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

Throughout our project we have used various media technologies ranging from Microsoft to iMovie and have used these technologies on apple Macs and computers, in order to gain general knowledge and experience using technologies available to us as a group.

Microsoft

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel were the three programmes which we utilized during our research, planning and evaluation stages. There were a few evaluative points as to why we chose to work with the aforementioned softwares. Collectively, we felt that PowerPoint would work well in allowing us to make small alterations and the programme had the font which we wanted to use throughout our three media products - Didot. Furthermore, in retrospect, PowerPoint was effective for us to use as it is lived up our ideas on how to create the billing block, the writing on our film poster and magazine. 

Similarly, we exploited the uses of Microsoft Excel to illustrate the results which we received from the two surveys that we sent out. After having gathered all of the participant's results, Excel was extremely helpful in allowing us to visually and statistically see where the majority of answers laid.

Meanwhile, Word acted as a way for us to clearly and logically write down all of our ideas, from filming schedules and costumes lists to trailer ideas... Using this programme was a better use of our time rather than just talking about what we were going to do, which is what we did last year.

 

To conclude our experience of using Microsoft during our trailer project, we feel that without it, perhaps we would not have been able to make changes to our poster and magazine drafts as easily. Moreover, as we have been using Microsoft for years, each of us knew our way around the programmes and we did not encounter any problems that we could not fix. Other benefits which we noticed whilst experimenting with each of the programmes, was that they did not creatively restrict us; they enabled us to bring to life our designs without any hassle - due to the fact they had a large library of tools for us to make use of.
Microsoft Excel helped to show accurate figures and percentages of responses which stemmed from our questionnaires - this assisted us when we had to make a decision on the direction of our A2 trailer.

However, we feel that there are a couple of disadvantages of exploiting Microsoft as a way to construct and edit our film poster and magazine - the main issue being that within the media industry Microsoft may not be seen as a professional programme to create the specific media products, such as the posters and magazine covers. Additionally, another downfall of Microsoft - PowerPoint in particular is that the software does not offer the advanced tools like Photoshop.

Green Screen

Within one of our media lessons we researched conventions of film magazines and posters and how the industry creates that cinematic/professional look, it was then that my group and I decided to operate the green screen. Towards the end of the session, it was a mutual agreement that we will not be using it when producing our final media products.

Even though we did not experiment using this particular facility that our school has to offer, we understood that it is used to eliminate anomalies within images such as shadows and inconsistent lighting. In addition, we knew that this was the only way to achieve the solid/gradient background that the magazines usually apply, however we felt that we were lacking in 'know-how' of how to edit the footage once uploaded to Final Cut Express.

It would have been effective to use the green screen in our final ancillary products as it would further our knowledge and help us to replicate procedures which are adopted within the industry. Moreover, the screen would work well in terms of continuity as there would be no lighting issues.

    

Internet

The internet acted as a portal for us to aid our research, construction, planning and evaluating. 
YouTube Official Film Website
Odeon 
IMDb
Facebook.

Facebook was used when evaluating, this was effective in getting feedback because those commenting would be those who were in the target audience range of our trailer.

However the disadvantages of using Facebook as a means to receiving feedback is that the responses are not very descriptive and much of the feedback was not very detailed as many individuals do not know what to look for in a trailer. Areas which did not get commented on where the mise-en-scene as many did not know what aspects it addresses.

Out of all the websites which we looked at YouTube throughout all the stages and it proved itself to be the most sufficient. The reasons for this are that it provided us with templates of previous thriller trailers, Adobe after effects tutorials inspiration for our trailer soundtrack.

The advantages we found from YouTube is that we can directly upload videos from YouTube up onto our blogs with ease. Furthermore there was an unlimited amount of trailers we could browse through.

The disadvantage is that people can upload fan made videos and at times can be very similar to the real thing. This caused us to spend more time searching for the official trailers. Bad quality videos can be uploads which again was time consuming as we then needed to search for the video with good quality sound and viewing.

The International Movie Database assisted us in our research process mainly as it helped us to identify what movie production companies sponsored which films, and furthermore, what distribution companies collaborated with them.The resourcefulness of the IMDb allowed us to look at vital information, this website acted as a library where we could view any film trailers and facts about the films, for example who was involved in creating the movies. Another advantage of this site is that it is constantly being updated; therefore all of the information is current. In light of this, a drawback of IMDb is that without internet connection, you cannot obtain its facts.

Official film websites were used when planning and researching, this allowed us to get a general overview of the professional promotional packages. We looked at official film websites in great detail to analyse the font styles they used and the positioning of images and text. In addition we looked at how they marketed their film and which conventions were broken or adopted. When looking at the film websites it showed their creative expression and opened our minds to the different paths we could explore when producing our promotional package. This is an advantage of official websites as it broadened our minds to the possibilities and options.

The disadvantage to our group is that some films do not have a website or in some cases the film is very old so the website no longer exists; and in our case many good thrillers are from a few years back.

Another disadvantage is many films do not use the official website as their main way to marketing, resulting in a very basic site.

Programmes

During the construction and planning phases we started by working on final cut express, this was to create the storyboard and acted as a base for later development within our project. Our reasoning behind utilising this piece of software was down to our previous knowledge gained last year, where we created our thriller film opening. We knew that we would be capable of constructing an effective trailer which will evoke the feeling of suspense, due to our successful use of transitions and filters which Final Cut Express offered.

