Media A2 - Compulsory Questions Question 4

1. Q4) HOW DID YOU USE NEW
MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION, PLANNING
AND EVALUATION STAGES?

2. Panasonic HX-DC2 was the
camera that we used throughout
the filming of our teaser trailer.
Having used this before, we
were more confident with it
which allowed us to capture
different camera angles and
shots what we needed. However
when we watched the footage
back, there was a disturbance to
the sound in the background on
majority of the shots, but we
could alter the sound on iMovie,
making it as discreet as we
possibly could. It’s more
noticeable in certain scenes
than others.

3. To document the whole process of our main product and ancillary tasks, we used an
online blog. Using this we were able to upload various media designs, such as
photographs, word documents, PowerPoints, videos etc. to share our film ideas from
our research and planning, to our film production and then the overall evaluation and
feedback from our target audience. We tried to blog regularly which we initially
achieved. However while we were filming and editing, our blogs weren’t updated
frequently. Despite that, we continued to add small posts to highlight how important
social networking is in the media.

4. Slideshare is a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. It allows you to upload files in the following file
formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or Open Document presentations. We used PowerPoint to share
our own ideas and theories also. We could show our creativity by adding images and diagrams with a
small amount of writing, in a smooth layout. This type of format makes our blogs more interesting as it
shows how varied our techniques are in presenting information.
PowerPoint is such a creative way to showcase information. You can choose themes, colours and
fonts. We used PowerPoint for our film pitch, where we could display our film ideas clearly to our
audience. We also used this to document media theorists and ideas for planning our film teaser trailer.
POWER POINT

5. IMOVIE
iMovie is the programme we used
to edit our teaser trailer. It allowed
us to add sound, transitions, colour,
font themes and music. We found
using this difficult to start off with as
there were new features on the
software. However, after
experimenting and finding new
things to use on it, we managed to
put together our final production
which we believe to be a successful
depiction of a teaser trailer.

6. PHOTO SHOP
We used Photo Shop for our film
poster and magazine front cover.
Photo Shop allowed us to create
professional products that took a
lot of time and patience as we
weren’t fully comfortable with
Photo Shop initially, but was worth
it in the end result as clearly the
ancillary tasks were produced to a
high standard. There was
predominantly positive feedback
with our poster and magazine front
cover, which highlights that Photo
Shop was the best solution for us.

7. WORDLE
Wordle is an online site where you can create a visual presentation using just
words. You can choose from a variety of themes and colour schemes making it
stand out. This was something that was easy and quick to do, to add to our
blogs. It is appealing to look at instead of a paragraph of writing to read. For us,
we used Wordle when we described the codes and conventions of a trailer.

8. GREEN SCREEN
This year we had the advantage of trying out the
green screen at college. We filmed 2 shots that we
were planning to include in to our teaser trailer.
These shots were to see our protagonist Declan
being on a stage with a large audience about to read
his poetry. As there were 2 shots we made (an over
the shoulder shot and a straight mid shot), we initially
thought to place one at the beginning and have the
other at the end of our teaser trailer, to link the trailer
together. However whilst finalising our trailer we felt
that we didn’t need to include it as it could give too
much of the narrative away as the audience may
realise what happens in the full length movie. It was
a good experience using the green screen as it
helped us to understand new technology and gave
us a wider choice of editing footage.

9. We used YouTube to research other film teaser trailers with the same genre as
‘VERSES'. From this, we were able to find out conventions of a trailer and get
inspiration for what to include. We were able to see what audiences expect to find in
a teaser trailer. Most importantly YouTube is what we used to upload our products
onto. We have our own profile that’s dedicated to our film that people are able to
subscribe to. Starting from iMovie, we create our film and feedback. Along with our
pitch, we put them on to YouTube, which then is put on our blogs for people to see.

10. TO CONCLUDE...
• Overall, new media technologies have grown immensely in the last couple of decades. We have
been fortunate to able to use many of them. As our target audience is predominantly teenagers,
they use a lot of new media technology such as YouTube, blogger and iMovie. We also used these
technologies to keep our target audience interested.
• Social media is arguably the most important technology that our target audience use. We used
social networking site such as Twitter, Facebook and Blogger to attract our audience as they
regularly use these sites.
• Throughout each stage of production, we used new media technologies, highlighting how
important they are.