The document discusses how new media was used at various stages of a film project. YouTube and Netflix were vital for research, allowing analysis of existing trailers and viewing many horror films. Adobe programs like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects were used for construction. Photoshop allowed warping text and adjusting lighting for posters and magazines. Premiere Pro was used to edit trailers, adjusting audio levels and speeds. After Effects created intertitles. Blogger and YouTube facilitated evaluation by hosting work and conducting focus groups.

1. How did you use new media
for your research and
planning?

2. Section A:
What key aspects did you include in your poster?
When it came to my research and planning there were various media technologies
that were useful in supporting my research and planning, I would say the two most
vital was YouTube and Netflix. YouTube was so important because it allowed me
view existing trailers like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream 4 and Cloverfield,
meaning that I could then analyse them, gaining ideas for my own trailer as well as
techniques. This then proved to be very beneficial to my work and ideas process
because it allowed me to have a deep insight into how trailers work, especially in the
Scream 4 trailer where I thought the collision cutting was very effective as it used
montage to make the slow editing more intense and dramatic which then heightened
the panic of the jump scares, especially when it comes to the end of the trailer where
the two blonde women are talking about the killer then suddenly it switches to him
stabbing towards the camera, very effective collision cutting as it goes from the slow
of conversation to the panic of the jump scare.

3. Section A:
What key aspects did you include in your poster?
Netflix was also very useful because this allowed having access to a large amount of
horror films at a touch of a button, which meant I could pick and choose the most
suitable film for the project. This gave me an even deeper depth of knowledge on the
horror genres because I got to see techniques being used over a whole course of
numerous films. Another media technology that was very useful was IMDb, it would
easily let me see the most popular horror films, what their sub-genre was and the
narratives behind them, and I could document the film easily through the details of its
crew, release date and sub-genre. All of this research and planning made it easy to
decide the appropriate target audience/demographic as I had been given a very good
knowledge of how current trailers work and how my proposal would work, this was
then backed up by the class favourite horror research and class research for our
proposal.

4. Section B:
How did you use new media in your construction
phases?
There were various programs
that were used over the course
of construction for both my
ancillary products and trailer.
These were Adobe Photoshop
CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC
and Adobe After Effects CC.
Ancillary Products:
For my film poster and magazine
cover I used Adobe Photoshop
CC. I already possessed
knowledge on Photoshop due to
AS Media Studies last year and
my other creative subjects but
this time around I began to be
more experimental.
For this title of ‘Cut’ on my magazine
cover I didn’t want to take too much away
from the main image but I wanted it to be
eye-catching and different. I decided that I
would use the font I created on my poster
and blend it over the top of the main
image. This then allowed for the main
features to come through but the
colouring of a deep blood red to be very
apparent too. I did this by going to
‘Blending options’ as seen at the right
hand side of the page, which then gave
me all of these different options. I scrolled
through looking for a suitable blend and I
came to ‘Darken’ which gave me exactly
the effect that I was looking for.

5. Section B:
How did you use new media in your construction
phases?
For the ‘Cut’ title on the poster I
wanted it to resemble body
horror and curve with the arch of
the killer’s back. I did this by
going to ‘Edit’, ‘Transform’ and
‘Warp’. This allowed me to warp
the title into whatever I wanted,
giving me that 3D and angled
feel.
For the main image on my poster I wanted to
create a very intense light that showed the
close-up of the final girl and also created the
silhouette for the killer. The light was already
there from the way we set up the shot but it
wasn’t very intense, so I simply went on ‘Image’,
‘Adjustments’ and ‘Brightness and Contrast’, I
then altered this until it was right.

6. Section B:
How did you use new media in your construction
phases?
Inter-titles:
For the inter-titles in my horror trailer I used Adobe After Effects CC. I decided
on the inter-titles that would best suit our trailer and add to understanding the
narrative. I opted for the “Emerge” pre-set, and then typed in the text. Once I
had completed them I exported them as a .mov file and inserted them onto
Premiere Pro.

7. Section B:
How did you use new media in your construction
phases?
Trailer:
We used Premiere Pro CC for our horror trailer, I was new to
this software so it was a challenge trying to get to know my way
around the program but once I did I began to surprise myself.
On some of the shots the dialogue and the sound effects
weren’t very effective as they were too quiet so I then expanded
the audio levels and raised the volume bar. This made the
audio more apparent and more effective, which didn’t lead to
the audience being confused on what the characters said. In
addition, in the car scene where the final girl is racing away
from her psychotic husband, there was a shot that we had
taken which was us driving down a country road but it didn’t
seem quick, didn’t seem dramatic enough so we edited this. We
did this by going up to ‘Clip’ then ‘Speed/Duration’ this allowed
us to increase the speed of the clip which therefore made the
clip a lot more intense as if the shot was in an actual car chase.

8. Section B:
How did you use new media in your construction
phases?
Another effect that we did was to do with
the look of some shots; a lot of the shots
we filmed had ambient light so they didn’t
connote any horror. To make the shots as
scary as possible, we started off with
increasing the contrast this made the
colours more apparent and vivid.
However, they still didn’t possess much
power as there was too much focus on
other parts of the shot, so we then added
Omni lighting. Omni lighting allowed us to
create focus on certain parts of the shot
so they held more influence and the
audience focused on the horror. Overall,
this was a very effective program that
allowed us to piece together our shots in
the best way that we could.

9. Section C:
How did you use new media to evaluate your
products?
Once I had completed my research, planning and construction phases, I still
found that I was using media technology; this was in the form of Blogger and
YouTube. I used Blogger to store all of my work in one place showing my
progress throughout this project, posts being separated by labels. This was a
very important media technology because it allowed for my work to be easily
accessible from anywhere, allowing me to add things at any given time, it also is
a great way of showcasing my work because I can arrange it how I want and in
any style, which gives off a sense of my personality which I think is vital. This
was a great media technology for my work because it meant it organised all my
work in a secure location.

10. Section C:
How did you use new media to evaluate your
products?
YouTube was also a very useful media technology when evaluating my products.
Our class completed a focus group screening where we watched a rough cut of
our trailers and then later on we watched our final trailer cuts. This was to
highlight any praise and criticisms which they had which was great tool for us
improving our trailer. We could then refer to the screening after it was posted on
YouTube. YouTube is extremely easy to access with it being one of the most
popular websites in the world. It was a very helpful technology to have because it
made evaluating our work a lot easier because we gained an audience’s point of
view which was there at almost the touch of a button. We also posted our final
trailer on YouTube and could use comments and likes to determine the success
or otherwise of Cut.