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.