WELCOME TO QUESTION 4
GET CAUGHT UP IN THE DISCUSSION!
GET CAUGHT UP IN THE DISCUSSION!
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH,
PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGE?
PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGE?
Media technologies are important in our modern day as it allows us to explore the construction, research, planning and evaluation. It was relevant to include these as it allows us the promote our project using different media's so a larger group of our audience can receive the film trailer. In the last 10 years we have seen media technologies become better in the experience for the consumers and more profitable for the media institutions. Digitalisation has proven to be a great stepping stone for the filming industry coming from older technologies such as Celluloid. Companies see more benefits as the evolution of technology result to production being cheaper and easier. Conglomerates such as Warner Bros get the opportunity to advertise and promote their project more successfully compared to the past. Consumers are benefited by digitalisation because they are able to now watch films in an instant. An example of this is streaming films from companies such as Netflix or renting them online through iTunes app store. Media convergence supports this movement as consumers are able to explore simply through modern day devices such as
- Phones/Tablets
- Internet/Online technology
- Software
- Gaming consoles
This is great for consumers as most people use these products through their daily life's.
- Phones/Tablets
- Internet/Online technology
- Software
- Gaming consoles
This is great for consumers as most people use these products through their daily life's.
The introduction of digitalisation means that major film companies can put out more to their consumers. They do this by introducing new methods how a film can be watched whether it's in IMAX 3D or 2D digital. They also get the opportunity to pour some more money into film production introducing new technologies such as CGI and sound. As another way to promote a project they introduce toys and games in support of a film, a method called synergy. They do this to appeal to a larger audience.
Since 2005, YouTube has been the most surfed video website in history. As consumers, we use YouTube daily whether its to listen to our favourite songs or watch a helpful tutorials. Since the people have power to search this website for just about anything it makes YouTube a very important media on the internet ranking it above social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. YouTube is also one of most popular sites for being able to stream film trailers alongside web brands such as IMDB. We felt that it was imperative to use YouTube as a tool for our trailer as it allowed us to advertise and promote our trailer successfully. For our project we decided to make a YouTube account and upload some videos which reflects on the production and the final of our trailer. Having our videos on YouTube allow us to get a administrative view of how well our trailer does on the web and offers our audience a chance to leave a comment below each video.
YouTube was a helpful tool as it allowed us to view our progress for our animatic and trailer. The site allowed us to use the trailer for 'Dead Snow' in our animatic and real media text. YouTube being a giant web address allows smaller companies such as youtube-mp4 to be successful. Using youtube-mp4 allowed us to download videos and produce our real media text and animatic.
Google was the pinnacle for our planning and research as we were able to browse the web for materials related to our projects. We found information on other horror films with the same sub-genre which helped us develop further ideas for our project. Due to digitalisation we where able to connect with popular web companies such as IMDB and YouTube to gather further intel. Unlike other browsers, Google has the most web addresses compared to recent browsers such as Bing. Using Google also allowed us to navigate easily through different web addresses.
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Useful tool in our research, imdb.com
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Using the most popular web browser, we where able to find templates for the marketing side of our project. Gathering different media's from Google allowed us to advertise and promote our trailer as we had the power to download sounds, fonts, videos and images. We also used this browser as a comparison tool allowing us to compare different advertising techniques such as magazines.
Main Points: - Google provided a simple navigation system - It gave us the opportunity to expand our planning and research - Pathways where made as we were able to use sites such as YouTube - We could use older sources as a guideline - We were able to download images, videos and sounds. |
Dafont was a useful tool for most areas for our project. We used this site to download suitable fonts that would match the theme of our project. When it came to the scheme for the font we decided to go with colours we call goth black and blood red, only because these colours have relation to our theme. The website has a huge catelogue of fonts which makes finding our ideal font beneficial. For this project we stuck with to two main fonts, Chopin Script and Vani. We also used introduced another font used as the credits for our trailer and posters which is called Creditblocks. We used these fonts effectively by applying them to our magazine, poster and other methods of promotion and advertisement. The main font used for the title of or trailer was Chopinscript. The reason why we decided to go with this font is because it had characteristics which connects to 'The Invite'. Instead of printing fonts onto our projects, digitalisation allows us to perform tasks easier by working digitally.
