1. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?
Amy Cutbush

2. IMacs
We used this form of computer whilst making and preparing our film and creating our film posters and magazine spread. This product enabled us to use software and programmes that would not be available on other types of computers such as “Windows”.

3. Final Cut Express
One of the programmes we were able to use was Final Cut Express. This programme was used to edit and capture our footage for our film and podcasts. We used it in the planning stage to see what certain ideas would look like. We also used it when filming our story board for research and planning. It enables us to add effects such as speeding up footage (we used this quite often as our film is fast paced.) It also allows us to edit and change the colour of the footage so that it is suitable to watch.

4. Continued
We also used final cut to film our podcast for the film. We talked about our inspirations for the film and what elements from the short films we would take and use in our film. We did this instead of writing on our blog to make it more interesting and show a range of ways we could answer questions. This also looks more professional.
Final cut is very user friendly.

5. Microsoft Word and Powerpoint
Microsoft Word was used in all stages of our product. We used it to write survey questions, our shooting script, draft script and real script. This media technology is easy to use and extremely useful.
I used Powerpoint to construct an essay styled plan for my answers. (Like this question) it is a unique way of presenting an essay as there are various methods such as animation, colour and transitions which will make the Essay visually impelling.

6. Paint and Photoshop
For my idea for my magazine poster I used Microsoft Paint to construct the black sand pouring out of Grace’s cupped hands. I did this by copying and pasting sections of the black sand from a picture and cutting them up into little squares and placing them all in a curve around the page.
I also used Photoshop to smooth the edges and create an edgy, animated look for the poster which looked more professional than the original picture.
Paint was relatively easy to use as it is a universal application, however Photoshop was more difficult as there are more tools but with a few lessons it was easy to use.

7. Indesign
We used Indesign as our application to make our Film poster and Double page magazine spread. This application enables you to create documents which look highly professional with a range of tools that can’t be used on other applications. Such as curving and bevel effects on pictures and text.
This application is similar to Photoshop however slightly easier to use. The finished project of my final poster and magazine spread looks professional and like it should be in a magazine.

8. Equipment
For the filming we used two hand held film cameras. One from school and the other from another group member. These cameras were simple to use as we have used them in the previous year and have had a lot of practice during our preliminary task in AS level. We tried different angles and shots during the planning stage such as zooming in on facial features and getting the camera in an appropriate angle which flows well with the other angles.
We also used a tripod to prop the camera up so that the camera did not shake whilst filming so that we could get a still clip. It also enabled us to vary our use of shots as we were able to get the camera in difficult places.

9. Continued
Most of our lighting was natural and we tried to plan our filming so that we got the best lighting at the right times. However as our filming took about 6 hours throughout the day, it was hard to get the lighting the same during each shot.

10. Wordpress
We used as our website to create blogs. This website is easy to use and easy to upload pictures. This allowed us to make things presentable which was not complicated. It also looks very professional which is an added bonus.

11. Xtranormal
I used Xtranormal as a way to answer my media evaluation for question 1. I used this tool to create a movie which explained the ways in which our group developed and challenge forms of conventions of real media products. This tool was particularly difficult to use and time consuming. However I was pleased with the result at the end and felt that it was worth the time.

12. Search engines
We used many search engines for research and planning of our final piece. We used in particular to look for inspiration for our film which led us to Youtube and the Film network on the BBC website.

13. Youtube
We used Youtube to look for short films as inspiration and ideas of a Catalyst and audience expectations. We didn’t find anything on this site that inspired us in particular, however we did find ways In which we could use speed to highlight the circular narrative.
We also used Youtube to put our final media product (Short film) on so that the audience could give us some constructive critisism to answer the audience feedback question.

14. Survey Monkey
Our group used Survey monkey to create a survey about our short film. We decided to do this so the audience could give us some constructive criticism about our film so that we could answer the audience feedback question. From the survey we would be able to tell what the film could be improved on and what works well.

15. Facebook
We used Facebook to advertise our short film and get the public to give us constructive criticism for our audience feedback. Facebook is a good way of sharing media files on the internet with easy access. We were also able to look at other people’ short films and compare them with ours. We also used Facebook to communicate with our group members when planning our short films and discussing where and when to meet up to film our piece.

16. BBC Film network
The BBC film network inspired us in many ways. It has a wide range of short films in many different genres. After looking through many short films, we were inspired by “The black hole” because of it’s unexpected ending and developed character. We also liked the simplicity of the film and thought this would be a good starting point to use as inspiration for our film.

17. Camera’s
I used a lot of camera work in the development for our media products. For example our movie posters and our double page spread. I took many pictures of the main character, backstage pictures, the magical box and the black sand on a high quality camera. It was important to use these images for advertisement and to attract the audience and allow them to gain some further knowledge of the film.

18. Pictures I took for the magazine.

19. Magazines
We did a lot of research on the type of magazine we would want our film to be featured in. we studied “Empire magazine”, “Total film” and “Little white lies” and felt that “Little white lies” would be the best choice as it features drama and fantasy’s which is what genre our film is. “Empire” and “Total film” mostly feature Action and Adventure films therefor we didn’t feel those types of magazine were appropriate. We also did a lot of research on “Little white lies” magazine to make our film posters and double page spreads look similar to their known style.