Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. Question 4: How did you use media
technologies in the construction
and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Lyndsay Essex

2. Cameras
During production, a Sony Handycam However to film the first evaluation question
camera was used with a tripod. This answer my own stills camera (GE HZ1500) was
was a video camera, rather than a used, as the camera is designed for still
stills camera to make the recording photographs with an added video-recording
better quality, as this was a silent film feature, so the film quality was not as good as
the sound quality wasn’t important. the film itself. However, this wasn’t important
as the information within the video itself was
the focus.
Both of these cameras have a tripod connection for steady filming and also meant I
could film largely without someone holding the camera, and computer connections
to make uploading to the computer easy.

3. iPod
Throughout the year I have used my iPod to
hold multiple example short films of varying
length and style together in one place, this
meant that I could watch them as I work
with them during the research stage, despite
the school computers blocking the sites I
needed to watch them, or lacking the
software needed to play videos.

4. Internet
The internet was really important in
research, planning and evaluation. I
researched short films, reviews and film
posters on the internet, using search
engines and specialised websites like the
BBC Film Network site, which is a
database of over 300 BBC funded short
films. Youtube was useful in researching
international short films (Such as short
films entered into Cannes Film Festival)
and uploading both the finished product
and evaluation video. The blog was
essential, as all of the work I produced
was uploaded to my page.

5. • Social network sites were used in the research stage, as many short films,
such as ‘Sea Wall’, have a Twitter account, with updates about download
options and other pieces from the people involved (Writer, actor,
director, etc.). Because of these sites, when searching for short films,
many of their twitter and Facebook pages appeared in search results.
• This film also uses a Tumblr and a Wordpress account as it’s main
website, which worked well to reach a large audience of mainly
teenagers and young adults, as the ‘reblog’ feature allows certain posts
to be spread through the site, and so the film would reach an even wider
audience.
• This would also be useful for the music aspect, as the band would be
advertised at the same time as the film would be.
Social Networking.

6. Sea Wall & Sorry
I’m Late - website
Many Short Films have their own website,
featuring the film itself and other videos,
interviews and information. If this was a real
film, a similar website would have been created,
as the poster and magazine article give a link to
the website where the film would be released.
These were useful in the research stage, in
looking at language used to refer to short films,
layouts, colours etc.
Both of these examples are quite simple, others
have colour schemes and themes which
continue into the films themselves.

7. The short film itself was made on iMovie, so is for the stop motion
opening I linked photos together quickly, and the rest of it’s made
up of clips, it wasn’t all filmed in the same order, and not all filmed
Photos
material was used in the final production. Photoshop was also used,
mostly in the magazine review, there’s an example here of where I
and
deleted the background of the photo to use in the magazine
review, to fill a space and use as a, like many articles seem to have, a videos
studio-style photo, taken specially for the article.

8. Music
I used Garageband to research the
different kind of music that would fit
the film style. I listened to the tunes
on Garageband, because you can
access it through iMovie, so it would
have been easy to use. I listened to
things to fit the different moods,
styles, paces of the clips, and all of it
was acoustic-type, no electrical
sounding things with backbeats and
stuff, just guitar, piano, and violin.
Instead I used a piece recorded on
Garageband. I transferred these to
iTunes, so that I could access them
through iMovie and add them to the
film, to make sure they to fit in with
the film clips.
But this wasn’t used in the evaluation
stage.

9. I used the Microsoft Excel in research, but
nothing else. This is my Coding Schedule,
something I used to look at conventions and
themes in short films, to compare them and see
what forms and conventions would work well
Excel
in my film and what I’d be going against.

10. Conclusion
• During the research I used a range of technologies to
effectively find various examples of short films to draw
ideas from, whether they’re ideas on forms and conventions
I would follow to create the desired effect, or those I would
go against.
• In the production of my piece I combined the film clips I had
recorded with editing software and recorded sound to
produce a 2 minute piece of a preset genre to appeal to a
target audience.
• Whilst evaluating my work I used the internet to both
display my work and gather information from it, whilst using
Powerpoint presentations, videos and blog posts in the
evaluations themselves.