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

In order to complete my coursework, I used a variety of forms of media technologies that gave my coursework a professional finish. In particular, I used Microsoft such as Publisher, PowerPoint and Word, editing software’s such as Serif movie maker and Photoshop. The internet was just as useful to help me complete my coursework which allowed me to explore many useful websites. 

During my research stage, Google was the most useful media technology, as it allowed me to explore across many websites the historical background of horror films, which included useful information on German expressionism and Film noir. The internet also allowed me to research existing horror movie

posters and magazines which I had to study and analyse in order to find the codes and conventions that made these two products formulaic. I also used YouTube to find existing slasher movie trailers which I also had to textually analyse in order to find the codes and conventions. Although I found some trailers differ, for instance ‘Dead man’s shoe’s’ do not give off a sense of genre in the beginning of their trailer, whereas ‘Halloween’ expressed many conventions from start to finish of the genre. Google also helped me research and find existing institutional logos and images, which helped me to develop my own company logo. The internet also allowed me to use QuestionPro.com which is another media technology which allowed me to produce quantitative data for my research stage of my coursework. Questionpro allowed me to create a survey of various questions to find out the tastes of my target audience. This website was useful as it kept me up to date when someone would take my survey, how many people dropped out, and the percentages of the scores. I then posted the URL link onto social media’s such as Facebook and Twitter which are two common social media websites that my target audience use. This way, I achieved some valid results. After achieving a high response of 38 people, I was able to then transfer my results on to Microsoft Power

Point which is another media technology that allowed me to present my results on to different slides, using graphs allowing me to design my work in my own way. Questionpro and the ability to search online improved my project as I was able to reach a much larger sample as Questionpro allowed me to conduct a search in a much shorter time than doing it on paper which is seen to be time consuming. The ability to search online from via google also helped speed up the process and provide me with an enormous amount of research options which helped me make my decision.

For my research stage, I primarily used Microsoft word, which is a software that allowed me to create my ‘Call sheet’ which helped me be more organised on the days of my shoots. I also used Microsoft word to help me create a written essay of the narrative of my story in relation to theory, along with genre. I was also able to create my synopsis on word which was beneficial as it helped me understand of any errors or mistakes I had made, and was easily adaptable if I had made mistakes. I also created my shooting script on here which I had created a table, which was also easy as it was easily adaptable if the size was not correct, I could also choose front a variety of font styles, sizes and colours, which gives me a wide range of choice.

Though for my ancillary tasks, I had used a variety of media software’s to help me construct each project. For my poster and magazine, I decided to create this using Microsoft Publisher, which I thought was a publication which could allow me to create my project and also allow me to easily adapt my project when needed. I was able to freely move around different objects on the publication without it being difficult to reverse if needed, I was able to crop and adapt images suitable for my magazine and poster which I found very helpful.

The images and film title that were used for my poster and magazines where edited using Adobe Photoshop. This software allowed me to use a variety of different tools in order to give me a professional finish to all my images. I used tools such as the ‘magic tool’ which allowed me to select certain elements to my image that I wanted to change the colour to. For instance the image for my poster front cover shows a red tear drop on top of a black and white image. In order for me to colour in the red tear drop to change it I had used the eyedrop tool which allows me to select the same colour as the skin, in which i can therefore fill in the red tear drop.

Here I was able to fill the background in black in order to reinforce an idea of the villain hiding behind her own hair, which was done by using the colour black and a spray painting tool which enabled me to apply this effect. This idea of the villain hiding could help reinforce the narrative at the fact the villain is hiding from the characters, in which later she shows her identity, which is portrayed within the image as half of her face is showing.  

This then gave me a professional horror genre look finish to my image, I was also able to highlight the eye of the character in the image by using the tool 'quick selection', in which I had then made crystal white in order for it to stand out against the black and white image.









Photoshop also allowed me to change the colour of my film title, as it was originally black and white, which I then changed to red and white by dabbing on each colour using the ‘sponge’ tool.

The typography for my film title was found on a font website called ‘dafont.com’, which expressed many different categories of fonts, in which we then we decided to look into the horror category. After analysing many different potential title typographies, we decided upon one. We decided to choose the one we have due to the dripping blood effect underneath each letter, which resulted in a gory effect, instantly reinforcing the genre.

This here shows how media technologies such as Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher allowed me to construct both my magazine and poster. I w as able to use Photoshop which allowed me to change the colour of the image and fill the background black. Although by using Microsoft Publisher this allowed me to put together my final poster and magazine, and add in my finished image from Photoshop.

For our main peace, we used Serif movie maker to produce a non-linear trailer. Serif movie maker appeared difficult to use at first and was hard to adapt to. This was due to the fact we had to select and

cut different clips and arrange them in an order that was non-linear, but also needed to make sense. We also had made a few mistakes of shooting scenes in the sun, which made it difficult to change the colour balance as at times, it appeared to look unprofessional. This was due to the hardware not providing enough colour balances and filter and to some extent, the poor quality of some shots that were recorded, however, in the end we solved the issue by using a software called Cubase. Whereas for our sound, we have worked closely with a sound engineer in constructing and building up voice overs, non-diegetic and diegetic sounds to suit with the trailer. However, at some points the sound was difficult to hear due to noise that occurred during filming in the backgrounds, and therefore we had to re-record screams from our actors, and some dialogue. We also had to record sounds for a voice over from Roma, who plays the villain Ruby, who tells a short story at the beginning of our trailer about her life, and this was recorded in the school studios.

The typography for my film title was found on a font website called ‘dafont.com’, which expressed many different categories of fonts, in which we then we decided to look into the horrors category. After analysing many different potential title typographies, we decided upon one. We decided to choose the one we have due to the dripping blood effect underneath each letter, which gave off the gory affect, instantly reinforcing the genre.

One of the essential media technologies that we used was the camera. The development of new media had made it easier for us to shoot our scenes, and to get them onto our computers. After shooting a scene, it was as easy as downloading footage onto a hard drive, in which we then plugged into the computer system where we could start cropping and editing our clips on Serif movie maker. We are now at a much more advantage in society today as in the past, editing this way would have been time consuming and frustrating. The digital camera also allowed us to view our footage instantly so we were able to correct mistakes as soon as they happened, rather than processing our footage to then recognise the mistakes. This therefore speeds up the process and helps us get things done quicker.

Furthermore, for my evaluation stage, I was able to use slideshare which allows me to post my presentations and turn them into a slideshow, which I believe is a neater way to present my research on my blog. Also, in order to find qualitative data I did use social media websites such as Facebook, but I also got some qualitative feedback of those in my college, and those who are a part of my media class, which gave me a wide range of different opinions. I also posted my trailer onto social networking sites such as YouTube in order to receive feedback from my audience in which I was able to view the variety of different opinions. YouTube is a website that is commonly used by teenagers which is beneficial to me as this puts my trailer at an advantage as there is more of a chance my   The blog itself is somewhere where I have posted all my research planning and my actual products on which is also able to be seen from my target audience. I also used Prezi, which is another slideshow known for their zooming presentation software allows me to present my work in different ways. I believe this is a neat and presentable way to represent my work, and it enables me present my work in different ways which can be fun and exciting.