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Dafont was a huge advantage for us as:
- It allowed us to download loads of fonts for free
- The layout of the site allowed us to navigate easily
- There was a range of categories to chose from
- All fonts are at high quality dismissing pixelated downloads
- It allowed us to download loads of fonts for free
- The layout of the site allowed us to navigate easily
- There was a range of categories to chose from
- All fonts are at high quality dismissing pixelated downloads
Gmail was a useful tool for transferring information to each film crew member. Using Google's email site, we was able to communicate about our findings for our project. We could send messages as well as images to each other, the only disadvantage was the limit on upload size. Thankfully, if the content was too large to send through we was able to use an extension from Google called
Open Drive which allowed us to upload files up to 20GB. This proved handy as we were able to send through larger files in Photoshop format. |
Google's Open Drive Logo
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We used Weebly to document our project in a website format. First of all, we had to make a collaborative account so we would all be able to access our website. From that point onwards we were able to explore the functionalities this website had to offer. Weebly enabled us to upload images, import text and also add YouTube videos. By organising the website appropriately we were able to incorporate a lot of information concerning our project. Weebly enabled us to create a well structured source for our trailer content. We are able to contribute to our project by addressing different areas of our trailer. Doing this also allows fans to get a clearer understanding of our project.
Weebly allowed us to:
- track our progress
- navigated quick and easy
- import different elements, images and videos
- store and edit information
- show our project with great presentation
- use alternative methods of editing through portable devices
Weebly allowed us to:
- track our progress
- navigated quick and easy
- import different elements, images and videos
- store and edit information
- show our project with great presentation
- use alternative methods of editing through portable devices
Weebly is also available on the app store which allows us to access the editors version of our website easier. The application allows us to make adjustments to our website the same way we would on a PC but on a portable device such as an iPad.
SONY VEGAS
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Sony Vegas offers good methods to editing footage but not to the level as Final Cut Pro. Using this programme allowed me to produce a cinematic introduction for our film company. We were able to import sounds and videos into a project and piece them together using a range of transitions and effects. It offered more in-depth features than other software's such as windows movie maker. However, Sony Vegas isn't a free programme and does require some experience to use but performs well in the world of editing. |
Making projects in Sony Vegas was time friendly which allowed us more time to move onto other projects contributing to our trailer.
Facebook and Twitter are successful social networks that contain a database of people. We decided that we could use this media a way of gathering information about the horror audiences. We found that the horror genre has a huge fan base behind it. For Facebook it could be that fans like a film or on Twitter that people would retweet. We felt it was important to see how an audience would react to a release of a new film. Social networks are great tools for advertising and promoting, especially as it allows you to see the reaction of your social-connect audience
As technology plays a big part of digitalisation we can see that this method of advertisement and promotion will grow in the future. |
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
The most frequent used software used throughout this project was Adobe's Photoshop. Photoshop turned out to be a beneficial piece of digital technology as it allowed us to take advantage of its functions. We had easy access to using Photoshop as the programme was installed on all the computers in our educational institution. However, using this software comes at a fee outside of college. To transfer files back and forth through college and home we used USB sticks/portable hard drives not to mention online storage such as Google Open Drive. Using this programme was easier than its ever been since we had previous experience using the software in our AS year producing magazines. Adobe's pinnacle programme is ideal for blending options which was beneficial for our project as we focused a great amount of time on promoting and advertising our trailer.
![Picture](/uploads/3/9/2/4/39247117/4524097.jpg?727)
Company logos such as Warner Bros. consists representation of the company being bold and iconic. We decided to go with the same approach with our company logo. Using Photoshop we wanted to make a logo which is hard to forget. Our first step to making an iconic logo was deciding to go with a strong vibrant colour which resulted to be red. Once we knew that red was the colour we wanted to input, we then moved onto discussing how we could make our logo more effective. We used clouds and a crest as two media's that will help our logo hold more conventions to companies such as Columbia. Using Photoshop to our advantage we then started working into blending the elements of our logo together. Taking the black and white crest off Google, we developed it further by 'subtract'ing it in the blending options. This took away the white in the photo and left the black crest. To allow the clouds fit into this design, using the opacity and fill gave a ghostly look to our Skeleton Works brand.
