1. Emma Beeson A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation Question 4
2. QUESTION: HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
3. ANSWER: Initially, research for the final product was all done through the internet, using mainly Youtube, Google and Wikipedia to gather facts about particular films (namely Shutter Island, Nightmare On Elm Street and Orphan), images of their posters and the official film trailers. When we had particular ideas, like originally with the dolls, we visited websites specific to that idea. The Living Dead Dolls Wymering Manor– Research Our blog was managed through Xanga, which allowed us the facilities to create an effective, professional-looking blog. As with most blogging sites, Xanga allowed us to upload images and sound and has all of the default features that most have – fonts, colours, etc. We also set up a Youtube account for Tormented Productions, where we could upload videos, acquire feedback, and embed videos onto our blog, which works much more effectively, and more efficiently, than using a direct link. When we began filming the trailer originally, we were using a camcorder provided by the college. However, my brother who has a huge interest for the film industry, actually bought a new video camera, which we ended up using. This gave us much higher quality filming, which became easier to work with and looked a lot better in the final trailer. We have scenes in the trailer that were filmed using each of the cameras, which is one of the minor drawbacks to our final trailer, as there is a noticeable difference in video quality. All of the images taken at Wymering Manor, Pigeon House Lane and the ones of our main character, Chris, were all done on a digital SLR camera, which also gave us high quality images to work with, which was hugely beneficial when we were editing in Photoshop.
4. iMovie was used to create our actual trailer. I initially knew nothing about the programme, but it was all very easy to pick up. It had basic movie-making features, like additional effects, ways of inputting sound and facilities to increase/decrease/cut the length of the video clips. Using iMovie to create the trailer also limited us to a certain level of professionalism. Whenever we were showing people our material – in the making – they were impressed with what we’d done. However, if you are familiar with the programme and you know what to expect from it, you set yourself higher standards and are constantly disappointed, until you reach that height of perfection. Certain effects were unavailable on iMovie, which meant we couldn’t quite achieve what we had originally thought we could, but again, this was something we had to just work with and make the best of, under the circumstances. At times, iMovie was difficult to work with, and we had massively underestimated the time it would take to film and edit our trailer. Despite my lack of enthusiasm about programme, there were enough effects and tools to work with to create an amateur teaser trailer. The existence of a ‘Share To Youtube’ button on iMovie also meant that we could have an easier, more efficient way of uploading our edited video sequences onto our blog. (click to view iMovie demonstration)
5. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, were extremely useful to gather audience feedback. As we were creating the trailer, along the way, we were showing friends and family to get an idea of how we were doing, what was right/wrong and what could be improved. However, the use of Facebook enabled us to reach the attention of people we have limited contact with, and we had access to a much greater range of people, which therefore meant more feedback and more constructive criticism to work with.
6. InDesign and Photoshopwere also a huge help when it came to designing our posters and magazine cover. These two programmes allowed us to edit and improve with great detail, resulting in two very effective posters and a successful magazine cover. Photoshop has the entire range of standard design/editing features that editing software includes – cropping, paint brush, colour, etc. On top of this, Photoshop provided us with a great variety of different effects for the layers and images we were using, and colour gradients that can be adjusted - therefore we were able to blend our images and text together to create professional media products. InDesign is much the same as Photoshop. The default guidelines that appear are helpful with the conventional layout of magazine covers. Working within these set lines helps with the placement and overall construction of the media product. It makes things easier to judge – like the measurements/size of the images being used – and whether things are central and positioned properly. InDesign does lack the ability to properly edit images – as opposed to Photoshop – so, we often had to import the already-edited text and image from Photoshop to InDesign. These programmes really helped and developed our final products and overall have enabled us to create extremely effective work. - Photoshop - InDesign – (click to view demonstrations of each program) Garage Band also played a minor part in the construction of our media products. We used this program to manipulate sounds and music – mainly our final voiceover.
7. I have presented this question, obviously, in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation. Microsoft PP – much like all of the other programs – is an effective way (more original, perhaps, than the other programs I’ve used) – of creating a presentation in a more interesting way. The program allows you to add images, links, text and contains many other features that has made it easy and efficient to link to my blog and other relevant sites. It has enabled me to add music to my presentation, which immediately links back to the film trailer. On top of the basic slide settings and ability to input files, etc, MS PP has all of the specific features for all the different aspects included in the presentation – font colours and sizes, image cropping/resizing – everything that all of the previously used programs have included. Microsoft PowerPoint has supplied me with an easy, effective way of presenting my last question of the evaluation.
8. Prezi is the last main technological contribution to my planning, production and evaluation stages for this piece of coursework. Prezi, much like PP, is a website (not a program) for creating online presentations quickly and effectively. The presentation, I feel, does look effective and quite different, however I did find it quite difficult to use. I was unfamiliar with the program prior to this task, and it took me a little while to get the hang of it. But again, once you get used to it, you can create an effective piece of work. It enables you to insert text, images and others (again, sounding very similar to all of the other programs I’ve used) and you can also create paths to make certain things appear at certain times. The presentation is done on one big slide, not individual ones, so the lack of guidelines and direction makes it a little more difficult to work with. Despite these little struggles, the overall idea of Prezi is effective and has helped me create an interesting response to a quarter of my evaluation.
