Evaluation Question Four

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

During the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages I have used a vast amount of technologies to not only create my work, but present my work in a formatable, professional way so that it shows my attention to detail when producing my work, and shows how passionate I am about producing my work to a high quality.

Blogger:

Blogger has been a vital part in my A level media as all the work that I have produced to support not only my AS work, but my A2 work has been posted on my blog. Blogger meant that all the videos, productions and presentations I produced for the coursework has been kept in one place, as you are able to embed links from other pages onto yours, that is easily accessible to those who have the link. These can be further categorised into time periods in which I posted the content, or alternatively into the exact headings of: Research, Planning, Production and Evaluation. This meant that my site is easy to negative for me and for others, but it also provided me with a sense of organisation because I was able to see on my blog effortlessly what I had done so far, and where there were gaps that I needed to fill in. It worked to my advantage because I could start work at school and take it home because I could save the content as a draft on the site to then finish and upload when I got home.

Apple Mac:

All my three production pieces were produced using the software’s available on the Apple Macs at school. However this did provide some complications due to the Apple Macs being older models, it meant that there were a variety of Internet issues and complications with software crashing and the Mac’s themselves being unresponsive to commands given, so this meant that not only was there a lot of time wasted for the process, but additionally a lot of work was lost due to not frequently saving what I had produced. Although since I had in my previous year of media used the apple macs to produce work for AS, this meant I was more confident in myself and my ability to use the software, meaning it was a more comfortable and familiar process. In addition to this, due to the fact I am familiar with Apple’s IOS software’s because I have an iPhone, and have had one for many years, it meant that becoming familiar with using an Apple Mac wasn’t that hard to produce the outcomes that I needed within the course.

Toshiba Satellite:

My Toshiba Satellite is my own personal laptop that I have owned for seven years. For me be able to continue my work at home, I have sent throughout the process most of the work to myself to complete it to prevent myself from being behind on deadlines. Evidently because my laptop isn’t a Mac it does provide the problem that I don’t have access to the wider amount of software’s that I would do on a school’s computer. However, my own laptop has primarily been used for the research, planning and evaluation stages, as these have been presented by the blog posts that I have uploaded onto blogger. I have worked on these areas using a variety of software’s for me to present a wider range of skills and in my opinion despite my laptop being slower than the Apple Mac’s it has been more reliable in helping me achieve set deadlines for my coursework, which has led to the completion of my research, planning and evaluations.

Youtube:

Youtube was key for my research and production process. During my research, I viewed a variety of existing trailers that are from other A level students, but also legitimate trailers by film companies. It allowed me to be a prosumer and consume other people’s medias to inspire my own works and play into the acknowledgements of the codes and conventions on the genre, from those making inspired pieces and professional pieces. I analysed a variety of trailers from Youtube so that I was aware of the content that I would need to include and how the equilibrium's are presented within the trailers themselves to engage the audience into watching the film in the first place. Youtube also allowed me to upload my production pieces from my drafts to the final piece, to my blogger to make them available and accessible so that I could view them both at home and in school. This meant that I could receive feedback by sharing the link with friends, family and peers to make further improvements to my work so that they are involved in the production process as a whole, but as an end result with my final product with it being shared on Youtube it means that it is similar to the concept of uploading a professional trailer in the sense that people are able to comment, share and like the video and be an active audience towards my trailer.

Final Cut Pro:

Final Cut Pro was used mainly through the production process to produce my trailer. This software allowed me to layer together my selected music and my primary and secondary footage together to create an outcome of a finished trailer in relation to Hansel and Gretel. As I had no prior experience with using this software, I did spend many lessons using Youtube to watch tutorials on the software to gain more experience and a further understanding to aim to produce my trailer to the best of my ability. Whilst filming I had shot around 17 minutes’ worth of footage and majority of it was on a continuous shot, as it made sense to continue the shot and redo it than have a variety of videos to work with and view to find out which one I needed for a specific segment of my work. This meant that I relied heavily on using the ‘I’ and ‘O’ keys which meant that that I can cut the footage as I watch it back and then I have the segment of footage I want and drag it into the storyboard. Because I had filmed my footage in blocks, this meant that during the process I was trying to piece together footage that didn’t make sense without additional footage being added in, in between. This meant again I relied on the ‘Q’ key which allowed me to layer up footage and put it on the B role so that I was able to edit easier, it is also the same for the ‘W’ key which allowed me to put footage in between two selected clips, this key primarily helped me towards the end of the production process as it meant that It was easier for me to place last minute filmed clips to add the overall horror vibe that I was aiming to create.

