How have new technologies been used through the research

planning and evaluation stages?

Niaomi Twiss

Research and planning I uploaded all of my research to blogger, I had never used this programme before. Blogger allowed me to upload, edit and make draft posts. It also allowed other people to comment on my posts to give me feedback of my work.

Throughout all 3 of the stages the internet was used. When I was at school I used windows internet explorer . When at home I used Google chrome. They allowed me to analyse and evaluate other media products to help formulate my own ideas.

The internet also allowed me to visit websites such as Youtube and IMBD. This allowed me to view the ways in which typical media conventions worked in order to find ideas for my own. http://www.youtube.com/ http://www.imdb.com/

Research and planning I created two different storyboards as I changed my mind of the script. My first one was done on Microsoft PowerPoint and uploaded to slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/nemo94

For my second storyboard I hand drew it. To get it onto the blog I used my friends HP Scanner to put the images onto Adobe Reader and then emailed the images to my home email address. These images were then put straight onto blogger.

Production During the production of the trailer and the ancillary tasks I used a HD digital

camera. The HD camera allowed excellent quality footage to be taken. The camera also allowed the use of contrast/black and white to darken/lighten scenes, this was useful when trying to film a summer based film in winter as it can often be too dark. The camera allowed me to view what I was taking and helped me decide the angles to take the footage and pictures from. The camera also had a Zoom in and out control, this was useful when shooting wide angle shots that could then zoom in to create a dramatic effect without having to stop the camera rolling.

I needed to balance the ambiance and speech so I had to consider the distances between the actors and the camera. Footage were easy to upload to Imovie on the applemac machine. Pictures were easy to upload to my home computer from the USB cable provided.

Production When editing my trailer I was able to use a number of different programmes to create the finished piece; I edited my movie on Imovie; this was on a applemac computer. The programme allowed me to upload the footage to the computer and edit and order the clips to create the story of the trailer. Imovie also allowed me to insert sounds and text to my trailer hence allowing the use of sound effects to make it more dramatic.

I also used the programme Iphoto in convergence with Imovie to insert my institution logo into my trailer.

My soundtrack for the trailer came from an Audio CD that had been inserted into iTunes, this was then converged with Imovie to upload it to my trailer.

Imovie allowed me to edit the footage, record my personal voice over via the programme, upload tracks from ITunes and insert text and slide transitions. It also allowed my footage to me put into slow and fast motion. I could also manipulate the sound effects so that the audience could hear the volume of the voices/voice over's in relation to the volume of the soundtrack.

Production I created my ancillary tasks in Microsoft publisher I was able to start with a blank page,

insert images stored in my computer from the digital camera. Then I was able to add background colour, text and other images text to create the final versions.

Production Once my trailer and ancillary tasks were produced I was able to upload them to Blogger in various different ways;My trailer was firstly uploaded to YouTube http://www.youtube.com then using convergence I uploaded it to blogger through YouTube.

My ancillary tasks were originally created in Publisher the images were then saved as an image file in paint then uploaded to blogger.

My draft ancillary tasks were hand drawn and then images of them were taken by myself on my blackberry mobile phone and uploaded to blogger.

Evaluation For my evaluation I used Microsoft PowerPoint to produce a lot of my work. I then uploaded this to the website slideshare.

I also used YouTube to find images of other trailers that I could relate to my own.

I was able to use the website Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ntwiss?ref=tn_tnmn to produce and send a questionnaire for audience feedback.

I was also able to use Google images to gather images of Film company magazine covers and Posters to compare to my own.

How well did I use new technologies?

In order to improve my use of technologies I don’t think I could have used many more programmes or conventions to make my work quality.

However the use of garage band could have been used to produce my trailer soundtrack. I originally attempted to make the soundtrack in garage band but found this difficult as I don’t have good enough music composing skills to make the track sound effective.

I also tried to create my Ancillary tasks in Adobe Photoshop. I did find this programme useful and effective however I found that Microsoft publisher was more accessible to me as it is installed on my home computer. I could therefore spend more time on the ancillary tasks hence making them look better.