Evaluation Question 4

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


Link to my Podcast:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5th0syxte83icmn/Question%20Four.m4a?oref=e

When researching up on my three tasks, I analysed existing media products, for example trailers on YouTube, magazines in the shops, and posters in the cinema and on google. From doing this, I found posters and magazine covers on google where I could go into deep analysis with. I chose 4 of each ancillary text, where I used PowerPoint to break down the important conventions I needed for my own products, this is shown on my blog. After taking time to examine enough horror products, I knew I wanted to do a psychological horror. This is because it was the most favoured sub-genre, and was very popular in films. It plays with the audience’s fears and beliefs, and are known as the tensest films. For example The Ring, The Shining, and Silent Hill are all well-known films that have had good reviews. When starting to plan, I used a diary to keep on track of work and to look back at how we did things to date. Originally I used Microsoft Word as an online diary, but I found this hard to keep up with as it was hard to access when out and about. This was between September and December.

I used blogger.com to upload all of my idea, inspiration, and allowed me keep on track of my work and process. This was easy for me to use considering I have been blogging for years. It was very useful when embedding images and videos that either I or somebody else had created. Blogger was the most used piece of media, almost using it on a daily basis. I could use blogger from any device, but I mostly used it on the Apple mac during school times, and then on my Toshiba laptop at home. I love the fact that blogger is so easily accessible.

I also created a survey on surveymonkey.co.uk to gain some feedback on what audiences prefer in a horror trailer, poster and magazine. I created an account and emailed it to as many people as I could in the age range I was trying to attract; between 14-17 years of age. By using survey monkey, it was a much fast and easier way to reach my target audience and gain quicker responses. It allowed me to review and evaluate my responses in many formats, for example I chose bar charts. When asked ‘What is the scariest setting in a horror film’ 50% said house. This is when I decided on having the plot set in a modern house to make it more up to date and more realistic. I wanted the audience to gain a feeling of reality from this setting. When asked ‘What is the most eye catching thing about a horror poster?’ 65% said scary image. This also gave me ideas on how I could create a scary image to attract the audience and make my poster successful. This is when I decided that I needed to take frightful images when it came to photoshoots. When asked ‘What do you enjoy most about horror films?’ 65% said the plot. From here I knew that having a good plot was important, so I created a pitch on PowerPoint where I brainstormed my ideas of a plot for our trailer. I considered the genre, target audience, characters, setting and Mise-en-scene in my presentation.  In able to put my pitch onto my blog, I had to transfer my presentation in to Slide Share. This displayed how my media skills had developed in the planning stages and was a good way to present my pitch.

Once I and the group decided on a plot, we began to make story boards. These included detailed pictures of camera shots and angles, voice overs and dialogue, and music and sound. To gain a file of sound effects and voice overs, we went to google, as this was the easiest place for us to download from on an Apple mac. Most of our sound effects used in our trailer, were downloaded from various sound effect websites such as ‘soundbible.com’ and ‘freesound.org’. The happy music that is found at the beginning of our trailer was found and imported from YouTube. And the other sounds such as the piano I created myself using a piano from school. We also created a script so we knew exactly what we had to record in terms of voiceovers and dialogue. We had two devices that we used for recording sound on. We tried a Zoom H1 Microphone which worked well for dialogue and picking up far away voices. However we discovered that the IPhone 6 voice recorder made our recorded sounds seem of better quality. For example playing the piano, screaming, and clicking glasses together.  

As a group we had to continuously meet up outside of sixth form to film our trailer. We all had phones that we could connect with each other on. We used an app called ‘WhatsApp’ that allowed us to stay connected in one group chat, and also notified us when one of us said something. This was useful as we didn’t miss anything important like filming days, questions we had etc.

