SCRIPT

How did you use media technologies in the research and planning,

construction and evaluation stages?

Media technologies have been crucial throughout each stage of this project. Firstly, a

technology which has been significant during the research stages of this project has

been the Internet. The Internet has provided my partner and I with a wealth of

knowledge of the conventions and styles of existing products across each platform.

An understanding of trailers, posters and magazine conventions provided us with

inspiration for the kind of product that we wanted to create.

Furthermore, when designing our storyboard, my partner and I had the opportunity to

use a graphic tablet. This allowed our hand-drawn sketches to project directly on

screen from the pad. This took time and practice to get used to since the tablet was

quite sensitive and at times difficult to control. As a result of this, the majority of our

storyboard has been hand-drawn using pen and paper however the opportunity to

use a graphic tablet allowed for an understanding of how the storyboard would be

constructed in a professional industry.

For our main product of the trailer, a video camera was a vital technology for the

construction of this. From this I have learnt how to firstly, set up a video camera

including securing the base plate, ensuring the boom mic is connected and working

and how to set up a tripod ready for filming. Using a video camera for something of

this standard was new to me however after some trial and error, the camera was

fairly easy to operate with the main functions being the record button to stop and

start filming and the touchscreen to review the footage. The tripod was useful for

shots which involved panning and those which required a tilt. Also, through our trial

and error we found the setting for night-mode on the camera. We chose to use this

setting for some of the shots as since our trailer is of the horror genre, we thought

this effect added to the sense of unease.

To piece together our footage, we used editing software Final Cut Pro. This was a

programme which I had previously no experience using so it took some time to

practice and experiment with what each of the features did. Nevertheless, once I

understood the basic features, I became more confident in using this software. Some

of the features used on Final Cut Pro to edit our trailer included using the ‘I’ and the

‘O’ key on the keyboard to select the start and end points of each shot.

Contrastingly, to further adjust the length of the clip, we also used the razor blade

tool. This was particularly effective for creating short, quick clips such as the

flashbacks of the doll. We also used the colour corrector tool to brighten up some of

our shots since some were a little dark and so difficult to see some of the finer

details. The snap tool was another important tool on Final Cut Pro as this allowed us

to align our footage without gaps making the video and audio clips easier to match.

For the music, this was downloaded from both Youtube and found using Soundtrack

Pro. For the music from Youtube, we converted the original video to an MP3 using

an online converter and saved this as a Wave file so that it could be imported onto

Final Cut Pro. This process was also carried out for the sounds on Soundtrack Pro

whereby they too were saved as Wave files.

Since the music in our trailer regularly changes, we made this change less obvious

by having the music fade in and out. To do this the pen tool was used to draw the

points as to where the music was going to fade in and where it should fade out. The

position of these points was then altered to indicate how quick or slow the fade

should be. Another feature of Final Cut Pro employed was text. We made this text

more appealing by adding a dissolve to it which was available in the video transitions

tab. Our completed trailer has been uploaded via YouTube, which is again, another

media technology.

In order to create our ancillary texts, a technology used for this was a digital camera.

Since both of these images use have a face as the main subject, the camera was set

to a portrait mode since this was ideal for skin tones. In order to frame the shot

correctly, the rule of thirds grid was set on the camera to ensure that the shot was

framed appropriately.

For the construction of our ancillary tasks, the main technology used was Photoshop.

Despite using this technology last year for my music magazine, this time I felt a lot

more confident with the programme and as a result was keen to be more creative by

experimenting with the tools that were available. The tools on Photoshop allowed us

to digitally manipulate our original images so that they appeared exactly as we had

imagined. Some of which included the bright/contrast tool and shadow highlights

tool to adjust the lighting of the images to create a horror-like atmosphere since our

original images were quite bright. Furthermore, to remove some of the colour from

the images, the sponge tool was used to take away the colour and contrastingly, the

paintbrush tool for adding new colours.

We also downloaded additional fonts from the Internet to Photoshop as we had

found some font styles that we felt would be more appropriate for our genre. WE also

downloaded new paint brush tools such as fog and smoke brushes to highlight the

horror theme. Other features of Photoshop that we used included the shapes tool,

text box, select tool, and free transform tool.

With my evaluation I have used various media technologies to show how as a media

student, I can take advantage of the technologies available to me. One of which

includes Prezi. This is an online software which allows presentations to be presented

in an interactive way rather than through traditional slides. With this software, I have

learnt how to make presentations more interesting through adding transition effects

and zooms as well as adding images and embedding videos.

Slideshare has helped throughout my project whereby this website has allowed me

to upload any word documents or PowerPoint presentations and present them in a

style which allowed me to directly embed my work onto wordpress rather than having

a link.

Therefore, one of the most important technologies used to present my work has

been WordPress, an online blogging service. This website has enabled me to keep

by work organised through the use of various categories and I have learnt how to

make my blog posts more interactive and engaging through importing media such as

images, and embedding videos.

Overall, with this project I have been able to gain and develop my understanding of

media technologies and these have allowed me to create products with a sense of

verisimilitude since these technologies would be used in a professional industry.