Evaluation Task 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages

Blogger: Being able to use Blogger while researching and planning my trailer allowed me to keep track of all my progress and see where all my work was, this was a much more efficient way of storing my work and it was easily accessible from home and at school. As it was linked with my Gmail account it also let me access stuff easier like my trailer. Once we had finished the draft of our trailer I simply clicked the video button and searched for it on Youtube which then meant I could link it from my blog. A useful thing Blogger does is that it allows you to keep your posts as drafts before posting them which let me edit them and take as many goes as I want before posting them as well as letting you change the publication time. 

Adobe Photoshop: I used Adobe Photoshop for my magazine cover, poster, evaluations and briefly for our production company logo for our trailer. Coming back to Adobe Photoshop from last year meant that I had to re-learn my skills especially that we were now using an updated version of the program. Remembering little shortcuts like CTRL + T to re shape images were useful as well as holding SHIFT when re sizing it meant that I wouldn't lose the quality of the pictures by stretching the images. This came in handy when creating my nine frames for evaluation 1 and also when inserting images into my ancillary texts. Other tools like the hand crop tool meant that I could precisely crop images of my characters going onto my poster and magazine cover without them looking unprofessional and the blending options tool meant I could give certain objects glows, shines, shadows which allowed me to differentiate different things on my magazine connoting important things and not so important things. Other simple things on Photoshop like having multiple layers to use made it extremely beneficial when wanting to put something into the foreground or background or even merging layers together to move them round my product. Overall without the use of Adobe Photoshop my ancillary tasks would of looked very unprofessional.  

Adobe Premiere Pro: Adobe Premiere Pro is the software that we used this year to edit our trailer with, this is a change from last years course as we used Final Cut Pro to edit our teen angst. At first this was quite challenging as none of us had used it before but with help from a technician we learnt the basics of the software and then figured out the advanced techniques for ourselves. An advantage of using two different software's over the 2 courses means that we are now able to say we can use both software's rather than just one. Adobe Premiere is very easy to use and relatively similar to Final cut in the simple edits as you can zoom into your timeline letting you cut your clips at split seconds (crucial for making a psychological thriller trailer) and you can also detach any music you want from a clip and put somewhere else or simply delete it. Making intertitles were a little harder as on Final Cut they had pre-made ones which you could simply add into your timeline but on Adobe Premiere you have to make them yourselves starting from scratch, in a way this was more effective as it let us be creative with our titles and we were not limited to anything.  

FreePlay Music: I used Freeplay music to search for various tracks to use over our trailer, this website was perfect as the songs are free to download and also copyright free. The website allowed us to pick a few different tracks for our product to choose from which meant we could try them all and see what worked best. It is very easy to download the songs and can be put on a memory stick and straight into Adobe Premiere Pro. These are the 4 tracks that we initially selected for our trailer, Nightprowler, Nightprowler (Reprise), Outbreak and Wrongful Payback. After narrowing it down we decided to use Outbreak for the first part of our trailer then Nightprowler to act as a crescendo for the end of the trailer.    

iPhone: I used my phone to record my voice-over for Evaluation Task 2 as I thought this would be easier than using an actual voice recorder. By using my phone it made it much more simpler as once I had recorded my voice-over I simply saved the recording then used my linked Gmail account on my phone to send it to myself and finally receive it on the computer where I could edit it. Once edited and cropped all the unnecessary speech out it was simple to just put over my product.  

Facebook: We used Facebook to communicate with each other while in the planning stages of our film and when filming. Facebook Messenger came in handy as it allowed us to talk to each other while deciding where to film, what to bring etc. By using this it meant that all three could communicate at the same time. Without this it would of made it very complicated and a much more lengthy period trying to talk to each other all at once.  

HD Camera: This is the HD camera we used to film our trailer, it is a Panasonic 1080p camcorder, with the camera being HD it meant we could record a good quality picture. Also the camera was digital which meant that it didn't have to be constantly plugged in as this would of made it awkward to film and also be a safety hazard. Essential to making our trailer, we were allowed to take the camera out of school and film whenever we wanted. This allowed us to film in various locations and at various times of the day, critical to our genre as thrillers are normally associated with being in the dark with lots of low key lighting aswell ultimately being set at night. The camera had a light fitted to it which meant we could film in the dark and have a spotlight on if we needed, we did use this for one part of our film as Owen walks towards the door at the end of our trailer. This was effective as it is stereotypical of genre. By creating this spotlight on Owen it meant that the audience knew he was the antagonist in the trailer.  

YouTube: YouTube is a website which allows anyone in the world to upload whatever content they want within their rules and regulations. Once we had completed and finished our trailer draft we uploaded it to YouTube for everyone to see which then meant people could also give us feedback. We then uploaded the finished product. This was simple as Blogger and Youtube are connected through my Gmail account. Youtube also came in handy when researching thrillers and psychological thrillers as it let me analyse trailers which meant I could get an understanding of the stereotypical conventions for the genre. Using Youtube was my main source of researching and planning trailers as it quick, free and easy. 

Gmail: Using Gmail while creating my trailer was very useful as it allowed me to share content with the rest of my group so I could send things like pictures across for my poster and magazine cover or sending the trailer to each other wanting feedback on certain changes that someone may had made. Not just sending it to others but my self as it let me do work from home as I would often send work home and finish touching up certain areas.