was very useful in the construction of my ancillary tasks. By using Photoshop, it enabled me to edit the images I was using for my front cover and film poster such as adding filters, effects, sharpness, brightness, contrast and so on. In addition to this as I used four images on my film poster, it allowed me to incorporate many different images and merge them together ending up with different film scenes on the right hand side of my poster. In addition to this, for both images of Ricky on my film poster and magazine front cover I had to use the magic eraser, lasso and eraser tool all combined together to cut around the image getting rid of the background in which was not needed, this took a long period of time as all the background had to be cut out accurately making sure none of his body was cut out during the process. If I didn’t have access to Photoshop, I wouldn’t have been able to apply any of these techniques, tools or effects to my ancillary texts.

To edit and create our film trailer, we used iMovie. We started by importing all of our clips we had filmed previously onto the iMovie software, this way we had an easier way to compare all the clips we had taken watching them before deciding on what clips were effective and we were going to use in contrast to clips that were blurry and not suitable. After this, we were able to start combining, clipping using the cutting tool and editing clips together such as adding sound effects as

well as a soundtrack in order to make a sequence of scenes. As iMovie is a software I personally haven’t had any previous experience in, after my first time it was easy to get the hang of and I was able to use it. We started adding visual effects, transitions, edit the speed of the scene making it fast paced as well as slow motion to capture specific moments to enhance the action and text for our inter-titles onto our film trailer.

When researching and planning my main product and ancillary texts a new media technology in which I used were the search engines Google, Wikipedia and IMBD.com. By using all three of these websites I was able to gather information and explore the genre combination of action thriller as well as successful action thriller films to get ideas for my film making sure I included the conventions in these particular films such as the directors, taglines, narrative and casting. By researching online, it was a quicker and instant way to find out information easily through a simple click of a button in which saved a lot of time. When researching action thriller films by using these three websites combined it was particularly helpful as I had a clearer vision into what my film should look like in order to be successful. In addition to this, I was able to view videos of clips of the film using YouTube where millions of clips, trailers and films were available to me instantaneously which made it easier to share ideas with my group for the narrative of our film trailer as well as when editing our trailer.

As a group, when researching audio software in which was available to us we came across Free Sound, Free SFX and Universal Soundtrack which are three websites in which we were able to download a range of different sound effects for free as an MP3 file. However, the particular sounds we were looking at such as a gunshot, deep sounds which created a suspense atmosphere were either not available or not of a high quality. We then realised we had the software Garageband to use on our Macs, therefore we decided that this would be the most effective software to use when looking for sound effects. Garageband had a wide range of sounds available enabling us to play different instruments, which were ideal as we wouldn’t have been able to record these, particular sounds ourselves. Furthermore, as we know somebody who composes music and can play the piano and guitar she was able to write a song for us, which worked well with our film trailer. After listening to this song, we were able to edit it, cutting out parts in which we thought worked well at particular moments speeding it up as well as slowing it down in order to capture the audience’s attention at specific scenes during the trailer.

When recording our footage for the main product our film trailer we used cameras and a GoPro. The camera had a memory card to record our scenes on. By using large GB memory cards, it enabled us to record clips efficiently as well as not in a rush allowing us to capture the shots we wanted, making our clips look more impressive as we knew the memory card would not be full as quickly as if we were to use our iPhones to record. Using the camera lens, it permitted us to zoom in and zoom out of a shot effortlessly and we were able to make specific action moments clearer and more visible to the audience when watching the trailer. Furthermore, for my ancillary texts the images I took of my model Ricardo Vieira featuring as the protagonist character in my film “Obsess” were

taken using the same camera. As this camera is of a high quality, I was able to take crystal clear images even during the night in which made the images in some aspect look like they had been taken professionally as there were no pixels showing as well as making the images easier to edit. By using the new media technology of a GoPro it made our action scenes easier to film due to the fact we attached the GoPro to the Harley Davidson motorbike. We attached the GoPro to the motorbikes pedal as well as front windscreen; therefore it showed point of view shots from the antagonist characters point of view as well as long shots showing the location of the film being London. This was impressive in some aspect as the target audience are predominately London based, therefore whilst watching the film trailer they may be able to identify the locations shown and feel a greater urge to see the film due to the fact they could potentially feel this film is personal to them.

To upload my drafts of my main product such as the storyboard as well as drafts of my ancillary texts in which I designed on paper I uploaded images of my work through the use of my iPhone 6. By using my iPhone 6 as it is connected to the internet I was able to upload them to by blog instantly meaning I was able to upload my storyboard and drafts to my blog showing the process of my main product and ancillary texts.

Overall, all this work was completed on my MacBook Pro, using all the above software iMovie and Photoshop. As I have access to my own MacBook Pro, this meant I had access to all my work and the software I needed throughout the process of constructing my main product and ancillary texts. Macs in general are a lot faster than PC’s saving a great deal of frustration and stress a long the way. I was able to upload footage and images to my blog regularly as well as storing all of my work on my Mac in allocated folders making it easier to locate all my work instantly.