With the construction of my ancillary tasks, I had to perform a photoshoot to get the best possible photos. I used a Sony AX 58 Digital Camera along with a tripod, which gave me great results for both of my ancillary photos. The camera was relatively expensive which is why I relied on it. I then went onto using Photoshop for both my magazine and poster. Creating the basic layout of my poster and magazine came easy to me as I had experience of creating these in AS. However it was different using Photoshop through this coursework due to the technique and finish I was trying to achieve. For example trying to attain blood splatters and creating dirty, cracked skin was found to be a challenge at first. I had to use google and YouTube for tutorials on how to do certain things like the ‘cracking ghost skin’ shown on my magazine. Without these technologies, my ancillary tasks wouldn’t have turned out as good as they did. Photoshop allowed me to edit using many tools, while creating layers for in case the product didn’t turn out right while experimenting. This helped in designing both of my ancillary tasks because it gave me choices. I could compare which style or design works best for the horror genre, and it saved time as I worked. For me Photoshop was the easiest software to work with, especially for producing high quality work.

When it came to the construction of our trailer, it was one of the longest processes, making it have the most media technologies used at this stage. Our group switched between cameras such as; Sony AX 58 Digital Camera, and a Sony HDR- CX240E Handy Cam. We used both cameras to film parts of our trailer, but also we used an Iphone6 video camera for certain scenes. The quality of the film was decent due to the cameras being relatively expensive and professional. The IPhone 6 didn’t provide us with as good a quality as the other two, however it was crucial for the scenes that required sound, as it could pick it up fairly easily. I had a good knowledge of how to use the digital camera from completing my AS project, however the handy cam took a few days of getting used to. After a long practice with the equipment, all three cameras were worth using as we got such a good outcome with them.

I used Microsoft Publisher to create the online article seen in our trailer. Using Publisher was easy as this was a software I used throughout school. I chose to use this software as it provided me with a ‘news article template’. This made it a fast process for me as I didn’t have to spend time designing a layout. I could go straight in for the hidden subliminal messages.

Once we had all of the scenes we needed, I imported them on to an Apple mac with a micro card SD, and then uploaded them on to IMovie. IMovie was completely new to me, so we had to have a few lessons on how to work around the program. I soon got the hang of it and the process sped up and was back on track. IMovie was a software that provided us with a ‘trailer plan’, and also allowed us to edit clips of film to a professional standard. This included cutting, adding sound effects, titles and editing each shot in terms of lighting and speed. This helped us in return to produce a horror trailer to a good standard. IMovie was the only technology software that we used when editing our trailer. This was because it provided us with everything we needed, and it was good to keep it all in one file anyway.

Once our trailer was ready to go viral, I exported it onto YouTube in order to gain some feedback and get some viewings. This was also tricky because I have never had a YouTube account up until now. However with the use of google, I managed to suss out how to get it up online. I used my blog on blogger.com to display both of my ancillary tasks. This would allow other BlogSpot users to comment on my products if they wished.

For my evaluation, I used 4 different ways to execute my questions. My first choice was to write one up into Microsoft Word and transferring it into Blogger. My second choice was to podcast my answer, where I used my IPhone6 to record this. My third choice was done using Prezi. I gathered my answer using Microsoft Word, where I then put it into Prezi sparingly in the correct form including evidence from my surveys. And last but not least, I decided to film one of my answers. To do this I used a Sony AX 58 Digital Camera to record myself reading from a script. I then used my IPhone6 to record my voice only, reading from the same script, however this was going to be imported onto IMovie later on. After both of these had been recorded, I went onto using IMovie to combine these together, hoping to show my media skills. This is where I imported my voice over and my recordings of me to finish my questions video.


Drop Box was a last minute website that I used in order to transfer my podcast onto Blogger.com. I tried many ways in exporting my podcast onto the Mac, but the best way that I found was connecting my IPhone to ITunes, where I then imported my podcast to Drop Box, and onto my blog. This was a lengthy task, but it worked in the end.

If I was to improve the use of media technologies, I would perhaps use social media to its advantage, and put my finished products online such as Facebook and Twitter.