2. HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?
Whilst constructing, researching, planning and evaluating my media
products I used both physical and digital technologies. Physical
technologies are pieces of equipment we used throughout the
process, where as digital technology are things such as computer
software and social media. This PowerPoint will explain how I used
each digital and physical technology whilst creating my film trailer
and ancillary tasks.
3. CAM-CORDER
To film our media trailer we used Millie’s family
cam-corder. The school has video cameras you
can book out but these don’t produce a great
quality shot, which Millie and I wanted to ensure
to make our trailer look as professional as
possible. Millie’s family camera was also used to
take the pictures we wanted for our Ancillary
Tasks, as again this was better quality than either
of our iPhones’ cameras.
The camera had two different lenses, one more
zoomed than the other. We used both lenses
whilst filming, mainly using the more zoomed
lens for close-up shots, which unintentionally
gave us a almost soft looking shot as it was ever
so slightly out of focus. However, Millie and I
believed this added to the trailer as it created a
warm and romantic feel to the shots.
PHYSICAL TECHNOLOGIES
4. IPHONE 6S I used my iPhone 6s in many ways throughout
the process of creating, researching and
producing my media product. I used my phone
to research different film trailers in order to find
typical connotations of a Social Realist film, and
then made notes either in my textbook or on my
blog. I also used my phone to ask my friends to
answer a questionnaire on my initial ideas as I
could easily contact them in a group chat rather
than having to ask them all individually.
I also used my phone to take location shots of
where we filmed so I could then evaluate them
later on my blog. It was easier to use my phone,
rather than the large camera we filmed with,
because it meant I could take the photos without
needing to get the video camera off Millie.
5. APPLE MACBOOK PRO
To edit mine and Millie’s footage we used a software called
iMovie which is only available on Apple products, which we
luckily had access to in the school. However, when it came to
the Christmas holidays Millie and I really wanted to get the
editing done, so we used my mums MacBook which we then
downloaded iMovie onto. This enabled us to edit throughout the
holidays and get ahead on the whole process.
We also had to use a SD Card adapter to get the footage off the
video camera and onto the laptop. We had originally rented one
from the library at school but these are known to be
temperamental so after trying the school one a couple of times
we asked a friend to use his personal one which was a lot more
reliable. Millie picked the SD Card up from our friends on the
way to mine and we then managed up upload all the footage
onto the MacBook.
6. DELL LAPTOP
As well as my iPhone, I also used my laptop to complete a
lot of research and create the majority of my blog posts.
Using my laptop to do the majority of my work, along with
my phone, meant that I was able to edit and complete
work whenever I had a free moment and during my free
periods at school, as I regularly took my laptop into
school with me for reasons like this.
My laptop also featured in the trailer itself, as Millie and I
wanted a shot of our protagonist Alice scrolling through
‘hate’ on social media. We chose to use my laptop over
Millie’s as my keyboard lit up and this was really effective
as the shot was filmed in the dark room at school, so this
lighting really added to the shot and gave it more depth.
The light also reflected onto Alice’s face which enriched
the image of Alice being isolated and lonely.
7. RECORDING STUDIO AND
EQUIPMENT
Since Millie and I wanted to record our own version of Sam Smith’s ‘Leave
Your Lover’ we had to use the schools recording studio to do so. This
process took a lot longer than we hoped it would because the recording
studio was out of action for a while. So Millie and I improvised and
brought in Millie’s microphone from home and recorded it using the
software, Logic Pro, they have at school but with our own mic. We also
wanted to include a piano part which we asked our friend Molly Grant to
play and we organised to use Miss Staten’s electric piano, which enabled
us to achieve a smooth and natural sound. After a couple practise runs,
Millie and I managed to record the whole thing through and after we
were…
8. …happy with the recording of the base line, we then decided to add
harmonies. We added two more melody lines, one with myself
singing harmonies and another with Millie. We then placed these all
together, and made sure they were all in the same timings, using
the software Logic Pro.
RECORDING STUDIO AND
EQUIPMENT CONTINUED
9. RECORDING STUDIO AND
EQUIPMENT CONTINUED
When we first started practising Millie
and I realised we needed to transpose the
chords Molly had in order for us to reach
the lower notes, as Sam Smith has a
much lower vocal range than Millie and
myself. So we used the transpose button
on the piano (shown above) to find the
correct key we needed.
We also had to use this headphone
adapter so that both Millie and I could
hear the melody line whilst recording our
individual harmonies over the top.
