The document discusses the various media technologies used during the construction, research, planning, and evaluation stages of creating several products. These included software like Blogger, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premier Pro, Canva, PowToon, Storyboard That, and Survey Monkey. Hardware like a Canon 1300D camera, iPhone 5s, MacBook Pro, and laptop were also used. Each technology is described in terms of how it was used and any issues encountered during the process.

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

2. Whilst creating my products, I used a range of media
technologies throughout the construction, research and
planning and evaluation stages. I mainly used software, but I
had also used a Canon 1300D camera as well as an iPhone 8
plus to shoot the film. An iPhone 5s was also used to record
evidence for the blog during the process of creating my
products.

3. Blogger
• Blogger was the most essential site
that was needed as it was the
software in which my blog was
formed on. It allowed me to upload
my research and planning, my
drafts for my products and
evaluation questions. Blogger
allowed me to embed documents,
slideshows, images and videos that
contributed to the three stages.

4. Camera
• For our short horror film, we used a Cannon
1300D. This is a piece of hardware was
significant to use as it produced high quality
footage. Cameras like these are used to
produce professional photography and using
a camera like this allowed me and my group
to feel like we have produced a professional
product due to aesthetic and clear details we
captured in the film. After experimenting
with the camera, I felt a lot more
comfortable to use the camera when
recording the scenes, I was not needed in.
The raw footage was easy to access, using an
SD card to upload them onto the MacBook
and import them onto Final Cut Pro X.

5. iPhone 5s
• My phone was another piece of
hardware that was essential
throughout the three stages. This
was because it allowed me to
communicate with my target
audience, receive feedback, take
photos and access blogger.
Furthermore, it helped me with my
research and planning by watching
short horrors that I analysed as I
was able to connect to the internet.

6. Laptop
• A crucial piece of hardware
throughout the construction,
research and planning and
evaluation stages was my IOTA
laptop. This enabled me to access
blogger to upload my posts, use
photoshop to create my film poster
and review, listen to the sound
effects which could be useful for my
film and use different software’s
such as Prezi and Emaze
throughout the three stages.

7. MacBook Pro
• The MacBook Pro must be the most
important as without it, there wouldn’t be a
movie. This was used for editing using the
software Final Cut Pro X as well as Adobe
Premier Pro.

8. YouTube
• YouTube was where I was able to listen to the different
sound effects I could use for a horror film. For
example, I searched ‘neck cracking’ into the YouTube
search engine to find the most suitable neck crack that
can link to the antagonist. YouTube was also used
heavily on researching key scenes in movies and short
horror films in which I analysed for research to
understand the conventions of a horror film.
Furthermore, YouTube assisted me in understanding
how to use the editing software I used to create the
film. I was able to watch tutorials in order to expand
my knowledge with the software, allowing me to
become an advanced user. Once I edited the film, I was
able to upload my draft onto youtube and embed it
onto my blog, so I could receive feedback. This was
effective as it can be easily accessed, and the
comments section can be used for the target audience
to give us feedback.

9. YouTube Converter
• Youtube converter was used in
order to download sound clip that
weren’t copyrighted from YouTube
to an mp3 file. This was then
imported into Final Cut Pro X where
I could place where the sound goes
on the timeline for it to play at the
right moment in the film.

10. Google
• Google really helped me when it came to
the research and planning stage. This was
because I was able to research different
horror film posters and film reviews to
understand the conventions of them. By
using this software, I was able to analyse
these products and compare them with
ones that were similar and relevant to my
film. In addition, Google is pretty much
the main hub to research anything I
needed, it helped me find different
software such as PowToon and Storyboard
that as well as websites such as
1001fonts.com.

11. Prezi
• Prezi creates amazing presentations which
has a variety of templates I could use. This
software was predominantly used during the
research and planning stage where I
analysed a full-length film; The Purge. It felt
easier to use Prezi for longer tasks due to
how simple and easy it is to navigate myself
and position the text and images where I
want. Whereas with other software, it was
more stressful to use and harder to do what
I wanted. Despite it being time consuming
and pauses every few minutes to save, I felt
that using Prezi was a lot better than using
something basic like PowerPoint as I wanted
to use a range of technology.

