evaluation question 4:
How did you use media technologies in the construction, Research & planning and evaluation stages?
Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in various industries such as film and commercialisation. With technology developing dramatically over the years it has enabled us to experience technology at its peak, offering new editing softwares and a viewing platform that has allowed the audience to view certain products. Furthermore with technology enabling us to research, construct and evaluate our own product (teaser trailer) effectively marketing it will allow it to become exhibited globally by an audience. by levi bent
research and planning
by daniel abeshin
QUESTIONNAIRES AND SURVEYS
we used surveys and questionnaires for collecting data. we used open and closed questions to gain an understanding of what the audience would like the see. giving the respondents specific examples of professional products to choose from allowed us to use them as inspiration and made certain that we followed the conventions set out.
trailer questionnaire
poster questionnaire magazine questionnaire |
Here is an example of closed questions, the audience are able to choose from the examples provided. this gives us clear feedback that we could implement into our work, hopefully improving it.
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using surveys and questionnaires meant we could structure our questions accordingly to give us helpful and useful responses. this made it easier in deciding what key conventions we should include, how we should implement them and why we should include them, so w could justify our additions. we developed their answers to create a unique looking product, but one that follows the conventions of our sub-genre.
a question on if we should challenge conventions
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a question on the design of the magazine
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The questions focused on people’s opinions of pre-existing media texts as well as their own overall opinions and views on what they would like to see. The result meant that we were able to get an accurate view on what should be in our film as the answers received influenced most of our ideas. we knew the respondents answers would be beneficial was because they were part of the age group we wanted to market to. As well as this, the respondents were from different demographics that would give us a balanced views and a good range of opinions due to the different types of personalities and their own personal influences.
some of the data collected was useful and allowed us to develop an understanding of what the audience wanted to see. although, some of the information gained came to be inconclusive as the results were either 50/50 or gave us results that did not follow the conventions of a traditional horror movie products.
the results shown give us an inconclusive answer to the question. this meant that we had to chose an answer from our own knowledge, following the conventions set out.
In addition to this, conducting questionnaires and surveys allowed us to be very organised with our research. It incorporated the use of technological assistance in the form of social networking and survey websites. we used our website to conduct a survey using the websites 'survey monkey' and 'survey nuts', both forms were made easily accessible to the respondents. these websites allowed us to collate our data and produced pie charts and graphs for us to examine our results.
We were able to USE DIFFERENT questionnaireS and survey method because it allowed us to go one step further, in most cases and make judgements from the answers as we were able to analyse the data. For example, when it came to answers where the majority gave their opinion we analysed them and instead of deciding that this is a convention that we needed to include we analysed it informally as a group and decided that perhaps denoting the opposite of this would be atypical but also effective as it isn’t something that is over exposed therefore it could possibly have a better effect upon the audience.Overall, it was very successful as I mentioned there were different ways for the questions to be asked because of the different platforms and what they provided. However, they were simple and formal enough. As well as this they were easily accessible, which was a particularly favourable benefit when it meant the respondents could respond at any time and at any place. Meaning we did not have to wait a long time for their answers, we could send it to them and have answers in less than 20 minutes which easily allowed us to analyse the data. And then formulate the research and planning in a formal and easily understandable way to reference later.
moodboards
We used mood boards to have a better, more creative COLLECTION OF IDEAS. the collage of images allowed us to have a conclusive idea of what is typically denoted within the slasher genre of horror films. it is creative due to its aesthetic nature AND ALLOWED US TO INTERPRET VISUALLY PLEASING IDEAS. MOOD BOARDS ALLOWS US TO TEST OUR DESIGNS AND IDEAS. THEY PROMOTE THE FLOWING OF IDEAS AND WE USED THEM FOR INSPIRATION FOR OUR LOCATIONS AND COSTUMES. We used mood boards because We knew tO included aspects of them would be something that we could analyse on a large scale. As well as further extending our ability to understand the diverse audience that enjoy slasher movies.
