Question 4 How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

Research/Planning For the research stage I used different websites for different purposes. All of them were very useful for me to create an understanding of the genre that I was studying by analysing the conventions of it. A2 Media started with learning two different genres; Social Realism and Post-Apocalyptic. Therefore, I started my research analysing these two genre, its conventions and films as examples. Educational sites helped me to understand the conventions of these genre whereas commercial sites helped me while analysing the films.

Research/Planning Educational Websites: Launchingfilms : using this site I read a guide on film distribution which was very useful when deciding on our marketing strategy. I used this guide to find out about what a distributor had to do, how people decide on their market audience or release date. Finally, how do they promote their film in order to get publicity. I used this information when discussion our promotion campaign release date of our film. You can see my post on the blog on our marketing strategy.

Research/Planning Filmeducation: At the beginning of the term our teacher gave us practise handouts to use when analysing trailers. Filmeducation was the website that provided these handouts and it was really useful as they included all areas that we were supposed to investigate (mise-en- scene, lighting, soundtrack, credits etc.). Therefore, practicing we learned what to look for while watching a trailer to analyse. Commercial Websites: IMDB: When looking for an information about a film perhaps the most useful websites was Imdb. The website provided information of a film’s cast, box office success, production companies, release dates and so on, not to mention trailers, genre information and photos(stills).

Research/Planning Bauer Media Magazines : I used this websites for my research on film magazines. It had the information about magazine’s reader profile which helped me to decided which magazine to use regarding my target audience. This information was particularly helpful when answering my evaluation question 2. Because when I analyzed film magazine convention I also looked at magazine’s reader profile.

Research/Planning YouTube: YouTube, as a well-known video sharing website, provided every film trailer I was searching for. For instance, at the beginning of our research we were asked to analyse at least two film trailers belong to Social Realism genre. YouTube was the website that I used for that research. In addition, when comparing our trailer with trailers of similar films again we used YouTube to refer back to the conventions of film trailers. Finally, we posted our final cut to this websites to make it available to everyone.

What Actually happened when planning After groups were formed, we shared our ideas with each other using previous research on similar films. We come up with an initial idea for our trailer but in first 2-3 group discussion our idea has changed, developed and turned out to be something different what we actually thought at first. We start with the idea of a young boy struggling at school and end up with a female character who is also struggling in life but starts boxing to find a purpose in life. Group discussion shaped our trailer and blogs were the very effective to demonstrate that progress.

Media Blogs Quack Media Blogs: In order to present what we have done in every stage stage of our project we used media blogs. Initially we had individual blogs but we also had access to other group members post which provided different views on the same project. It was useful when evaluating our final piece. Furthermore, we could go back and look at our initial research which would have been long forgotten if not documented. By doing that we were able to see the development of our original idea and the project as a whole.

Construction Digital Camera: On our first filming day we used Sony HDR-XR350V which was a high definition camcorder. We also used a tripod with our camera, it was really useful for some scenes where we had to keep camera still. While filming we considered white balance and exposure and adjust them before start shooting. When we uploaded our footage for editing we found out that we had to film more training scenes in order to have short cuts between them to build tension. Therefore, we arranged another filming day to film the scenes we were missing out. This time we had to use another camera and it was Sony HVR-Z5U HDV. Different from the previous one this camcorder had a built-in microphone.

Construction Adobe Premiere: We used Adobe Premiere to edit our trailer. After filming our trailer we install our footage on a computer in the editing suit. We had more than one editing session. On the first editing session, we cut the ….. Footage chose the scenes we would like to use in our trailer and named them. On the following sessions we put the scenes in to an order find a soundtrack and fonts to use finally edited our inter-titles. Post Production Decisions: One of our group members, Chris handled the most of the editing work as he had the skills. I made a research on fonts and inter-titles that we would like to use and wrote them down to share with my group. Chris also found the soundtrack for our trailer and Laura did the voiceover (letter scene at the beginning).

Construction Da Font Titles: I used dafont website in order to find a suitable font for our trailer. I decided to choose more than one example so that we would have option. I downloaded the ones I found matching with our film/genre and showed them to the group. I had two distorted looking fonts and one simple one to use in the actual trailer. We all used the distorted ones in our posters and magazine covers as a convention of social realism, distorted lives of characters. Soundcloud: One of our group members, Chris did the research on soundtracks and he used the website called soundcloud. Our decision was to have a similar music to the film Fighter which would make the audience feel exciting. After he made his research he shared his ideas and chose which one to use.

COnstruction Adobe Photoshop: In order to create our artifacts, poster and magazine cover, we used adobe Photoshop. First we had Photoshop sessions to learn how to make adjustments on a photograph and we used our knowledge when creating our own film poster and magazine cover. Although we had a template for the magazine cover, we had to work out the conventions of film posters and magazine covers using our previous researches. Photoshop was really helpful when using our creativity and work on our media products.

Evaluation I used various forms to present my work; Prezi: When I made a research on social realism and post apocalyptic films at the beginning of our course, I used prezi to present it. Because I found it effective I decided to use it also for my evaluation questions 2 and 3. Prezi is creative when showing your ideas with its movements between paragraphs or images. Therefore, when someone is analysing your work they follow a path which is exciting. Power Point: Power Point is simple but effective to present your work. I used it when analysing trailers and evaluation question 4. It not as exciting as Prezi but it enables you to have clear structure when showing work/research.

Evaluation Commentary: I wanted have a range of presentation forms I did this commentary individually as my friends preferred to do it in a different way. Commentary was an interest but a difficult form of presentation. I used it for evaluation question one and I had to write a script answering this question. I recorded my voice, reading the script, and created a video with photos ilgili what I was saying in the voiceover. It was difficult because I used my own laptop which had IMovie to edit evaluation question 1 and it was the first time that I used it. I also have an accent so it was very important for me to speak clearly.

References