Question 4 written form

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the production of my coursework, I have used a variety of media technologies.

For my research, web 2.0 was used a lot as I used the search engine ‘Google’ to conduct research. One of the first online tools I used was SurveyMonkey in order to get feedback on my surveys regarding my film and ancillary products. This was useful to use as I could enter the questions into the boxes and SurveyMonkey would generate the questions for me automatically; these ranged from rank questions to open and closed questions. This was very good as I saved a lot of time, especially as SurveyMonkey automatically creates results, tables and charts depending on the responses you get from your survey. This allowed me to save time and analyse my findings rather than creating charts and doing it on our own. I was able to put this on my blog using embed codes which I didn’t know how to use before.

I used Snapchat and Whatsapp throughout the process too; two very popular social media apps especially among our target audience. I could use Snapchat in order to create a focus group, as I knew that my target audience would always be using this app no matter what. This helped me gain audience feedback and answers to my focus group, which helped to construct our products based on feedback. Furthermore, Whatsapp and Snapchat both have sharing facilities where people can share links, photos and more. This was useful when handing out my surveys on SurveyMokey as people who knew other people of the same or similar age and would participate in the survey too. This way, it is also creating word of mouth advertising as people know that soon a new horror film would be coming out. I also used Whatsapp in order to create a group chat between myself and my group members. This made it easier to communicate as we didn’t have to meet up all the time for small things we needed to confirm on, and also was efficient in reminding everyone to bring in the right equipment and props when we were filming. This supports the uses and gratifications theory as we use the apps when we need to.

Digital technology and Web.20 also helped me when conducting my research, doing textual analysis and planning for my product. I used YouTube and Vevo to do textual analysis of short horror films similar to my subgenre. For example, when I analysed the short film P.S and the opening sequence for ‘Orphan’. This provide me with a high quality resolution, and having strong WiFi, the videos didn’t always buffer, which helped my work to be of a high standard and helped me analyse every aspect within the frame. I was also able to use embed codes to upload these to my blog which was fast and easy. I also used YouTube myself when uploaded videos such as my focus groups or my preliminary task, which was useful as it was easy to access via embed codes and URL links.

Using Microsoft office throughout the coursework was very beneficial as using Word Document allowed me to plan my research and planning before I uploaded it onto blogger.  I also used PowerPoint to enable me to create interesting looking PowerPoints to make my presenting skills better. However, I used SlideShare, an online word document and PowerPoint sharing website to upload my documents and then used the embed codes to put it on my blogger website, as blogger did not allow me to upload the documents by itself. . Also the fact that I had used a Windows based laptop most of the time was fortunate because any lost work got automatically saved. The fact that photos and files were easy to access made the production of my coursework less time-consuming. Also, as it was easy to access, I could easily transfer my notes onto the various software that I used.

I also used other presenting software such as PowToon, Filmora Pro, Kizoa, Slideshare. in order present my evaluation because they were simple to use and less time consuming. They allowed me to present my work in fun ways. I also used PowToon in order to represent some of my research and findings so that I don’t always use the same packaging and presentation software and so that I can learn of other different techniques as I go along the course.

To present documentation, for example in my research or planning of the actors, location and equipment contracts, I used the app called ‘Tiny Scanner’ on my phone. This allowed me to upload images as PDF files which was useful as I did not have to retype or reformat my original work and ideas in a different way.

I used iMovie to edit focus groups and the first preliminary task where we recreated a scene from the horror movie ‘Identity’. This was useful as it allowed us to cut and use filters that we could find easily and helped us be familiar with some editing tools, so that when we use Final Cut Pro for our final short film, we would know how to trim, cut, use transitions and more. We also did the same with a sample of our animatic storyboard as we were able to cut pictures, insert sounds and use different FX such as fade ins and fade outs. Although of course using Final Cut Pro was harder as it was a professional edition software, but I eventually got used to it as I explored all the tools such as distorting sound and blade tools in order to cut out unnecessary scenes. For example, in the scene where we filmed a wide shot of both Milas’ talking to each other, I layered both the split footage on top of each other on the timeline and then used the effect called 'draw mask' which enabled me to draw a line through the middle of the screen of the top footage which allowed me to delete the other side of the screen, thus allowing both Mila’s on the screen to be visible. Furthermore, I added the 'prism' filter and 'earthquake' filter on top of the footage when Mila feels like she is malfunctioning to make it look like the footage is shaking and distorted. This is to show how Mila feels before she takes her anti-depressants, as they calm her down after she takes them. In order to show how she calms down, I used the 'cross dissolve' transition and elongated it to the whole footage so it looks like the prism and earthquake effect calm down as she swallows the water with her pills.

