In my coursework I constantly used media technology in both my evaluation stage and in particular in my planning. The media technology ranged from social media like facebook, to software like Photoshop elements 2.0, and hardware such a Sony cameras. Using this technology helped to shape the direction that my coursework went to, and it also helped to involve as many people as possible in to the creative process.
The first steps of using the technologies were to pick which ones were best for my work. I chose to use a Sony HD camera. The camera was best because the image was very clear and crisp. Secondly it enabled me to shoot some shots out of focus, which I really wanted to be able to do to distort the image of the villain the creeper. Evidence of this was the two different test shots that I took which I posted on YouTube. Another advantage of the camera was to do with the mise en scene. I intended to use lots of Dutch angles in the shot, which are tilted camera shots used for add a sense of uneasiness. The Sony camera worked well when I had to constantly tilt the camera sideways, although in the tripod it was sometimes quite troublesome achieving the Dutch angles because the tripod would constantly slip upwards or downwards and so it took a while to get it still. The storage compacity of the camera was also quite good so had the ability to take lots of different takes.
Another example of technology that was used was a camera to take pictures of some of the locations that I liked. So for example I travelled down to Avenue Park and took images of all the places that I thought would work well in my trailer. The advantage of this was that I could eliminate the locations that were not practical and the ones that were. However of course not all of the perspective locations were used, but some were, therefore showing how the use of a camera was key in helping me plan efficiently because when it got down to time to shoot I had already established the best place to shoot. The use of the camera led me to use other presentation devices like prezi and slideshare. Prezi helped me to create a visual presentation of the locations that I was look at for my trailer, and so it made my blog a slightly more interactive experience. I then used slideshare to present my pitch. This was especially important because originally I had filmed my pitch but I had problems converting the work. This meant I would of wrote my pitch word for word. However slideshare allowed me to write my pitch but at the same time making it easier to reader, and more accessible. The use of wordle of worked very well because even when I did use a questionnaire instead of copying it onto my blog I could use wordle to combine all the words that people used to describe my work and put into a funky image.
Another form of technology I used arguably the most obvious is the internet. In the modern age convergence is growing and growing. And therefore I used social networking sites to get my target audience involved in the planning stages. I had a small questionnaire placed onto facebook to gauge what film titles my target audience would be interested in. Using facebook was much more practical than constantly writing up questionnaires and handing them out in the common room. This ultimately meant I could save valuble time and use it on other aspects of planning. YouTube was another important tool for research. Using Youtube I could look at some of the best examples of film trailers to learn what makes them so good. For example I looked at recent movies like “Prometheus” and the “woman in black”. The importance of this was that by looking at contemporary examples I worked today and therefore I was also learning what would appeal to my target audience and demographic. YouTube also makes old horror trailers available to look at. The use of the internet also allowed me to research for my 2 ancillary tasks. I mainly used google to look for images of front covers of 2 of the biggest film magazines empire and total film. By having hundreds and thousands of covers to look at I had a wider understanding of the conventions that remained consistent in all of them. This was similar to what I did in AS for research. For instance the color schemes and fonts most of the front covers were consistent and complimented each other. So therefore I made sure I did something similar in order to be successful in appealing to my target audience.
For the editing of my posters I used Photoshop elements 2.0 which was a basic version of Photoshop used at my sixth form. The advantage of using Photoshop was there were many effects that I could add. For example of my teaser poster I added a graphite effect to blur the main image. I also corrected the lighting of my original image to heighten the spookiness of it. In terms of my magazine front cover I also added subtle effects like adding a drawing effect that made my image looked like it was hand drawn.
For editing of my main task I used final cut express. The advantages of this program was that I was used on a mac, and therefore its speed was incredibly fast when compared to something like windows movie maker. And similar to Photoshop the amount of effects on final cut express was that amazing. You can add things like dissolves and fades, as well as editing the length of music etc. This allowed me to make more horror even more frightening than I had originally planned. Final cut express also allowed me to zoom in and out of shots, this was especially good because I had not originally intended to do this
Also using my blog was a an effective way of using media technology. This because I could regularly update the blog showing which stage I was on. This meant that I had evidence to show that I was planning every element of my work.
However there was many problems that I encounted. Firstly the sony camera used for filming shot had a short frame. This meant it was difficult trying to get everything into the shot. So I had to readjust myself to get the shot that I wanted, and this meant taking up to 1 or 2 more shots than I wanted. Also the biggest problem faced with the camera was converting my work. When I tried to put my shots onto a computer I would not be able to open, and sometimes there was no sound at all. And the only way I could convert the work was by downloaded an app on a Mac. However the Mac’s I used at school did not have any internet, subsequently I had to constantly go to my friends house to convert the work. This was incredibly time consuming and resulted in me being up to a week and half behind schedule. Another problem with the camera was in relation to final cut express. Often the battery life of the camera was so low that it would disconnect from final cut express. This meant I had to spend up to an hour trying to get all the scenes back, at sometimes I even had to edit large portions of the trailer together repeatedly because of this problem. Furthermore final cut express was extremely difficult to get to grips with. And as a consequence I ended up 2 weeks behind schedule and it made it difficult to meet my deadline.
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