Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

• During the main part of my media coursework, I carried out my research,, planning and studying on BlogSpot.

• http://bethanybarrett.blogspot.co.uk/• Within this programme I used many different technologies such as PowerPoint, prezi and word

documents to record any work that I created over the time periods given. For many of the case studies that were carried out into different films of the same genre, I used the bloggers own word document. This was used mainly for the simplicity and the clarity that it allowed when reading and appearing on my blog. Similarly, such word documents were used for my planning into our production. I used these for this task as they allowed for again simplicity and the added information that I needed for gaining higher levels on those pieces such as the use of YouTube clips when researching into other soundtracks. However, for a couple of my case studies, I found that using the Prezi programme online aided my work to become pleasing to the eye of the readers and added interesting qualities to the layout of my blog also along side enabling the work to be read easily.

• For my evaluation, I found that using PowerPoint aided the need for clarity and the simplicity that my blog had already created through the use of previous programmes (e.g word and Prezi). Additionally, PowerPoint also allowed, in a similar way to that of Prezi, for my blog to have a more aesthetically pleasing appeal for readers as the paragraphing is broken up into subsections.

Blog work

• When creating case studies and adding the research onto my blog I used many sites such as YouTube and Amazon to add further detail and understanding.

• Some of the case studies that I created for the research side of my course work were supported by videos and links form YouTube. For example, when researching the film ‘Heavenly Creatures’ and creating a case study on this thriller, I found that re-watching the finale scene aided my understanding and developed my knowledge of thriller conventions such as the use of location to create isolation and claustrophobic conditions. Similarly, within the earlier parts of the evaluation that I have carried out, I found that again looking at recommended clips on YouTube and the suggested thrillers on Amazon aided my developing knowledge of techniques and thriller conventions further enabling me to use this understanding later when describing and outlining my target audience and their interests.

Research

• During the planning of our production, my group made a few visits to possible locations and used devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras to take still photographs of the location itself.

• Once I had used my mobile phone camera to take photographs of the possible locations, I uploaded them onto my home computer and edited them to add further research into footage colourations and the affects that these may have upon the chosen audience. For example, when I had taken photographs of Whitlingham Lake in Norwich (where we filmed our final production) I edited them into sepia, black and white and also negative to research what possible transitions, when editing, may look like. I then uploaded these photographs onto my blog and commented on the techniques that I uses, such as close ups and establishing shots and I also suggested possible intertextual references such as the black and white stills that I took in comparison to those of Tarantino within Kill Bill Vol.1

Planning

• When working within my group for the production that we created, technologies such as mobile phones and internet devices aided the quality of the research and planning that we created. For example, the use of mobile phones enabled our group to contact one another and discuss certain aspects of our production within our own free time, the cameras within these devices (as mentioned previously) also aided our planning of locations. In addition to this, social networking sites such as Facebook allowed for our group to again contact one another throughout planning individually and collaborate on any uncertain aspects of our thriller production itself.

• These connections between the members of our group allowed for easy and quick discussions regarding shooting schedules, thriller story boards and also aided us to talk about the equipment used such as tripods, digital cameras and other props (e.g clothing and rope) and the availability and productivity of these items in general.

Collaborating

• When filming our production we used many new technologies such as that of a high quality, hand held, compact digital camera. Using this type of camera for our production allowed my group to film short sections of the production to start with before watching back the footage and either deleting and reshooting or continuing filming. Also when editing, these shot clips that were taken during filming enabled the editing quality to heighten due to the ability to again delete and restart filming once again.

• Also, the high quality of the camera used made it easier for the footage to become clear and coherent quicker than it would have done if we were to use either mobile phone cameras or just cameras of a lower quality. The portability of the cameras also made filming easier for my group as there were less restrictions due to the small sixe of the camera and its ability to be hand held at all times, although for many shots we did revert to using a tripod for stability.

The Shoot

• When we began to edit our production, we decided not to edit any of the colourations for the footage for we had selected added many of the claustrophobic and secluded conventions that are key, through the eerie and dull colours that were natural to the piece. However, once we had completed the narrative/sequence of our piece, we added many transitions such as fades to back and white. For example, we mainly used fades to black to represent the idea of danger and death throughout and as a foreshadowing technique for we also used such a transition toward the end within the cliff-hanger. In addition to this, when editing our final piece, we added dramatic and orchestral music as a soundtrack, we did this to reflect the nature and the simplicity of the locational shots used along side the music itself. The soundtrack was found upon YouTube and saved onto a USB stick before being uploaded onto our final cut.

• The title and credits were added to our edit last due to the confusion over specified fonts and colourations of the words that were needed. We decided on simplistic, capitalised lettering to again, reflect the scenery but also the abrupt ending/cliff hanger that we see within the production. The credits and title were added through the editing programme that we used and placed onto the sequence, along side the soundtrack. We adjusted the wording of the title and the names of our group members to conform to the needs of the fast paced music and the transitions that were already in place before editing some of the titles own transitions.

Editing