SET DESIGN |
COSTUME AND PROPS |
in terms of INFORMATION, the mood boards allowed us to creatively explore the genre by visually denoting its progression through the years. It provided an understanding of the expectations the different groups had as well as the expectations of the genre. we also used YouTube videos to look at other successful slasher genre movies and how they took the approach of being interesting AND EYE CATCHING without being too informative. in addition to using the information GATHERED in this planning fashion, we also used it to try and plan out what we wanted to explore further. through our research we found out that a lot of the slasher movies involved a lot of the 'money shots' which was advantageous when being intriguing but it wasn't new or creative. Thus, we tried to involve some more symbolic imagery within our trailer so that we could possibly be more enticing.
Construction
joe bikuta
logic pro x is an application that we utilised to edit our soundtrack for our final trailer.
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Final cut pro x is an application that we utilised to edit our final trailer.
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final cut pro x
IN order to create our own teaser trailer, we used an application called final cut pro x. a software which allows us to edit video. it was available on the macs that we used. We had never used this software before which meant that we were experimenting and seeing what we had to use to create our teaser trailer. We watched several youtube tutorials on how to use the software in order to make our trailer look more professional. Final cut pro x allows to adjust the pacing, effects and colouring of each shot. it also allows us to imbed transitions in-between clips so it can look professional.
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This is one of many times that i used the trim and blade tool. I used to blade to cut the clips into sections. This is useful as it allows to edit certain clips with ease. I used the trim tool to shorten the clips to fit. This is useful as it is faster than editing the clip before playing it in the trailer These tools are effective as it allows me to adjust with ease.
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In college, we were able to borrow the cameras to record our films. We fortunate enough to use this as the average cost of a decent camera is £400 . We learnt how to use the camera and what angles to use. This camera allows us to zoom in up to 10 times. We changed the mode to 'manual' to we can modify it ourselves. Also, we also tampered with the iso so it can fit the horror look. we used different lenses for different moments. We used a wide lens to capture establishing shots and we used a medium telephoto to capture a candid image. These lenses are useful as it allows us to make our trailer stand out more. The shots which were used by one lens are different to the ones used by a different lens. This is evident within our trailer.
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Logic pro x
In order to create our own sound design, we used an application called logic pro x. a software which allows us to edit sound. just like final cut pro, we never used this software before so we were just experimenting and seeing what works with what. We also watched several YouTube tutorials on how to use it.
This is a clip which shows the behind the scenes of the sound design. It also shows the name of sound and where it has been positioned within the design. The image on the left shows the tools that WERE AVAILABLE TO USE. the FADE TOOL WAS EFFECTIVE AS IT ALLOWED ME TO TRANSITION IN-BETWEEN SOUNDS. This tool is the reason why the transitions are smoother. I also used the scissors tool to cut down long sounds into desire sound bites. This tool is used as it saves time when editing sound. Image on the right shows the volume of each of the sounds used. This was key because if all the sounds were the same volume, overall, the sound design wouldn't be as good. Therefore, readjusting the volume was a good idea as some sounds are louder than the others and some are used for the jump-scare. |
photoshop by levi bent
Adobe Photoshop is a software application which alters images. Throughout the development stage of our poster we decided to use Photoshop as our default software for creating a horror film poster as it enables us to create a replica of a real media text, such as: Nightmare on Elm street and Halloween.
