Katie Joyce

Friday, 24 April 2015

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

Evaluation Question 4 - Prezi

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Will: (Slide 2) Planning and research required multiple media platforms to be used for the most in depth investigation into our chosen genre. The internet acted as our main source of information. Research began by using Google search engine for a broader background on social realism. It built on our knowledge on previous social realism genres which we already knew about and wanted to incorporate into our own production such as Skins. (Slide 3) Just by using Google images, we found hundreds of other social realism and British drama films, such as Fish Tank, Bullet Boy, This is England and Thirteen.

(Slide 4) We then used video sharing websites such as IMDB and YouTube to watch similar genres and acknowledge the stereotypical codes and conventions used. We aimed to watch trailers that were from independent, smaller production companies, as we would have a small budget to work with. We looked at both the ratings and comments to assess whether these trailers had been successful and if the audience had identified the codes and conventions used.

(Slide 5) To present the information that inspired us, we used Blogger, which allowed us to each individually share our experience and track our progress in creating our final product. It was an extremely simple, but effective tool to use, allowing us to embed pictures and videos from various websites, such as Prezi and YouTube.

Katie: (Slide 6) Also by using blogger, we were able to create an archive in which we could access any previous work over the course through the use of tags. Other features included publish planning documents, such as filming times and audience questionnaires. We could also customise the layout and design of the blog to match the brand appearance and style. We could also create polls, which was extremely helpful when our group could not decide between ‘DR10’ and ‘Inertia’ as our trailer title.

(Slide 7) Audience feedback was crucial for a successful trailer and ancillary texts. At AS we had hardly researched into technologies, which allowed us to receive feedback from a wider audience, we only used small focus groups at school, which had limited demographics. However, using Survey Monkey enabled anyone worldwide to watch and respond on our trailer with open-ended questions. Social networking sites such as (Slide 8) Facebook and (slide 9) Instagram were also helpful in feedback and improvement, we were able to get more likes and views on our trailer by sharing it with friends.

Bee: (Slide 10) Construction

(Slide 11) Ultimately, we decided to use an iPhone 5s for the shooting of our trailer. We considered using a higher quality camera such as a Canon and Nikon, however we needed a device that was portable and could shoot in cramped locations and slow motion. Instead we used a photography camera for the material on our ancillary texts, this enabled us to blow up pictures and alter the colour of them without interfering with the quality.

(Slide 12) Once we took practice shots of our trailer, we used Photoshop, which we had not previously used before to adjust the colour, saturation and fade of the photos, enabling us the layer them to reflect each feature of our narrative, for example, the relationship between Ross and Emma, use of the car and a police sign, then transfer these onto a Word Document to arrange the text.

Milly: (Slide 13) Once we gathered enough filming material, we began to edit our footage on iMovie, which is a free editing software on Apple Mac devices. We had previous experience with this technology from AS and our preliminary experiments, which made our editing process more efficient. With our drafted storyboard, it also made it easier for us to know in what order we wanted our shots.

(Slide 14) We did not originally plan on using Garage Band at the beginning of our production, but as we developed our trailer we realised that there were some sound effects we wanted were not available online, royalty free. We had never used this programme before, but watching a video tutorial helped us understand the basics. We recorded our own voices and used a muffled setting on the clip to create a '999' emergency phone call sound effect.

Evaluating our work, we have noticed a great transition between the use of technologies between our preliminary, AS and A2

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback? Question 3

Milly: (Slide 1) For our final product, we made our target audience demographics aged 15-25, both male and female. We thought this would be appropriate as our main characters would be relatable to the audience and could use our media text as a form of entertainment or escapism.

(Slide 2) We thought that our secondary target audience would be around the ages of 25-35, who are trying to keep ‘up to date’ with modern films and social issues.

(Slide 3) After we finalised the first draft of our trailer, we showed it to a focus group made up of 15 people between the ages of 17-18 for an in depth review of our progress so far. Focus grouped helped us to gather qualitative data through an interactive setting where the audience could ask us questions. (Slide 4) We handed out feedback sheets with open-ended questions for a detailed answer and focused on the faults, which were more frequent to resolve. This is the feedback questionnaire we used.

(Slide 5) People found that…

· There was a confusing narrative due to non-linear editing

· The music had no disruption, or use a split in time or change the speed, so it did not excite the viewers

· It needed more focus on individual characters and the relationship between them (especially Ross and Emma)

Will: (Slide 6) Although the ratings from our feedback weren’t necessarily negative, we still had many minor issues to adjust.

· We look at more related genres on social realism as inspiration for how they presented their narrative (such as Trainspotting and It Follows), Following this, we planned extra filming time for specific shots with Emma with Will and Ross to help the audience establish the relationship between them. Originally, shots were placed non-specifically for an artistic effect; however, we then placed them in a more chronological order.

· We found a different piece of copyright free music, which we thought anchored the theme of our genre more. The music begun slowly and gradually built up to a climax and then suddenly plunged to a silence to raise enigma.

· We also created our own police call sound effects on Garage Band to put at the start of our trailer to signify that there had been a death.

Bee: After showing our focus group our final draft, we found that the small installations we made, had a huge impact on their attitude towards our trailer. They found that it was much more ‘excitable’ and ‘intriguing’ as the narrative was clear and the music was more representable of their age group (something they would be more likely to listen too).

(Slide 7)We also published our first draft to YouTube, and then asked viewers if they could answer our questionnaire on Survey Monkey to help improve how people identify our genre. (Slide 8)We also posted the link of the survey on our social media sites such as Facebook and made polls based on our trailer. This was extremely useful as it opened up our trailer to a wider audience, for anyone with access to the internet. (Slide 9) These were some of the answers we received from people that had view our trailer. Unlike AS, where we only used closed-ended questions, we gave people the opportunity to elaborate on how they felt about our trailer for a detailed response.

Katie: We also used audience feedback on other features, such as the title of our trailer. (Slide 10) Originally, we decided to use a subliminal link between the title and the car crash and name it ‘DR10’, which means driving or attempting to drive with a blood alcohol level above the limit. However, we added a poll widget to the sidebar of our blogs to see whether our audience preferred ‘Inertia’ or ‘DR10’. There was a significant difference in the vote, with 72% voting for ‘Inertia’.

Overall, we were really pleased with the outcome of our audience feedback, and responses from our viewers would not of been possible without online technologies.