The document discusses the various digital tools and platforms used throughout a media studies coursework project. These included presentation software like Prezi and Bubbl.us for planning and research, blogging platforms like Blogger to document progress, video editing software like Final Cut Pro and Camtasia for constructing media pieces, and surveys on SurveyMonkey and social media for audience feedback. Photoshop and free sound libraries were also important for designing ancillary materials and adding sound/music. High quality cameras, computers, and reliable storage of work were also vital to the process.

2. Presentation was vital for creating an
imaginative and interesting blog that showed
the journey from research and planning,
through construction all the way to
evaluation. Numerous resources and software
packages were extremely important and helpful
in order to present this journey. All the
work I have done throughout the year is
presented on the digital platform of blogger,
a useful program in terms of enabling uploads
from other platforms as it can become tiring
to look at text heavy blog posts. Instead I
was able to make the blog more inviting
embedding links to presentation on other
platforms.
Blogger was additionally important in terms
of enabling a place to keep all of my
planning and research, this record of the
journey was important as it helped us to see
our progression and in turn the areas that
could use development with more planning. For
example the use of blogger helped us to
upload many different drafts of our ancillary
products and show the small changes between
each one before we updated our final version.
An example of a presentation software I used a lot
throughout research and planning is Prezi. Prezi
allowed me to make many presentations that expressed a
lot of information in a more innovative format. Prezi
enables a user to inset images, arrows and shapes so
can be used to map an journey in the form of a flow
chart. For example more specifically I used Prezi when
doing research into influential figures, the creative
layout templates Prezi offers allowed me to create what
looked like a social media profile for the influential
figures which not only look innovative but also had
direct connections to the social media focus of our
narrative. However perhaps I utilized Prezi more so
than I did other platforms of presentation which is
something I could have improved as the effect of too
many presentations that look similar is that my blog
could become boring and predictable when I want the
exact opposite effect on the audience of my blog.
However having said this, I did of course use a variety
of other software’s.

3. Bubbl.us was an online software that allowed me to
easily present information in the format of a mind
map, something more interesting to look at then
masses of text. For example I used mind maps when
brainstorming ideas about conventions and cohesive
marketing. The mind map format meant that I could
include all the necessary information in a simple
format useful in avoiding a boring and laborious blog
to look at. Mind maps are also useful as the ability
to create bubbles connected to other bubbles can
create a clear linking of ideas and make it easier to
develop our ideas beyond a basic point much more so
than if it were simply a block of text.
One other presentation software I will talk about that
particularly liked working on was slide share. I used this
program to upload work I had created on a PowerPoint. The
use of this application creates a slideshow of information
and images. I used this particularly when I had quite a lot
of information to present, for example my textual analysis
of the ‘Friend Request’ trailer. This application was
particularly important for more text heavy work because I
was not restricted by amount of space or amount of time the
writing would appear on the screen as it is simply
controlled by arrows. Slide share would not have been a
useful program to utilise for example for smaller amounts of
work such as a brainstorm on film title names due to the
lack of information needed to display.

4. YouTube was exceedingly important for the
research process of my coursework. Analysing
existing products enabled me to gain knowledge
of conventions of the hybrid genre such as the
invasion of privacy, the ‘final girl’ theory,
lighting and colour etc. This then had the
effect of helping us create products that truly
reflected the professional products already I
existing as an audience member would be able to
make direct comparisons of our product and
existing media. We also were able to see
examples of cohesive marketing and in turn
increase the cohesion of our own products
through for example the dark atmosphere created
through mise-en-scene in all three products.
YouTube was almost important in terms of sharing
our own production and then gaining audience
feedback which helped us develop upon our
trailer. For example some feedback included that
we could have changed the timings of shots at
one point which we were in turn immediately able
to see and fix. This could perhaps connect to
the two-step flow process as people would
recognise our trailer is on YouTube like
professional trailers and perhaps be more likely
to share it with their friends.
Google and Google images were also frequently used by
myself and my group members. We searched for existing
posters and magazine covers to help us gain knowledge
of the format of the product we had to complete
ourselves. For example whilst attempting to draft a
poster, when simply typing horror/thriller film
posters in we gathered a vital piece of information –
most covers contain a mid shot or close up as the
main image, we then were able to reflect this. Also
when creating our magazine cover, we directly used a
Total Film Maleficent magazine cover as
comparison/inspiration for elements such as Buzz
words, Buttons and colour scheme.

