Evaluation 4 -How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

HD video camera 
This was the most important piece of technology in the production of our trailer. Firstly, this camera being HD helped us to ensure all our shots were of a high quality standard and not blurry or unfocused. It also came with very useful features such as being able to look through clips on the camera and delete the ones that were not useful or needed re-filming. This also gave us the opportunity to watch clips back when filming to see if they were exactly how we wanted them. If they were not then we were able to film the shot from another angle when the costumes, props and lighting was all the same. This benefited our trailer majorly as the continuity throughout the whole thing is prominent. This camera also has a flash light on it, being a thriller film we shot many scenes in low-key lighting and at night time. The use of this flashlight helped illuminate the rooms when we were filming without having to turn extra lights on. This meant that all the footage we filmed was of the same quality.

This camera is light and easily transportable. We had a tidy case that this camera could be stored in so that we could transport it from different locations without it getting damaged or lost. This meant that we did not have to stress about where we were filming and when as a member of the group could easily bring the camera to any location, such as at school or at the house where we filmed. Although we shot many camera shots on a tripod, which was also easily transportable, to make the shots steady and still, our film was based from the antagonists point of view. To connote this to the audience we used many handheld camera shots, which was evident as the camera was slightly shaky during scenes where the antagonist was interacting with Katie, an example of this is the attacker walking up the stairs in search of Katie. The camera being light made this easily possible for us, without including extra risks such as cables being in the way, or having to carry a heavy camera that is easily dropped.

Digital camera 
A digital camera was used to take images of different parts of the production of our trailer. These include photos of the actors playing their parts, the crew filming parts and researching  ideas. These images were then transferred onto computers and were placed on our blogs to be used as evidence. Some members of the group also used images that included Alice, who played Katie, looking straight into the camera, with her make up done, on their ancillary tasks. However, I chose not to do this as I preferred an action shot to portray more narrative.

Adobe photoshop
This is the software that I used to create my ancillary tasks. This was also used during the construction of our trailer to create images we wanted to use in our trailer, such as institutional information, the green certificate, the title and the release date of our film. Having used photoshop at AS I knew the basics, which was very beneficial as it saved me time and the construction of many pieces was very easy. However, there were things that we did not know how to do, such as inverting backgrounds.

When creating our title logo we learnt how to do this, as when downloading the font from the free texts website it was a white background with black writing. By experimenting with the effects on photoshop we found a way to invert this image which therefore gave us the desired effect we wanted.

When creating my film poster I was given feedback to remove the knife and hand from the image as they looked out of place and unneeded. To remove these I used a magnetic lasso tool and managed to select points around the edge of the part of the image I wanted to remove before using a delete button to remove this section only. However, by doing this part of Katie's top was deleted, I then learnt how to use a paint brush tool and a blending tool to recreate this part of the top. Once I finished this I took another look at the picture I realized that the shadow of the knife was still visible on Katie's chest. Removing this was much harder as I could not find the exact colour of Alice's skin. Photoshop, however, has a tool that allows you to click on the colour you want and it will match it for you. This meant that as I was blending the different parts of Alice's chest to remove the shadow I could match the shades of her skin correctly which made the job much easier for me.

Voice recorder

We used voice recorders to record the two voiceovers in our trailer. Having used a voice recorder previously at AS I already knew how to use this device. However, the HD feature allowed us to get high quality sound that worked well with our trailer. Previously, we learnt that these devices pick up lots of unwanted sounds if they are used in certain rooms that may be echoey or near noisy places. Therefore to ensure this did not happen to our voice recordings we recorded them in a sound proof room away from the general public, therefore we knew we had high quality recordings. The large amount of space on this device meant that we could record numerous copies of the voiceovers to ensure that emotion was added and removed from the dialogue where appropriate and effective.

I used this device again when creating evaluation task 2 as I recorded a voice over and applied it to my trailer and images of my ancilliary tasks explaining decisions made.

Adobe premiere pro 
This is the editing software we used to create our trailer. This was a complete learning curve for all of us, as previously in AS we used final cut pro on apple macs. However, it was exciting to be given the chance to learn a whole new software as this now means I feel confident in two different ways of editing. When editing on this we faced many original problems, firstly was the issue that each project could only be accessed on one computer off one persons account. This was a struggle as it limited the time we had to edit as we could only use these computers in our lessons and not in our free time like we could with the apple mac laptops in AS. However, we overcame this issue by ensuring we got as much done in lesson time as possible and did other work in our free time. Whereas with final cut pro the project saves automatically it does not on this software, so that was also a learning curve with using this.

This software allowed us to import clips and to cut them in the places we wanted to, aswell as adding effects, altering the speed of clips and adding transitions in between them. We were also able to layer sounds and still images onto the timeline of the trailer, which allowed us to add non-diegetic and diegetic sounds, aswell as still images such as our institutional information and title logo.

I used this software again in my evaluation task which helped me to feel even more comfortable and used to using it, as I was working alone this time so had to make all decisions and changes myself.