12. Emaze
• Emaze is pretty much the more advanced version of Microsoft
PowerPoint. It was extremely good to use during the research
and planning stage where I used it to analyse short horror films
and write about my understanding of the horror genre and its
conventions. However, I found it quite restricting when it came to
using it a number of amount of times, I was limited to 10
slideshows. I also had difficulty with it when it came to position
the body of the text and placing the images where I wanted. This
was because the software wouldn’t align it correctly. When
creating the slideshow, the slide was presented as aligned and
neat. But when I went through the slideshow, I found that the
text would be half off the page and everything wouldn’t be
where I wanted it to be.

13. Canva
• Canva is a piece of software that allows you to create good
graphic designs using a variety of templates. Despite its main
use, I used it during the planning stage when it came to my ideas
for my short horror film and the invoice of products we brought
to make this movie happen. I found this quite easy to navigate
myself and get used to the layout of the software. However, I also
found this quite restricting to use as I had problems finding a
suitable font for the post. This was because a lot of the
typography were childish or more suited for a card or an
invitation which was a downside to using this piece of software.

14. PowToon
• PowToon creates fun and visually exciting presentations.
However, I hardly used this piece of software as it had just
confused me, and I was lost while creating presentations for my
blog. Using the tools and navigating what I was doing was
challenging for me as well assorting out the timeframe that the
slide was shown for. Furthermore, no matter how good or bad
your internet speed, loading up PowToon and having all the
textures loads on the screen wastes a lot of time where I
could’ve been doing the task at hand on a different software.
With the issues of this software I overcame them by deciding not
to use this software again and use better pieces of software like
Prezi.

15. Storyboard That
• Storyboard That was used once to create a storyboard of what occurs during
my short film. This was done before the first draft of my film to give people
an idea of the formation of the plot. I created two storyboards, one that
focused on the aspect of Camera Work and another which focused on the
aspect of Mise En Scene. Using Storyboard That was clear cut for me, once I
created each character, there were shortcuts which just allowed me to copy
the avatar of the character to use on the next strip. This was easy for me as
the characters within the film wear the same attire throughout. However,
one issue I had was that the textboxes beneath the image of what occurs in
the film did not present the text as clear as I wanted. This is because the
textbox was restricted to a specific size so if I had a lot more to speak about
in one of the images, the text would either overlap into the image below or
if I made the text smaller it would’ve been difficult to read. Despite this
problem, I found Storyboard That a useful software to use.

16. SlideShare
• SlideShare is a piece of software that I didn’t use until the
evaluation stage. This is because it wasn’t clear to me how I
could upload on there. After researching I found that all I needed
to do was design the presentation onto Microsoft PowerPoint
and upload the presentation using SlideShare. After finding the
solution to my problem, using SlideShare was easy for me and I
had no further problems.

17. Survey Monkey
• Survey Monkey was used during the research and planning stage
where I created a horror film questionnaire to receive an insight
into what sort of horror film the audience would prefer to see.
After collating the responses on SurveyMonkey, I found no
difficulties when analysing the responses as the software already
split up the responses to the answers into categories, giving the
vote count and the percentage of how many people selected the
response. In addition, the fact that this is an online
questionnaire, it was easier for the audience to access and give
me feedback as I didn’t have to go through the hassle to chase
them up and wait to receive feedback. This was because I could
just log on to Survey Monkey and the respondent’s answers
would be there.

18. Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Word was used during the research and planning stage
where I used it when analysing my ancillary products; the film
poster and the film review. When analysing these I opted to use
textboxes over writing paragraphs upon paragraphs of writing
that were all clumped together as it is clearer for people to see.
When I didn’t want to keep reusing the same software again and
again, I would go back to the basic software like Microsoft Word
as it is always accessible on almost every computer and laptop.

19. Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft PowerPoint was also used during the research and
planning stage. PowerPoint was really easy for me to use as I
have been using it for a while as I know how to use a mass
amount of features on there. I mainly used this software when I
had a longer task to complete than required a lot more writing
and visuals. For instance, when I created a case study for my
chosen directors. This required me to include a biography of the
director, his career, his successful movies and why he was
successful. Using PowerPoint allowed me to upload
presentations on to SlideShare, enabling me to use a variety of
software rather than just being restricted to this software which
really benefits me.This software was chosen over the likes of
PowToon as it is a lot better when comes to producing visual
presentations.

