EVALUATION 4

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

Initially I assumed that the media technologies we would use for our promotional package would include Adobe Photoshop and Premier Pro as the main programmes that the production would take place on. In addition to these there would be the use of YouTube in order to gain experience from other trailers whilst constructing our own, as well as the use of Google images to provide us with the relevant images of film posters and magazine front covers.

Throughout all three construction, research and planning and evaluation stages it was vital that we used media technologies in order to show off our creative and technological skills that allowed us to develop a sophisticated promotional package. The first stage of technology began with research and planning, with the internet guiding us with the help and skills we needed. For example on YouTube we watched trailers such as The Devil Inside in order for us to gain the inspiration for our own trailer. There were several benefits of using YouTube, as it played an integral role across every stage of our development. This would be where we would turn for inspiration when constructing all blog posts in addition to the promotional package. For example, whilst carrying out our trailer overviews it was a necessity that we watched a handful of horror trailers in order to review the key codes and conventions, whilst analysing our inspirations from each trailer. Without the help of YouTube it would have been made watching trailer much more complicated as a downloading process may have had to be carried out. Furthermore YouTube is accessible from many different media devices; there are apps which allow you to go onto the site via your mobile phone and tablets, allowing me to gain more evidence for the completion of our trailer overviews within minutes.

In addition to this, we had to find specific magazine front covers through the online web, allowing us to add to the knowledge we have on the horror genre. This remained apparent all throughout the research and planning stage, as we kept checking back on our evaluated posters and front covers to make sure our points were relevant. However when searching for horror magazine front cover on Google, real magazines would not always come up, as past students work was also found on the search engine. The easiest magazine front covers that came up were general film magazines such as Total Film and Empire, which only featured special editions as a horror issue. Fangoria remained the hardest magazine front cover due to it being a niche market, this is prominently due to the magazine being solely for a horror audience, therefore many of the images may be of an explicit content for innocent people who search the internet or even children. The website for Fangoria offers a lot of detailed information such as features and interviews as well as interviews in the form of videos for the audience to get all different multimedia aspects. However there is no reference to previous magazine covers making it harder for me to get hold of. Eventually I was able to get hold of some front covers such as the insidious one, this was found after searching through past students media studies blogs.

Cameras were also used before the construction stage, forcing us to adapt to the effects that a camera withholds. We also took practise shots, as well as carrying out a reconnaissance, where we had to start shooting for practise. With these shots a camera was not used, instead a mobile phone which proved to be of a lesser quality than our real shots. Once shooting these practise shots it was from here we realised in order to gain a sophisticated appeal a camera would be the best option. The camera what we used was not one of a professional standard, meaning we had to improvise with specific shots however it also allowed us to film, although there were a few elements on the Nikon such as back lighting could be a feature when recording. There were many mistakes which we realised we had made after shooting, for example our opening shot is of the common room in order to establish to our audience the age of the characters who feature. We carried out this pan freehand, which obviously would lead to the shot becoming shaky and unprofessional a problem which we never even thought about until we played it back. We were then aware that perhaps a tripod would be the best solution, through using this tool it enabled us to create a much more sophisticated sequence, whilst still having the same shot. If I had the chance to return to the camera and change some shots I would defiantly opt to change many of the medium shots of the antagonist to low angle shots. This would create a better representation as the irony of this character being seen as an overlord when really she is the most vulnerable causing controversy in the audience’s point of view.

 

Media technologies such as Photoshop helped us in the post production stages with the ancillary tasks. My skills in year 12 were extremely basic, although they were developing. I feel that through my ancillary tasks in year 13 I have grown custom to the production stages on Photoshop, whilst mastering the tools such as the stamp tool, allowing me to professionalise our film poster. In addition to this I had found new ways in order to create effects such as the colours balance.