10. IPAD
During some of the time we were organising filming and filming the
trailer itself, I unfortunately had a broken phone. This meant that I
had to use my iPad in order to keep in contact with Millie, Ann and
Flo, this was surprisingly harder than I thought as my iPad only
worked on Wi-Fi and not mobile data. This resulted in Millie and I
having to plan further ahead than normal, as it wasn’t certain that I
would receive the messages straight away.
I also used my iPad for research purposes, as it is a lot easier to carry
around rather than my laptop. I completed all my research for my
Ancillary Tasks on my iPad whilst in free periods at school, this meant
that I had more time to focus on the editing of our film trailer when at
home.
11. SOCIAL MEDIA
Faceboo
k
Twitter
Millie and I used
Facebook in
order to contact
Ann and Flo in a
group chat, as it
makes deciding
dates and times
a lot easier.
Another options
would’ve been
iMessage,
however not all
of us had an
Apple phone, so
this wasn’t
possible.
We used Twitter
to create online
profiles for each
of our characters,
as well as some
extras we made
up. The use of
social media
added to the
realism of the
trailer, as in real
life social media
is unfortunately
widely used for
bullying.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
12. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTINUED
YouTube
We used YouTube in order to upload our first
draft and our final draft of our film trailer,
which we could then embed into our
individual blogs. This allowed us to evaluate
our first draft and publically say what we
needed to add and improve.
When uploading our first draft we had used
the Sam Smith song ‘Leave your Lover’ as the
soundtrack, when we uploaded it onto
YouTube and watched it for the first time we
realised that the music had bee cut for
copyright reasons. So Millie and I then
decided to record the song ourselves.
13. BLOGGER
Blogger was a major part of
my Media Studies Coursework
as it was the website which
we kept our on-going blogs
on. This was great because we
could access it from school, at
home and it even had an App
on the App Store that I had
downloaded at the beginning
of the year which allowed me
to blog on the go. I used
Blogger last year for my
coursework so I was familiar
with the way it worked, which
saved me time and meant I
could get straight on
blogging.
14. SLIDESHARE
Slideshare is an online website which
allows you to upload PowerPoints
which you have made. This is
extremely helpful as I can then
embed the PowerPoints into my blog
posts and I will gain credit for using
multi-media within my blog. You can
also upload many other documents
to Slideshare, such as a PDF file, a
video and a word document. This
gives me a wide choice in how to
present my work and my blog, which
is important to gain the higher
marks.
15. IMDB
I used IMDB in order to collect information on the
takings films made, the genres they were classed as,
the key actors and actresses they had casted and
much more. All of which I have included in my
research throughout this coursework. IMDB always up
to date which helps is very important to my
coursework as part of the Media Studies A-Level is
looking at contemporary media, so having facts and
figures which are current and correct is vital.
16. ONLINE GIF CREATOR
While creating our production logo gif, Millie and I had to use two
different online creators. This was because the first one (imgFlip) we
used put a watermark on the bottom right an side of the logo and this
gave an unprofessional finish so Millie and I then searched around for
another website which didn’t add a watermark (GIFMaker.me). This took
a while to try do as we had to upload each image separately to every
website and the chose the correct speed we wanted them to play at.
However, this was worth the time and effort as we were left with a much
more professional looking production logo which Millie and I were more
satisfied with.
17. DA-
FONT
Whilst creating our production logo and choosing the font for the title
‘LovingYou’ when appearing at the end of our trailer, we used the
website DaFont. This website has a very wide range of fonts to
choose from which all fall under different categories. When choosing
the font for the production logo, we needed something which was
bold and stood out as the space for the text was rather small, so we
need to make sure the audience could read the name ‘Three Strikes’
clearly. We finally decided on the font ‘Pirulen’ as it was simple and
wouldn’t draw attention away from the animation of the logo.
After Millie and I had finished editing our film trailer we then needed
to add the title of our film to the end of it. So we again headed to
DaFont to find once we wanted. For this title we chose a handwritten
font called ‘Colors of Autumn’ as this was close to what we found we
liked when we both individually researched into other similar film
titles.
18. IMOVIE
iMovie was one of the key elements to creating our film trailer, we
used this software to edit our clips, put them together and then add
our soundtrack. We used iMovie as we were able to access it both at
home and at school, as my mum had the software on her Apple
MacBook and this meant we had more chances to work on it, such as
weekends and over the Christmas holidays.
iMovie is also very simple to use and
navigate. It also helped that Millie and I had
used it together in Year 12 to create our ‘film
opening’ for last years coursework, so we
knew how a lot of things worked but if not
we always had the support of our teachers
who were happy to help.
