Video Transcript By Ashlee-Rose Brisley

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media

technologies in the construction, research & planning and evaluation

stages?

The first steps towards my final products were the research and planning that went into my ideas and concepts. I mainly used software to carry this out, however I did use a professional Canon and Nikon camera that cost a couple of thousands (altogether) to record my location scouting and take pictures of what I wanted to evidence. Apart from these two pieces of hardware, I mainly stuck to the softwares that I will mention throughout this video.

 Before I mention the various softwares and hardwares I

used in the three development stages of my work, I think the most important site to mention is Blogger. Blogger was the software that I created my blog on, it allowed me to insert and embed text, videos and images that helped shape the research & planning, construction and evaluation stages. So for the purpose of this video I am going to say Blogger is the main new media technology I used throughout my media project.

Without the help of my MacBook Pro I would have struggled to do the amount of editing and work I needed to complete certain blog tasks. My MacBook was an essential piece of hardware that allowed me to use the range of Adobe CS6 softwares I used to make images and graphics, videos and edit clips as well as the internet to find everything I needed and upload my work.

Another piece of crucial new technology I use throughout my three stages was my iPhone 4s, which I took everywhere to document photos, make emails/facebook messages and text to arrange and co-ordinate my actors and studio space, create voiceovers and above all blog on the go when ideas came to me. I think that without my iPhone a lot of my blog posts wouldn’t have been created.

I used an online GIF maker to add another visual element to my blog. I used Photoshop to create the images I wanted and then I uploaded and edited the ordering and speed on the website. This was useful to create headers to my blog posts so that each of the three stages were obviously highlighted.

The research and planning all started by ‘Googling’. Google was key to look at images of posters, find websites (that I will mention shortly) and learn facts etc. for things like theme parks and conventions of the horror genre which came from lots of random homepages and ‘about’ pages on relevant sites such as Thorpe Parks website. Of course Google Images was all part of this crucial piece of software. Without Google Images I wouldn’t have been able to access the range of posters and pictures that gave me my inspiration and understanding of horror genre conventions. By using Google Images, I was able to study and annotate pieces that I felt were relevant to my blog and look for magazine covers to compare.

YouTube was another influential piece of software that allowed me to gain lots of insight into my own work through looking at existing trailers, listen to news reports and soundtracks that I felt would be helpful to my own work. I used YouTube to look at teaser and theatrical trailers to find out how I could use editing techniques to link the shots I had wanted and how these conventions could be replicated within my own work. I was also able to embed examples and my research findings into my blog to demonstrate the research process I went through. I was also able to create videos myself and upload them to the site to embed into my blog.

Biteslide was a great piece of software that allowed me to create a slideshow presentation effect to my research. I could add text and images from Google and my own work to demonstrate key pieces of information I wanted to share on my blog. Once I had created my presentations I was able to embed the slideshow into my blog to allow users to flick through with ease. I found this software really easy to use, with the basic layout and buttons needed to create my work in a visual and more dynamic sense.

Wikipedia was a site I used to get definitions and synopsis outlines for my three examples I used as existing influences for my product. I also used the site to check spellings or any facts that I felt I should review before relying on my memory only. Although I used this software very minimally at the start of my research and planning I feel it is important to mention as it did prove to have it’s uses when I felt unsure and needed to double check things. The software is famous for it’s ‘anyone can edit’ approach, which does remove the accuracy of the information it provides, so this is why I tried not to use this site unless I felt it was completely necessary to my work.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 was a piece of software that allowed me to create images and gifs of things that I wanted to visualize on my blog. I felt this was good practice before moving onto creating my final products. I used this software to create visual blog posts in the planning and production stages, as well as my final two ancillary texts. It was one of the most used softwares I worked with throughout my media project as it allowed me to constantly develop my media texts. Photoshop was something that allowed me to edit all three of my texts to make sure my branding had synergy and connected so audiences would recognize my work. The trailer’s titles was made through Photoshop, using the same font as my poster and the same smoke effect that was used on my two ancillary texts, which were created completely in Photoshop. The freedom to be as creative as I wished with this software made it an excellent choice, as it had professional tools to use, which created a realistic effect to my work. I could add textures, adjust images, positioning’s, warp and blend brush strokes as well as other more basic features which made this software so valuable to the construction process.

