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

Research and planning

I and my group were heavily influenced by web 2.0 when deciding on our sub genre, narrative and locations. We used YouTube as a research method when deciding on which sub genre we wanted to focus on. I regularly used Wikipedia and scribed when researching horror film conventions and familiarised myself which what is expected from a horror film (in relation to pace, editing, costume, location, mise on scene).

INDB was also extremely useful when finding release dates, directors, and similar films when researching into our horror sub genre

After finding our first location (the abandoned office block) we were unsure of the closest underground station which is why we used Google maps to find the easiest way to travel to our locations.

We used YouTube as a means of finding different sounds to incorporate into our soundtrack. One of these sounds included the diegetic sound from our penultimate shot of the masked character on the tube train. Using this sound gave our soundtrack authenticity.

Constructing

I and my group used I movie to edit out film. We are familiar with the program because we use this program to edit our as media film opening. I movie is a simple way of cutting shot and combining them together. This year became more familiure with the programme and inserted out music from garage band into I movie which i had not done before. This meant making the timings correspond. I also added piano mp3 files which me and Karolina recorded in the schools music room using my improvised piano skills. Karolina emailed the file to her email so we could download the sound onto iTunes through our school login.

When constructing our soundtrack, I had to learn how to use the software. For the making of my as media product we used a music app instead of garage band which meant that I was unfamiliar with the program. I used I movie to combine two tracks both with different tempos. I also combined these two tracks with personal recorded piano notes which were recorded in the schools music department. With our first soundtrack, I duplicated the track in order to take aspects of the songs which I thought would benefit from being heightened because they connoted a sense of loss and urgency. 

When constructing our soundtrack I had to be constantly aware that the duration of the soundtrack must reflect the duration of the film which is why editing the

soundtrack could not begin until we had successfully edited together the shots within our trailer.  

We used a combination of two digital SLR cameras. When I was shooting we used the Nikon d3100 because this is my camera and so, I am familiar with the settings although we did use YouTube tutorials for various filming setting eg, adjusting the ISO to create a dingy exposure.

After completing our soundtrack we shared it onto iTunes which enabled us to insert our track into iTunes.  

For our voice over, we recorded it using Karolina’s I phone and emailed it so that we could download it onto the school computer that we used for editing our film trailer. We inserted the voice over into garage band to increase the volume and to cut out the long pauses between dialogues. We also removed one sentence of dialogue after realising that our voiceover mp3 file was 16 seconds long whereas the clip we were inserting it over was only 11 seconds long. 

Evaluation stages

After completing our film trailer, we uploaded it onto YouTube which enabled anyone with access to the internet to view our trailer.  Although YouTube is a great medium for making your content viewable for free, I and my group were certain that we had to use a range of social networking platforms to inform people that our film had been uploaded. Firstly, I shared my film trailer on face book. My Facebook friends are predominantly my age group which meant I was able to immediately target my niche audience. Although sharing my video onto Facebook raised interest, I also sent my trailer through inbox to ensure that some of my friends who do not regularly check my profile would still be informed that our trailer had been published. After sharing our trailer on Facebook, we decided that we wanted to share out trailer on a range of social networking platforms to ensure that we received a range of responses. Although sharing our trailer on Facebook generated feedback, the audience is restricted because my Facebook linked could only be viewed by my Facebook friends. A Fellow group member also shared our film trailer on Facebook because she has a different range of friends with characteristics which would appeal to our target audience (particularly teenagers).

Thirdly, I shared a still from our official trailer on Instagram and captioned the photo with the name of our trailer so that anyone who viewed my image would know how to locate our trailer online.  Instagram is used all over the world which means that my post can be viewed from all corners of the globe. My Instagram  followers are mainly from the U.K but I also have followers ranging from the U.S.A to Scandinavia which means that I have been able to generate feedback from people from a range of geographic  Instagram enables anyone to hashtag your posts in a database form similar to twitter.

I hash tagged my post with words and phrases associated with our media product. For example #psychological #horror. Not only were we able to hash tag our film trailer, but viewers were able to comment and hashtag words and phrases which they have drawn from viewing the film still and viewing our trailer through Youtube.

After our tests screening, I constructed a few interview questions and filmed a few audience member regarding thought on our Film trailer, magazine and film poster. Using interviews as a research method was less restricting and we took a very informal approach which meant those being interviewed felt very comfortable and confident in telling us their honest opinions.