A2 MEDIA STUDIES - EVALUATION POST 4

By Damian Zlotorzynski

During my pre production stages of the foundation media studies course, I have conducted a lot of research into different Horror film openings. I have achieved this by watching multiple Horror film openings on the YouTube platform and by doing a timeline opening of the horror film ‘Evil Dead (2013)’, the frame by frame timeline analysis allowed me to understand the generic conventions of an Horror film opening along with the appearance of texts and choice of music through the different opening stages of the film. I used websites such as ‘Art of the title’ to carry this kind of research and to develop my understanding of the structure of the opening of a Horror film.

PRE-PRODCUTION- RESEARCH TASK

The YouTube platform was notably very resourceful and useful for both the foundation and advanced portfolio during my research tasks. The site provided many Horror film openings and worked as a video database during my pre production stages. In order to carry out the research I’ve used various devices,  I had access to desktop computers, Chrome books and iMacs at the school facility. This meant I was able to carry out research both at home and at school. The research carried out in my foundation media studies course seemed very successful and effective which meant I used similar concepts for the advanced portfolio, for which I had to carry out research into the Hip Hop music genre.

For the advanced portfolio I had to focus on research of the Hip Hop music genre after selecting Hip Hop for the genre that our group will be developing a media product for. I used similar research and methodology techniques that I previously used in my foundation portfolio. However I used the google image search engine in order to develop my understanding of existing real media products of digipaks and magazine posters for the ancillary tasks, using google images allowed me to look into successful media products. An example that I looked into with a lot of detail was 50 Cent’s digipak and magazine poster for the album ‘get rich or die tryin’.

In regards to my audience research task, I figured that the best way of carrying out the research was by creating a VOX POP. I had to use recording equipment in order to capture the footage, this included a video camera and a tripod to make sure the footage recorded was stable and of a high quality. I carried out an interview to capture the people's thoughts, once this was carried out I was able to merge the clips together on a video based editing software ‘iMovie’. From there I was able to add in some effects in order to bring the sound volume up and stabilize the footage for it to come across as professional and of a good standard. Furthermore, I have implemented the use of VOX POP in my Advanced portfolio after a successful experience of using it with my foundation coursework. I used the same format of asking open questions in order to make sure its not biased and I also recorded it with the same equipment previously used.

Alternatively In my advanced portfolio I decided to introduce another form of audience research due to the fact of believing my audience research was to basic and didn't really give me any data or patterns to analyse in my foundation portfolio. This meant I had improved my audience research task by carrying out a questionnaire in order to obtain quantitative data, this allowed me to use graphs and provide stats from the data that I collected. I used a sample size of 50 members of the public which gave me enough data to work with in order to analyse and visually represent the data. The data that I obtained from my questionnaire was inputted into a table on Microsoft excel, from there I was able to collect all the results and tally them. Microsoft Excel has allowed me to create graphs and charts that I was able to analyse, this allowed me to comment on the trend of the data and any patterns that I was able to notice. Furthermore I was able to present the data on a PowerPoint presentation where it proved to be very successfully as I was able to offer a much more detailed analysis of the audience research task through a representation of graphs and bar charts. This information I was then able to analyse and use as very useful audience research in preparation for the music video.

In my production stages of my foundation portfolio as a group we had to come up with a logo for the institution, I took this task on as I had the most experience with photo editing software's. I used Adobe Photoshop on the Apple (iMac) platform in order to develop and design the logo. The institution name ‘Untold Productions’ was created in a creative format coming across professional with the use of different blood effects and a clever swap of letter for images in the logos writing. I have also included a hand that appeared to be coming out of the ground which made it easily identifiable that the institution was of an Horror origin. I have generated this image by simply using a template found on the internet, I was able to copy and paste it into a separate layer on to Photoshop to be able to work on it and add design implements to make it appear the way I want. During the creation of the logo I experienced no difficulties on the iMac platform, it was very quick and responsive making it very easy to operate around.

PRODUCTION – INSTITUTION LOGO AND INCILLARY TASK

Adobe Photoshop offered a great range of tools and different effects, this gave me loads of freedom and capability to play around with the features trying out different concepts in order to develop the perfect logo. Furthermore, due to the success and development of my skills with Adobe Photoshop from the foundation portfolio to the advanced portfolio. I decided to stick to it for the production of my ancillary tasks in the advanced portfolio, there was no point me using any alternative graphic based application as I believe Photoshop worked very well and allowed me to utilize my skills and developed understanding of the software in the advanced portfolio. The same procedure was also used in order to develop the production logo for the advanced portfolio, I was able to use Photoshop in order to design a logo for our institution ‘UVR’ (Universal Vibe Records).

PRODUCTION - FILM OPENING AND MUSIC VIDEO In relevance to my film opening for my foundation portfolio I used a standard Samsung recording camera provided by the school. I used this camera to record my footage for the film opening. It was a standard camera and at the time appeared to be perfect offering everything we needed it to do. The vast majority of our footage was captured in darker environments meaning we had to use artificial lighting to get a better shot and adjust some of the camera settings such the brightness and contrasts levels for the shots to gain more visibility. The quality of the camera was high-definition (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution), this at first appeared to be enough but after rendering the finished product we realised some of the footage appeared blurred and out of focus. This was due to the lower quality of the camera and the fact that it was being recorded at 30FPS (Frames per second) this meant some of the frames where dropping making it appear to become blurry.