The main benefit I found of using this software was the larger viewing screen and all the clips and files imported being available to view down the side of the page as this was very organised and easy to access.

Adobe after effects 
This is a software I have never used before, however after doing some research I found out that this software allowed a typing effect to be created, which we needed for our transcript of the emergency call at the beginning of our trailer. I learnt a lot using this software immediately, but would love to go back and use it again to learn even more, as we only used it for one thing and the things I learnt from it seem to lead to many more possibilities that could improve my media texts in the future.

Blogger 
Blogger is a website I have used before as it is the blog website I used when creating my AS blog. I used it throughout all stages of the construction of my piece, as well as the research and planning stages and the evaluation task stages. I used blogger to record everything I did which was really useful in organizing the planning of the construction of our trailer. Blogger allows photos to be inserted, links to be added and videos to be connected of off YouTube. There is also an option to save drafts as I am working on them and to schedule posts to be published at a different time.

Blogger is available on all platforms, such as phones, computers and tablets. This technological convergence was beneficial as it meant I could work on my blog no matter where I was as long as internet was available to me. However, I learnt that blogger also have an app which I downloaded onto my phone. This helped me to write quick drafts of posts as I thought of something and whenever I had free time. I was also able to upload photos immediately off of my phone which made my blog more accessible.

As blogger is online my teachers were able to view my blog and see my ideas and offer me valuable feedback with all stages of the construction of my project.

Social media 
Through technological convergence social media is available on all platforms. The proliferation of Web 2.0 has allowed software to develop to a level where we can communicate quickly and effectively with our friends online through social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as imessage, an instant messaging software installed on all apple products. At all stages of our project we needed to communicate as a group, which this allowed us to do, aswell as communicating with Alissa, who was originally our lead actress.

We were able to create group conversations on these social media sites that allowed us to all discuss ideas and when problems occurred we were able to quickly overcome them as living in a contemporary world we all have technology at easy access almost all the time.

YouTube 
YouTube was beneficial to me at all stages of my project. Initially I used this website to watch endless thriller trailers. This allowed me to research and plan my trailer and therefore use this information when giving ideas to the group. The main feature I enjoyed exploring was creating playlists of trailers I wanted to watch so they all ran one after another allowing me to watch many in one sitting. This helped me to learn the generic conventions of this type of trailer.

YouTube was also beneficial to me in the evaluation stages as I posted videos of my final trailer, as well as the video I created for Evaluation Task 2. These videos are easily linked to my blog and therefore help to form a part of my documentation.

Evaluation task 3 - what have you learnt from your audience feedback?



First draft of magazine front cover


Receiving feedback about my first draft was highly beneficial for me, as it allowed me to see parts of the magazine that really did not fit well. There was also empty space pointed out to me that I had not noticed but could be used more efficiently.

The first thing that was pointed out to me was that my stamp which reads 'Exclusive interview with Alice Willard' looked randomly placed and did not seem to fit in with the rest of the poster as it was such a bright red compared to the other colours I had used. To make this fit better I chose to find a darker red that complimented the colours used in the rest of my magazine cover better. Therefore the red was still connoting danger, but in a way that emphasised the darker more mysterious side of our film trailer.  I also made the shape of the stamp into a smaller circle, and made the font smaller. This then allowed me to move the stamp over further to ensure it was not covering the main image I had used in the picture. The suggestion of changing this stamp helped to improve my magazine cover and taught me that when producing a piece of media such as a magazine cover I need to be sure that all the colours used connote what I want them to, as well as compliment each other where needed. I also need to ensure that the main image is not covered up by extra pieces of information as this takes the attention off of the main focus of the media text.




Myriad Pro - Font used in first draft

Prestige Elite Std - Font used in final magazine cover

The second piece of feedback I was given was that I needed a range of fonts. When looking back at my magazine I could how I had not used enough fonts and where I needed to try and gain a larger variety here. When trying to figure out how to add a larger variety of fonts that still complied with the genre, I decided to change the font I had used to advertise the titles of other films. I found this to be effective as it highlighted these films in a different way to the film in my trailer, which is the main feature in the magazine. This makes it easier to differentiate between the two. 



Another piece of feedback given was that there were gaps with too much wasted space in them, especially on the left side of the magazine cover. This part of the cover has large gaps with little going on in them. To try to fill the gaps I knew I needed to move the competition sign and then I would be able to add something new in. When moving this lower I discovered I had to make it smaller in order to be able to fit something else in. When doing this I felt that it lost some of its original emphasis so I placed it on a canted angle. This also helped to fit the generic convention of thriller films being chaotic as the canted angle connotes this.

Grey banner on first draft

Grey banner on final draft

I was also told that there is too much empty space on the grey banner I used to advertise other films. When looking at this I could see that the pictures were too small compared to the background they were on so I chose to make the pictures larger to fit. However, due to this proportion change the title of the films was not able to fit on the banner. When choosing to place the titles over the images to use the space I had effectively I found the darker fonts blended in with the background of the picture. However, the white font alone did not work either. By placing a black outline around the font it allowed the writing to be read easily, however did not ruin the effect created by the images.