Prezi was a great piece of software to create visually exciting presentations throughout my work and embed them into blogger. I think Prezi was an easy way to break down my research and planning, as well as my construction process to give a step-by-step outline of how and why I made the decisions I did about my work.

Microsoft PowerPoint and Slideshare were two pieces of software that went hand in hand together to produce embedded presentations of my research & planning and the process behind my construction. I used these two softwares to create a more interactive and multimedia aspect to my blog, which avoided pages and pages of text that could be presented in a more visually stylish manner. I felt very comfortable using these two softwares as they complimented each other in a way that made it easy to use without too much time wasted.

Microsoft Word was a software I used to make annotations easily to posters in my research & planning and screenshots in my trailer construction. I created text boxes and arrows to point out key conventions or areas of the work I wanted to highlight, then screenshot these using my MacBook Pro to upload as a picture on Blogger. This added a bit of diversity to my overall visual effect to my blog, as having a condensed annotated image differed from conventional blogging form. I used this software to highlight the key shots I used when constructing my final trailer.

PowToon was a fun and interactive software presentation tool that allowed me to show my work in a visual and entertaining manner. This site I found very difficult to use, I didn’t like how limiting the controls were and how the site assumed things I didn’t want it to do. The time consumption to create a short presentation I found wasn’t as effective as using Premier Pro, which could make longer videos in half the time. I found the time limits and templates very restricting for what I wanted to say, however it was another way I could demonstrate new media technologies on my blog by embedding my final finished presentation in my blog posts.

Bubbl.us was a site that allowed me to make visual aids such as diagrams that broke down ideas and research that would help towards planning my film title and where trailers are most often seen. I did use a Venn diagram template design to show ideas, however I felt that Bubbl.us was another way of using diagrams that could also be colour coded and easy to read.

Excel was used to make a pie chart showing my audience response for the film titles I was debating. I used Excel because it is a professional business software that is able to calculate results and averages in a categorical display, which can be colour coded for audience comprehension. These results where given from audiences responding via a Facebook message, which I sent out individually when researching and planning, to ask those in my target demographic, which title would appeal most to them. I recorded the responses and made my pie chart from the Facebook feedback.

Despite not using Facebook a lot, I did feel that it was effective when gaining audience response. Facebooks user popularity meant I could gain feedback from a wide spread audience quickly, as I was reassured that my two ancillary texts were of a high standard that fooled a lot of peoples as being real. I uploaded my final poster and magazine front cover design, which gained a really welcoming and impressive response. The praise I got was really encouraging that I had created two ancillary texts that excited my target demographic and generated buzz that would be received from a real professional product. My Total Film inspired magazine front cover generated 11 likes and 22 comments in under three hours, and my Among Us film poster received 17 likes and 25 comments. I was really proud and thankful to everyone who had given me honest feedback for my work. I spoke to a horror fan who said “I saw your poster and got really freaked out my the images. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a real film. I asked my friends what they thought and they thought it was a new horror film coming out. We were all really scared but impressed by how genuine it looked. We even googled the film title to see if it was coming out this year. Well done, I wish this was coming out because it looks so terrifying.”

Over the course of the three stages I took A LOT of photos, to keep these on one platform using new media technology, I decided to upload them to Flickr. Flickr was a way to upload my photos and separate them by ‘sets’ that I could then feature in separate appropriate blog posts. Using Flickr meant I could upload all of my photo shoot pictures and hundreds of others without clogging up my blog with loads of images. Instead Flickr was a way I could upload all the photos I needed that would allow users to scroll and look through in their own pace, without wasting pages and pages of space on my blog. I used the software throughout my work.

Scanners were a piece of hardware, which allowed me to upload an image of paperwork I had done that I couldn’t photograph using my iPhone. This was a quick way of uploading images to my blog, which didn’t require a huge editing process. I used a scanner for odd ‘bits and bobs’ which made more sense to plan on paper, rather than try and draw using a computer software.

Animoto was a fun and easy site to use, which created pretty visual photo presentations that I could embed into my blog to show my planning and production process. This was a good software to use for a small collection of photos which didn’t seem big enough to make into a Flickr set. I liked having Animoto shows on my blog as it separated my work in an interactive and sensory experience that used moving visuals and sound to demonstrate my work.

