Evaluation - Q4

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

Blogger

Throughout the process of planning, constructing and evaluating our film, Blogger has been continually used as place to display all of our work. In the early stages, we individually uploaded research that would benefit us in the process of creating our film. This research and ideas could be seen by everyone in the group, allowing us to take influence from each other and gain a more comprehensive understanding. Building on from using the platform last year, we all as a group have become effectively adept at using Blogger as our project has progressed.

Celtx 

Before using Celtx, we all had to individually come up with our own potential storylines. We ultimately decided on choosing my own storyline as the one we would use, with the next step being writing the script using Celtx. Like Blogger, Celtx was something we had previous experience using from last year, and this year we developed our ability using it. Writing the script this year was a different challenge from before. Whereas last year we had to write the opening 2 minutes of a film, this year we had write a script for a full 5 minute film. This meant we had to extend the story from last year, as well as developing the story and coming up with an ending. 

Photoshop 

This was used in the creation of our film posters. Creating a film poster on photoshop was new for all of us, and using for the first time was a challenge. After grasping how to create a poster, we decided to use a simple design based on a photo we took including the three main characters:
 

 

Adobe Premier Pro 

As with last year, Adobe Premier Pro was the editing software be used in the creation of our film. In AS, editing was a new challenge, and it took time to become capable of implementing the ideas we wanted. Our skills this year have only developed further, as we have refined our editing style from last year, whilst also adding more complex editing techniques. The first piece of work we edited was a simply shot journey, that lasted around 30 seconds to a minute. This was done purely to familiarise ourselves with Premier Pro again after having the summer off. Elliptical editing was used for this journey edit, and it served as a successful warm-up to editing our film. 

A variety of different editing techniques were used in the film, including: shot-reverse-shot, dissolves, fade ins and fade outs, jump-cuts, and many more. Also, we attempted and executed more technical ideas, for example: specific words on the text message being brought forward, as well as using shot-reverse-shot continually in conjunction with matching music.

Moreover, Premier Pro was not only vital in producing video projects, but also audio as well, as we used it to edit the Radio Trailer to the film. This was simply carried out by selecting certain pieces of dialogue from the film and combining those with music and a voice over promoting the film.

Camera 

The camera used for filming all our projects this year was the Canon Legria HF G25, a different camera to the one used last year at AS. This presented challenges, as we had to get used to using a new camera, but with practice we all became adept at filming. This camera, being of significantly higher quality to the one used at AS, meant a far more professional look to the film due to the better picture shot by the HF G25. The camera was used to film a variety of different shots, ranging from being attached to a tripod, handheld, and pushed on an office chair to create a tracking shot. We took it upon ourselves to meticulously film our scenes, often shooting each shot at least twice to ensure we had plenty of backup to work with, a problem we encountered last year and something we did not want to repeat. Overall, the new camera was i feel a catalyst for creating for more professional feeling film.

Zoom Recorder: 

The Zoom Recorder was a device that we were familiar with, as last year at AS, our film featured narration/voiceover throughout that was recorder with it. This year, the Zoom recorder had two key involvements. First was recording the voice of our train conductor announcing that the trains have been cancelled. This was done in a matter of minutes as the zoom recorder is very simple to use. Then, it was used to record our radio trailer, which involved recording Liam reading off a script, which would be intertwined with music a film dialogue when edited, again, a process that was straight forward and quick.

Link to Radio Trailer


YouTube

YouTube was used to upload our Rough Cut, Final Cut, Radio Trailer and also our video questionnaire. The process involved exporting projects from Premier Pro, and then titling them on YouTube, as well as giving them a description. A useful feature in the inclusion of tags, which sort your uploads into specific groups. This makes them easier for people to stumble across, for example someone who searches the tag 'film' or 'comedy'.