The document discusses the use of various media technologies during the research, planning, construction, and evaluation stages of creating a short film about eating disorders. During research, YouTube was used to study techniques from amateur and professional short films. Adobe InDesign was used to design a film review page for promotional purposes. The editing software iMovie was used to edit the short film, though it had lower quality than viewing clips online. Gif.com was utilized to create gifs from the short film for a blog, allowing parts to be shared without viewers watching the entire film.

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

2. RESEARCH AND PLANNING STAGE
During my research and planning stage, I used YouTube to research both
professional and amateur short films. Using YouTube, I was able to observe
how other filmmakers used film techniques and how I could incorporate these
techniques when crafting my own short film. One of the short films I learnt a lot
from was the short film Red produced by amateur filmmakers. The lack of
dialogue in Red showed me how not having your main characters speak creates
suspense in the audience. From this I developed my short film and made the
creative decision to not include dialogue in my short film which helped create
an isolation effect on the main character. This highlighted the loneliness
associated with having an eating disorder. However, YouTube does have
limitations. Short films from professional short film production companies are
less likely to be uploaded on to YouTube or come at a cost to watch. Due to
budget limitations my group and I decided to only watch free short films. The
professional short films could have taught me more complex techniques and
further strengthened my research.

3. CONSTRUCTION STAGE
When constructing my short film's promotional campaign I decided to use
Adobe InDesign to construct a film review page. With my design based on the
professional magazine Little White Lies. I immediately took advantage of the
wide range of font styles available to find the perfect font to match the genre
of my short film and full fill the target audience's needs.
With my genre being drama and my
target audience being 16+ I chose the
font style Arial. This helped me to
clearly present my advertisement of
my short film and present the
information needed for my short
film. This software also allowed me to
use layers which sped up the process
of constructing my review page by
allowing me to separate the different
conventions of my magazine reducing
the chance of any work being deleted.

4. CONSTRUCTION STAGE
Another aspect of media technology I used during the
construction stage of my short film was the editing software
iMovie. iMovie allowed manipulate my short film’s timeline and to
create a flash of shots during the opening and ending of my short
film. The flash of shots at the beginning of my sort film allowed me
to be creative by showing the audience previews of my short film
in order to clarify the narrative. Without them the audience might
be confused by the shopping scene which at first seems like a
normal action. The flash of shots at the end of my short film
helped me show the inevitability of an eating disorder by
suggesting the process will just keep repeating until someone
intervenes. However, the disadvantage of using iMovie is the
quality when watching back your short film on the software was a
lower standard than if you watched a clip on YouTube for example.
This slowed down the editing process as at times I had to upload
the footage to clearly see some of the editing techniques we used
such as watching the timing of transitions.

5. EVALUATION STAGE
For my evaluation stage I used gif.com to create gifs for my blog
to help me be creative. Using gif.com I was able to present small
parts of my short film without requiring the viewer to watch
the whole film. I created gifs by manipulated the timeline and
trimming a YouTube clip. Therefore this made it easier to help
the reader to understand which part of my short film I was
talking about. Gifs also replay the content without taking too
much time. Using gif.com I was also able to produce gifs that
also included sounds from my short film to analyse my use of
sound conventions. Without gif.com I would had to describe
elements of short film without any examples and therefore
making the explanation and analyse more confusing and less
interactive.