Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction of research, planning and evaluation stages?

How have media technologies changed over time?

Society has changed massively over time and technology and is still changing; it has a huge impact and is a major role of people’s lives everyday. The progress of media technology has made it possible to make such high quality films as we have technological convergence. Even from making our films at GCSE and A2, you can tell how much media technologies have progresses in that short space of time, last year we used Adobe Premier 6.5, mini DV tapes to upload our footage on to the editing software. However this year we uploaded our footage straight from a memory card and used Adobe Premier Pro CS5. This saved us a lot of time and made the quality of our film a lot better. Digital technology has made it accessible and easier for us to make films and CS6 is out now. You can clearly see the extent of how media technology is progressing everyday.

Websites such as YouTube and Comingsoon.net played a huge role into our research and planning. From these websites we were able to access every teaser trailer that has ever been made. ‘The Roommate’ was the trailer that we had a huge focus on and repeatedly watched it go develop ideas on how we can take the structure of the storyline but make it original. Google and Wikipedia also played a huge role in our magazine and poster research and planning as we were able to identify the links between the teaser trailer and the print work and take notes of what we had to do for our work. We also used these websites for our planning and research. Such as: the sub genres of a thriller, a typical thriller poster, cover etc.

The Internet

We used Ribbet for our production of our magazine and poster covers. Using Ribbet enabled us to change the effects of the picture to make it more effective such as ‘auto boost’ and ‘sharpen’. On Ribbet, we were enabled to add text to our pictures and change around the font, where we got our “twisted” title from.

Ribbet

Slide shareSlide share enabled us to upload our power points on to blogger, instead of

writing on a word document we thought by using different media technologies would be a better way to show our research and planning stages. Also on slide share, we are able to upload pictures with our text to highlight our examples. Also, signing up for slide share was easy as only one of us had to sign up for it, and we could then copy the links and then imbed this on each others blog which saved us a lot of time.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5 was the program that enabled us to make all of our print work. On this website, we were able to cut out the images and paste it in layers, by following the forms and conventions of an Empire magazine cover and placing the image on top of the magazine mast head. We also had to paste on blocks of colour for our banner at the bottom of our cover, to do this we had to make a background block cover of red and then white. We also uploaded a blank pug and the scanner code to buy the magazine. For the text, we went back and forth between Photoshop and Ribbet. We had some issues with our poster as we couldn’t cut out the imagine and past out the background, in order to edit both as it didn’t look real; therefore we had to edit the whole image together, however the poster turned out well.

Adobe Premier

Adobe Premier was the software that made it possible for us to edit our films. On this program we were able to take our footage and turn it into a thriller teaser trailer. We were also able to follow the typical forms and conventions by cutting all of our shots down a lot shorter, adding voice edits such as echo’s and screams. We also used a lot of white and black ‘fade in’ and ‘fade outs’ which made the shots look like they were flashing on the screen, what a typical thriller teaser would have. We also added a black and white effect to one of the shots of Amy to emphasize the past and that it cannot be changed and something dangerous is about to happen. Adobe Premier also made it possible for us to add music on to our trailer; for our trailer, the music completely transformed it. This gave the trailer a real thriller feel and a build up of suspense as the trailer goes on. When watching the trailer, you automatically want to see what happens next which we wanted our audience to feel as well.

Black and White effect

This is an example of the Black and White shot that we used, the shot says “I’ll be your new friend”, after the shot the word ‘friend’ repeats afterwards. This emphasizes how this is a shot from the past and it cannot be changed. Suspense also builds from this shot which distinguishes our teaser trailer as a thriller and as we can tell something is about to happen.

Fade in white

This is another example of our white-dip ‘fade in’, this gives the shot a flash effect, which is important for a teaser trailer as the shots cant be too long as too much of the story would be given away. This made a huge impact on the trailer as it gave it a real thriller feel. However, we did have some trouble adding these transitions to some shots where they were so short, however we had to lengthen them on the time line and then add them on.

Slow motion

This was another important shot within our trailer. Adobe Premier made is possible for us to slow this shot up. This shot is important in the trailer because the character Amy copies Rhiannah on what she is getting to eat in the café, the emphasis on the shot creates suspense and starts to build dramatic irony for the audience.

Sound effects

We had some problems at the end of the trailer, as we fastened the shot up of Amy grabbing me and holding a knife up to my throat, however the scream was more humorous than dramatic, therefore we had to take out the scream from myself and important a scream that we had on another disk we had and put this on to the shot. This made the trailer a lot better and more of a thriller.

Blogger

Blogger has enabled us to keep track of any research and planning we have had and to put it on our blogs. For example at the start of the year, we done a lot of research to what actually is a thriller, thriller genres, the forms and conventions of a thriller, analysis of thriller teaser trailers, a campaign on the links between the teaser trailer, magazine cover and poster, the rule of thirds on a magazine cover etc and all of our ideas on our initial idea of our teaser trailer. Blogger reflects the journey that we have all been through and what it has taken for us to produce our teaser trailer and print work that we’ve got. Blogger also enabled us to use links to websites and clips from you tube on the blog which has been very beneficial to us as everything we have put on has been in order and we can clearly see in just a click of a button away our development stages.

Filming

Media technologies such as the digital cameras have made it possible for us to have such high quality footage. The digital cameras have made it easy to film as they are small and easy to carry around. Because we picked up a lot of filming skills from GCSE and AS from the camera and tripod and had an idea of what type of shots were needed for the trailer. However, what we did do was experiment on many more shorts such as: canted angles, high angles shots etc. The cameras are also stored with memory cards which we used to transfer our data which can be put straight in the computer to upload footage. We also had tripods that enabled all of the shots to stay still and steady which benefited the quality of our film.

Editing

To edit our film, these are the computers that we used within the Media Department. The program that we used to edit our work was Adobe Premier; this was already installed on the system which we then used to develop our film. Media technology such as the computer, speakers and the memory card holder helped us as a group to essentially make our film in a professional way. Like the filming, it was hard to get used the technology and all of the effects that we can add on, however we got used to the technology the longer we was doing the project and developed a lot of skills. We wouldn’t of been able to make our media products if it wasn’t down to the media technologies that exist today.