Evaluation Task 4 - How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

Filming

 

 

I filmed my most of my trailer on a Sony HandyCam HDR-cx405. I owned this myself and due to the fact it is a very light weight and has an excellent HD picture quality it was the ideal video camera to use. As all of my filming was handheld keeping the shots as steady as possible was important, so I used the Optical Steady Shot mode to adjust the clips if they were too shaky or unstable.  The playback option was also useful when looking back at previous footage to properly line up the shots. The Zoom button was a crucial feature whilst filming as I have many zooming in shots and it was easier to zoom on the camera than to do it in post-production editing. Some of the shots included the cross dissolve bath scene (0.15-0.19) and the clip with the pan/zoom on to David’s face (0.45-0.50.) Transporting the footage from the camera to editing software was also a lot easier because of the file the clips were saved as meant I could add them straight into the editing software.  I also used the picture option on the camera to take pictures of David in his costume for the magazine and poster.  

I also filmed some of the shots on my IPhone 7 Plus. Filming at the train stations especially was convenient because it meant I could quickly get the clips instead of waiting for the camera to turn on. As far as image quality I don’t think there is much of a difference a part from when the train is coming past the camera – it stutters a bit, - but I edited that out.  I also used the camera on my phone to take pictures of any notes I made during the planning and research tasks, so I could transfer them onto an email and then onto my blog.

 

Sound recording

 

To record the voiceovers I used the Voice Memos app on my phone. From 0.41 – 0.50 is all dubbed with a voiceover for the speech because the noise of the wind was too loud and you couldn’t hear what was being said. Doing it on my phone meant it was easily accessible and convenient.  When editing it, the microphone made the speech very clear and became more prominent on top of the non-diegetic music.

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter

 When researching about physiological thrillers I used Twitter to see people thoughts and opinions. Twitter was created in 2006 and is one of the most popular social networking sites.  I tweeted, “what makes a good thriller film?” within a couple of hours other Twitter users replied with their opinions.  The comments I received were all quite similar. They thought that a good thriller film had to have “tension” and suspense.  Bailey tweeted “when you're genuinely nervous for the characters" I thought this was interesting because in some thrillers you know that some characters will survive the situation or antagonist because they are the protagonist.  Twitter was also one of the social Medias I was going to use for promoting my film too.

 

 

 

 

Youtube

YouTube was a really important part of my research and planning. As I already knew YouTube quite well from my AS Media Coursework, it was the perfect place to put my trailer and other projects from the production.

Starting with research, I created a playlist with all of the videos I had watched over the course of making my thriller (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN9BcUxXw-BQDj4fHctfO0lcfNol_5X0M) 

This kept all of the information and videos in one place and gave me quick access on my phone or on the internet if I needed to go back and look at it again and made referencing clips or videos easier.

The YouTube creator section was also very useful especially the Audio Library. I could get many different sound effects and music for my trailer for free.  I used 3 pieces of music and 1 sound effect, as there was such a wide variety of options on there it was sometimes difficult to narrow down what I wanted but there were lots of drop down menus to help with genre/mood to help.

 

YouTube also gave me a platform for keeping all of my drafts on and easy access to be able to put it on my blog and also for getting feedback.  As my google account that I use for Blogger and YouTube are linked, connecting the two through links made everything smoother and more professional especially when adding the videos onto my blog.

 

Editing

The software I used to edit my trailer on was called Adobe Premiere Pro. This is professional editing software that we had access to in school. Which made simple and complex editing possible such as fade to blacks or cross dissolves.

 

 

 

As the camera footage was already a document that the software recognised it which sped up the editing process.

 

Along the side I had different bins where I kept all of the footage/ music and images which kept everything ordered and easier to find if I needed the clip again.

Below that was the effects box that had all of the transitions in it which again kept everything ordered.  

Premiere Pro was quite difficult to use at first as there were so many options of effects and editing techniques. Once I had all of my clips edited at the right points I added the music, at times this proved to be hard because the audio from the clips sometimes altered the music length but after many attempts I managed to get it all to fit together. Once I had done my first draft and got some feedback I looked at the effects on offer. As my trailer has supernatural elements I wanted to use some visual effects to emphasize this further. I used the blur effects on the clips with the trains to represent David’s stress and confusion about the case. I also used the ironically named Ghosting and lighting on the ghost at the end of the trailer to show that there was something going on out of his and the audiences control. These effects also at times can make the viewer dizzy and that was the aim I was going for- to be slightly confused but still intrigued. Trailer such as Jigsaw and Se7en did this in theirs and that’s where I got my inspiration from.

