Evaluation 4

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

Throughout research, planning and evaluation stages we have used Google blogger to record our journey from planning our 5 minute film to the end product. Having the blog allowed us to keep all our research in one place making it easier to create our plot as all the information like what makes a movie in the thriller genre and what makes it a age 12A certificate was very accessible. On this blog we were able to record what we were doing weekly and what we still needed to do helping us stay on track to meet our deadline.



The internet played a huge part in being able to make our film as all the information we found was from the internet without it, the process of research would have taken longer meaning less time to create the actual film. Without YouTube we would not have been able to put our film on view to the public so we are thankful for a free video upload service allowing our film to be watched. YouTube also allowed us to research into other thriller films by watching clips of conventions used in those type of films which helped us get an idea of what our film needed to be put in the thriller genre.

When we had gathered all the research we needed, we made a detailed plotline and used Google Docs to create a questionnaire. Having access to this type of technology made it easier to get feedback on whether our story would do well. In order to get our questionnaire to as many people as possible in as little time we used Facebook to send the questionnaire around, allowing us to get a rough idea of whether our target audience would like it.

Once we had finished research we used Celtx to create our script. Celtx is easy to use and has all the things needed to create a script. Although making the script wasn't a fast process using this application made it a little easier as if we had used something like Microsoft Word we would have had to do the layout of the script our self, whereas Celtx does it for you.

When we came to creating the film we needed a number of technologies to help us. One of the main technologies needed was a camera. We used a Sony HD 1000 camera to film all of our shots. The use of advanced equipment allowed us to do more tricky shots which would increase the quality of our finished film. We were able to adjust focus manually and zoom in closer giving us better shots to work with. One slight difficulty we found when first using the Sony camera was that after filming a scene we decided to watch it to see how the shots were but we made a mistake in carrying on filming without rewinding the tape back to where we finished so we had to reshoot the scenes again, which delayed the process by a day or two.

We found it a smart option to film for a day then bring the camera back in and upload our footage onto Final Cut Express to ensure we wouldn't do the mistake of filming over our existing shots. This made the process a lot easier as we would know what still had to be filmed. When we began editing on this software, we were already used to using it from our AS year so the process ran smoothly. Having the chance to use Final Cut Express allows us to ensure our film is continuous and ran smoothly without any glitches. Final Cut Express gave us the chance to edit our film with tricky shots like the passing of time scene where we sped up the shot making it look like Hollie had been watching the world go creating a sad feeling for Hollie.

When we had finished editing shots and began looking at the sound and adding music on the internet we used a Zoom Recorder for Hollie when talking on the phone as the sound on the footage was hard to hear because of the wind, using this equipment made it easier to understand our film. We also used the Zoom Recorder when creating our radio trailer, we were able to do a few takes on the recorder giving us options of which one to choose.

 We also used Photoshop elements to create our film poster, as we hadn't had much experience with this, we had a workshop with our teacher which showed us how to Photoshop things together allowing us to create a realistic poster.

Having this type of technology available to us allowed us to speed up the process ensuring we met the deadline. The use of advanced equipment like the cameras and Final Cut Express allowed us to create our film to the best it could be as we were able to edit our film just like the main stream companies do. The fact we could edit a little then take a break and do blog work but still be able to go back to edit allowed us more freedom as we didn't need to sit editing all day to finish it. We were able to go back and edit whenever we wanted, which allowed us to spot mistakes that we may have not seen straight away like the sound for instance. On some cases we found the technology to hinder our process as some days the internet wouldn't work so we were unable to research or blog where we were at. Final Cut Express was relatively reliable but on the odd occasion would freeze meaning we would have to turn the computer on and off losing our work if we hadn't saved it.