Question 4 of the Media questions A2

1. Question 4
How didyouuse mediatechnologiesinthe constructionandresearch,planningandevaluation
stages?
Researchandplanning
Duringmy researchandplanningIusedgoogle tosearch the worldwide webforinformation.Iused
the search engine tofindinformationonhow storyboardsare made,tofindoutwho the audience of
horror movie isandwhat theylike andIusedto findthe conventionsof eachaspectof horror
moviesincludingthe mise enscene,the editingandthe soundsused.Google isanextremelyuseful
tool to sue to findinformationonanytopichoweverIcouldhave usedBingandYahoo inadditionto
google toget a varietyof searchresultsinsteadof justthe onesgoogle putsonthe firstpage of the
results.IalsousedGoogle Chrome asa webbrowserthe majorityof the time asit ismuch faster
than internetexplorer,itisalsolesslikelytocrashthan internetexplorersoI usedtoget my
informationfasterandfindoutwhatI needtoknow ina reasonable time.Google Imageswasused
inorder to collectanduse imagesinmybloguploadsforexample inmypostaboutproduction,
audience andpurpose Iusedimagesto provide examplesof whenfilmmakershavesusedcertain
equipmentortechniquessuchthe storyboardfromDisney’sAladdin.
YouTube wasusedfirstlyforresearchas I neededtoview andanalyse examplesof shorthorrorfilms
and the bestwayto do that is to use YouTube asYouTube is an extremelypopularsite were people
especiallyaspiringfilmcreatorswilluploadtheircontentforeveryone tosee astheyare more likely
to be viewedonYouTube thananyothersite.I foundthree shorthorror filmsthatwere uploaded
intoYouTube and embeddedthemontothe blogpostsothe videoIanalysedwouldbe nexttothe
actual writtenanalysiswhichfarmore convenientthanhavingthe html linkbeingplacedthere.
Prezi isa site where youcan create presentationusingavarietyof professional lookingtemplates
that are alsoanimatedforyou.I usedPrezi topresentmyfindingsonthe mise enscene of horror
films.Prezi wasusedsoIcouldpresentywork and myresearchthroughmediumthatalreadymakes
the layoutand structure of the presentationlookprofessional alsoIcouldembedthe Prezi
presentationtherebyallowingme toplace iton myblogso I can easilyreferbacktomy findingwhen
workingonthe filmor editingit.Anissue Iran intowithPrezi wasthe slidesyouputthe textinwere
alwaysroundwhichleadtosome of the textgoingoutside the linesof the circle whichlookedvery
awkwardhoweverIwasable to resolve thisproblembyreducingthe size of the fontforthe textbut
I foundPrezi tobe restrictive onhowmuchtextI couldput inone slide because of the roundshape
of the slides.The zoominfeature wasveryhelpful withPreziespeciallysince Ineededtomake the
textsmallerthanthe defaulttext.
Bubble Us wasusedto presentthe conventionsof horrorfilmsthatI found.IfoundusingBubble US
veryeffectiveforthisbecause the bubblescouldbe organisedintoamind-mapandIcouldorganise
each conventionandputthemunderasub headingforexample the subheading“setting”isa
bubble thatislinkedtoall the commonplaceshorror moviesare shotandthe subheading“editing”
showsall the editingtechniquesusedtocreate horrorfilms.The organisedstructure thatIcould
create withBubble Us wasveryeasyto read andfollow soI couldveryeasilylookoverthe
conventionsof all the differentaspectsof horrorfilmswithease. Ican alsozoomin andout with
bubblesusincase I want to zoominon a particulargroupof bubbles.
SurveyMonkeywasusedto create the questionnairestofindoutwhatpeople like abouthorror
movies;itwasalsousedlateron to create the questionnaire forthe premierenight.SurveyMonkey