Survey Monkey:

Survey Monkey is an online survey company that not only allows you to produce a timed contained questionnaire that is easily accessible again, via a link, but also allows for your results from your questionnaire to be analysed and presented in charts to make it easier to understand. I used this online survey company throughout my research stages, due to needing a large amount of feedback on my initial ideas when deciding what I wanted my film to be about, as well as key areas such as the genre, actors, locations and props. I have had prior experience in using Survey Monkey, meaning that I could easily navigate the site and produce a questionnaire within an hour that had relevant information about why I was producing the questionnaire in the first place and what I intended to get out of my research into my audience. It shows that I am considering the idea of Bulmer and Katz and the idea of uses and gratifications that come from watching a film, from a knowing audience of the genre, as they are able to identify the codes and conventions that would have been strategically placed for their benefit as a viewer, and by sending out this questionnaire I can highlight that I have actually asked my target audience and I have considered how I am going to get my work to appeal to the mass audience.

Facebook:

Facebook is a social media platform that I used for means of distribution for my research process in order to get people to fill in my questionnaire as it is tapping into the social medias that my target audience use, so that I connect with them on an easily accessible platform so that I get the outcome of having them fill out my questionnaire. It meant that because I too fit into the target audience that I am trying to sell my product to that majority of my friends do as well, that I was easily able to target my audience and have them fill out my questionnaire to have the results for future reference that I have done so, so that I can state why I have done certain elements in my work and show that it was because I was tapping into the expectations of the genre set by the target audience themselves.

Adobe Photoshop:

Adobe Photoshop was a software that I used throughout the production process to produce my Film poster and my magazine cover. After taking the photos on my iPhone 6s I was easily able to access them on the software, and I have had previously used Adobe Photoshop for media in AS and additionally in GCSE media. This meant I was aware of where all the tools were so that I was easily able for both images to begin adapting them to suit the flat plans I had already produced. I used the background easer tool on my magazine front cover to remove the background so that I could place Jake (the main character to my trailer) on a plain background to have his facial features which I had taken a burn tool to, to burn out his facial features of his eyes and mouth and also adjusted the colours on the piece after receiving feedback that: ‘it wasn’t horror enough.’ Additionally for my poster I left the background alone and focused on adjusting the colours to create an eerie cool blue tone which means that all my products in the production stage actually contrasted well offering different perspectives of my horror trailer to the audience.

Range of Microsoft Office Products – PowerPoint & Word

For my planning overall and to be able to write my evaluation question production and the presentation of a lot of my research I have depended on Microsoft PowerPoint and word. Sometimes the PowerPoints that I produced I would format further and upload them onto online websites so that they format better for my blog. When I used Microsoft word, is it primarily to draft and write out my content before I present it in an alternative way. Both products have been very beneficial to me in being able to research and present the horror genre, as well as the completion of my evaluation questions and work in general.

iPhone 6s & Tripod:

My own personal iPhone 6s is what I recorded my footage on and took my photos for my magazine front cover and poster on during the production stage. The footage I shot on my phone was at a 1080p HD resolution and was shot at 60 frames per second and the camera itself due to belonging to an iPhone is high quality anyway so this worked to my advantage as it is portable and small meaning that when traveling to film my footage I didn’t have to pack additional equipment to be able to capture my footage besides a tripod to keep the camera steady and to be able to film panning shots. It was a creative decision that I chose not to use one of the schools Sony Cameras (DSLR) as I am more familiar with apple products than Sony and I believed that my iPhone footage would have a better outcome due to this and I didn’t waste time learning how to use it as I was already aware, and had filmed footage and taken photos previously before on my iPhone.

Slide Share, Canvas, Snapshare, Prezi and Powtoon:

Slide share, canvas, Snapshare, Prezi and Powtoon are all websites that I have used as a means of presentation for my work, this is presenting not only my research about the genre itself so I have a further understanding of what I need to include, but also for the evaluation questions themselves, photos that I needed to upload and explain reasoning behind them for locations as such. By using a vast number of websites to present my work I wanted to make my blogger engaging to whoever is viewing it, so that it is not all generic posts and PowerPoints and there are a variety of ways that I have chosen to post. I believe that they are formatted in a professional way, so despite the fact being digitally presented they aren’t losing their concept or content because of the way that they are presented as you can still access them effectively and they are in a readable format, as it needs to look the part as well as including the content so It doesn’t become boring and generic.