The cinematography was extremely important in my trailer because there is deliberately little speech and props. I did this because from research, the most effective trailers made the viewer really focus on little details in the shots and piece the plot together themselves- target audience also plays a key part in this because younger audiences enjoy more diverse plots. I used the zoom effect at many points in my trailer to really grab the attention of the audience. Under Effect Controls there are options to move the position of clips and images around the playback feature. I used this more noticeably on the shoot of the newspaper titles to scatter them around and on top of the clip.

The audio was also very important in my trailer. My trailer begins with the diegetic, Blow the Man Down and for the first 5 seconds I used the Lowpass audio effect which makes it sound quite distorted and then transitioned into the Highpass effect which makes it sound like its being played through headphones. At the end of my trailer I did the same to give it an eerie feeling.  My trailer has 3 distinct sections in it and partly through the use of blending the music is this created, using the Constant Gain or Exportianal Fade to transition between them.

Photoshop

When creating my poster and magazine front cover, (as well as images for my trailer and productions company logo,) I used Adobe Photoshop. I had limited knowledge about how to use this software and only knew how to do very basic things like cut out images.

My first draft of my poster was very chaotic and although some bits were effective like the billing he block, a lot of it was layered incorrectly. After looking at it for a while, I decided to strengthen my knowledge about the software through looking at various internet websites and speaking to people who were more familiar with the programme.  

My final poster was more professionally edited. I used a colour scheme of red, black and white which are stereotypical colours for the genre. (The Nocturnal Animals and sin city poster included this.) I used the gradient effect to blend everything together and the sizing tool to re –shape the text and position. I also learnt how to change the opacity of images so I could keep the image of David’s face in the background. I used the lighting effect to brighten up the image around the tunnel and ghost as before it was dark and you couldn’t really see what it was. I also used various text effects including the drop shadow to make the title and tagline more prominent and ledge able.

My magazine cover had the same image of the tunnel and the ghost but had many more layers of text and images. I learnt how to use the quick selection tool to crop out the backgrounds of images and how to layer the text. I used the Vinear Hand font for the title and tagline on all of my 3 products to synergize them at make it more recognisable.  I used icons and symbols which I manipulated into the right size and position.

 

Garage Band

 

When I was searching for the perfect piece of music to use in the middle of my trailer, I thought I could create it instead as I couldn’t find anything that fitted what I was looking for.  I came across an app called Garage Band. I hadn’t used this before and spent a long time learning how to use it. It was accessible through apple app store and I downloaded it on my I phone and my grandmas Apple Mac.

 

This is a screenshot I took when creating the music. It’s quite a complex piece of software and took a lot of tweaking to get right – for example the echo effect after each beat took me a while to master.

      

Exporting the music was challenging too because although it was saving as a music file, Premiere Pro didn’t recognise it which meant it was difficult to edit on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EprDKLdoIP4 this is the finished piece of music and im glad I learnt how to do it because I think it had a great effect in my trailer.

 

Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/lois_hutchinson/thriller-coursework/sender=804244583364982841&invite_code=3af68026f29242beab5b62bec0b801b9

Something I used when researching the thriller genre was Pinterest. I already owned an account and was familiar with the format.  I’ve always seen this social media platform almost as the picture version of YouTube.  I created myself a Board with images and the affiliated links to do with the thriller genre, there are some images on there that I used as a mood board when planning my trailer.

There’s also books and films that are part of the thriller genre which I looked at, but Pinterest was ideal for keeping all of these images together and made it easily accessible through my phone to look back at the ideas sparked from it.

 

 

 

 

 

PowerPoint

PowerPoint was really useful to keep all of my images that I used across my research and planning including screenshots and editing tasks.

I also used separate ones to create my pitch and some of my trailer analysis on which meant I could upload them to YouTube/Blogger a lot easier. It also meant I knew all of my images were saved onto the PowerPoint if I ever needed to reference them or if they ever got lost.

Microsoft Word was also helpful because I created the scripts, timelines and other projects on their which meant they could be spell checked and have a professional layout. All of my blog posts, research and planning tasks were also backed up on word just in case anything ever happened.

 

Blogger

Blogger was where all of my work came together. Being able to work on multiple unpublished posts at a time made planning quicker. This platform also made getting my information more efficient as I could access it through multiple devices such as my phone or computer. Being able to upload images and links speedily made keeping my tasks up to date very simple.  

 

Memory stick

 I used my San Disk 64gb memory stick to keep everything on. It has all of my clips, images, editing software, Photoshop projects and PowerPoints on.  Everything in one place made my entire project more effective and smoother and less likely to lose important files.