Media Coursework

1. Question 4) How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?

2. • I used bubbl.us to
make a mind-map on
generic conventions. It
was very simple to use
and helped me have a
clear understanding of
generic conventions of
horror films overall.

3. • Youtube proved to be extremely useful throughout the whole
of my coursework. I used it in the research stage to watch
different trailers and upload any work that I felt was best to
present through video. I also used it to find different sound
effects and scores, as well as tutorials on editing photographs
on Photoshop. Any work produced on youtube was
hyperlinked on to my blog.

4. • I used IMDb to find different
trailers online as well as any
extra information about the
films such as cast, locations
and other bonuses. This
website was extremely useful
and allowed me to understand
the generic conventions of
horror films clearly.

5. • Powerpoint allowed me to effectively present my work
through text and images. I used this during research of
generic conventions of mise-en-scene and camera-work.
I would then upload these documents to slideshare,
which could then be hyperlinked to my blog.

6. • I used Microsoft Word during research to create my
plots, design my questionnaire and other documents that
required a simple text-edit software. I wrote the plans for
my evaluation questions in Word and developed them on
to other technologies such as Prezi and Windows Movie
Maker. I also developed my storyboard in word as it was
simple to use the grid layout with images and text.

7. • Prezi was extremely useful when trying to present
my ideas through a mind-map-type structure. I
could include images, videos and text, and it was
very simple to add different pieces of information
into my work. I used Prezi during my evaluation, as
well as

8. • Whenever I needed to download videos or sounds from
youtube I could simply copy and paste a youtube link
into onlinevideoconverter.com and click download. This
was very quick and provided me with trailers, different
sounds and scores and other video clips required for my
trailer.

9. • I used Photoshop to edit different pictures such
as my poster’s main image. It was extremely
good at removing the background of my main
image so that the protagonists could stand out. I
also used Photoshop whilst editing some of the
text work (specific fonts). I used the selection
and rubber tool as well as the burn tool to make
my image darker, making it more horror-like.

10. • I used Wix to create my horror-film website. It was
extremely simple to use and had several different
handy tools, such as the ease to add images, text
and music. It was also great for creating different
pages, with the ease of including links between
each page. I then shared the link to my website on
my blog for people to see.

11. • I used iMovie to create my trailer. I used this
over windows Movie Maker as it had a template
for trailers, and was very easy to edit different
clips and add sounds/score. I then shared my
trailer onto youtube for everyone to see. I movie
was extremely helpful as it also enabled me to
edit lighting and other filters within movie clips.

12. • To film my trailer I used Canon camera with 3 different
lenses. This gave me a wide range of zooms with
opportunities to easily alter focus during shot. I then
connected the camera to my laptop to send the clips over
so that they could be edited into the trailer. I also used a
stand and hand grip for different shots. The stand
enabled me to take pan and tilt shots, providing a wider
range of shots overall in the trailer.

13. • A huge generic convention of horror-film trailers
is the low-key lighting. It was important for me
to keep the shots dark, whilst enlightening the
important aspects of each shot. As we didn’t
have the opportunity to use professional lighting
we used an app called flashlight, and placed it
where we felt was best for each shot. This
captured the important features of each clip
whilst keeping the theme of low-key lighting.

14. • I used flash during the production stage of my
coursework. It was extremely beneficial when
creating an animatic logo to be placed on my
website and trailer. Of course, we couldn’t have
an animatic on our poster so decided to use a
still shot of the completed logo.

15. • I used Windows MovieMaker throughout the whole
process of my coursework. I used it for analysing
generic conventions of the 4 main subjects of media
(lighting, editing, camerawork and mise-en-scene)
and also during my evaluation. I felt that displaying
my understanding of different subjects through video
with text or voice over was a great way.

16. I stored all my completed work
on Blogspot as I felt it was very
easy to navigate to different
work and you can upload
almost any file to your blog,
whether it be video, text or
sound. It also gave me the
option to edit the date and
keep my work organised, so if I
ever needed to edit some work,
it could still go back to the
correct location.

17. • I used 1001 fonts to find different fonts that I felt met
the generic conventions of horror films. These were
mainly placed on the poster as well as my website. The
advantage of using 1001 fonts instead of other font
website is that it is automatically a png file, meaning
there is no background. This makes it very to add the
fonts to my products and edit them without having to
worry about a background.