Question 4

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


Within the past few years media technologies have expanded and provided many benefits and opportunities to the film industry as well as film audience, by making it cheaper and easier to create as well as consume. As I was creating my products I used many of these new media technologies to help me in all stages including research, planning, and evaluation.


The first thing I did was research into different types of horror subgenres and then used the software prezi to review them all and help me decide which one I would create. Another way I helped figure out what subgenre to use was by using the social media Twitter to create a survey that would reach my target audience, which I’d established already through questionnaires, I narrowed the subgenre down to three that I would have liked to have created then posted a poll to see which one would be most popular.


In my planning I used YouTube to analyse pre-existing physiological trailers and Google to view pre-existing horror magazines and posters. This then meant I could look at the common conventions of each of them. I then used iMovie to put all the common conventions of a horror trailer into one area, then publisher to put the common conventions for horror magazines and posters into different areas, this allowed me to easily return to it and refer to the common conventions to decide if I would be developing or challenging them while creating my own.


I then used prezi again to create my pitch as well as iMovie which I included in my prezi. I had to use many different media technologies in my construction stage, including social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, these were a very useful and critical, particularly in my planning stages when deciding on key things such as main images.


While creating my products I did a lot of my construction on my phone for filming as well as voice recordings. Another area of new technologies I used was in my planning where I used the internet to get feedback from my target audience. This way was much faster and easier to gain the feedback I needed, it enabled me to move on with my tasks faster. Another media technology I used for my construction in my poster and magazine was scribus, this was very useful while creating my ideal lay out.


One of the main media technologies I used throughout is Photoshop, it enabled me to manipulate the images to give them the effect I wanted. I used tools such as the paint brush, copying tool and cloning tool. For my main product I used iMovie so I could cut and edit my clips and put them together in the order I had originally planned. With this media technology I was also able to add sound to my trailer. It means I was able to use different sounds at each points to create the mood I wanted.


Once all my filming was done and put together in iMovie I then started adding sound, some of my sounds I recorded myself on my iPhone 6, however the ones I couldn’t create myself I downloaded off YouTube as this was the easiest way to get them on to the Apple Mac, the computer I used for my construction of the trailer. As well as using the Apple Mac I also used my personal satellite pro laptop as I felt it was better for my construction of magazine and poster as I was able to be more precise with my Photoshop editing.


For my photos I used on my poster and magazine I took these using a Sony AX 58 Digital Camera, I used this as I felt it would give me good quality photos and also had the advantage of the flash. As this is a highly priced camera with one sole purpose I picked it over the iPhone I had been using for my filming. However I felt as though the filming on the camera wasn’t as good as the iPhone and filming was made more flexible and easy by doing it on the iPhone. It meant I was able to film where ever and whenever as it’s small and pocket size.


In the evaluation I decided to present the questions with the answers in different ways, one of these techniques was an animated video I created with iMovie by answering the question in a voice over and having the images and clips to match what I was saying to help me explain further. Another way I decided to present one of my questions was through creating another prezi. I did this because I feel that it is a more interesting way of presenting work and gave it more of a verity.