5. For target audience research we utilised some online
technologies to keep us up to date with audience expectations
and preferences. For example we used survey monkey to create
online surveys to distribute to target audience members. This
survey was sent via email, social media and a link embedded
onto our blogs. We decided an online survey was much more
efficient than one on paper as it was free and could reach a
wider demographic than those we could physically reach. The
survey included questions about genre, conventions and
characters etc which then influenced our own production pieces
when we had analysed the results. We included both open and
closed questions so that we were able to gain more in depth
information on preferences as with closed answers we may not
understand why people have certain preferences and this may
reflect in our production. In terms of using survey monkey
last year we only shared the survey with a select number of
people and the results were arguably unrepresentative because
they were from the same school and same friendship groups who
are likely to have similar tastes. Due to this we distributed
the survey on social media to gain responses from different
schools and age groups. This audience feedback was
particularly important as it helped us to be able to decipher
what was liked and not liked in terms of narrative to create a
production people would enjoy. For example we avoided the
setting of the woods as members of the demographic found it
increasingly clichéd.
Using email on outlook we were also hoping
to gain some feedback from people in the
industry that could perhaps give us their
opinion on our initial ideas and also
maybe give us some tips on how they would
approach the planning and construction
phases of film making. To do this we
browsed some film production/distribution
company websites to see if we could get
any email addresses in order to contact
professionals we were able to do this but
unfortunately did not get any responses.
As previously mentioned we also used
emails to keep in regular contact with
members of our target audience asking
brief questions or sending updated
surveys.

6. Editing software was vital in the construction of our main
and ancillary tasks. For example the use of Final Cut Pro
was essential to the creation of our production. It enabled
us access to close precision editing meaning that attention
to small details resulted in a more professional
production. The ease of using the package also meant that
we could use it to edit the un-copyrighted sounds we
gathered from freesound.org without having to use an
additional software to edit the soundtrack and then apply
it to the trailer. On Final cut we were able to layer
sounds and add effects, change the bass, pitch and volume
to make it fit our trailer in terms of tone and atmosphere.
For example in terms of genre we layered a low pitched
ominous music that slowly built up tension and then sudden
cinematic booms at climatic points to create almost jump
scare moments that kept the attention of the audience. The
close precision editing was increasingly useful when
towards the end of our production we zoomed in on a clip
and every time the soundtrack made a static noise we added
a different clip resulting in extremely fast-paced takes-
very conventional of the trailer format.
The use of Camtasia studios meant that we could
record our desktop and gather footage from
social media. This was important for us as we
wanted a high quality production and when using
a camera to record a computer screen the
quality instantly decreased. We did face some
technical difficulties before we could finally
gather this footage however. Initially we used
QuickTime player on the Mac’s to record our
desktop however because we were at school we
could not actually access the social media site
that we needed. At home we then downloaded
numerous software’s in attempt to capture
footage, for example the VLC player but had an
issue with playback. Eventually we were able to
gain access to Camtasia studios which
efficiently allowed us to record activity on
Facebook and also allowed us to edit out dead
time before we transferred it to Final Cut.