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We used Photoshop to help create a film poster and by using different layers for our product stages of the creation process was evident. With enabling our creative side by adapting real media text into our work we we allowed to use typical conventions of a poster into our own. Using the correct tools was important in order to create a poster as using them would allow use to challenge some conventions. For example, the pen tool which allowed me to create the effect of a slice in-between the letters of our main headline. by levi bent
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Furthermore, in order to follow conventions of a real media text we used Photoshop to help create the effect of a full black eye with the reflection only showing. In order to do this we used the pencil brush tool to fill in the eyes which helps make the dominant image more intriguing and effective. subsequently the black eyes also follows typical conventions of a poster as it represents evil within the film. Finally the
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indesign
evaluation
by Charles Whitewood
For the duration of post-production and evaluation we have used particular technology/software so that we could create the most realistic and professional products available. these technologies consist of: Photoshop CS6, Apple Mac's, YouTube, Prezi, powerpoint, final cut pro and google images. This technology was vastly advantageous for the making of our products because we have been able to use professional standard software which resulted in our products being able to look professional in comparison to other real media text's. An example of his would be that using photoshop mean't that we were able to several different tools to aid us in creating similar magazines and posters to real media text's and could be saved and transferred at high quality.
photoshop
Photoshop was highly useful in our evaluation questions and we know this because we were able to use this software to crop photos. In-addition in the evaluation of our poster we managed to use the lasso tool in photoshop on a rectangle to create a rip on the sides of the title. The fact that we had experience in using photoshop meant that it was efficient for us to use and was very effective. The use of photoshop also meant that we were able to create realistic magazines and posters when comparing to real media text due to the fact that we could use a high quality piece of software. For instance;
Through this example you can see that Levi Bent used the polygon lasso tool during the evaluation stage in-order to cut out necessary parts of a white block which allowed him to create a broken glass effect on both ends of the title and this gave the title character and made it scarier and more conventional as a slasher horror due to the fact that broken glass can be used as a weapon. The use of photoshop was really effective as we were able to upload the poster easily as a png high quality file.
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Final cut pro
Secondly during the evaluation we used apple mac's to create good quality work. Using this mean't that we had full access to final cut pro, using this software was beneficial to us because it was relatively easy to use and had a share element that allowed us to upload the video to YouTube. Lastly by using final cut pro we were able to quickly change the quality of the video to 1080p. Moreover using final cut pro once again meant that we had a bigger possibility of replicating a real life trailer. Final cut pro assisted us in adopting the use of contrasting transitions like; fades to black/white, cut, dissolve and many others. It also let us apply clips, extra audio, mute excess audio and browse through other potential clips with ease. These examples have been set out on a thing link page on the right.
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WeeBlY
Weebly was a massive contribution to the way we presented and demonstrated our work to an audience and our teacher and using this website meant that we had our own website to display, organise and embed completed content from our A2 advanced production portfolio. Furthermore the use of weebly meant that our group of four were able to collaborate and apply different topics we were challenged with in-order to exhibit what we had done as a team. Furthermore using this to show produced work was very helpful due to the fact that we were able to display our work in any way possible, this is shown through in description on the image to the right.
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YouTube
Youtube was a great platform to use in-order to upload our trailer. Uploading the trailer to youtube meant that we could build an online audience swiftly and directly which would lead to getting feedback on the trailer and this allowed us to embed the trailer onto our weekly website through youtube. Through the use of youtube it has lead to a larger chance of our trailer getting views and exposure when compared to other platforms such as; Facebook, Instagram and more due to it having a larger audience. Moreover using youtube gave us a bigger chance at getting more views as you are able to write tags which means that when someone types the word "Trailer" or "Teaser" then you are more likely to see our video because our title and tags include those words. as a viewer you are also able to improve the quality of our video through youtube when watching the it because we have used final cut pro, which is professional software making it possible to render the video to 1080p.
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WhatsApp was very effective for our group and our class to communicate and to organise who is doing what tasks and what needs to be done, improved or to give each other help with what we don't understand. WhatsApp also proved be be handy when promoting our surveys and our trailer due to the fact that we could get class mates to spread the word about our products.
surveys
final poster
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7DFCX6F
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This is the link to our final poster
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7DFCX6F
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This is the link to our final poster
final trailer
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7YTW5QK
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this is the link to our final trailer
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7YTW5QK
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this is the link to our final trailer