1. Q U E S T I O N 6 : W H AT H AV E Y O U
L E A R N T A B O U T T E C H N O L O G I E S
F R O M T H E P R O C E S S O F
C O N S T R U C T I N G T H I S
P R O D U C T ?
BY S A R A H H E A R N
2. INSPIRATION 8
This was the first technology I used. I used it to show
my first ideas in the form of an ‘initial ideas mindmap’
and it allowed me to plan out my ideas effectively and
consider which was the most achievable one. As it was
so easy to use I could get my ideas down quickly and
spiral off other ideas giving me more detail to work
with when I further developed the plan for my opening.
3. GOOGLE
I used this as my main search engine. This gave me
access to facts and figures about my target
audience, for my genre research and genre
conventions. It also lead me to sites such as IMDB
and thenumbers.co.uk which gave me information
on reviews, release dates, actors, directors and box
office taking for other romantic comedies. I found
this resource invaluable as it gave me a range of
sources to find lots of information and help ensure
my opening would suit the target audience.
4. SLIDE SHARE
In terms of uploading my work onto my blog, most of
my files needed uploading to Slide Share first
specifically documents such as Power Points. I had
not worked with slide share before this point. After
having learnt how to upload my files to slide share, I
had to use the embed code to put the document
onto my blog.
5. BLOGGER
Continuing from this, I learnt to use blogger. Again, I
had no previous experience of it. The main learning
came with having to work out how to navigate the
website and upload my work to it. Most of this
included using the embed code in the html section of
the new post area. To help increase ease in terms of
navigation, I used labels to categorise my work. With a
category for pre-production, coursework, media theory
and preliminary task it is easier for both me and others
to find what they are looking for.
6. BLOGGER CONTINUED
It allowed me to track my progress and the development
of my plans as well as giving my actress access to
resources such as the script which made the filming
process easier. Furthermore, it was helpful to have all my
work on the internet as if I needed to refer to it during
filming or other work towards my film it was easy to
access from anywhere and I could use it to show my
actress what I was thinking. Also it was beneficial not
having to worry about taking all my information with me
on paper and my work being accessible from my phone.
7. MICROSOFT
OFFICE
Microsoft Office was also useful in the
presentation of my research from pre-
production as it helped to present my
information on actors, props and costumes
easily and add images to help increase detail
and help me later on in the filming process to
quickly refer back to my plan. It was an easy way
to quickly write out my ideas and edit them
without any messy presentation saving me time
when it came to uploading my pre-production
to my blog.
8. PREMIERE
In the post production stages my knowledge of
Premiere increased. I worked hard to use
transitions within both video and sound to
enhance the comedic side of my opening. Also,
I have become more experienced in imputing
sound and adjusting their sound levels to make
sure they match and sound natural.
9. PREMIERE CONTINUED
I used the brightness tool to ensure all my shots
had identical light levels after experiencing
difficulties with changing natural light during
filming. Although I used Premiere in my GCSE film
I believe this time I had more opportunity to
experiment leading to me using more of the tools
available and therefore growing my knowledge
and confidence of the software.
10. PHOTOSHOP
Another skill set I developed was in my use of
photoshop. I used this to edit my institutional logo
to invert the colours. This meant that when I applied
it to my opening it could be placed on a black
background instead of having to change the
background to white. To do this I had to use the
‘quick selection tool’ and the ‘fill tool’ to change all
that was black to white and vice versa.
11. PHOTOSHOP
CONTINUED
Without doing this, the opening credits
may have seemed to not flow as well with
an abrupt change from my institutional
logo to the Lionsgate logo. Although a
fade transition could have helped this, I
feel as if not inverting the colours would
have considerably reduced the fluidity of
the opening credits.
12. YOUTUBE
Another source of research I used was Youtube. This allowed
me to look at the openings and common conventions of
other romantic comedies to help incorporate things that will
enhance attraction of my target audience in my film opening.
Furthermore, I was able to use it to upload my film to allow
access to a wide audience with the majority of my target
audience being contemporary and active online. It also
makes it easy to see how many people have seen my film so I
can assess how successful I have been in making audiences
aware of its existence.
13. CAMERA
To film my film, I used a DSLR camera (Canon 60D) of
which I have used before to film my GCSE piece and my
preliminary task but found that this time I was more
comfortable in using it. As a result of my confidence I
used manual focus to create any specific effects I wanted
to, playing around with depth of field instead of relying
on auto focus like before. Also, I changed the settings on
the camera depending on the light in the room to keep
light levels as similar as possible which made it easier
when I came to edit.
14. CANVA AND PREZI
Prezi and Canva were both online types of software I used to
present my questions. Being similar to PowerPoint I found them
easy to navigate and this helped me quickly present my questions in
various ways making my evaluation more interesting. I was able to
use different designs for each and with access to the embed code of
the finished products I could easily upload them to my blog via the
HTML section of Blogger. This made it easy for me to make my
evaluation questions accessible.
15. POWTOON AND EMAZE
These were another two ways I presented my questions which
resulted in more of an interactive video form. Although these were
slightly harder to navigate and use, I prefer the result produced
compared to Canva and Prezi. It was easy to add images to enhance
the detail of my evaluation and make it easier for people to refer to
what I am talking about. I think these two types of software are very
visually appealing to a modern audience.
