EVALUATION - QUESTION

1

How did you use media technologies in the construction,

research and planning and evaluation stages?

I used a wide range of media technologies throughout the process from the re-

production to the post-production stage. The main tool in use was the internet and

specifically the search engine www.google.com as a starting point for me to progress

from. The reason why this search engine proved invaluable was that it allowed me to

efficiently search for specific items such as ‘Horror movie trailers’ or ‘Zombie movie

posters’. Without such a search engine, finding the individual websites that provided

assistance during the planning stage would’ve proved difficult. The technologies that

allowed me to research trailers can be linked to the emergence of media 2.0;

websites such as www.youtube.com and www.dailymotion.com allowed me to find

trailers related to my genre that had been uploaded either by companies, movie

institutions or individual users. This was all part of a rather easy process that allowed

me to search and view trailers relatively quickly.

I also used Google to find websites such as www.wikipedia.org and

www.monstermania.net that allowed me to see the kinds of conventions that were

typically found in a horror, zombie movie. I was able to find information about what

kind of shots, location and editing should be used in movies of the horror genre.

I have uploaded an

example of YouTube's

interface. As you can see,

the interface is extremely

easy to use and simple to

adapt to. Also, you can see

the large number of results

that I received during each

search highlighting the

reason why it was my main

source in researching

trailers.

One of the main programs I have used throughout the process has been

Microsoft PowerPoint. I have used the software to analyse and compare all

of the real media texts I have researched including 28 Days Later, Dead

Set, Total Film, Empire, The Expendables poster, Anonymous Poster and

the Thor poster. Microsoft PowerPoint was already a program that I felt at

ease with and having known the controls I was able to quickly to create

slideshows to upload to my blog.

The website that allowed me to incorporate all of the PowerPoint's into my

blog on www.blogger.com was www.slideshare.net . Uploading

presentations to slide share was, like the other websites used for research,

very easy and efficient. I preferred to use presentations on my blog to keep

the look professional and clean.

In the production process of my development cycle I used two programs; Adobe

Premiere Pro the video editing program and Adobe Photoshop CS3 a photo editing

program. In my AS production I had already used Photoshop and although not

proficient in its usage, I believe the products produced (Film magazine cover and

movie poster) are of a higher quality than my previous work which shows good signs

of progression.

Photoshop allowed me to manipulate the image I used for my movie poster in a

manner of ways. I used the contrast and brightness adjustment to edit the contrast

level of the original image as it was far too bright to be used as a convincing

representation of my genre. I also edited the picture using the paint tool, editing the

eyes of the actors playing the zombies to make the shot look convincing. I also

added the text that made up the rest of my movie poster in Photoshop and was able

to create tag lines and pull quotes. With the use of Photoshop, I was able to

transform an ordinary image into a hopefully convincing movie poster that represents

the horror genre.

In the construction of my magazine, I was able to use the internet once more and go

to the actual magazine website to find and compare past issue front covers. This

allowed me to see conventions used in magazine production and the variation shown

in producing a front page. This research would influence my design choices of my

final draft.

Adobe Premiere Pro was the main technology used in the post-production stage and

allowed me to construct my final trailer. As the editor, it was my task to select the

required clips from the raw footage we had earlier shot and organize them into a fully

complete trailer. The predominant feature, the timeline, allowed me to add the clips

from my raw footage that I had selected and was the main work area in Premiere. I

was able to see where I had positioned clips and could also overlap clips and

sounds. It was in the timeline was able to add effects and set their length. I was also

able to speed up or slow down clips. Premiere also featured different options that

allowed me to modify certain aspects of my trailer. These included adding video and

audio effects and video and audio transitions. A transition that I used, ‘Fade to Black’

faded the designated clip in and out of screen and could be shortened or elongated. I

also used a ‘greyscale’ and a darken video effect to edit certain clips. The darken

effect was used especially to give the trailer a scarier, darker, dangerous feel that

would induce feelings of fear in the audience. Examples can be seen above.

I believe that Premiere Pro was yet another program that I adapted to quickly thanks

to a quick tutorial from my tutor. The interface was simple to use and allowed me to

select the shots, clips and add sounds and effects to construct my completed trailer.