Question 4 of my Media Evaluation

1. How did you use media
technologies in the construction,
research, planning and
evaluation stages?
QUESTION 4 -EVALUATION

2. Using different technologies has enabled me to improve
my work on my horror trailer in a number of ways; one
being through organisation and collection of my work.
Blogger has been my method of publishing my work to
the internet and has helped me to keep it collective and
organised. It’s allowed me to hold different pages on
screen so that I and others can easily find my work and
therefore, identify where I need to improve.

3. Using the IMac’s throughout
the editing stage has showed
me how to improve my work
and teaches me how to use
basic editing programs. The
editing software ‘IMovie’ has
been beneficial as it has
helped me to add effects and
move the different shots in my
sequence around till I am
happy with the way it fits.

4. When it comes to filming the trailer,
although the use of a tripod was
available to me, I decided not to
use a tripod as it makes the footage
look jumpy and rough, meaning the
audience doesn’t know what to
expect. I don’t regret this decision
as I believe that the rough look of
the trailer adds to the mystery and
tension felt by the audience.

5. The storyboard planning process
for my trailer helped me to lay out
my initial thoughts for the plot and
the types of shots I was interested
in showing to the audience. This
improved my work as I see this as
a starting point for the
construction of my trailer.

6. However, my use of technology has also held me back
when it comes to the construction, research, planning and
evaluation stages of my trailer. It was an early decision of
mine to not use a tripod as I wanted to symbolise the
roughness of the relationship and also make the audience
members feel on-edge. When I made this decision, the
main regret that I have about it is that I haven’t tried to
gather any audience feedback. I know from past
experience of watching horror films that the ones that are
in found-footage style are more believable however, the
constant shaking of the camera can get highly irritating
and can become unbearable to watch. This is the reason
for my trying not to shake the camera as much as other
films do however, still giving it that found-footage look.

7. Another way that I was held back due to my use of technology was
through my storyboard. By originally planning my plotline and shots,
I felt as though I was limited to stick to this plan. I ending up going
completely against my storyboard and finding new ways to film.
This occurred when I realised that my plans for locations was a bit
too ambitious and slightly impossible due to the building getting
torn down. Although, many people to still enter the building, it
would have been extremely dangerous and risky to enter the
building which has reportedly begun to fall down due to the roof
occasionally collapsing. Due to this, I had to find other locations
and make new plans to film without changing the plotline too
much although, the plotline was originally based around this
building. I achieved this by getting exterior shots of an already
abandoned building and then getting interior shots in a different
building which also looked deserted. This helped me to achieve the
creepiness of the location without putting anybody at risk.

8. Although I encountered a few setbacks, I was still able to
engage with the audience in my trailer. A way I did this was
by not using a tripod. This makes the audience feel
uncomfortable and jittery which complies with the themes
and gives off the overall feeling of isolation as it takes the
audience out of their comfort zone. I’ve also considered
other types of technology to construct my trailer; one being
the use of a dolly. A dolly would enable me to include
smooth movements with the camera when I wanted to and
would also help me to introduce more methods of camera
movement. However, I didn’t use a dolly as I wanted my
trailer to all be filmed using hand held cameras.

9. Using Photoshop improved my work on my poster by allowing me to add different
effects and layered features and adding more depth to the piece. I took
advantage of using these layers by adding in my credit block, title, release date
and tagline. This enabled me to conform to the conventions of a film poster. The
credit block was challenging to make as I wanted to conform to the fonts and
sizes of the different production jobs and names. Photoshop also enabled me to
have access to different colours and fonts to see what looked better. I used a
separate font making website to produce all of the writing in the poster. This
makes my poster more creative as I haven’t used a standard font easily
accessible through Microsoft word processor.

10. Photoshop was difficult for me to use and if
anything, also held me back whilst producing
my poster. As I had had no previous
experiences with Photoshop, I had to teach
myself to use the different features and play
around with what I could achieve through
this editing software. However, this held me
back as to create my poster, it took me
around 3 and a half hours. For someone that
had already known how to use the different
functions on Photoshop, they could achieve
what I have achieved in half the amount of
time.

11. I did research and download other editing
software’s but as I was looking at those, I realised
Photoshop had the best editing equipment and
would have been the easiest to use once I got the
hang of it. I did feel as though my lack of
knowledge on Photoshop held me back when it
came to producing my poster as everything would
take me longer, I had less chance to experiment
with what I wanted to do and my idea of my
finished product was different than first thought.

12. I had originally planned to make my credit
block have a transparent background,
following conventions of a film poster.
However, when I decided to have a
monochrome theme mixed with red, the
writing became difficult to read against its
background. Therefore, I made the
background of the credit block black to make
the write writing stand out from far away. I had
also initially wanted to change the colour to
the actress’s lips red to further grab attention
from passes-by.

13. I had difficulty doing this as I struggled to find the
right technique on how to do this. I tried to educate
myself by watching YouTube tutorials. Eventually, I
managed to find a way to do this. However, due to
the actress’s hair hanging slightly over her lips, I
struggled to find a way to make the colouring suit
the rest of the image. If I had managed my time in a
more effective way, I most likely would have found a
solution for this and could have achieved my initial
intentions.

14. Technology held me back in the creation of my
magazine in a number of ways including: the strip, the
barcode and my own time management.
I found it difficult to create a strip on the top of the
page as I couldn’t get the layers right on Photoshop
and therefore, my black background was in the
foreground and the text was in the background. This
was due to my inexperience when it came to using
Photoshop. As I have previously said, this made simple
tasks take longer. For example, getting rid of the
background layer for the main image.

15. I intended to create a strip along the top of the
magazine which would have enabled me to include
more information about the content of the magazine,
without using too much space. Instead of this, I added
text and a image along the top of the page to fill more
of the space and include more information.
I also intended to turn the barcode horizontally so that it
used less room on the page and also, followed the
typical conventions of a magazine. Due to my lack of
experience using Photoshop, I couldn’t turn the image
sideways so instead, I made room for it along the
bottom which is also seen in conventional magazines.
As long as the barcode is out of the way of the other
features and is in one of the corners, it therefore follows
the conventions.