20. Visme
• Visme was another piece of
software I did not use until the
evaluation stage. This was because I
didn’t understand the concept of
how to navigate around the
software. Since I wanted to use a
variety of digital software, I decided
to understand how the software
works. After experimenting with
the software I had felt comfortable
with it and would use it again if I
needed to.

21. Final Cut Pro X
• Final Cut Pro X was one of the two editing
software’s I had used during the construction
stage. This was heavily used when I edited my
short horror film. Since I was new to using this
editing software, I had no knowledge of what I was
doing. After watching tutorials on YouTube
regarding the basics of the software and receiving
tips from my peers, I was able to begin my editing.
As I got more comfortable with the software, I
became more advanced at it. I had no difficulties
with using the software as everything was
apparent to me. Although I have no difficulties
with the software, I am still able to learn new
things when editing on Final Cut Pro X.

22. Adobe Premier Pro
• Adobe Premier pro was the second editing software I used
during the stage of construction. This software was used for one
sole purpose, for the glitch effect. This was because it wasn’t
possible to create this effect on Final Cut Pro X. Although I knew
it was possible to create on Premier Pro, I had no knowledge of
how to do it. After watching a YouTube tutorial I had a strong
idea of how to do the effect. When putting the effect into place,
it was easy for me to do and position the frame out of position. A
difficulty I encountered was that since it was a rendered file from
Final Cut Pro X, the clips were all merged together, making it hard
for me to navigate exactly where the effects where. There was no
way I could overcome this issue, I just had to spend time to find
the clips add the effect to the specific time there were glitch
shakes.

23. Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Photoshop was heavily used during the
construction stage where I used it to create my
ancillary products. I had also used this software for
my foundation portfolio in AS where my skills were
amateur. Now in A2 my skills have developed a lot
more where I have been able to understand what
the majority of the tools are used for. For my film
poster I was able to use a poster template which
helped set me up. I placed a JPEG image of the
antagonist into the template and blended the image
into the background of the poster as I didn’t want
there to be a noticeable change in the shades of
black. For my film review, I was able to select an A3
canvas, so I couldn’t create a double page spread for
my review, the use of the textboxes enabled me to
align the content of the review efficiently, making it
appear neat. I was asked for both products to ensure
the title appeared bolder. However, the typography I
used does not allow me to make the letters bold. In
order to overcome this issue, I duplicated the layer
of the title and shifted each layer a frame to the
right to ensure that the title was bold. Furthermore,
on my film review I created an interest prediction
curve on photoshop where I used various shapes
including the line tool and the shape tool to create a
rectangle. My “curve”’ was created by angling the
lines differently and altered the positioning of the
line to make it form a curve. This was then placed
into my film review. Overall I found using photoshop
better to use due to my previous experience during
AS, I had no real issues that affected the outcome of
my products.

24. Social Media
• Snapchat was used to receive feedback from my peers who I gave a link to watch the
film. After they watched the film they gave me informal but constructive feedback to let
me know what went well throughout the film and what needed improving. I was able to
advertise my premier night on my snapchat story, informing those who have added me
on this platform that my short horror film will be premiered on that certain day. In
addition, I sent my film poster and film review to my peers using snapchat to understand
what could be done better to make it look like a professional product.
• WhatsApp was the main social media platform I used as I had created a target audience
group for my short horror film. I felt this was easier for me to use out of the social media
platforms I used as I could receive detailed feedback from the members of the target
audience in a group chat. I opted to create a group chat on WhatsApp over Snapchat as I
had felt most comfortable using this application as well as being able to view the
contents of the message before I opened the application. Once all members sent me
feedback I was able to screenshot them and post them on my blog. WhatsApp was more
suitable for me to use as it is mainly used for written communication, whereas Snapchat
is mainly used for taking photos.

25. www.1001fonts.com
• This software was used to legally
download fonts that I can not access on
my laptop. This was useful for my title and
the credit block. The typography
SteelTongs is the conventional font that is
used for the credit block on every film
poster, so downloading this typography
was a necessity to have a professional
looking poster. I had no worries using the
software as everything was displayed
clearly and allowed me to download the
fonts with no difficulty.