7. Photoshop was another vital software in the
construction of our ancillary products a magazine
cover and a film poster. Editing on Photoshop was
something I had not done before so I ha to
establish some basic skills such as layering,
trimming and even inserting image, however with
the help of our skilled group mate Tom we were
able to not only develop skills of our own but
also create a professional product. An example of
the use of Photoshop would be the creation of an
anaglyph 3D effect on our main images of the
antagonist. To do this we layered several of the
same images and effected the transparency and hue
of each layer, slightly moving them out of line
with each other. The main colours we used were
blue and red which the audience would be able to
instantly recognise as a reference to 3D. We
decided we wanted this effect as our narrative is
heavily orientated around the use of technology
and felt this sort of image reflected that.
Photoshop was also significant in the
construction of the title of our film
‘Glitch’. We initially downloaded a sans
serif font form Dafont.com a free online
program that allows use of more creative
fonts. We wanted to use a sans serif font as
it looks more inviting and also is typical
of the horror and thriller film genre.
However after downloading a font we then
editing it on Photoshop to better fit our
production and personalise it. TO edit it we
changed the font to a static with influences
of red for a simple white. The static
reflected the idea of disruption according
to Todorov’s theory and also the idea of
technology whereas the red included typical
connotations of blood and danger.

8. Facebook was really useful for a number of reasons.
Firstly we used Facebook for some audience feedback
from the demographic of 16-25 year olds about
preferences in terms of film and media. Facebook was
useful for access to this demographic as the target
for our film was the same age range that are most
likely to spend a lot of time on social media
platforms like Facebook which is important in
determining whether the audience will be drawn in or
deterred by such a narrative. But social media was
even more important for the actual filming. We
created fake profiles for the characters within in
the production and then filmed the activity on the
website. We decided to make fake profiles as if we
showed a full profile it adds realism to the film –
a huge convention of the horror genre as it becomes
more relatable and scary to the audience. This also
became influential on our poster and magazine in
terms of the technological focus and this also
became an audience pleasure according to the uses
and gratifications theory as social media is such a
huge part of our demographics lives.
Freesound.org was again very vital for our
production work. Through research we found sound
to be imperative in setting the tone and
atmosphere of a scene, especially for horror as
a jump scare scene can have a very different
effect when the hard hitting climax is missing.
The free online program meant that we could get
all the sounds we needed for our production
without having to pay and also have them
copyright-free. We were able to layer lots of
different effects and ambient tracks to finally
get the kind of soundtrack we wanted that best
fit a horror/thriller hybrid with conventional
building music and cinematic booms. For example
we used static sounds sourced from this website
throughout out production layered upon cinematic
booms to have more hard hitting cuts that also
fit the technological focus we strived for.
These hard hitting climaxes became an audience
pleasure in terms of as Altman’s theory suggests
creating an almost visceral reaction as people
jump at the sudden sound.

9. Perhaps the most important piece of technology used
in my media coursework would be the Nikon D3200 DSLR
camera that we used to film our production. Through
work in AS and our preliminary task we had gained
lots of knowledge into the workings of this camera
and how to change the colour balancing and so on.
This meant that we were able to use the camera to
the best of its ability. This meant that out trailer
was of good quality and so were the images we used
for our ancillary’s. The importance of the high
quality was that we wanted the audience to be able
to watch our trailer and feel as though it were a
professional piece. A lower quality production may
have deterred attention away from the narrative etc
to just looking at the image quality. High quality
made the products more appealing. The use of
lighting and tripods also helped the quality for
example as natural lighting or artificial in some
settings can look very orange so we used a
detachable light that enabled us to control light
levels and make it look more realistic rather than
filmed. The tripod also meant we avoided shaky shots
that make a product look very amateur.
A Mac and HP Pavilion computer were also essential
in all stages of our coursework. We conducted
research, panned our work, constructed/edited and
evaluated on these pieces of hardware. The Mac
provided us access to the Final cut package that
enabled us to edit our production and the HP
computer gave access to Camtasia studios and
Photoshop. Both systems were easy to use and helped
us to create products with high value. However
whilst at school there were some issues with the use
of MacBook's which could be hard to save work on and
were also used by other students so because of this
we were less likely to use them for longer tasks
that would require more than one period of working.
This then became an advantage of using our own
computers at home to do our work where we could rely
on the retrieval of our work.