The student used various new media technologies at different stages of their project. During the research stage, they used websites like YouTube to analyze existing film trailers and Google to search for relevant information. They tested out video cameras by taking practice shots. In the construction stage, they used software like iMovie, Photoshop, and InDesign to edit videos, images, and layouts. They also found free fonts, sounds, and images online using websites like Dafont.com and FreeSound.com. Throughout the process, they logged their activities on Blogger and used Macs to store and share their work.

1. How did you use new media
technology in the construction and
research, planning and evaluating
stages?

2. Research.
We used many different media technologies during the production of our teaser
trailer, poster and magazine cover. To aid our research we used the following
technologies:
We used this to watch existing film trailers from the same genre
of horror. We analysed the different shots, props, mise en scene,
styles, lighting, sound and music used in these trailers and considered aspects that we
could alter or re create for ourselves in our own trailer. We found this website helpful
as it enabled us to understand and learn about horror conventions so that we could
produce our own version.
We did the majority of our research using this search engine
to help us find relevant websites. It helped us a lot when
researching as it allowed us to gain information quickly and conveniently. It also gave
us access to websites which provided us with a wide range of information and a lot of
useful websites which we were able to download from.

3. Before we started on our trailer we borrowed cameras and
went around taking shots using the tripod and the different
features on the camera. We did this to get used to the camera so we
were able to shoot properly when it came to shooting the actual trailer. Ultimately this
saved valuable time for us when we shot the trailer. We also took shots from different
angles experimenting to see what worked and what didn’t. This gave us a few initial
ideas for our trailer.

4. In construction.
When creating our trailer, poster and magazine we use countless amounts of software
to help us create and build them.
This is something we were already signed up to that we used to log
all of our activities during the production process. We
communicated our work and ideas with each other through Blogger, it enabled us to
keep each other up to date with the project. Everything from the actual trailer to
signing up to a website was all recorded on here.

5. Google helped us again to find images, information and other media
products. One particular website we used was Dafont.com. We
used this website for finding different fonts which we could
download and use in our work. We found the font we later used for our movie name
which appeared on the movie, poster and magazine. We also found other fonts here
which were used for our taglines and slogans. We were able to find a wide variety of
fonts to fit our theme of horror, this made it relevant. Furthermore we used another
website similar to Dafont but for sound, this was called FreeSound.com. From this
website we were able to download various clips of music and sound effects that we
required for our trailer. Sounds we found were ‘bangs’ which featured between shots
in our trailer, this created suspense and made the audience jump. We gained a ‘evil
cackle’ which was placed at the end of our trailer when the victim opens their eyes,
this didn’t create a clear conclusion and therefore left the audience wanting more.
Another sound effect we got from this website was a beeping sound which would
appear between cuts in our outtakes section. These websites were easily accessible
thanks to Google and downloads were fast and simple, this helped to speed up the
production process.

6. We used Video Cameras as a major part of the production process for
our trailer. We found these helpful as it enabled to film on many
different locations, both the camera and tripod were portable so this
a problem for us. One location we went to was the woods, the tripod
helped us to get level shots as we could adjust the legs on uneven ground. We
were also able to use the handle for tilt shots and panning across the landscape, we found
these shots quite effective and used them for our trailer. We also were able to use the
camera just on its own, we did some hand held filming, this created a distorted image
which conveyed panic and fear for the audience. These shots were equally as effective
because it seemed more real as though the victim was being chased. The camera allowed
us to take as many shots as we liked, we could store them and watch them back later after
downloading them to the Macs. If we messed up we could shoot again, this was not an
issue. We also ultilised our mobile phones as a contingency plan.
One on particular occasion we were filming on location at a golf course, we
realised once we had got there that the camera didn’t have battery
therefore we were not able to film on it. As a back up we used our smart
phones to film some short sequences which gave us some ideas of what we wanted to film
for our actual trailer. Although we could use these shots for our trailer it gave us ideas of
what we wanted to do when were able to film on a video camera. We found this extremely
helpful as were still able to achieve some kind of work on the go and conveniently.

7. We used these for all of our work. We were able to upload everything we filmed from
the video camera onto them and furthermore decide what was and wans’t needed. It
offered us a range of specialised software such as iMovie, InDesign and Photoshop
which we all used during this whole process. They also had the capability to store
everything we needed; there was loads of free memory so we didn’t have any
problems with storing our work.

8. iMovie was the program we used to construct our teaser trailer. This software enabled
us to cut, add visual effects, text, transitions, sound effects, detach audio, add stills
over the footage and many more. We found that what we wanted to achieve was
possible thanks to this program. Not all members of the group knew how to use this
program to its full potential so it was quite a learning curve for us all. We had
situations on occasions where by none of us knew how to do certain tasks on there,
however this was resolved by either consulting our teacher or a technician who then
talked us through what we needed to do. If the program didn’t have the capability to
do what we wanted then there was always a substitute which we felt gave a similar
effect; even if this did mean we had to slightly adapt our initial ideas for what we
wanted it to look like. Overall we found that iMovie was an appropriate program which
allowed us to edit our trailer to a high standard, we achieved the ideas we had for it in
our heads and I think as a group we were very pleased with the finished product.

