HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND

EVALUATION STAGES?

BETH BODIMEADE

Evaluation Q.4

Web 2.0 and Digital Technologies

Web 2.0 is the name given to the new platform of internet which lets us easily produce, consume, and share media. Examples Before 2.0 came Web 1.0, this was a platform which allowed only the consumption of information.

Social media websites such as Facebook and Myspace allow people to share their ideas/photos/videos etc. with friends and family, as well as the public if they choose to gain a wider audience. Using these websites to market films can also be very successful, for example Vertigo Films use of Foursquare to market their film Monsters.

These websites are very useful to the general public as they are often free to access, and only require the internet. This means it is increasingly easy for people to share and market their own media- instead of using high expense strategies such as city billboards.

New digital technologies are also allowing the general public to become more involved with film making etc. as the technologies such as cameras, film cameras and editing software's are becoming increasingly available at low prices. Again this is leaving a bigger gap for independent producers and directors to create and share their work.

Research and Planning Stage

When researching postmodern elements of film, as well as general knowledge on Crime and Dystopian genres, I used online websites to gather information. These websites were very useful as they were quick to access and gave me a broad and detailed background to my research areas. For example, I accessed this website in order to research Todorov’s theory on narrative

http://iggyfiore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/todorovs-theory.html

This research then helped my own ideas of a film narrative, genre and appropriate conventions.

I also used YouTube when researching. This website was especially useful as it allowed me to watch existing film trailers, and then analyse them myself using the theory from my earlier research. As a group we had chosen Crime genre for our own trailer, and so when looking on YouTube I was able to access appropriate film trailers as there is such a vast range of videos.

Throughout the whole project I have been using an online blog to communicate my research and planning ideas to the rest of my group. This has been helpful as it is an easy way to look back over my work, enabling me to easily access narrative/conventional/research ideas which then helped me to create a successful film trailer.

Research and Planning Stage

• When creating power points for my research and planning on areas such as film marketing and my influences, I used the website Prezi.com. This website allowed me to create interactive power points, and so became more interesting and appealing to read than a standard Microsoft PowerPoint. This website opens my power points to the public, allowing me to gain feedback if someone leaves a comment.

• I also used the website SlideShare.com, this enabled me to easily share my Microsoft PowerPoints both online with the public, but was also a way of uploading them to my blog without the viewers having to click links. As with Prezi.com I can see how many views my power points have received and use any comments to help improve/change my work. I also used SlideShare.com to view other peoples power points, to help with my own research and planning.

• To gather images for my power points and blog posts I used Google.com, this website allowed me to choose from a massive selection of images to help make my work more interesting and appealing to read.

Production Stage

• We used the Canon Eos 450D to film our shots, using a digital camera was very useful as it allowed us to easily and quickly upload the footage from the camera onto the computer. Along with the camera we also used a rig, slider, tripod and track. These helped us to get effective and exciting shots from interesting angles that flowed well.

• To gather sound effect for the edit I used YouTube. By downloading a few I could then choose which would sound best in the trailer. YouTube was good for this as it had a wide range of effects. The copyrighted effects I was less inclined to use as there was more hassle to their download, but luckily YouTube had many effects that had not been copyrighted.

• To edit our shots and create our trailer we used the editing software Adobe Premier Pro. This software allowed us to cut shots, change the colouring and contrast of the image, add in sound effects and soundtracks, and add in special effects such as Fade to White.

Production Stage

When making the poster and magazine cover we used Photoshop. This software allowed us to edit our photographs as well as layer and place imagery and text to create effective and professional looking work.

• We used the Canon Eos 450D camera to take our photographs to be used in the magazine cover and posters, this camera was great because we were able to get really focused, clean shots.

• To get ideas for fonts and magazine cover layouts we used Google to search existing magazine websites and their previous covers. This also helped us get an idea as to which magazine production company would be appropriate for us to use as we could see their reader statistics and previous film features.

Evaluation Stage

For questions 2, 3 and 4 I used Microsoft PowerPoint. This software was very useful as it is very quick and easy to use, it is also very easy to upload and share PowerPoints with other people/websites. In order to put my PowerPoints on my blog I used the website SlideShare.com. This website is effective because it not only lets me share on my own blog, but also is available to those using SlideShare.com.

For evaluation question. 1 we recorded ourselves speaking about our use of mise-en-scene, narrative conventions, and filming and editing in our trailer. We used a recording device and a SD card, so we could upload our commentary to the computer. However, we lost the information on the SD card and so instead had to type out our speeches and upload them to the blog separately.

We then edited our speeches together, over our trailer final cut. This allows those watching to be able to connect what we are saying about the trailer to the imagery they are seeing. We used Adobe Premier Pro to do this.