How did you use media

technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation

stages?

Hannah Burgess

Construction - Hardware

• Trailer: We filmed all of our footage on a Cannon EOS 550 D SLR camera which ensured that our footage would be clear and crisp. We also used a tripod to ensure that all our footage is steady which is essential as we are tying to achieve a professional look in our poster. It was also important for us to use especially when we panned across in the scene with the flowers. The tripod had a specialist handle to help us achieve the smooth pan that we hoped to capture. We used the Spot lights that can be seen in the image to capture the shadows in the garage scene. For the voice overs we used a special microphone rather than film it on the camera as it ensured that the sound was not muffled.

Construction - Hardware

• Magazine: We shot all the photo’s for the magazine on the Cannon EOS 550 DSLR camera, we varied the use of depth of field with the camera in order to capture varied shots. By increasing the shutter speed we were able to capture a very focused still image. When taking the magazine poster images we combined four images so we needed to make sure that the lighting and shadows across the three actors faces and in the background matched. This was achieved through the use of the spotlights.

• Poster: The image for the poster was again taken on a Cannon EOS550 DSLR camera which ensured that the picture was taken in focus.

Construction - Software

• Trailer: The production logo for our trailer was created on LiveType which is a software that enables us to create moving font. For our trailer we combined it with the sound of effect of breaking glass as production logo’s always have sounds. We downloaded the font from dafont and choose this one because it is edgy and links in with our film noir genre. In order for us to create our trailer we used the software Final Cut Express. This allowed us to have precise control over sound, effects, transitions and clip length.

Construction - Software

• This tool allowed us to clip scenes with precision exactly where we wanted to. This ensured that we were able to use jump cuts from scenes.

• The pointer tool: This tool allowed us to select with precision and insert transitions and effects. We used this tool most frequently as it allowed us to control the positioning of each of the clips in the trailer.

• The magnifier allowed us to closely edit our clips with a greater level of precision than previous.

• The pen tool really benefited us when editing the sound; we were able to dip the backing music at specific points in order for the dialogue to be more prominent. We were also able to make the sound crescendo at certain points which benefited us as we were to increase the pace and tension.

• When editing the sound we used this side bar in order to ensure that the volume of our trailer was not too loud and was at the optimum level of sound.

• The soundtrack for our trailer was consistent of two separate tracks that were produced on a music making software called Garage Band. This allowed us to have control over when the music changed pace in order to fit with the visual. The sound choices were vast on this software ranging from classical to hip hop beats. We choose to have a continuous beat throughout our trailer with different songs overlaid louder at varying points.

Construction - Software

Construction - Software

• Poster & Magazine: Both of our magazine and poster products were produced on Adobe Photoshop Elements. We first had to decide what size each of the products should be; for the poster we choose a standard portrait A4 size platform to work on and for the poster we choose a landscape platform that had a slightly greater height than a standard A4 size. We then had to import all of the images that we wanted to use and the texts as different layers. We first placed the images into the positions that we wanted them to go too and the added the text. I did it in this order as we experimented with the placing of the text around the images. By using the lock tool we were able to ensure that the images did not move when we were adjusting text. I also used the link tool to make sure that certain layers such as the four layers involved in creating the Cannes film festival logo all moved at the same time. For the magazine cover we also had to manipulate the image as the positioning was not 100% fitting we fixed this by copying and pasting section of her hair and pasting it as a panel along the side and also copying and pasting the background. Through the use of the brush tool I was able to change the colours of things such as the Cannes logo and also to add shadows around the bottom edges of the poster.

Research – Web Technologies

• The website ‘dafont’ allowed us to explore a range of typography choices varying from serif to sanserif, with varying heights, tracking and textures. We were able to compare this with what we had found was present in other film noir genres through Google, Youtube, International Movie DataBase and film noir blogs.

Planning & Evaluation – Web Technologies

• When our rough draft of the trailer and our final edit of our trailer were complete, we uploaded them onto Youtube so that we could show it to people in order to gain feedback, not only through showing people but also through the comment section beneath the video. By uploading it to youtube we were also able to embed the clip onto our Wordpress Blogs. On my blog I was able to track the progress I had made in the research and planning stages, construction and the evaluation stages. When using software such as Microsoft I needed a website that could store them online so I could embed them onto my blog; for this I used Slideshare and Scribd. I also created explanations of theories such as the Utopian Solution Theory on the website Prezi which I also used for my evaluation and then embeded onto my blog.

Planning & Evaluation – Software

• When planning our product we needed to find out our target audience, I conducted a survey which I had created on Microsoft Word. I turned these results into graphs so that the results could be easily viewed which I used Microsoft Excell for. I then presented this information on Microsoft PowerPoint.