2. isextremelyeasytouse infactit wasmuch easiertocreate a questionnaire inSurveyMonkeythan
inWord as the tickboxesare alreadysetto be where theyneedtobe and don’talterthe texts
positionanditwas veryquicktoget the right layout.SurveyMonkeyalsohaspre-setquestionsthatI
coulduse so popularquestionssuchas“whatgenderare you?” wouldappear instantlyif Iwanted
theminthe questionnaire therebyreducingthe amountof time Ispendwritingoutthe questions.
The main issue IfacedwithSurveyMonkeywasfindingawayto embedthe questionnaireontomy
blog,fora while Ionlyhadthe URL pastedontomy blogbutthe wayto embeditisto publishthe
SurveyMonkeyfile firstandthengointothe settingstofindthe embedcode.
PowerPointwasusedforanyposteror double page spreadreviewsthatIneededtodo.For
example,the posteranalysis wasall done of powerpointusingtextboxesandarrow shapestopoint
to whatwas beingtalkedabout.PowerPointiseffectforannotationbecauseyouhave freedomto
move textboxeswhereveryouwantanduse shapeslike the arrow toclearlyshow whatI am
discussing.PowerPointalsogave me asmuch space as I neededtowrite adetailedanalysisof each
and everyposter.The problemwithPowerPointisthatthere isn’twayto save ita jpegimage,which
needstobe done in orderto place the analysisontomy blog.Inorder to do this,Ihad to screenshot
each slide withthe printscreenbuttononthe keyboard,paste itintoPhotoshop,cropitwithhe crop
tool and thensave the as a JPEG so I can insertitontothe blog.
Excel wasusedinorder to create graphsand charts for the questionnaire results.The reasonexcel
was usedisbecause ithasbetterdata managementtoolsthanwordor PowerPointsoall Ihad to do
was type the resultsout,highlightthemandselectthe graphwantedexcel createdagraphwithall
the resultsinplace.Excel wasthe easiestwaytocreate the pie chartsand graphs I neededto
representthe resultsof the questionnaire.
Construction
The camera usedto recordthe filmwere PanasonicHC-V700.These cameraswere usedtofilmeach
and everyshotinthe filmandtheywere veryeffective touse astheyare goodqualitycamera’sthat
pickup a surprisinglysmall amountof backgroundnoisetherebymakingthe editingprocessalittle
biteasier.The cameraswere alsoveryeasyto use as we couldrecord andstop recordingat the
pressof a buttonand the SD wasextremelyeasytoremove andthenplace intohe computersowe
couldback up all of our filesandplace all of our footage inpremiere prowere we couldbegintoedit
the movie.The problemwiththese cameraisthatthe batterydoesnotlast verylongandtheydon’t
have a lot of memory,sosometimeswe wouldhave tostopfilmingandgogetanothercamera with
full batteryorfinda newSD card or delete oldfootage fromthe SDcard andput I back intothe
camera so we couldstart againso while these cameraswere of goodqualitytheywere very
inconvenientattimesespeciallysince therewasnota lotof themto aroundthe three groupsthat
were filmingatthistime.
Premiere Prowas usedtoeditthe filmanddo soundediting.Premiere Prowasone of the best
programsto use for editingfilmsasone youunderstandthe basicseditingbecomesveryeasytodo
inadditiontothisthere a plentyof tutorial tofindif I got stuck.Premiere prohasa great tool for
gettingridof certainbitsof a videowhichare the mark inand mark out toolswhichbasicallyset
where the footage will startandendsoif a scene wasrecordedandit has a couple of secondsof the
actor waitingtobe toldto start thenI woulduse the markin tool to getrid of that sectionandstart
whenthe actual scene starts andendit at an appropriate spot.The whole documentislaidlike a
time line sovideoandclipscanbe movedaroundbyjustdraggingand droppingit whereveryou

3. wantand there are toolsforremovingbackgroundnoise.The razortool wouldalsosplitvideoand
musicclipincase I wantedtoquicklychopof part of a clipor part of the music.The problemwith
usingpremiere proisthatin orderto view the editedmovie Ihadto renderitand renderingcantake
a verylongtime especiallywhenfilmhasmore elementsinitthanbefore suchasthe music and
because renderingtakesupalotof the computermemoryandprocessingpowerthe computerruns
very slowlywhentryingtodoanythingelse.
YouTube wasusedagainso I couldhave all the draftsof the filmona site where Ican alsoembed
the videostothe blog.YouTube allowsme toeasilyaccessall of the drafts forthe filmand italsolets
otherpeople see themsoduringthe premierenightwe couldshow he filmthroughYouTube instead
of relyingonof usto bringin and use a USB withthe filmon it.YouTube wallsalsohelpful because
we couldall lookfor tutorialsonhowto create or editdifferent aspectsof the film, posterordouble
page spread.
Photoshopwasusedtocreate the poster.Photoshopwasverycomfortableforme touse as I have
useditseveral timesbeforetocreate logosandposters.Photoshopcanbe usedto make very
interestingeffectssuchasthe as the cloudeffectwhichwasmade byusinga combinationof the
cloudfilterandthe maskingtool.InPhotoshopyoucancreate andedittexteasilybysuingthe text
tool and goingon to blendingoptionswhichIusedtocreate the gradient onthe title of the poster.
Professionaleffectsthatwouldonlybe normallyseenonreallymovie postercanbe done in
Photoshopforexample placingthe facesof the maincharacterson the knife soitlookslike theyare
reflectingoff of itwasdone by simplyoverlayingthe layerwiththe facesoverthe knife.Alsomoving
the differentelementsof the posteraroundwasveryeasybecause of the selectiontool soIcould
experimentwithwhere eachelementcouldbe placedwithoutwastingtoomuchtime.Photoshopis
an excellentprogramtous to create professional lookingposters.
UsingInDesign,Icreatedthe double page spread.Thisprogramme isverysimple ouse,all that
neededtobe done as tocreate textboxesbyusingthe gridlinesasa template tocreate evenly
spacedtextcolumns.The texttool wasveryeasyto use much like Photoshopandcreatingcoloured
boxeswasverysimple todo,I didthisbycreatinga rectangle andchangingitscolourinthe options
above.The traditional layoutforadouble page spreadreview,whichisthe three columngridrule w
veryeasyto replicate inInDesignbecause of the gridlinesthatyoumake whencreatinganew
document.Overall thisprogramme wassimple buteffective inmakingmydoublepage spreadlook
professional.