You'll see this version of the company logo as an introduction in our trailer
SOUNDTRACK PRO
Soundtrack Pro is programme produced by Apple which allows you to mix and edit video files. The File Editor allows you to drag and drop, add and a range of other features. Using Soundtrack Pro briefly gave us the thought of Soundtrack Pro being a Photoshop for audio and sound.
![Picture](/uploads/3/9/2/4/39247117/1420981691.png?250)
As an experiment, we played around with Soundtrack Pro to see what it had to offer. We imported sounds and organised them on the timeline. Soundtrack Pro was a great programme to use as it offered a range of functionalities such as being able to edit individual clips. However we decided to import our sounds into Final Cut Pro. We didn't use Soundtrack Pro as a programme to produce our sounds because we felt it would be beneficial for us construct the sounds alongside the visual. Soundtrack Pro didn't offer this option whereas Final Cut Pro did. Using Soundtrack Pro would benefit us if we were doing a soundtrack for or trailer.
Since we were unfamiliar with using Soundtrack pro, we used a YouTube tutorial to help us through the basics.
Final Cut Pro gave us the ability to make create our three projects; Real Media Text, Animatic and Trailer. Without having much experience using Final Cut Pro, we played around with the programme and its different functions. Producing the Real Media Text and the Animatic allowed us to discover more features than before. An example of this was being able to align the clips in time with the sound, also changing the appearance of the clip using filters. After using this software for the Animatic and the Real Media Text we gained more experience allowing us to construct our trailer. As well as being able to use filters over clips, we were able to create captions with there own background. This was helpful for us as it gave us the opportunity to import font to match the conventions of our trailer. Although Final Cut Pro offered a great deal of editing techniques we feel that the software could've been better if the rendering didn't occur so often.
Apple's editing software offered a range of editing techniques that could be used in video, stereo, filters and motion. For our trailer to hold conventions to the theme of horror, we decided to use these functions to give our captions more character. We were able to scale the text starting from a smaller font size and gradually allowed it to get bigger. There were features that allowed us take a closer look at the things that make a stronger trailer. Another feature that Final Cut Pro included was ability to more clips into perfect alignment. This offered a professional way of composing clips on the timeline.
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These videos tutorials made us approach Final Cut Pro differently. We felt this way because we understood more about the programme allowing us to excel further.
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These are products of the Photobooth software. We used these reactions as feedback from our audience.
CANON EO5 6OOD
For our project, we decided to use the Canon EO5 600D as it is one of the best cameras on the market. Through research we found out that particualar SLR camera is ideal for capturing videos and photos. This expensive piece of equipment has multiple functions which gives the person operating the camera a range of options. Depending on the lens, you can usually adjust the aperture allowing more or less light in your footage. However, although the lens has flexibility, the camera is quite slow at adjusting and changing its focus. This can cause photos and videos to come out blurry and unclear. Other than that, this device has a 10x optical zoom which turned out to be a huge advantage as we were able to capture footage from small and long distances. Overall, this model was a great deal for our project. It was able to capture sharp and clear footage when tuned right. Being a small device meant it was easier to commute to different locations which allowed our filming process more more time.
Depending on the type of footage you want to capture, the Canon EO5 600D has a range of equipment that will benefit a project. In our project we only used a tripod and a SD card but you can also get other tools such as steadicams and microphones.
Depending on the type of footage you want to capture, the Canon EO5 600D has a range of equipment that will benefit a project. In our project we only used a tripod and a SD card but you can also get other tools such as steadicams and microphones.
Pros
. Using this camera allowed us to capture footage at a high resolution. . It's a small device allowing us to move around much faster and easier. . We could've used a wide range of equipment on the camera. . Taking videos and photos were fairly quick. . The small screen allows you to view what has been previously shot. . You can change the lenses. . Quick transition between the camera and video recorder. |
Cons
. The settings can be a bit confusing. . Filming in the dark leads to a much darker footage. . The battery life only lasts a couple of hours. . The built in flash doesn't really make a photo look professional. . Built in microphone doesn't pick up a lot of sound just mainly noise. . Some buttons are hard to get to. . Video takes a while to focus on a subject. |
Using the aperture in our video and image capturing on the Canon E05 600D was a beneficial tool. It allowed us to manually adjust how much light gets into the lenses. This handy feature effects how much lighting is used in a photo or video. The aperture scales varies from f1.8 up to f22.
