Evaluation Question 4

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

Blogger

When Documenting all the research and planning a group blog was set up using Blogger. This allowed every member of the group access using a gmail account, the name of the blog was the enitials of each member of the group 'MOLA'.

Celtx

Celtx is a Pre-production software aimed at creating and organising media projects such as short films etc.To plan our film we required a script and the software we used was Celtx, this was the best programme based on our experience using this for writing scripts last year which gave us an added confidence in using it for the A level project. This was important in writing the lines for each character, the location and any other actions the characters need to do.

Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro is an editing software used throughout the project, with last years experience we felt confident in using the software again based on using it for other exercises such asa Journey Edit where we focused on eliptical editing to shorten a journey from one location to another. This software gave us many options in font choices, transitions and colours to improve our film. Features within premiere pro that helped in the editing of our film included features

Youtube

Youtube was an essential tool when posting all of our videos online and to blogger. Although , before we uploaded the films we had used Premiere Pro to convert the films into files which could be embedded onto our blog. Videos we uploaded to Youtube included the final film, audience questionnaires and rough cuts of our film during the production stage, this was seen as a feedback tool to gain opinions on the project and how to improve the film whether that be the storyline or the nature of the film.We kept all our content on one channel so we could keep track of the videos and also know where to find them through a youtube log in.

Youtube also was an important source of information during the research phase of the project as this website gave access to many trailers, radio trailers,  short films and example reviews of films.

Camera Equipment

The camera used to film all of our clips was a Canon Legria HF G25, this was a much better camera than the one used in our AS level film so we needed time to get used to this camer. When using manual focus, this helped to produce a high definition image when creating our short film. Having filmed multiple shots we also filmed back ups just incase we needed extra content for our film. The use of this camera gave us an advantage over last year based on the quality of the camera giving us more ability to zoom, pan and also try tricky shots such as a point of view shot.

H1 Zoom Recorder

 The H1 Zoom recorder was helpful in the making of our film. It was used to correct any sound we missed during the filming stage and also in the editing process as we used it to create the voice of the anouncement speaker, this gave us the ability to change a clearer sound to make it sound like it came from a train stop. This technology was very easy to use as it only use a few buttons therefore i would recommend using this again as we already had experience from using it in the AS project. In the radio trailer this recorder was used again to produce a loud and clear piece that can be edited easily before being added to our trailer.

Free music Sites 

To include music within our film, we needed to use royalty free music in order to enhance our project. To find the music we used freemusicarchieve.org and freesound.org these were also used for sound effects in the film and radio trailer. We did this by downloading the sound clips onto a computer before implementing it into the film. To select the type of music we wanted we had researched our genre to identify which sound was appropriate for each scene. The sound used within the film is important in putting across the genre in the film.

Onlne Film Database 

To undertake research many sources of information were required, IMDB was used to gain extrra information such as release dates, poster examples, storylines and box office figures etc. This website was always available to the group, as well as Rotten Tomatoes, this website was better for reviews on each film that i researched. Both websites had in depth information on each film which gave us added knowledge in the black comedy genre, also understanding the director and their own techniques which influenced some filming and editing during our project.

Photoshop 

To create a sophisticated film poster, Adobe photoshop was the most appropriate as it allowed the group to create their own posters but also included features that other image editing software does not include such as layering, this allowed us to add multiple background images such as the notes on the wall. This poster gives the audience a setting for the film as well as introducing a character. The brightness and contrast elements of photoshop allowed us to add more colour and depth into images used on the poster making it more life like.When using photoshop there was little experience within the group therefore after a few hours of getting to know the basics it allowed us to manipulate the images to fill out the poster with individual images of the charcters.