The document discusses how new media technologies were used at various stages of creating a film. In the planning stage, the author researched online using keywords to find inspiration for the film poster and learned about film conventions. Google Docs was used to create questionnaires. A blog was made using Google Blogger to share updates. Equipment like a high-quality camera, tripod, and voice recorder were used in filming. Photoshop was used to design the film poster. Final Cut Express was the primary editing software. Overall, various online resources and software tools were vital in researching, producing, and distributing the finished film.

1. HOW DID YOU USE NEW
MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF
RESEARCH, PLANNING
AND EVALUATION STAGES?
JESSICA SCOTT

2. USING NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES
The use of new media technologies was vital to the construction
of our film. This year, we have had to learn how to use more
advanced equipment to help us create a film which was of a
higher standard to the one we created in the previous year at
AS. There has been various research we have had to conduct.
Through researching on the internet I have learnt which key
words were more successful when researching specific
conventions, for example film posters. I have found some very
useful websites that has a collection of submission of minimal
film posters, which I found extremely helpful when creating the
film poster. We have also used the internet to help us create our
blog, as well as using it to research similar films to our own
genre, narrative style and prop research, along side production
and distributor research. The internet has been helpful in the
making of the film.

3. AREA OF RESEARCH
In the making of our film, we have used various websites in the production.
These have proved to be extremely helpful, particularly for blog posts.
• The BBFC – this was used to gain knowledge on the guidelines into
classification, the BBFC website contained a lot of useful and helpful
information. This was helpful in terms of looking at films that had to have
cuts made to meet the film’s desired classification (for example, The
Hunger Games)
• IMDB – having used this website frequently myself prior to media, I had a
good understanding on how it worked. This is why I used this website a
lot during the pre-production, production and post-production of the
film. It helps particularly with similar genre and film research.
• Google – used for general information and used to help find useful
websites that contained information on film production and distribution.
• YouTube – when researching into title sequences and similar films, this
was very helpful in terms of being able get inspired by similar films.
• Google Docs – To create questionnaires and gather opinions on our
initial film idea.

4. GOOGLE BLOGGER
Using Google Blogger enables us to create a place in which we
can update regularly with posts about the progress of our film
and the research we have carried out. It is an accessible and
easy to use blogging website, and we can easily share ideas
through it. It allows us to post things in a variety of formats that
is useful for the research of our film; Prezi, essays, Google
Docs, YouTube and images.
Google Blogger allows us to
personalise the blog and
whatever way we want, therefore
I created a banner of the logo
I made and place it at the top
of the blog. I created a minimal
and simple look, so it is easy to
read the text and easy to
navigate.

5. FILMING EQUIPMENT
There was a lot of equipment used in the construction of our
film. We used a SONY HDV1000 camera for the filming our a
film, as well as Alice’s own Panasonic to shoot ‘Behind the
Scenes’ footage. The camera used in A2 is a much higher
quality camera than the one used in the previous
year, therefore this allowed us to experiment with ideas.
Before conducting the film, we were allowed to have play and
produce a short clip. This ensured that we would be
familiarised with the camera before starting filming. We used
a tripod which had a built in spirit level to help us get
accurate shots from a variety of angles, this was also helped
by the tripod’s adjustable legs.

6. EXTRAS
For our film, we needed some voice recordings to represent
the Wolf’s eerie and mysterious voice. This meant Alice used
a voice recorder to translate her voice into the one that was
used as the Wolf’s in the film. This was extremely
effective, as we used effects on various formats;
GarageBand, iMovie and Final Cut Express. This enabled me
to further my knowledge on these different formats, having
already a standard and basic knowledge of all of these
anyway.

7. CREATING OUR FILM
POSTER
Taking on the responsibility of creating
the film poster was quite a big task for
me, as I don’t have much experience
with Adobe Photoshop. However, before
conducting the creation of the poster, I
did several rough copies, and used
YouTube tutorial to help me in using
Photoshop. I found this extremely
helpful, as I could successfully make
the poster I desired now. It was a
challenge to understand the basics of
Photoshop, but after the first initial time
of using it, it became fairly easy. I have
no achieved a basic knowledge of
understand of Photoshop. I also carried
out extensive research into film posters
in order to create the exact film poster I
wanted.
The finished film poster

8. FILM POSTER
To create our film poster we carried out a photo shoot on a
white background with the main character of the film, Anna
(played by Georgina). We used Photoshop to construct our
film poster as it allowed us to easily construct a professional
looking poster, with editing fine details which helped us
create a final product we were satisfied with overall, and help
promote our film. The use of the DSLR camera in the photo
shoot and Photoshop were vital in the making of our film
poster.

9. FINAL CUT EXPRESS
Final Cut Express has been the most vital programme we
have used within the construction of our film, this is the
editing software we have used throughout the film. Using it in
AS level, we had a brief knowledge of how the basics
work, however, towards the end of the editing and making of
the film, we developed in depth detailed understanding of
how the editing software works. This software is known for
being used to create professional short films, such as
Shifty, which gave us confidence to use it and create a film of
high quality with smooth and effective edits.

10. CONCLUSION
The use of new media technologies has been vital in the
research, production and distribution stages of our film. All
of the technology we have used has played a vital role in our
film, from the editing software (Final Cut Express), to the
tripod used to balance the camera for tricky shots. I feel as if
we have gained new found knowledge on how to use these
media devices to our own advantage and this has helped us
create a final product that Alice and I are extremely satisfied
with. Despite making small errors, we have been challenged
and been able to overcome these and create a professional
looking and sounding film with all the research to back up as
evidence.