1. HOW DIDYOU USE NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES INTHE
CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH AND
PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?
By Lucy Napper.
2. RESEARCH & PLANNING:
This process is so crucial for the success of the final products.
Through my research and planning, I used a lot of software to find out
information that benefited my work massively. One example includes:
adobe photoshop- to create some drafts for the final product. It was the
first time I managed to use this software so it was a chance for me to gain a
basic knowledge of how the software works so that when it came to the real
magazine and poster, I was able to manage my time efficiently.
3. FILMING DAY:
On filming day we used the following digital technologies: a iPhone and a canon
80D camera. Obviously the camera was a massive part of the filming day as we
would have no clips or shots for our teaser, magazine and poster.
(other equipment that we used was a reflector and tripod however these are not
digital)
We followed a filming schedule however, there were elements to the teaser that
were on the storyboards, but we chose to remove because of pressure on our time
management. In the planning process we had not anticipated how long certain
shots may have taken (to set up) like the notice board.
4. POST PRODUCTION:
Regardless of removing shots, we did not feel like the storyline suffered in any way. We managed
to use Final Cut Pro to edit a sequence of shots with the help of some simplistic shots like of the
forested area, and the blood handprint to portray a clear storyline and build tension and suspense
that reflect our genre and the mystery involved.
The post production stage is again extremely imperative to the success of the final products with
the targeted audiences. This is the stage where we worked together as a team to create three
marketing materials. It can be challenging as you have to work with the materials you have got as
we really felt this with the shots we took with the Canon 80D camera for the magazine didn’t turn
out to be what we wanted so in the next free minute we went to retake them.
5. 1. YouTube
This played a massive part of my research into teaser trailers. I frequently used it
throughout the research and planning section to find other teaser trailers to use
as inspiration on all aspects like lighting, titles, shot duration, editing style, props
and iconography, costumes, diegetic and non-diegetic sound and just over all
conventions. I also used YouTube to find different tutorials to help me when it
came to editing my own work and here are just some examples of the tutorials I
used:
The final use of YouTube was to upload my work for the public eye.
YouTube was a very easy website to use and is defiantly new media technology
that has a mass audience as well as a mass contribution to it. Many people
everyday upload content to it and so it was exciting to do the same.
6.
7. 2. Google 3. Smartphone
Google was a massive part to my research and it
was the search engine that managed to get me
connected to many different websites that
benefited me massively. The images section also
helped me find many different movie posters in
my genre (crime thriller) helping me figure out
conventions and create my own.
It also enabled us to find a online storyboard
where we were able to put our ideas for the first
time into a visual aid. None of our group were very
artistic so we were able to find a way to make our
ideas present.
It was a way to find out information fast. Within the
smartphone I was able to write notes down quick,
check weather forecasts for filming day, take
pictures and record voice notes.
Furthermore, we were able to access apps such as
Snapchat and WhatsApp where we had group chats
where we were able to stay constantly connected
and share ideas and progressions as well as help
each other out in times of need.
The only challenge that I may have found was
getting that information to the computer but after
asking a friend, it was easy and benefited my work.
8.
9. 4. Market ResearchWebsites.
Survey Monkey was a way for
me to find primary research in
regards to my own work. It
was easy to use and even
easier to get the questionnaire
out there to an audience
(even my target audience).
The questionnaire was simply
made as I managed to make
the questions personal to
what I want to know from an
audience. The feedback I
received was extremely helpful
with the creation of my
marketing materials.
Box Office Mojo was a way I was
able to find secondary research
on films within our genre (crime
thriller). It was useful information
about films already created
telling me how much they spent
and then made in the box office
ultimately showing me there
success. It was good to see if the
films we were using as
inspiration were actually
successful.
Pearl and Dean was a way I
was able to find secondary
research on films within our
genre (crime thriller). This
website showed us our
inspiration’s (films) targeted
audience. It was useful to see
if there targeted audience
matched ours. It was simple
and effective and I would
defiantly use it again.
These are all websites I used to get market research (primary and secondary) on our genre to
help fid our ideal target audience and then go directly to the target audience and see how
they perceive our ideas.
