Evaluation 4

Question 4

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

Media technologies were used in the construction and research, planning and evaluation throughout. These four stages needed many elements from different technologies in order help me succeed in creating the final product of our film. The main technology which had a major impact on these four stages was the INTERNET as it was used throughout and also linked with many other technologies that were used; this will be explained and shown further, later on in my answer. Furthermore the ways in which internet was used as a whole was through BROWSING. Browse – surfing the internet or World Wide Web, which I did to look at different website page. For example websites such as YouTube, Google, 1001 fonts, Slide share/Kizoa and London gird for learning.

YouTube – a video sharing website which was mainly of use for the research stage but also in planning, as I needed the site to find and look at other examples of video/clips of similar film in the genre, Comedy. In doing this I was able to have a better all around understanding on the conventions of this genre; why it was so effective and how I can develop these things into my ideas when I come to the construction of my film. An example of this was when watching clips so I could study the convention of CHARACTERS. I learnt to understand character motivation, and learning how to build character motivations for my own STRONG CHARACTERS in planning stage.

Google – A web search engine: information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on the World Wide Web. I used Google for many things such as gathering information and pictures; surfing for other websites that contain information useful/relevant, to what I may need when coming to planning. From this I was able to get more ideas and develop the ones which I already had in mind then apply these developed in an action in my film. E.g. for my construction stage of the Ancillary task 1, the poster I used the images I gathered from the research of other existing poster. I looked at the way in which the layout, text and images were position and used it improve on my ideas of how I wanted my poster.

1001 fonts – An online font bank which I used in my research and construction stage. I started through researching the fonts on other existing poster of my genre and learnt the sort font that I would need for my mine so it would have a similar professional look; from this a gathered fonts from 1001 fonts incorporated my chosen font style into my poster.

Slide share – an online slide hosting service which you are able to upload files and share it. Like Slide share, Kizoa is very similar but more advance because although you are uploading slides, you can actually create the slide from scratch online where else with Slide share you have uploaded it from a PowerPoint. These websites were mainly used in the planning stage when came to uploading my storyboard, photo storyboard etc. I made these things into slideshow that I could access/ viewed on my BLOG.

LGFL (London Grid for Learning) – has an online audio bank which you are able to download copyright free sound/music. This was of use in the planning stage because I used to the website to gathered potential music for the construction stage which I then added the ones which fit best into the final film.

Furthermore although the Blog may come under Internet, it could also be counted as another new media technology itself. The Blog – is an online journal/website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events or other multimedia such as graphics and videos. Everything which was done ended up being post on the Blogs so it was used through all of the stages. I had pervious skills in using it and learnt that just post writing could look very dull and boring. When taking what I learnt into account in A2 I decided to not just post writing but make it creative by using slideshows and other multimedia such as pictures and videos.

Another technology was the different HARDWARES technologies used such as Still camera, Canon XH A1 (film cam), Sound equipment and the Computer & Scanner.

I used two cameras: the Still camera which I used in the research and planning stage, to experiment creative shots of things using different angles; making an object of image look like it is something else (deceiving the eye). This experiment was to discover interesting shots that we may be able to incorporate when actually doing the construction stage. Used in the planning stage for the photo storyboard. The second camera was the Canon XH A1, film camera which was used in the construction of my film. In taking creative interesting image with the still camera, I wanted to continue this in construction stage so instead of doing a basic shot of the actor walking towards the camera. I decided to try the shot out from doing angles with zooms and pans to make it above the basic level.

The Sound equipment in which I used in the construction stage, I had pervious skills in using it and found that it was very fragile and picks up any sort of sound. When I came to applying my knowledge in A2 I would first do a proper sound-check then position the sound equipment in a place where I think it would be best. For example in scene one when the double act where walking, I did numerous amount of sound checks to see what was the most appropriate place to put the sound equipment. This was to ensure that it would not pick every little sound around as we were at the side of the school it was picking up the students talking. However when I re-positioned the sound equipment in another corner, it was decreased the amount of noise being picked up.

The Computer was used in all of the stages and also linked with most of the other new media technologies. For example I needed the computer to surf the internet in the research stage; also in the planning and construction stage the software’s installed in the computer to create things such as my photo storyboard, blog and the ancillary tasks etc. The Scanner was used in the planning and construction stage to scan in the hand drawn storyboard and for the ancillary task other existing film review magazines.

In conclusion to this was the SOFTWARES in which were used such as Microsoft packages, Paint, Abode Photoshop, Corel Photo Impact and Adobe Premiere Pro.

I used a variety of Microsoft Office software for example Publisher and Power Point. Publisher was used in the construction stage of my Ancillary task 1, the film review. This software was used it is more suitable for what I wanted to do. For example its focus is placed on page layout and design differs from Word which more based on text composition and proofing. Microsoft Office PowerPoint was used in my planning stage to actually create the document for photo storyboard which was very efficient as I didn’t have to insert the photographs one by one because with the new upgraded version I was able to use the album tool which allowed me just select the album and it uploads it all together. This was also very fast and saved a lot of time. Furthermore when I had finished the document I uploaded it on the internet using share slide.

Adobe Premiere Pro, a professional real-time, timeline based video editing software program. Adobe Premiere Pro was used throughout the main construction of the production my film... the PUTING THE FILM TOGETHER! I had some skills of capturing, digitalising and arranging but in A2 I learnt how to use it more confidently and was able to change the speed of a shot which I found useful in speeding up many shots that were slow and wasting time such as the toilet scene when the body guard was be followed by the double act. This was found to be very long and wasted a lot of time so we cut out parts of the shot and sped it up. Other effects which could make the film more eye-pleasing for the audience were used such as dip to black and adjusting the effect through Customizing effect presets, using Motion and Colour correction. An example of where I used these effects was in the cookie scene when a dip to black was used in for the montage shots of the doors slamming, making it fit together better and flowing. Effect adjustments were used in the screen drag effect on the shot where frank pulls Charlie out of the frame and after audience feedback on the effect needing to being sped up so it was more effective, I changed the motion. Colour correction was used in the last scene of switch when there was a flashback of frank and Charlie when they were making the fake drugs.

Paint is very simple/easy to use software which I used in the construction stage to crop photographs from the film for the ancillary tasks. In AS I would have to you the select tool then right click and copy to… but in A2 I was able use the crop tool and just save because of the software advancements. However when it came to the actual creation and editing the image in the construction of my ancillary two (the poster); I found it more useful to use Abode Photoshop as this software has tool/features such as the lasso tool which enables me go around the outline of any part of an image freely. Another tool/feature that was used is layers. Layers used throughout as it offers me the ability to make much more slight changes to my image by utilizing opacity, blend styles, and other options. Layers also made it easy to remove one edit without affecting the others whilst I was working. These are all tools/features that the Paint doesn’t have as it is more simplicity and only has basic tools/features such as crop and shape. After creating one of posters using Abode Photoshop I felt as though the poster had something missing (poster 1 with the white background) and I was finding it quiet complicated so I decide to try another program, Corel Photo impact. Corel Photo Impact was more effective for me than Photoshop and Paint because it was very easy to access around it and also had more advanced features such as the clone airbrush tool. Instead of cropping or cutting freely you clone the part of the image you want into any other image or even the same image; this I found to be very fast and easy to use. Corel Photo Impact also features such as special effect which enabled me to add textures to my image. E.g. making my image look comic strip, distort or even just artistic. Furthermore these were all feature I could not found in the Paint or was complicated and would take very long in Photoshop.