Evaluation 4

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

We used new media technologies in the construction process of creating our film. An example of this was when we used camcorders to film our film. The cameras we used were the Sony HD1000 - this allowed us to capture a high-quality film which made the film look professional. In addition to this, we used zoom recorder  audio recording device to record a voice over our film. By using a dedicated device to do this, we were able get a high-quality crisp voice over for our film. We were able to apply this to the ending of our film, and use it in our radio trailer. 

This was the Sony HD1000 that we used in our filming process. By using a tripod with the camera, we were able to capture still, professional, high quality shots.  

This was the Zoom Recorder that we used in our sound recording process.  We also used the zoom recorder to record our radio trailer. It gave us a more professional-sounding radio trailer, rather than using other devices such as cameras or mobile phones. 

In addition to this, we used Final Cut Pro to edit our film. This was software that many professionals use, so by doing this, we were able to edit our film together to a professional standard. Because of the range of effects available in Final Cut, we utilised this to be more creative in our film.

This was an example of how we used final cut pro to be more creative in our film. In this example we wanted to create a time lapse to show a progression of time. We filmed a 5 minute still establishing shot and sped the clip up. In addition to this, we applied a widetime effect to show the blurred effect on movement. 

We also used Adobe Photoshop in the construction process of our media product. We used Adobe Photoshop to design the film production company logo and the poster to promote our film. 

I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to design the two posters. As a graphic design student, I felt comfortable using Photoshop, although the version we had to use in Media was elements, so I thought it was more limited in terms of being creative because of the lack of effects / features available.

Because of this, I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to design our film poster. This allowed me to be more creative because I already knew the features and how to use the software. It also allowed me to be more efficient when designing the poster. I didn't have to spend as much time designing the poster because I knew how to navigate the software and the shortcuts. 

In terms of how we used new media technologies in the research process of our film, we used the internet. By using the internet, we were able to access information on past films which influenced us in designing our film. Furthermore, we used the internet to conduct audience research - we used google docs to create a questionnaire and distribute it on social networks. By doing this, we received valuable feedback on what a potential audience thought about the plot of our film and whether they would watch our film. 

Using the internet, we used IMDB to look at similar films which gave us an insight on conventions of crime films helped us design our film.

In addition to using IMDB to research similar films, we used the internet to research existing radio trailers. Because it was hard to find examples of radio trailers by listening to radio stations, the internet was extremely useful by allowing us to access existing radio trailers on-demend. This gave us ideas and inspiration for when we produced our radio trailer.

The internet was also useful by providing us a way to look at a range of film posters allowed us to incorporate the conventions from film posters into our film poster which resulted in our group producing an professional film poster.

We also used Google Docs to to conduct audience research 

We designed a questionnaire about our film, designed to ask our audience what for feedback on our film, to see if we achieved our initial targets. Google Docs was useful in this scenario because we could embed it into our blog and we could distribute it via social networks.

Another positive thing about Google Docs was that it stored all the results for us, allowing us to easily see our feedback. 

We used new media technologies to help us in the pre-production / planning stage in our film because we were able to use Celtx to produce a script for our film. 

Using Celtx to produce a script for a film allowed us to produce an easy-to-understand, functional script for our film.

We also used blogger as a tool to completely plan our film. We used blogger to act as a platform to host all our planning materials, such as scripts and shot lists. Because of this, we could access these materials on a variety of platforms such as on our computers at home, or on our mobile phones. This proved as a valuable resource when we were out filming our film. 

Blogger was really useful in the planning and evaluation stages of our media product.   It was useful because it was easy to navigate between posts. 

For our evaluation process, we used a variety of new media technologies to help us illustrate what we think of our film. We used blogger to form an essay which was useful because it contains tools to embed images and videos which helped us illustrate our points more. We also used slideshare to present information.

I also used prezi in our evaluation process. I liked how it was easy to design a flowing presentations to help get across my thoughts on how our production combined with our ancillary texts. It allowed me to embed videos and images into the prezi and allowed me to control the 'camera' on the presentation to I could control the navigation of the prezi. This was more convenient than using conventional presentation software, such as Microsoft Powerpoint because sometimes you have to compromise image size or text amount when using that software. 

 A limitation of new media technologies is that sometimes they are too advanced because they are for professional use (examples being Final Cut), meaning that students like us could potentially miss out on features or effects that we don't know how to implement. In addition to this, we would have to spend time learning how to use the technology, which could have been put to better use by producing our film. Another way I feel in which technology could limit our creativity is by being reliant on the internet. I feel it could obstruct the way in which we think of original ideas.