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These are two tutorials which helped us learn a bit more about the camera we were using in our project. The two videos explain the ins and outs of using a SLR camera such as the settings and functionalities.
Steadicam is a important tool in the filming industry as an accessory to a camera. Unfortunately, we didn't use this equipment in our project but I would've been beneficial if we did. It allows the footage to be steady like a tripod but not stationary. Steadicams are usually used when tracking a subject in films. |
A tripod is one of the main piece of accessory for a camera as it allows the camera to be steady. Using a camera and a tripod raises the possibility of your footage being sharper and more in focus because is no movement. Another handy property of the tripod is that you can adjust the height. Using a tripod in our project turned out to be a success because it allowed us to capture footage from a stationary stand point.
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Using a Mac computer was hugely beneficial for us as it was the main media that we used through out the process of our research to the composing of our footage. Final Cut Pro is only on Macs so this allowed us to create more while we were on the computer. However, at times we felt although the Mac computer got a bit confusing at times as it functions different to a PC. With the large display we were able to analysis and gather more research appropriately.
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When it came to printing and documenting information, using the PC was an important media for us. PC being a easier computer to use we were able to get tasks done more quicker than we would on the Mac. Also, we had more access to using a PC as it is a device that all of our group members used at home. A Mac would only be used at college. |
Commuting information was a important step to take in our developing process for our project. There were various methods we could take to approach this such as using Gmail and Hotmail. Emails allowed us to also communicate to one another concerning our tasks. When it came to moving larger items such as Photoshop files we used USBs and portable hard drives. This allowed us to carrying on working at home as well as within our institution.
To finalise our project we mentioned areas such as planning, research, design and construction. Throughout the year we carried out research into new technologies. From this point onwards we had a go at learning about camera movements and film conventions. This gave us a good understanding about how we could approach this project.
Although we researched into a lot of areas, we didn't use some medias we mentioned as it was part of our learning process in getting familiar with conventions. To evaluate our work we need the opinions of our audience. To take this approach we filmed the reaction of various students. This helped us gain a understanding of how our project is perceived. This process was quick as it entailed no use of a SLR camera because the Mac computers had one built in. This worked out great as we were able to see the reaction of the audience while it was being recorded at the same time as the trailer. |
![Picture](/uploads/3/9/2/4/39247117/5618272.png?770)
We used YouTube once again to upload our final efforts for our trailer. We chose to use this media instead of other social websites because we felt we would get a better response as YouTube is the most popular video streamed website. By uploading our project on YouTube we was able to get feedback on what went well and how we could improve it in the comments section. This was helpful and beneficial for us as we were able to make changes to the trailer. Having the project on YouTube made it easier for the members of Skeleton Works to access the trailer as well as the public. Easy access meant that we could link it to our Weebly page as a quick process.
We could also monitor the progress of the trailer as YouTube allowed us to view the statistics and the amount of times the trailer has been viewed.
![Picture](/uploads/3/9/2/4/39247117/5239562.png?758)
Photoshop delivered a range of methods to which we could advertise The Invite. We were able to manipulate websites such as Odeon to advertise a convincing trailer. Like Odeon, we took the most iconic screen shot from our trailer and used it similar to how other films on the website presented there film. Using the blending options, we was able to create a transparent banner with the convention font Calibri, also used on Odeon's Website. Using web engine Google and websites such as DaFont, we were able to add some conventions which would make our advertisement convincing.
Taking different steps, we were able to make an official The Invite poster on Odeons website. Adobe Photoshop supported us as it gave us tools such as shapes, blending options and the text tool to formulate a successful advertisement.
Taking different steps, we were able to make an official The Invite poster on Odeons website. Adobe Photoshop supported us as it gave us tools such as shapes, blending options and the text tool to formulate a successful advertisement.
CONCLUSION
To help conclude our project, we used a range of new technologies in the process. Sites such as Google allowed us to gather information to make a more convincing outcome. By using these media's we were able to apply more skill in the areas we weren't so confident in before. YouTube also contributed to our recent strengths in presenting our trailer as we were given feedback about how we could improve on our project. Using all of our knowledge, we used what we knew to form a great correlation to our horror genre by ensuring that all our goals set for conventions were reached. Weebly allowed us to document our findings through out the project.
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