Evaluation part 3

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

2. The construction of my trailer consisted majorly of the use of the software
Final Cut Pro. Final cut pro was used for editing my filming clips and editing
sound, transitions, credits and taglines throughout my trailer. I imported
my film clips from the video camera onto final cut pro through ‘log and
transfer’ which was a quick and easy way of converting the clips over.
Considering I have previous experience of using Final cut pro it was a
pretty straightforward process for editing and creating. In order to make
my trailer stand out more effectively, I used transitions, colour schemes,
adjusted the contrast, brightness and speed of shots. I adjusted the
composition and contrast in colour to help it fit conventions of a typical
horror trailer, achieving a dark and mysterious effect. A successful example
of this is when I edited a certain scene in black and white effect in order to
make it look like its in the past, constructed as a flashback. Also the slow
emotion effect was significant in certain scenes to emphasize on emotions
and tracking shots where the actor is running.
Also the tag-lines, credits and movie titles were used on a
software called ‘Motion’ in which allowed us to experiment with different
styles of writing and different transitions. At first I used a software called
live type for the typography but it was not as effective and advanced as
motion, for example there was much more of a variety on Motion and
have off a more modern effect. A successful motion effect I used was an
effect called ‘iglow’ this looked really presentable on my trailer for the
main title as it made it stand out on a plain black background.

3. Another effective device I used was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop
was successful in the fact that it helped me create both my film
poster and Empire film magazine cover. I used many devices on
Photoshop in order to make my magazine front cover as realistic
and outstanding as possible. I decided to have the protagonist as
the focal image on the A4 page, merged into a black background
which I constructed through cropping around the photo and
contrasting the image and creating an inner glow and outer glow
emphasizing on the ghost-like complexion I was aiming for. The
text I used was different for the title and taglines, this is in order
to have different styles of writing to make it appear less plain and
normal. Also in terms of use of text, I edited the text to a
‘gradient’ in which focuses on different tones and shades in the
font colour. I constructed the title with a pattern of loads of ivy
leaves to make it appear more ‘Halloween esque’ instead of
having a plain colour.
For the film poster, I constructed the layout to focalise on the
protagonist once again adding the effect of an evil black cat
between the title to emphasize and foreshadow the bad luck in
the movie. I constructed the colour scheme in black and white to
differentiate it with the magazine front cover also I liked
experimenting with the contrast, brightness and opacity in the
black and white edit as it made it stand out more and look more
effective. I constructed the title in the font ‘Algerian’ this is a bold
unusual font style in which is unique and appears bold when on a
poster also I added a gradient colour of white to the grey in order
to create different shades and tones making it more effective and
mysterious, adding to conventions of a typical horror movie film
poster.

4. In order to create a soundtrack to my film trailer I used the apple
software Garage band. I used this to edit in to my movie trailer sounds
varying from the various options they have. I found this software really
useful for experimenting with different sounds which couldn’t be edited
in naturally, an example of this is when ‘Eliza Jane’ wakes up there is a
device on Garage band called ‘ Clock alarm’ in which was effective as the
sound effect was really clear and was easy to render onto each film clip I
wanted the sound to appear onto. I also had the sounds from the device
‘cinematic’ consisting of ‘Paranormal noises’ including dog barking
sounds and sounds of a forest at night, it was a really useful sound effect
and fitted really well with my film clips. Garage band files were easy to
import onto final cut pro which was beneficial because other parts of the
editing were really time consuming. I also used You tube for my main
‘eerie music’ soundtrack. I typed in on you tube un-copyrighted horror
music and their were a lot of choices but I chose one in which matched
the editing styles of my horror movie trailer which consisted of different
dynamics and orchestral instruments at low pitch transforming into high
pitch. In order to import the you tube file into Final cut pro I had to go
onto a website called ‘Ix converter’ which converts the original file into
an MP4 file which therefore successfully imported into Final cut pro
because it’s a certain file.

5. For our research and planning we used two programmes on the
macs called “Pages” in which formatted as a storyboard in which
helped me to plan out and organise my shot orders and types
when it came to filming my trailer. The storyboard was beneficial
as it allowed me to write notes around the side of the shot. Pages
was also used to construct my screenplay in a format which
matched the narrative style. This was beneficial when it came to
actually filming the footage, I gave all character a screenplay to
look at and remind myself where the shots took place, which
props were visible and what type of action, noises occurred within
each of the shots. I also used a programme called ‘Inspiration’
which was useful in constructing mind maps distinguishing
between the conventions of a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer
which eventually helped me decide between the two types for
example of length of the running time, the series of shots in
which were used.
Another effective programme I used was blogger. This was a
central website we had to use in order to store all compartments
of our coursework on. Blogger was essential in storing my
research and planning and allowed me to experiment with
different blog layouts and web designs. I found it a really easy
website to use, the only problem I had was submitting videos as
the software at first didn’t allow certain files to edit into the html.