9. iMovie was also utilized for Sam and Kelly’s evaluation question 3. We wanted to answer
the question whilst utilizing multi media products as much as possible, this would be more
interesting for our audience as opposed to an essay. We recorded ourselves answering the
question; discussing and explaining what we did, why we did it and how our audience
feedback influenced our decisions. We then uploaded it to the Macs where we then edited
it together on iMovie. iMovie allowed us to cut, add sound effects, text, speed up and slow
down parts of the clips, detach audio, adjust the lighting and many more aspects. A tool we
found useful on iMovie was the ‘cut away’ tool. This enabled us to add stills over our
recording whilst the sound was still playing. We thought this was effective as made it easier
to understand what we were talking about for the audience as you are given a chance to
see the images that we are discussing. We both found this piece of software extremely
useful and we were able to produce an interesting approach to our evaluation question
3.

10. Grab it a tool on the Mac which allows you to select certain parts
of what's on screen capture it and use it as a new image. It its also
compared to print screen. We used this tool many times to gather
different images that we could save as jpeg files and upload to our
blog. This tool helped us a lot as it was quick and simple to use
and gathered the images we required.
FreeSound.com. We discovered this website on Google, we typed in ‘free sound
effects’ and this was one of the websites we found. This website allowed us to
download free sound effects, ones which weren't available on iMovie. We wanted a
loud ‘bang’ which would be used in the trailer in between cuts. We thought this
would be effective, add some edge and live up to expectations of horror genre
more. We found this website easy to download sound effects and easy to find
different the sounds we wanted. We felt this added a sense of drama and made the
trailer seem more jumpy. If we didn't’t have access to this website we would have
struggled to find the sound effects we wanted for the trailer, we would’nt have been
able to achieve the effect we wanted.

11. Photoshop is a piece of software that we used via the macs. It allows
us to edit photos and put together different effects to make
something unique. For our poster and the magazine, Photoshop was
the main software we used. It helped us to make edit photos from
the very beginning of our project. Taking the main photo for the poster
for example we played around with the image a lot using different
tools such as liquefy, burn and dodge. These enabled us to change the features of our
main image, change the lighting the positioning of the frame. Also by inserting and
downloading text we could change the colour, size and style. Overall Photoshop has
helped us to build a poster and magazine cover to fit our specific genre of horror. Using
all the tools and devices available on the software we were assisted by Photoshop to
produce our final outcome.
www.dafont.com This website is full of all different types of fonts that were free for us
to use and download. It was very helpful as some of the fonts were specifically for the
horror genre.

12. We used Microsoft Word during the research and construction process of our coursework. We
used it to take notes, to write up paragraphs before posting it onto the blog, and to create lists
which we would then send round the class to receive audience feedback. This was a useful as it
enabled us to record notes
InDesign is a computer program that we used alongside Photoshop to create
our magazine cover and poster. It helped us to plan the layout of our magazine
and decided where to place the key elements. After editing the picture on Photoshop we
imported the image to InDesign and was then able to construct the magazine and poster.
Alongside blogger we used Youtube to track and log our progress. It allowed us to view our
trailer as the audience. We could also show it to our class mates and conduct surveys to find out
what they think that we could improve on at different stages in production. For our evaluation
questions we actually used YouTube to present our question instead of an essay form. As we did
so we were able to add links in on the video that would take you to different parts of our
evaluation question. This enabled our creative ability and was a flamboyant way of presenting
our work. Overall YouTube helped us a lot as we were able to have a clear way of seeing our
trailer, receiving feedback and therefore helping us to improve any faults.

13. We used Safari a lot in the creation of our coursework. This program
enabled us to search the web; this was particularly useful in the
research stages when we needed to find out information regarding
existing media products. It also enabled us to access websites such as
blogger; this is where we logged all of our work that we had done. We
were also able to find websites such as DaFont.com and FreeSound.com. All this
helped us a lot to produce successful media products.
We used iPhoto in the construction of our evaluation question 3.
We wanted to add stills over parts of the video, this would appear
when we talking about those specific images and styles etc. We
thought it would help to illustrate our point, so we were describing
what happened, what we did and didn't’t like about it etc.; and
while all this was happening we would have these images on the screen.
iPhoto was useful here as in order to put these stills over the video the images had to
be uploaded onto iPhoto first, then we were able to use the cutaway tool to put them
onto iMovie. Without this we wouldn't’t have been able to achieve this like we wanted
to, and therefore wouldn't’t have been as effective and easily understandable.