Photoshow was a software that I used to create a slideshow presentation of my process photos, however the site wouldn’t allow me to embed my work onto blogger so to record my presentation I used Screencast-O-Matic to film my screen showing the photos. I then uploaded this to YouTube to embed into my blog.

Screencast-O-Matic was a really easy software that throughout the three stages of my work allowed me to make videos, which I then went on to edit in Adobe Premier Pro CS6. Using Screencast-O-Matic allowed me to select which parts of the screen I wanted to record, size and shape the area to my specifications and record, pause and restart when I wanted. It then saved into the video format I chose, which made editing the screenshots in Premier a lot easier.

Premier Pro CS6 was my favourite piece of Adobe software, as well as being the most used (alongside Photoshop CS6). I was able to make all my behind the scenes videos to show my filming process besides my main trailer. The final product was difficult to edit at first, but once I became more familiar with the cuts and edits that I could use, I started to get the hang of the software a lot more. I was also able to add my own music, which I got from a YouTube converter. I used this throughout my production and evaluation stages. I chose to use Premier Pro because it is a professional piece of software used in the film industry, which means that the quality is of an extremely high standard, as well as this because of the quality of the cameras I had used it was impossible for me to edit the files in amateur software iMovie, as the files sizes and quality weren’t compatible. So I used Premier Pro to cut and edit my final footage, manipulating the timing and speed for my behind the scenes process, adding images from Photoshop and overall creating a sleek and polished look to my work.

YouTube converters were used to download the tracks I needed to edit later in Adobe Audition CS6 and video clips, such as news reports for my trailer. I found the converters really easy to use and speedy to get things that I couldn’t source from anywhere else.

Adobe Audition CS6 was another influential piece of software, I used it to edit my tracks for my final soundtrack, my voice overs and my songs for my process videos. The multi-track mixdowns were really easy to create, dragging and dropping tracks into layers and then cutting and moving them to where I needed them to be. The program was incredibly fast, it imported music within minutes and exported the final outcome to the format I was able to choose in seconds. I was really pleased with the professional sounding quality it gave my audio, which is why I used it throughout my planning, production and evaluation.

Chirbit was a site that I used to upload my final trailer soundtrack. Once I had made my music using Adobe Audition CS6 I uploaded and embedded the track to add an mp3 file onto my blog.

 Photosnack was another slideshow creator I used to

add a visual element to my blog that presented my photos in a more fun and interactive way. I felt this was a useful piece of software to use to make my photos stand out instead of placing them individually on my blog.

I used a word cloud generator to show initial feedback I received from a small focus group of my target audience. I felt it was important to save this as an image and upload it to Blogger to show my awareness of audience expectations and what conventions as expected of my chosen horror subgenre.

Fonts and authentic looking text was an essential convention to my two ancillary texts, so to make sure my horror poster and magazine cover had realistic fonts I used three free sites to download various font types, which I then chose from in the construction process. DaFont.com and 1001FreeFonts were the main two I used to find my final choices. Without using these websites the consistency of my fonts would have been a struggle and would have lost the professional effect I wanted to achieve.

To film my trailer I used two Panasonic HD cameras over the course of the three days I used to film. I also used a tripod for certain angles, as well as ladders, lighting boards and internal studio lighting and photography studio space.

This studio space and internal studio lighting was used for my magazine front cover and poster images. I also used two professional DSLR cameras with various lenses throughout my photo shoot.

By using multiple cameras throughout the filming process and the final photo shoot allowed me to get a range of angles, different cinematic techniques all with a professional standard of quality. I used a tripod for my pans and still shots, handheld to capture the iconic horror genre conventions for things like running to create a sense of panic and disorientation, close ups to capture the fear and emotional turmoil in the characters, as well as overhead, POV, over the shoulder and tracking shots. The still cameras I used for my poster and magazine photos were done on large industry used cameras which meant that the images came out clear without the need to airbrush and remove bad skin, blurriness etc. This along with good lighting from the studio I used made the photos come out with a professional looking standard.

And those are the hardwares and softwares I used when creating my three media texts throughout the research and planning, production process and construction and evaluation. Without these tools the three stages of my media project wouldn’t have been able to reach it’s highest potential or teach me a range of new media technology tools that took me on a journey of learning when constructing my three media texts. I have benefitted from the experience using this range of softwares and shown my skills with the hardwares I used as imaginatively as possible.