Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages

Evaluation:

New technology has changed the film industry and the way films are produced, marketed and distributed through the use of social networking sites, viral advertising and the way films are filmed and edited.

Firstly new technology such as viral advertising and social networking sites has made marketing a lot easier and cheaper in order to reach out to and target mass audiences as well as to receive feedback such as forums, questionnaires and so on.

Furthermore new technology such as CGI has made it easier to produce films as well as to edit the films and again is cheaper to produce and allows you to be more creative than previous technology.

In addition new technology has changed the magazine industry as magazines and newspapers are widely available online now and also have their own websites such as ‘Empire, Total Film and Little White Lies’.

Technology has been present at all stages throughout my project, starting at the research and planning for my film. The

research I did was almost all done through the use of the internet. Not only is it the best place to research anything and everything about films but it’s also the most common form of

distribution to independent film makers, who make short films. This is because short films are not often picked up by

distributers they are both produced and distributed by conglomerate companies such as Disney Pixar, or they are

discovered through film festivals. The only other way for these film makers to get their short films seen is by uploading them

to the internet. There are many web sites designed for publishing films, such as ‘YouTube’ and ‘Vimeo’.

Google also played a fundamental role in my research, search engines are often essential as you have encyclopaedic knowledge of everything at your finger tips. When I began to research full length films to influence my own film, IMDB was very helpful. Not only is it a data base of films which you can go to, should you need information on something, but it also has a number of viewer created lists which I found particularly useful when looking for drama films that use stereotypes.

Social media sites can also be used as a way to get your work seen, whatever format it is in; ‘Tumblr’ is a popular blogging source for artists and film makers to present their work. Should your film then become popular then you have a chance that it will get noticed by websites like ‘Short of the Week’ who cater for a niche audience of short film fans. Because of all of these opportunities I had access to a extensive library of short films, my main source was ‘Short of the week’ which selects some of the best short films from suggestions made by anyone. So it has a mix of shorts made by companies with big budgets and from independent groups of film makers. ‘Short of the week’ not only let me view thousands of short films but it also gave me a feel for the industry, I found through this website the conventions of short films and what makes a short film successful as every film had a review like article attached. I found most of my inspiration from short films on this website including Plastic Bag, Blinky, Sight and various others however there were some shorts on YouTube which caught my eye, such as Zombie in a Penguin Suit.

The subsidiary texts went a lot more smoothly in terms of technology compared to the editing of the film. For my film poster I used Photoshop Elements 9, which is a program I am not that familiar with so I had to spend some time getting my head around the interface and tools but I got their in the end.

Without photo editing software like Photoshop I would not

have been able to make a convincing looking film poster. From touching up the photo I took, to putting the text into place, there are specific techniques used along the way which could not be done in cheaper alternatives such as Paint.

It would be acceptable to say that the use of new media technologies in this project has been extensive. Without modern, digital technology much of what I have produced in this project would not have been possible. From the actual filming and editing to the blogging of my work, technology has played a significant role throughout.

BY:SIAN WILLIAMS