I also used the titles 'Fade' and 'Glow' when Mila received texts from people. This was influenced from the television show 'Hollyoaks' as when the characters receive texts, a white text shows up on the screen when they check their phones. This was a good contingency plan as our original idea was to show the actual screen of the phone, but when we started recording, there were coloured lines and fuzzing on the phone screen. This is also a better way for our target audience to read the texts and understand the narrative.

When editing the news reporter's scenes, I added the news filters on top of the footage and entered scrolling text which went to the left to create verisimilitude as the news in real life has this, such as BBC and Sky News. I also added a logo of the news company on the top right of the screen and the pictures of the victims as they would be shown in the news in real life. I had to use my phone in order to take realistic pictures of the two bullies and then used a USB cable to plug it into the computer and then add it in to final cut pro.

In the editing process of our film, we uploaded the footage from our SD cards from the camera to the iMac computers and then imported the footage into Final Cut Pro, which is an editing software that is used usually by major companies to edit blockbuster films. To make efficient use of time, my group and I decided to split the editing into three parts as there was three of us – Mariam would edit the beginning, I the middle and Noshin the end. We would then join all our scenes together in order to create the final product. Therefore, Final Cut Pro was the perfect software tool to use for editing as it allowed us to spend time on equal parts editing.

We used Photoshop CS6 in order to edit our final poster. Although it was very hard at first, we got used to using the main tools we needed for the poster, such as the lasso tool, magic wand tool to cut out bits from the green screen and the selection tool in order to move about our images. I used a variety of news tools as I learned along the way. I also added overlays to the picture on order to create shadows, and decreased the contrast from the artificial lighting on the left side of one of my character’s face to show that she is evil. This allowed me to also change the opacity of the character to make it seem like she is not a real human and is in fact a spirit in Mila’s head. Furthermore, I used the pipet tools to stick to the colour scheme in my poster as the title, hoodie and blood were all the same colour. I also used the magic wand tool to delete all the green screen areas from the images. These tools allowed us to conform to the horror genre. I was then able to save my Photoshop file as a final ‘.png’ image.

We used Logic Pro X to edit our radio trailer. We used tools such as cutting and selecting to distort sound in order to conform to the horror genre. For example when we added Bully 1’s scream, we were able to choose between the one we already had or to re-record one as there was a unidirectional microphone attached to the sound system, which is a microphone which records in one direction rather than all directions. Furthermore, I could use the editing tools to distort the news reporter’s voice and make then copy and paste it to make it sound like a reverb. This allowed us to get a clear and crisp sound of the voice of the characters, the narrator and the ambient sounds in our film. I also had to dub my voice in at the beginning and middle of the film as the original footage was not loud enough. 

We used the Canon E1200 to film our preliminary tasks to give us the practice and allowed us to play with the camera in order to choose the right lens for the right scene. This helped us when making our actual product because we knew how to use the camera properly and were familiar with the different lenses to use. This also helped our planning as we knew exactly which type of camera shots to take; for example we took a mid-shot of Mila walking out of the door and then back in.

Finally, to package my evaluations I have used (wideo.co, explee, PowerPoint, ‘Movie Edit Touch’ and prezi) which allowed to me easily use online tools to put together images, text and voiceovers together, allowing me to create videos and other formats to present my work. This was useful as they were free, online, easy to access and easy to use once you get the hang of it. Wideo.co enabled me to use different images and effects in order to make my presentation interesting and engaging. As Iused a windows laptop for most of my evaluations, I used powerpoint to create slides and exported it as a video. I then edited the video and added my voiceover using Movie Edit Touch, This allowed me to create an audio visual easily. ‘Movie Edit Touch’ is similar to final cut and iMovie which meant that it was a perfect duplicate to use when I was not in school editing my evaluations.