Evaluation question 4

How did you use technologies in the research and planning stages?

Before the planning stages for my final trailer and my final ancillary products I researched soap operas and the sub-genres within to firstly, strengthen my knowledge on each sub genre and the conventions they have and then decide on the type of soap I was going to produce. Secondly, to research this particular sub genre e.g. Melodrama and gain enough information and examples to build my knowledge on the codes and conventions melodramas. And finally to research soap magazines and soap billboard posters to gain enough influence to create effective ancillary products containing all the conventions they should. To collect my research I used several websites on the internet. These included: Google search engine as my main point of research but also to collect images of real soap magazines and billboard posters, YouTube to watch real soap trailers, Channel 4/4od website to watch previous episodes of Hollyoaks (one of my main influences) and to find the 'channel 4 / e4 remit' and other important information regarding the particular channel I had chosen to broadcast my programme on.

Weebly-Since the start of the research and planning and the final production stages of my media products I have constantly been blogging my work on 'weebly'. This has been extremely successful as it has enabled me to add and present all of my work such as my initial research, planning, real media product analysis', my youtube videos etc. as I have been going along and it also allowed me to add in and delete items easily where necessary. This column down the side of my blog is accessed when my blog is in editing mode, this has been very effective as there are many options such as 'add image' and 'add image and text' which can easily be dragged onto the blog to add an image or an image and text from my computer. The Weebly site has also enabled me to add pages onto my blog to create new hyperlinks and improve the organisation of my work for example, a page for my preliminary task, a page for my final production etc.

Microsoft Excel-As a team we used Microsoft Excel to create a shot list for when we were filming. The use of Microsoft excel meant that we could plan which shots we were going to use, in each particular location and the certain characters, props and equipment we would need for each shot. It also allowed us to add information about the shot type, the angle of the shot and the dialogue we planned to use in each one. Microsoft excel was an effective way of planning this information as it presented it in a clear table which was very straight forward to follow and enabled us to stick to our original plans and shot types.

Microsoft Word-Throughout the research, planning and production stages I have used Microsoft Word constantly to record any initial research and planning such as mind maps on the sub genres of soap operas etc. before uploading them on to my blog. I also completed a lot of the paperwork for the planning and production stages such as; costume lists, preliminary script, final script, filming day procedures etc. which all played an important role in the organisation, preparation and development of my work.

How did you use technologies in the production stages?

Camera and Tripod-During the construction stages of my production, one of the main forms of technology I used was a digital video camera to film all of my footage. Using a digital camera enabled my team to produce high quality footage which was overall very effective. The digital camera was easily portable therefore it allowed us to take the camera out to different locations around Manchester to film relevant footage for the particular soap trailer we were creating. We also used a tripod when filming with the digital video camera and this was a vital piece of equipment as it allowed us to shoot from high/low angles, gain a steady shot as the camera was fixed in one position on the tripod as opposed to being hand held and it also meant that we could experiment with different shot types and edits for example, panning the camera up and down at a smooth steady pace.

Apple Mac computer and IMovie programme-After we had filmed all of

our footage we then uploaded the clips onto an Apple Mac computer which had all the technology needed for me to create an effective soap trailer. Once successfully uploaded all of the footage onto a programme called IMovie, I was then able to look through all of the footage and create a rushes log to decide which clips were most effective and which ones would work best for my trailer. The layout of the iMovie programme allowed me to drag in the clips I wanted to use from all of my footage step by step as I was creating my trailer. This meant that it was every easy to drag in extra footage that I may have missed out or wanted to add in afterwards etc. When selecting each clip I wanted to use I then had to crop the clip to ensure that they were effective for example, cropping out any laughter or extra dialogue/unnecessary filming and also to make sure that the length of the clip wasn't too long and the trailer flowed. Once I had cropped and dragged my clips onto my 'new project ' I was then able to make sure the order of my clips was correct and start the editing stages of my project.

After I had inserted all of the clips I wanted to use and created a simple outline of my trailer, I had to make sure that the order of the clips flowed and made sense to reveal the story lines I had planned. I was then able to make my trailer as effective as I could. I started by adding black screens with text over the top, like this example, between some of my shots to really engage and excite the audience. Here are some of the real soap trailers which influenced me to do this:

I used this type of text as it links to the logo for my programme and the way the text emerges onto the screen adds to the overall dramatic effect I am creating for the audience.

