Evaluation Question 4‘How did you use new media technologies in the RESEARCH, PLANNING, CONSTRUCTION and EVALUATION stages of your project?’

Brandon Murphy

Research and Planning• I have utilised many types of new media in the research and planning stages

of my MAIN PRODUCT and my ANCILLARY PRODUCTS.• In the research stages I looked into film theory and conventions, as well as

analysing other films and conducting textual analysis on these films.• I used the Google search engine in order to gather more in-depth

information on media theorists and their theories so that I could further learn about them.

• I used YouTube to find and watch the films which I chose to analyse, the advantage of YouTube is that it has such a wide database of videos to view and discover. YouTube’s integration into other websites has also been beneficial due to the Web 2.0 links I have used on ‘itslearning’ to show off these videos.

• I have also used ‘Prezi’ and ‘Slideshare’ to collate the research that I have undertaken in terms of analysis of research.

Construction• When it came to the construction of my film, I used a Canon 600D DSLR to film along with a tripod. I utilised

different kinds of shots and angles, which through other films that I’d viewed on YouTube and Vimeo, I had garnered inspiration and learnt how to produce.

• I have used iMovie to edit my film, I utilized many different features of the application, I used the Blade tool to correctly cut my shots, and I used the Timeline to re-order these shots to form an understandable story. I used other features such as the Speed tool to increase the speed of some of my shots, I also used the crop tool to produce camera movements and angles that I wouldn’t have been able to produce otherwise. |I used the text tool to insert text into my film, such as the credits and other titles throughout the film. I used DaFont.com to find fonts that I wanted to use in my film for the titles. I also made sure that I maintained the colours that I wanted to be most vibrant in my film, so I adjusted the saturation and brightness of most of the shots in order to give the best viewing experience possible.

• I used Photoshop CS6 to help me produce the Ancillary products, In my poster, I used the Canon 600D camera to take the high angle shot of the cup that I wanted to use for the poster, and I also took a shot of my face. So that I could utilising the masking tool to make it look like my reflection was in the liquid of the cup. I also adjusted the hue of the liquid to match my other products as I believe purple is the colour that represents this film as a whole. For my film review I used Microsoft Word to write the actual review, and to sort the text into even columns that I could insert into Photoshop, by creating a photo using Adobe reader, so that I could cut out the appropriate bits via Paint. I then used the shape tool and the text tool, to create the titles that I needed for each part of my review. I also then inserted stills from my film via iMovie into the review, to give the audience a snippet of what my film looks like.

• I finally used YouTube as a Web 2.0 host to upload my film and to access my primary audience, I used a thumbnail which I thought best represented the film, just with the title of the film on it so people would know what they were viewing. I used the video description to credit certain people who participated in the process of this film, and to also give a description of the film to new viewers.

Evaluation• In order to gather opinion on my film, I shared links of my film to my personal

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr social networking accounts, and I requested that I be given constructive feedback on my film, so that I may gather a accurate perception of who most enjoyed my film, and what could be done to make it better.

• I also had screenings of my film on different focus groups in which I would use a smartboard to display it to an audience, and then I would either film them using my Canon DSLR or gather paper copies to gauge their response to my film.

• I have used Microsoft products ‘Word’ and ‘Powerpoint’ in order to create more vivid text posts so that the viewing experience of my evaluation posts on itslearning is much more enjoyable and interesting. I have uploaded these posts via Slideshare.

• Finally I have used iMovie again to edit together the responses to my film and to create a Director’s Commentary of my film in which I talk about my film as I watch it, discuss why I did certain things in my film and how I managed to do them.