I was also told that 'the big thriller review' felt repeated as the top of the magazine cover already read 'thriller special' and therefore this meant there was no need for it to be said a second time. The use of this sentence also covered up arts of the main midshot image used to represent Katie. In result to this feedback I chose to remove this from my magazine cover as the main image is the key feature of the magazine cover and should be clearly visible and not hidden.

 Overall, from the feedback I received on my magazine cover I learnt that when producing advertising texts, all space is very important and should not be left empty or wasted as it is noticed by the audience of the text. I also learnt that the main image on a magazine cover should be a clear and focused image and should not be covered up or hidden as this takes the main focus off of this.

When receiving feedback on my film poster I was told that the background of images I had chosen to use cuts off abruptly and all four girls should be used not just two.  Looking at my poster again I agreed with this so chose to make expand the sizes of the pictures as well as adding more in. This taught me that when creating media texts all space should be filled and backgrounds need to blend in with each other and fill the whole page as if this does not happen then they do not create the desired effect.

I was also asked why there was no tagline in my poster as this is a generic convention of film posters. As I was missing a vital piece of film posters I added this immediately. I originally added this in white to conform to the simplistic black and white colour scheme throughout the poster that connotes claustrophobia and emptiness. However, I was advised to add more of the colour red to my film poster as this is a colour generally used in thriller films as it connotes fear and danger due to its extreme prominence. I was hesitant to do this at first as red is a colour I purposely chose not to include often throughout the any of my media texts. This is because red is also a colour associated with blood and gore and I do not think our film shows large amounts of this, instead the plot focus' on the hostage situation and how Katie is captured and tied up. Due to being given this advice numerous times I decided to experiment with different places that I could add the colour red into the film. When trying to change the tagline that I had now added to a red colour I found that it looked really effective. This is because the tagline I chose is 'I think he is going to kill me' which is a statement that should connote fear and incredible amounts of danger itself. Therefore, the red further emphasises this and shows the extreme level of danger Katie is in, and how much fear she is really experiencing, which makes it even more effective as Katie's emotions are being portrayed, this will help the audience feel they can connect with her and therefore the emotion of fear and sympathy I intended for them to feel towards her is more likely to occur.
Receiving this advice taught me that when making media texts it is essential to take time to research as many other real media texts as possible as this will ensure I do not leave any conventions that should be included out. I also learnt that time should be taken to experiment with different colours and effects as the original ideas I have may not be best when the final piece is actually created, and if I have taken the time to experiment and take creative risks then the final piece will benefit.

I was told that the image of Katie I chose to use was too bright. As many parts of my film trailer occur at night low key lighting is often used. The image used in my film poster seems to be shown in very high key lighting, therefore the desired effect of someone lurking in the shadows is slightly lost. Therefore it was recommended that I make this image darker. To do this I watched back over my trailer many times while working on it so that I could try to match the darkness of the image to that of the trailer. This part of the feedback was one I found incredibly beneficial as it reminded me that when making different products based around the same idea or concept I need to regularly view the other media texts as this will allow me to make synergy between the pieces.

I was told to remove the knife and hand shown in the film poster as they looked out of place and therefore were taking up space and drawing attention off of the key concepts of the film poster that a consumer of a text will look for. This took me the longest time to change as by removing parts of the image I had to edit other parts to still look realistic and high quality. However, this has taught me to always check that every detail of a media text, no matter how small, is placed where it is to benefit the way a consumer will interpret the information. Therefore if it is not then it is unneeded in the film poster and will draw away the consumers attention from information that advertises the film and encourages them to watch it. 

Final copy of film poster

After showing our film trailer to the class for the first time we received lots of positive feedback. This was very beneficial for us as it ensured us that the work we had created was fitting to the genre we had hoped for. We were told we had created a fast pace that created tension and suspense, and that the narrative was recognisable and not too chaotic. At this point we asked for suggestions as to whether we should include intertitles as personally we felt they were not needed. The audience giving feedback agreed with this and explained how they thought the pace we created would be ruined by this. They also felt that the narrative would not benefit in any way from this and therefore adding it in would not add to our trailer. However, at the beginning of our trailer when Katie is listening to the radio they felt that a voice over would help.

We took this advice and added a voice over of a news reporter explaining that three young girls had been killed in different areas. This therefore set the scene of the trailer and gives the audience an insight into what has happened to make Katie wary of an intruder. Receiving this feedback helped me to understand that although it is ideal to include generic conventions of specific genres of films and media texts, it is not compulsory. These conventions can be challenged in order to benefit the trailers final outcome.

The other key piece of feedback we were given was that the mid shots of Alice underneath the bed were effective in helping to tell the narrative, however they are shown too often and repeated therefore reflecting as the most important part of the narrative. We listened to this and removed one of these shots from the trailer.