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