Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing the product?

Throughout the process of constructing our media product we used a variety of technologies to achieve the best we could in researching, planning, creating, posting, producing and receiving feedback.

We used the search engine Google as it is fast and reliable, it offered us a wide range of information from different websites. This was helpful as it allowed us to gain information and research on a particular film/social group/genre etc. When researching on the film ‘Taken’ I typed in the film name and lots of different websites came up from IMDB to YouTube to Taken Facebook Page; giving us in-depth, useable research information.

A website we used to find accurate information was IMDB. It included the cast; genre; certificate rate; story line; film details; box office; reviews; distributors; production companies and more. This information helped when deciding which company we would use as our distributor and what certificate rating would best suit our genre of film. Below is a picture of the companies involved with one of the films we looked at Taken. We avoided Wikipedia to gather information from as it is known to be unreliable, whereas we knew IMDB was a valid and trusted website.

We also used the technology of DVD to find research out. We watched the DVD’s Taken and Taken 2 which are popular thriller films. Watching the DVD’s gave us an idea of the genre itself, and also introduced us to certain camera angles such as using low angle shots and close ups to display weakness and emotion. We also gained some vital influences such as the costume and characterisation for our character. Below is a character Kim from Taken.

- She is portrayed as a girl who is weak, scared and vulnerable. Similar to our main character Maisie.

YouTube was another type of technology we used in our research, production, planning and evaluation processes. It was useful because it’s capable of finding out any information we needed such as: clips from films/TV series, tutorials on using FinalCutPro, soundtracks for our media (Sparrow – Sad piano music). It allowed us to upload videos we took on my phone. To upload the music onto FinalCutPro we converged a mixture of technologies together, for example: We found a soundtrack, that fitted our piece, on YouTube, we then copied the URL into an MP3 convertor- which downloaded the song quick and free onto a laptop, We then put the file onto a memory card, plugged it into the Mac computer, allowing me to open the file into iTunes and convert straight onto FinalCutPro.

We also used YouTube to upload research videos such as our interviews with our target audience and us speaking about our media product, as it was quick and easy to do. To record our videos we used mobile phones and my own laptop webcam as these were easy to use and allowed us to transfer the video files onto my laptop which I could upload to my YouTube account.

With my mobile phone, we used different angles to look at the effect that lighting had on the characters. We also then took pictures of the shots making it easier to analyse later. As we knew what locations we would be filming at, we were able to look for different angles and shots we could do and which of those looked most effective.

The school provided us with a camcorder which we used to film our media with (as well as using our own phones for certain parts). If we were to do this again, we would use a higher quality camcorder or camera as it would make the images more defined and effective.  We saved the footage onto the cameras 16GB SD card which was a very good amount of space for us, as we had a lot of space to work with so we were able to film multiple shots. We found that cameras are versatile to work with and it is important to always be fully prepared- so we made sure every time we was going to film that the camcorder had a fully charged battery.

When producing our media product, we chose Final Cut Pro as our main editing software as is it renowned for its professionalism and it was easy to access at school on the Mac computers. Although Georgia, Amber, Daisy and I had never worked with Final Cut Pro before, we had to teach ourselves pretty much everything, with some help from teachers and YouTube tutorials. After a few attempts I got used to using the software and began exploring the different types of transitions – in which we discovered useful techniques such as turning the brightness and contrast down to make the atmosphere look gloomy, and also using a ‘dream’ effect to help make the flashbacks clearer for the audience.

Other features we used on Final Cut Pro their sound effects they had on the software. These were very useful when adding in post-production as they were already on the software so it was easy to transfer. We also cropped and merged our soundtrack and effects together to get a more mysterious effect- whilst the diagetic sounds from the filming were still heard over the top.

When gathering audience feedback, we used the software Microsoft Word to produce questionnaires and handed them out to people. Word is very simple and easy software to use to produce a range of information, and it helped that we were already familiar with using it. To analyse feedback we used Microsoft Excel in order to create a bar graph to put in the data from the questionnaires.

Overall I believe we used a range of technology in the processes of research, planning, production and feedback. I learnt a variety of skills whilst using Final Cut Pro, which made a big difference when we used Windows Movie Maker for our preliminary task. This knowledge will also help me if I continue to use Final Cut Pro and become more advanced.