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

1. Question 4.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction,
research and planning and evaluation stages?

2. Through the different stages of creating our
short film we used a vast range of new media
technologies for different reasons. Each of
them had strengths, weaknesses and a
purpose for being used.

3. Camera:
The camera we used for filming was a Canon Tribal T2I. This was Ed’s personal
camera which was of a higher quality than the ones college rented out and we felt
that it would improve our product. The picture was much crisper than that of the
college cameras and it came out a lot better on final cut pro. As it was Ed’s
camera he easily knew how to use it, however I had to learn how to use all the
different features. In the filming part of the project this was the main piece of
new technology which we used. We had to so things such as set the white balance
and toggle the focus settings. Along with a tripod we could experiment with
different angles and shots to get the best out of it that we could. The camera itself
was fairly lightweight, we had to transport it back and from 2 different settings
without any problems. We had also used this camera last year so we knew that it
was the best option for us.
A weakness of this camera was that the battery didn’t last long at all, to the point
where on one time we had to cut filming short. This was a problem we couldn’t
overcome as it was Ed’s personal camera so he only had one battery..

4. Continued
…
For the research and planning part of the project we used mainly an
iPhone to easily film experiments for certain shots for example the
money falling scene. This connected to the apple mac and we were
able to get the footage onto our blog without trouble.

5. Blogger:
Blogger is the website in which we, as a group, put all our plans and evidence
onto. It is a free simple blog website which we used last year in our AS
project. It is a very visual way to represent our plans and data. We label our
posts the individual members of the group and post things such as filming
experiments to script drafts.
Blogger has proved to be quite hard to use as it is somewhat unpredictable
in the way of randomly deleting entire posts or not allowing you to edit the
picture placement. However we soon got round these problems in ways such
as when we were writing lengthy blog posts we would save them to our
desktop as a back up. Another weakness is that blogger has a very limited
range of templates, therefore we didn’t get the overall look of the blog to
look quite what we had wanted. This is a very different way in presenting our
work to what it would have been 10 years ago. The fact that we are able to
do it in digital form is so much easier than loose paper portfolios. The link
below is to our blog.
http://advancedportfolio201645.blogspot.com/

6. Photoshop:
We used Adobe Photoshop to create our short film Posters and making
our tiles and title scene. We each had to create about 2-4 each so we
were using this software for quite a lot of time. This was a completely
new software to me so I had to learn how to use it while designing and
creating our film posters. One I had grasped the basics I was able to
complete my work. There wasn’t really any draw backs to Photoshop
other than the initial struggle of getting to grips with how to work it. If I
had previous experience I am sure I would of found it much easier.

7. In Design:
When creating our film reviews the best software for it was In design. I
had never used this before and I found it quite hard. It is a publishing
platform witch allows you to control each aspect on the page. There
was a mp4 file on Moodle (our college resources page) and this did help
me a lot. With some guidance I managed to complete the task. This was
the perfect program for creating the little white lies film review as it
allowed us to follow the strict conventions of the reviews ( as shown in
question 1). There are not any weaknesses other than the fact that I dint
know how to use it and struggled with starting but once I understood it,
it was fine.

8. Survey Monkey:
We used survey monkey as a way to collect
views and opinions from people you don’t
know. It is an online survey website which
allows you to create questions and put the
feedback into charts and graphs. This
massively helped us as we were able to get
the opinion from our target audience as well
as it not being biased as we don’t personally
know them so the feedback will be true. The
draw back of this is that you don’t know who
has responded to your survey so there was
no guarantee to know it was our target
audience. Also it was initially quite hard to
create the survey and put it online but once
created it was easy to get the results.

9. Internet:
When doing projects like this it is easy to take the internet for granted.
Pretty much everyday we used the internet for audience feedback,
research, buying props, using blogger and we wouldn’t be able to watch
any other short films. The internet is such a vital part of the whole project
and without it, it couldn’t be done. We used it for the most vital thing of
watching other short films and film posters. The research part of the
planning is what influenced our choice in plot and in finding out the
conventions of films and film posters.

10. Final Cut Pro:
Final Cut Pro was the editing software we used to edit our short film.
We had used this last year in our AS coursework so I knew how to use
it. Once you know how to use it, it is easy to get through it quickly, with
us both being able to use it we were able to experiment with different
editing techniques such as transitions and split screens. With things like
this we also used the internet for tutorials and we also were advised by
the staff in the editing suite.
The weaknesses of final cut is that sometimes our footage wouldn’t
transfer onto the software or if we used a different mac in the editing
suite our work in progress wouldn’t loud up therefore meaning we
would have to transfer it again.

11. Our mobile phones + Tablets:
Our own new media technology was crucial in communication. We both
have mobile phones which we used to communicate outside of college
hours. We had to meet up on a few occasions for filming and editing.
Without having mobile phones it would have been a lot harder. We also
used this to create group chats between us and our actors therefore we
could make solid plans and everyone knew what they were doing. Also
having tablets and computers at home we were able to add to our blog
in the research and planning stage at home which allowed us to get
more work done and speed the process up. There really arn’t any draw
backs to this type of new technology- only benefits.