Final Cut Express is a programme which we were made aware was used by professionals; we wanted to duplicate that cinematic effect which they so well achieved.  A noted benefit was that Final Cut allowed us to unite the visual and audio elements. When applying an effect onto footage the programme gave us freedom to either stick to the default settings or adjust as we wish.

The disadvantages of final cut were that the camera did not download directly on the program it needed to go through iMovie and be exported as an XML. This was just an inconvenience to our group as it was time consuming.

Also to those that have little knowledge in Final Cut Express it would be very difficult to teach yourself.

Lastly as we were producing a thriller trailer we wanted to include a sequence of very fast paced shots, synchronised with a soundtrack; sometimes when deleting footage the continuity between the visual and audio elements were distorted. We found this extremely time consuming and testing on our skills.

Photoshop was used when planning and constructing in order to aid work with the promotional package consisting of a film poster and film magazine. This programme was used in order to explore the different conventions which are showcased in thriller posters, for example the use of a spot light tool to emphasize the girl’s situation.

When constructing the poster, Photoshop was required to help edit the original image. The lighting was corrected along with the surrounding area. The ground was very patchy in places and some had no leaves covering the ground. 

The advantage of Photoshop is that it is a professional programme which is used in the media industry; so if we had advanced skills and time we would be able to use the functions and tools available to us to create a professional edit of a film poster.

Another advantage is that a member of the group studies A level Photography so had previous knowledge which made using Photoshop easier. Photoshop acts as a magnifying glass which allowed us to scrutinize even the smallest areas of the poster to allow correction.

The disadvantage of this programme is that an introduction is needed due to the intricacy of the tools available as many only differ in use slightly.The programme is very time consuming even to just carry out one task such as cropping round an image because if it goes wrong half way through you need to start over.

Amidst constructing Queensdown Warren, we felt that in order to achieve a sophisticated looking trailer, we required the use of an animated effect on our film title shot and that this could be accomplished through the software called Adobe After Effects CS6. It was from this programme that we created a number of prototypes.

The positive of using this software is that on YouTube there are a number of tutorials that can guide you through the programme to create an effective shot. This made this part of the constructing process bearable and seem less alien to the group. However it was time consuming and frustrating. Another bonus is that this programme is a well renowned piece of software amongst the experts and would looked high quality when accomplished.

Despite those points, Adobe After Effects is such a detailed programme that at any stage something could go wrong and it could be very difficult to backtrack and pinpoint what needs to be altered. We felt that without the use of following a tutorial as a group, we would not have understood the first thing on how to go about constructing such an animated title. What is more, the programme is very expensive to install, it is for this reason that we tested the free first month trial. The negative about using the trial version of Adobe After Effects is that it is limited in some of the effects which the full version buys, for example the “Knoll Light Factory”.

iMovie was an essential programme for our progression as it acted as the middle man when we needed to upload our footage onto Final Cut Express. At one point we had to decide whether to edit with Final Cut Express or iMovie, it was decided upon that going for iMovie would not be a wise decision as we had a stronger foundation of knowledge about Final Cut Express. Furthermore, we came to a mutual agreement that it seemed like a less professional programme.

The benefit of having a programme such as iMovie at our disposal is that it does have a wide variety of transition options which would be suitable for any type of genre and as there is a library of effects, it makes the editing ordeal less time consuming. Furthermore, the fact that the software itself can lay out a template for you to follow when creating a trailer, can prove itself to be very effective as the template acts as a guarantee to having a well thought out, fluid trailer.

On the other hand, there are drawbacks of exercising iMovie, for instance, if you did use a template, it does restrict your creative development which you would generally experience in a non-restricting process.

Additionally, there is general feedback from people who have used the programme and they have said that on the whole, it is difficult to import videos from the internet directly to iMovie, such as YouTube. This makes adding the film production companies very testing to upload and put at the beginning of the trailer.

Garage Band

In order for us to create our soundtrack for our trailer, we needed to utilize the apple programme called Garage Band. 
Last year we had used this software in order to create a deep, manly, demanding accent, however we had not  experimented with the voice and instrument loops, in  addition to the editing aspects such as volume, pitch and repetitiveness of the tracks. 

The advantage of Garage Band is that once the soundtrack has been created it is quick and easy to export that file into a .mp3 and a .mov. This proved effective when we needed to upload the soundtrack to our film trailer in Final Cut Express. Another advantage is that the programme allowed us to make as many changes as we needed whilst it was still in the garage band format. Seeing as we were constantly adjusting our soundtrack this was a helpful element. 

The main disadvantage that we encountered whilst constructing our soundtrack is that changing the tempo within the file is not possible. Upon reflection this did not cause too much concern for our group as when imported into Final Cut Express tempo changes could be done on that program.  

Equipment

Camera

As opposed to year 12, this year we had new camcorders in order to capture our footage and take our stills shots for our tester poster and magazine. These cameras were of significantly better quality and had features such as face tracking and a memory card.

The camera was used in the planning stage in order to experiment with shots and become familiar with the technology. When constructing the cameras were relied on greatly as they were required for every session.

The advantage of having the camera that we did was the high quality that could be produced when videoing or taking still shots. The focus for a long distance range was still very clear which was an advantage to our group as it did not hinder when we were trying a wide variety of angles and movements with the camera.

The main disadvantage was that on the market there are still cameras which are of higher quality which would have been better in picking up detail in darker shots.

The cameras provided for us are not take of professionals in the industry as theirs are very expensive and produce the highest of quality, and this is something which we as a group do not have access too.

- By Katie and Grace