This is something that we’ve taken into consideration with the advanced portfolio, learning from our mistakes made in the foundation portfolio. We used an android operating smartphone which provided an ultra-high-definition (3840 x 2160 pixel resolution) that recorded at a constant 60FPS meaning the footage was very smooth and vibrant in colours. We considered using a digital camera that one of our members in the group owned, but after comparing it to the smartphone device it did not offer a higher standard level of professionalism. The smartphone device also offered more capability to adjustments, allowing me to change different brightness levels and other multiples such as the exposure level to fit the environment of shot. This allowed us to optimize the settings increasing the clarity of the footage making it clear and visible. In regards to the advanced portfolio the music video was not going to be recorded in poor lighting conditions or during the night meaning lightning would not be a problem.

The use of the preliminary task which was recorded in the foundation portfolio developed my understanding of the different camera shots and angles that can be implemented into my foundation film opening. I used this knowledge by implementing the shots in the production of my advanced portfolio,  I used the match on action shot and the shot reverse shot as seen in the finished product. The implication of technology was clearly developed over the duration of my media course, whilst my understanding and development of technology used has widely advanced over the duration of the course. I was able to use and apply the experience and understanding from my foundation portfolio to the advanced portfolio,  preventing me from making the same mistakes.

POST-PRODUCTION - FILM OPENING AND MUSIC VIDEO Throughout the post production stages of my foundation portfolio I had to edit the footage putting a horror film opening together. In order to edit and achieve this I used iMac’s ‘iMovie’ editing software. This editing software offered a high standard of professionalism along with a range of different tools and effects allowing me to take full advantage of it helping me produce the highest standard of a film opening. The software worked really well with the resolution we recorded in (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution). I was already quite familiar with the editing software having previously used it within the preliminary task, which meant I knew how to operate the program and do some complex effects such as overlap footage and do all the necessary colour corrections in order for the footage to appear more lively and vibrant. The editing software was a great choice for the foundation task as it offered a large selection of different non diegetic sounds that can be used throughout the different stages of the film opening. The large selection of copyright free samples was really helpful as it saved me time by not having to look online for free to use samples that fit into my film opening. I was able find a good choice of sound effects that fit the Horror convention, this helped the music video come across as ‘spooky’ and created the right tension for a Horror film opening. This helped the film opening be recognisable as a horror.

In the advanced media portfolio I attempted to use the same editing software after previously finding success with it and gaining a lot of experience. This however proved to be the wrong decision as we come across a couple problems when trying to render the footage, due to us using a higher resolution level (3840 x 2160 pixel resolution) the iMac could not handle it having crashed on us on multiple occasions. This was due to a not sufficient amount of RAM (The iMac computers we were using were slightly outdated, coming with only 4GB of RAM) Thus meant we had to switch computer systems going from the Apple operating system to a windows computer. This also meant we had to use a different editing software as iMovie is exclusively offered for iMac users and not compatible on the windows operating system.

This didn't prove to be a problem as I’ve had previous experience with Adobe After Effects and I was able to use that editing program as an alternative. This editing software offered excellent performance and a variety of different tools for my music video. However during the exportation process of the product, I’ve had come across a similar hardware problem that I encountered previously. I figured that using a computer system with double the amount of RAM from the previous system would be enough but this seemed to still be a insufficient amount of memory RAM. I understood my music video had a very complex structure due to the very high FPS as well as the high resolution. This meant that I had to installed an extra 8GB of RAM in my computer which resulted in the exportation of my product successfully in the end.

POST-PRODUCTION - EVALUATION(S) IN RELATION TO PRESENTATION

When presenting my work in my foundation portfolio I decided to use a blogging platform ‘Blogger’, this platform seemed to be a great choice as blogs tend to provide a very clear structure. The simplicity of the website made it very easy to understand after no previous experience with any type of blogs, It didn't take much time for me to get an understanding of how to use the site. I was able to edit the theme and background of my work along with the presentation methods of each post. The site was accessible and viewable from a variety of different platforms, I was able to update my blog and upload new posts while still working on them, once completed I was able to release it live onto the blog. I uploaded most of my posts from a computing system or a Chromebook, blogger saved any draft and unfinished work which made it very convenient for me as with the access to internet I was able to work on my blog from anywhere.

The blogging platform ‘Blogger’ offered a variety of different ways to upload my research and planning tasks onto the blog, I was able to embed content into my posts which made them displayable on the blog. In regards to embedding my work to the blog, It had to be displayed in an online platform in order to be viewable. To achieve this I used a site known as ‘SlideShare’, this site enabled me to convert the document to a presentable format. Sites such as SlideShare allow users to upload finished pieces of their work and make it presentable as an online document. Furthermore, after uploading the finished product I was able to simply copy and paste the HTML code into my blog converting the post from a written code into a visual document. Due to success in the foundation portfolio of blogger and SlideShare, it's something that I have used and implemented to my advanced portfolio.

In regards to my video based production, I used the YouTube platform in order to upload my previous ancillary task along with the finished products of the film opening and music video. This was a easy choice to make as YouTube has never disappointed me and been very easy to use, all the videos were uploaded and stored on the online internal storage. The videos were very easily accessible and viewable on the blogging platform as I was able to embed them onto the blog as done previously by copying and pasting the HTML code to make it viewable. I also implemented the use of Prezi to present my work as an alternative to SlideShare, it was very effective as it was a good way of presenting a lot of information and break it down to make it easier to understand. I was also able to add links and photographs to the Prezi making it a very interactive format of presenting my work. I used Prezi for both my foundation and advanced portfolio tasks.