Candidate Hannah Hughes used various Adobe software like Photoshop, Premier and After Effects to create media products for her soap opera project. She edited clips and added effects in Premier to create a trailer. Photoshop was used to edit images and add effects for the magazine cover and poster. Planning and research involved analyzing other soap operas online and through surveys to determine conventions and audience preferences to include. Microsoft Word and Survey Monkey were also utilized during the planning, production and evaluation stages.

1. Candidate Name: Hannah Hughes
Candidate Number: 4067
Centre Number: 64135
QUESTION 4: HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?

2. The use of media technology in the construction, research and planning and the
evaluation stages have been very important. The modern digital media
technology means that the end product is much better than if we used less
effective technology. This is why we used the Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe
After Effect CS5 and Adobe Premier CS5 when creating our media products.

3. TRAILER
To edit our trailer we used Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 software to combine the clips
from the filming day. We found it to be a very effective software package as it allowed
us to easily import, select and place the clips. The in (I) and out (O) icons made the
selection process quick, while still leaving the original footage the same if we need to
revisit the clip for any specific reason. The selection of clips was something that
seemed daunting at first, however the ability to organise the footage
into “bins” ensured we could manage our clips into folder such as
alley shots and house shots. When filming we used several
cameras, which were Canon or Nikon cameras, these were
especially useful in the tracking shots as well as the point of view
shots. We also use camera accessories such as the tripod, which
was very useful in keeping the camera steady to ensure that the
images were steady. It also helped with high angle shots as well as
longshots from in the park.

4. Once we had edited the clips so that they fitted the brief, so the trailer was a maximum of two
minutes long, we imported the non-diegetic soundtrack and that diegetic sounds such as the
briefcases opening to fit the images in screen. Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 allowed us to edit the
music parallel to the actions, whereby we used ‘key frames’ to change the pitch, make the
music fade out and fade in when we wanted it, for example in my trailer the nursery rhyme
fades out when the Munford & Sons music begins. As a whole, we were very pleased with the
results, as we used the fade out with music from the park scenes to their house seems very
well. (ring-a-ring-a-roses to broken crown) we also used a fadeout at the end of the trailer in
order to allow the non-diegetic voice-over to be heard since it needed to be louder than the
music in the background.

5. We also wanted to add post-production effects to our trailer, which we achieved using Adobe
After Effect CS5. We used YouTube tutorials to help us learn how to make the after effects.
For example for the glitch effect on the BBC 2 logo we used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYkqC9uI8Nc and for the smoky effect on the reviews we
used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNaGnMmSwPo. The transitional effects, smoky
effects and the glitch BBC 2 ident help to make a trailer look professional. This is because it
conforms to the typical conventions of having a fade at the end to symbolise the climax. The
fade used in the park scenes were to symbolise the dark creepy storyline that would
commence there. We used black and white font that we found on ‘Dafont.com’, whereby in the
after-effect we created (smoky effect for example the magazine reviews) to again symbolise
the dark, creepy narrative themes that would commence in 'The Wells'. This made our trailer
look professional, and also followed key conventions of many other trailers. This included the
smoky affect used in the ‘#HollyoaksEndOfTheLine: Official C4 Promo’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRayCnF5bnM which includes some effective smoke
effects. As this is a popular soap opera I thought it would be a good idea to use some of the
same effects, and these are clearly effects that attract the right audience.

6. MAGAZINE AND POSTER
To create my ancillary products (the poster and the magazine front cover) to help market ‘The
Wells’ I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit and collate the images I took. The original image
levels were adjusted and colours such as the red lipstick Gloria was wearing was brightened
using the mask tool to stand out more. This was a huge success and although subtle it
enthuses the adultery plotline within the multi-stranded narrative. As well as this I also used
an ellipsis effect; I started by placing this on the point of call information. I applied this effect
on the background image for my poster, which darkened the outer edges and only allowed you
to see a select amount of the background. This was a convention that I decided to use
because it is present on the EastEnders Lucy Poster.

7. For the poster I also added the broadcaster’s logo, tagline and most importantly the name of
the soap opera ‘The Wells’. All of these elements are large so that the reader can easily see
them present on the poster. I added a slight stroke to these elements that they would stand
out better. When importing the main images I made sure to use the ‘quick selection tool’ (w)
and advanced hair selection options within Masking to crop out any background on the
images, which allows me to get a professional and crisp look on the images. I did the same to
the main images on the magazine covers.

8. PLANNING AND RESEARCH
During the planning and research stage I researched several soap opera magazine covers, posters
and trailers as well as previous students media products, and then analysed what I liked and what I
felt was a convention that I could repeat (Steve Neale) in my media products. Many of the trailers I
viewed were on YouTube which hold nearly every soap opera trailer ever created, and well as many
previous media students’ trailers. This was useful to me because it allowed me to see not only how
soap opera trailers have changed overtime, but also what storylines are big in today’s soap opera,
which would allow me to identify what plotlines should be in my trailer. For example in
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_AF49aiBSg (Everybody Hurts - EastEnders Autumn 2014:
Full-length Trailer - BBC One)] strong independent women (Rebecca Feasey- 2007) is a key
convention. There is also trailers such as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJTjMLgBz4
(EastEnders - Kat's Mystery Lover Revealed - Trailer)] were adultery is again a very important
feature within the trailer. These were therefore features that I wanted to repeat (Steve Neale) in my
trailer.
With my poster I found that many already existing products used Facebook and Twitter icons, which
is why I decided to repeat (Steve Neale) this on my own poster, as I believe it creates synergy
across another many media platform and is also a good way of marketing that can successfully
target a large audience.

9. Another relevant technology I used at this stage was ‘Survey Monkey’, which allowed me to
create my own survey and helped me to find out what my audience would want from the new
soap opera that my group and I were creating. For example 10/13 respondents felt the main
issue in soap operas was domestic issues e.g. Divorce.
I also used Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to carry out the pre-production work, which
allowed me to make my work look neat and professional, as well as making it easy for me to
upload to my blog via ‘SlideShare.com’.

10. EVALUATION
During the evaluation stage of my production work I have used Microsoft Word as this allows
me to have neat and professional work. I also used this software because it has spelling and
grammar check, which I have been using throughout the media production and it has been
useful throughout the whole process. As well as this, Word is compatible with other
technologies such as Prezi and Slide share which will be useful when I come to upload my
evaluation to the blog. The platform Facebook has also been a useful factor in my evaluation
as I was able to upload my work and ask for some audience feedback. This can be shown in
my evaluation question 3 (What have you learned from your audience feedback?).
In conclusion I believe that I successfully used various media technologies to make my media
products look ‘professional and organised’ (Pete Fraser-2002) in my A2 Media Coursework.