Evaluation Questions 4 - Mollie

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

Final Cut

In previous projects we used the software iMovie, we were satisfied with this but we wanted to make the software go further, as after planning our montage we knew that this would appear more professional so we researched this extensively as a group we decided to use Final Cut Pro for its more advanced editing opportunities. This allowed us to show a more creative flair when creating our project. The tools were also much easier to use especially when speeding up certain parts of the trailer.   

Recording Studio
We researched what would be the best way to convey our narrative through our trailer, as in previous projects we didn't have the success we hoped for as we used actors. Therefore we only had the single protagonist during our A2 project and instead of using dialogue we opted for a voice over. 

We decided that the use of a voiceover allowed us to meet the conventions of an urban drama trailer better, as we saw this used in a variety of previous films such as Adulthood and Ill Manors. So our group recorded this in the recording studio using the software Logic Pro 6. This highlights our creativity and the fact we wanted a crisp sound to our voice over.

Photoshop
This software allowed us to have a creative flair to our ancillary texts. I had no prior experience to using Photoshop so I took it upon myself to test out a variety of tutorials that I could learn the basics from before it came down to the creation of our poster. Through this, I learnt about the free transform tool, as well as the variety of paint brush and eraser tools. I also learnt the effect that different opacities had on an image. 

After deconstructing a variety of previous film posters, I was able to come up with the conventions of a film poster that I knew I could work with to meet and challenge. One of the urban drama film posters that we sourced our inspiration heavily from was that of Shank, we also liked the colour scheme that they used and it created an 'action film' sense to the urban drama genre. I sourced inspiration for our typography and created a variety of ones that I thought we would be able to place on our poster. My favourite typography was the eroded one. This created a gritty sense to our poster. However was hard to see on the final product. I used this tutorial to follow and go through the basics of what was needed. 

I followed these steps very carefully, and learnt about threshold layers, and how to work with contours and highlights. This was vital in the eroding process as the highlighted parts of the layer were where the eroded parts of the typography were.

By using the previous basics of Photoshop that I had learnt before, the opacity and knockout tools were easy to use and I was able to use this to create this typography. 

I was also able to use this software when it came to the construction of our poster, as the knowledge that I had gained from creating typographies and following tutorials allowed me to play about with many tools that would make the poster appear very advanced.This was especially the case when it came to erasing the image. 

I also used my knowledge when it came to sharpening parts of the image. I wanted to create a 3D effect against the background, so I used the sharpen tool so that I could outline the square and rectangular object's edges. 

Wix.com

I previously had experience when it came to producing a website, but this was new software. I really liked the user-friendly nature of this and the fact that I didn't have to use HTML when resizing or reshaping and image or a piece of text. The website was easy to make improvements on, and I was easy to work with the grid on Wix.com.

  

Oh Snap!
I wanted to create a series of documentary style time lapses throughout our trailer. 

I researched a variety of apps and looked at the best reviews on the app store before deciding that I would pay to use this Oh Snap! app, this app was only available on iPhones. This allowed me to create easy time lapses by placing my phone in a steady position and setting a timer - that was adjustable. I had many attempts with this, and learnt the best way to and time to record them. Previously deconstructed trailers such as Ill Manors used time lapses to highlight the location of the urban drama film, so I knew of the high effectiveness this time lapse would have.

YouTube

We used YouTube for a variety of things, from tutorials to deconstructions to source inspiration for our media product. We also used YouTube to help us gain a soundtrack for our trailer, and then we used a YouTube converter to download the audio to place as an MP3 in our trailer. We also relied heavily on YouTube for our audience feedback. As this allowed us to collect information in an organised way and act on it for our final media product.

Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey was used to create a survey during our research stages so we could gather audience feedback for what they wanted out of our Urban Drama film. Which we could then use to help us during production. We used YouTube in the process of evaluation by opening the comments up to the audience for constructive criticism that we could use to make our teaser trailer professional.