I also added transitions between each and every single clip on my trailer. I decided to use the

cross dissolve transition on my trailer as I though it was the most effective in making the flow of the clips consistent and professional. The transitions also connotes the feeling of mystery and the unknown which soap trailers are creating to engage and entice the audience.

Once I was satisfied with the order, flow and edits within my trailer I then listened to the trailer very carefully to identify any background noise that was affecting the trailer. For example, one of the clips was filmed outdoors In a pub garden on a main road which meant I had to edit out the sound so it wasn't distracting the audience from the dialogue in that particular clip. Below is an example of how I have done this.

I also carefully went through each clip and edited the brightness and exposure of some of the clips to make them better quality or more suitable for the particular message they are trying to convey. For example, editing the brightness/exposure/contrast of the clip to make the quality better.

The iMovie programme also enabled me to insert images onto the trailer over the existing clips. On this example below, I have added an image of the e4 logo with the date and time my programme is going to be broadcasted onto my final clip as it is a convention of soap trailers and key information for the audience. I thought that adding an image onto the final clip was the most effective and professional way to include this convention on my soap trailer.

When doing my research in the sub genre -melodrama, I recognised that most soap trailers in this sub genre have music in the background to add to the overall drama and also to convey messages to the audience. Therefore I wanted to include non-diegetic background music on my trailer. As a team we selected an appropriate track from a website called ‘Soundcloud’ which we downloaded and were then able to import into IMovie. Once we had downloaded the music we were then able to drag it onto our IMovie and then edit the volume and length of the song to make it fit in with and suitable for each of our trailers. I also faded the music at the end of my clip so it didn't just cut off and to ensure the trailer was rounded off in an effective way.

In one of the clips we had filmed, we found it to be very effective however the actor smiled at the end of the clip. I did therefore want to shorten the clip to edit out the smile but the dialogue from the other actor in the clip was very effective and I didn't want to cut that out. I therefore cropped the clip to edit out the smile but I separated the dialogue from the clip which meant that I could carry it on into the next transition and black screen with the text. This was extremely effective as it meant that I still kept the impact of the dialogue but didn't ruin it with the inappropriate acting for this scene.

When my product was finished and I was ready to upload the video onto my blog I had to upload it onto YouTube first. This was very simple and then meant that other

people could view my trailer and I could also copy the URL onto my blog.

Ancillary products

Below are my ancillary products. I used a range of different technologies to create both of these products. However, the main programme I used was Microsoft

publisher. This programme enabled me to bring all the images together, add text, buttons etc. to create the overall effective products.

Microsoft publisher made it very easy for my to create an effective product. For example, it allowed me to insert shapes onto my ancillary products which I used for the buttons and banners on my magazine. It also enabled me to insert ‘Word art’ text for my titles and sub-headings which is one of the main conventions of magazine front covers.

DSLR camera and green screen – For both my ancillary products I had to take images. To ensure they were effective I used a good quality DSLR camera on a tripod and placed my characters against a green screen. This technology enabled me to have effective images and made the editing process much more straight forward.

Photoshop- This programme was extremely vital in the editing stages of my ancillary products. I used Photoshop to first of all edit the background out of the images. I did this using the ‘magic eraser tool’ which allowed me to select all of the green background and delete it in one simple step. However, on some of the images some green still remained, therefore I used the ‘eraser’ which I could adjust to make bigger or smaller to edit the rest of the green out.

Here is an example of how the image looked before and after I had edited out the green background:

Photoshop also enabled me to edit the colour levels of the images, edit the exposure and the contrast and edit the brightness etc. which was very useful for some of the images that were slightly dull or needed toning down. This was straightforward to do and made the overall images which I used on my ancillary products much more effective and professional.

For my billboard poster I wanted to overlap my images which was made possible by removing the background on Photoshop. One other thing I wanted to do on my billboard poster was to edit the images of my characters to change the colour of them. Firstly, so that they stood out off the black background with an effective impact. And secondly, to connote different feelings throughout the chosen colours. For example, the main character shown below is depressed and facing many emotional issues in the trailer therefore I chose the colour grey for this character to connote the dull and hard time she is going through.

To edit the colour of each character I firstly had to edit the saturation to make the image black and white:

I then had to edit the colour balance to change the colour of each character. For this character edited the blue scale to get the colour I wanted.

I edited the colour for each of my characters, below are the examples.

I then placed the images onto a black background on Microsoft Publisher and started adding extra images such as the E4 logo and added the title of my programme and an enigma code to create my overall effective billboard poster.