The magic wand tool is extremely basic but however requires a lot of patients and depth, if you’re not precise of careful the background and parts of the image. This proved to be difficult when constructing my magazine double page spread in year 12, due to the different positions my artist was in, but I have made a huge improvement with this for our year 13 pieces, by editing out the background from our poster. 

The Clone tool is part of the reason why our possessed eyed have been so effective, it is sometimes hard to create the same effect twice or as well do it as well as the previous one, therefore by creating a possessed eye on one of our antagonist’s eye, and slightly doing the same on the other I was then able to clone what I had done on the perfected eye and just copy it onto the other will not problems. Although adobe Photoshop can be difficult at times, mastering how to get control of the layers as well as learning new aspects such as how to create possessive eyes, a new tactic I have now mastered also. This was a feature I would not have even thought about learning but now that I have, it proves just how creative one programme lets you be, thus proving just how much I enjoyed the process in addition to pushing our ancillary task to the best possible standard. Cameras were used to film our trailer which helped us develop our skills. From our previous experience with the cameras in research and planning, we were able to film our trailer with the knowledge we previously gained. The camera quite literally allowed us to construct our trailer, in order for us to then use Premiere Pro in order to put together our trailer, whilst adding transitions such as cuts, fade to blacks and various other types of edits.

Premiere pro is a programme which I was not aware of until year 13, instantly I had worry that I would not know what to do or how to construct a trailer in a sophisticated manner in which we hoped for. These feelings were shortly abandoned as we had the opportunity to take a class which would make us more familiar with the programme whilst teaching us the basics. After taking this class I still have my reservations about the programme, however felt that I knew the minimum to get through the production stage. My knowledge now included how to import clips, shorten them and how to add edits to the sequence. This was slowly followed by adding audio to the sequence in order to dramatise the action that is taking place in the clip. After becoming familiar with the programme I took it upon myself to try out different elements as I felt this would give me the best idea of what edits I could make to scenes. This is when I became confident with the programme, through watching YouTube videos I was able to educate myself into darkening specific scenes, with the help of the RGB curves I was able to alter the extent of colour that would feature in each scene. Furthermore once confident with the programme I had the opportunity to experiment with the sounds that occurred, by overwriting some of the sounds an echo was applied to the sequence, creating a better effect for the audience. 

Premiere pro pushed the creativity out of me due having no choice but to experiment with the tools they supply. Not only were media technologies used to make our trailer, but also within. For example it is not shown completely in our trailer but touched upon; a mobile phone was used in order to record the suicide that had been filmed which is stated in our narrative.There is a sequence of one character throwing a mobile phone, which adds to the setting of the scene, because how unrealistic would our trailer be if not one teenager was shown with their phone. This sequence is followed by a cut to emphasize that a change in time has occurred. The uses of fades within our trailers are to portray that little time has been exchanged within shots. Adding to the realism of our sophisticated trailer, this was created thanks to the different technologies used.

There are some inspirational elements within the trailers that I had studied, for example, the use of lighting within the Insidious trailer provides a thrilling suspense for the audience. The adrenaline that each member of the audience contains will be the reason for them going to watch the full film. This has inspired us due to the fright we felt once watching this scene, therefore if we incorporated a similar effect into our trailer hopefully our target audience can share the same emotions working in our favour to persuade the audience in watching the film.

We as a group were inspired by the opening sequence within The Devil Inside, this displays a phone call made to the police by the killer Maria. The effect of using the phone call made the audience feel like they were part of this scene as they were there when the phone call had taken place which is what made this scene so successful in our eyes. We then decided to try and apply the same concept to the beginning of our trailer in order to achieve the same feel for our audience. We created this by downloading a specific font which we felt would display the correct typography that could relate to words being said. Adding the text to a black background and placing transitions on the scene is how the effectiveness was conveyed.

Conclusively media technologies were used when constructing my post production evaluation, through the uploading on blogger. Forcing me to keep the creativity flowing through the evaluation. Feedback was also received on the internet through social networking sites such as twitter.