1. Question 4- How did you use media
technologies in the construction
and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
2. Planning
WhatsApp –This was extremely helpful for our group. We created a conference group
and spoke about ideas, updates and tasks which needed to be completed. We also sent
images, trailers, audio notes and production work to each other. Due to our clashing
timetables within school, WhatsApp made it easier for us to communicate as a group and
share our ideas.
Skype – We used Skype for important discussions. Similar
to WhatsApp we shared our ideas and thoughts about our
production work and research. This was extremely helpful
as we saved time in our production timetable and could
focus on producing and filming our product rather than
planning and researching.
3. Research
• Internet and search engine sites – Search engines such as Google and Yahoo
allowed us to access a wide range of media texts for our product research. It also
helped us gain ideas for our own print work. Using the internet was fast and
accessible. While researching we could access a range of media texts on the internet
from my IPod and mobile phone, this made is easier for me to share my ideas and
compare them with other media products.
5. YouTube
YouTube was extremely helpful in researching
and constructing our product. We searched
trailers and movie clips on YouTube and
embedded them on our blog and product
research. YouTube also helped greatly with our
print work. Due to my occasional use of
Photoshop, I wasn’t very confident in
constructing our print work. Issues such as
using the quick selection tool were solved
through YouTube Photoshop tutorials. While
watching a variety of tutorials I learnt about
Hue and Saturation effects which allowed me
to change the colour of my main image from
brown to green. This was significantly important
as while planning we found it difficult to find a
distinctive eye colour for our main image.
6. iMovie
iMovie 11 played a significant part in the construction of our
product. iMovie was easy and simple to use, the new software
presented us with a variety of transitions and editing options.
While constructing our trailer we uploaded different versions of
our trailer onto YouTube and shared it with our friends, family
and teachers in order to receive detailed feedback. iMovie
made this easy and simple for us to upload straight onto
networking sites.
Initially we created our voice over on Garage band but we
weren’t pleased with the outcome as the voice-over didn’t
correspond with the scenes within our trailer. The ‘mike’ button
on iMovie allowed us to record our voice-over while our trailer
played, which allowed the script to correspond with the action
within the scenes.
7. Prezi
Prezi – I used this to construct my product research, it was easy and reliable. It
allowed me to brainstorm my ideas and add hyperlinks and images. A great
advantage of using Prezi is the route creation which allowed my ideas to link
together. While filming our product Prezi was easily accessible from our mobile
phones and allowed my group and myself to look back on conventions of horror
movies and implement them within our own work.
PC Tablet
PC Tablet – The
typography of our film was
inspired by the Uninvited
film poster. We used a PC
tablet to handwrite our title.
8. Photoshop
• Photoshop – Initially I was nervous about using Photoshop to construct our print
work, as I found it extremely complicated. The issues I encountered were regarding
the different layers and how to access and unlock them. I also found it difficult to fade
images into the background. However, with the help of YouTube videos and internet
sites I gradually gained a better understanding of how to use the tools and functions
on Photoshop. Initially our main image was of a brown eye, however the hue and
saturation tool allowed us to change the colour of our main mage to a green eye,
which connoted evil and jealously which directly linked with our narrative.
9. Mini DV camera
While filming my AS production I used a Sony HDR camera. We found it slightly
difficult uploading our scenes because we had issues with the memory card. This
year however, we used a mini DV camera. Having an built in memory made it easier
to upload our footage on Mac computer. We arranged our scenes to be filmed in
segments so we wanted to upload our footage straight away, the new cameras made
it easier for us to upload our scenes.
10. Digital DSLR
For my print work, I used a Digital DSLR. The high quality of the camera made the
images easier to manipulate on Photoshop. Using a digital camera was easy
and reliable as our images could be uploaded to any computer by using the
memory card.