10. 5. Final Cut Pro.
This was a massive part of creating the teaser and it was the software we
used to edit it.
I have used this software before and so had a good background knowledge
on how to use Final Cut Pro x. However, this year my skill set needed to
improve as the work I was doing needed to be of a higher level.
With the help of online tutorials, found on YouTube and with help from my
peers, I managed to use a wider range of parts of this software. This include
editing the sound to make it sound muffled like it’s coming out of the
headphones, fading sound in and out, transitions, colourings, and working
with montage editing for the first time.
Final cut isn’t always the easiest to use as it has so many elements to it but
once you have learnt how to do something, it is easier to do it repetivly.
11. 6. Adobe Photoshop 7. Illustrator
Photoshop is a piece of software I had never
used before making it slightly alien to me.
I had to research how to use it and once I
had done this I had a basic knowledge that
helped me help create the poster and
magazine cover.
We did face challenges such as loose hairs
flying around and making the editing
process hard as the eraser tool wasn’t able
to distinguish the background and the hair.
However we learnt from it and re-shot the
pictures not making the same mistake twice.
This piece of software I had also never used
before and I did find it one of the most difficult
and I didn’t really enjoy using it.
Regardless of my opinion, once I had read a
step-by-step guide on how to use illustrator, it
was easier and we got some good work done.
12. 8. Garageband
This again was a new piece of software for me. I really enjoyed
using it and found it quite simple. Anything I found challenging it
was easy to google and search or answers or look on YouTube for
a step by step guide.
This piece of software was where we created the sound flowing
through the whole teaser trailer. We tried to use musical elements
like what is shown in the headphone scenes but we also knew it
was key to add in ambient sounds like the wind.
We also wanted to create parallel sound such as the music
changing from the normal running scene to ‘Mia Carter’ finding
the murdered body.
13. 10. One Drive
This piece of software was extremely useful as it helped my group stay connected
with any research and planning to post production elements we had done.
This software allowed us to share documents such as the script in a way that not
only can we all access the same document, but also edit the same document, even
at the same time.
This meant we were able to edit work in and out of college time allowing us to
grasp all the time we could.
14. 11. Microsoft word and PowerPoint.
Microsoft PowerPoint was a way or me
to create presentations such as the
pitch that we created to target
audiences to see if or storyline and
plans for the teaser, poster and
magazine resonated with them. These
powerpoints need to be visually
gripping, informative and able to
captivate the attentions throughout.
We did this by using colours, images
and creating a small script on the side
so that it wasn’t a case of reading of the
PowerPoint.
Microsoft word was a way for me to
create a lot of documents in the
planning stage so when it came to
filming day, we were organised
enabling us to obtain all the time
available.
Some of the key word documents we
created include:
■ A script
■ Shot list sheet.
15. 12. Prezi
This software was another way for us to create a
presentation to gather information such as the audience
research and genre research.
I had used Prezi before so knew how it worked however
there are so many different layouts that every presentation
is different to the last. It’s a very simple piece of software
that’s easy to follow.
There are constantly new functions you can learn to use to
make the presentation better such as embedding YouTube
clips and images. I also learnt how to add in extra sections
as I had more information to add and some presentations
had around 15 slides.
16. 13. Canon 80D Camera:
Filming day was the first time we were able to use this digital technology because
even though we did film for our as coursework, we used older cameras so it was
exciting for us to use newer, better cameras. However it did mean we had to have a
talk on how they worked.
We had a little play with them and using the zooming tool whilst playing with
pulled focus. This was much easier to do this as the camera had a touch screen.
We also had to work with different exposures as when filming outside the natural
lighting was constantly changing whereas when filming in the investigation scenes
with a spotlight, we need a completely different exposure as the spotlight gives off
a lot of light.
17. OVERVIEW:
I enjoyed using one drive and garage band the most.
I found adobe photoshop and illustrator the hardest to use.
I found tutorials onYouTube extremely helpful with the whole process.
I feel like my skills with final cut pro x are the rewarding.
