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

Throughout this process I have used many different resources to help with research, planning, construction and evaluation.

Research:

The internet site youtube was one of my main research resources. This was because I was able to watch and then analyze the typical conventions of a romantic comedy trailer. You can see throughout my blog I have not only used this site to note the immediate conventions, I have also used this throughout the process when deciding music, voice overs and costume. It was also easily accessible on the computers and there was a direct link to upload videos from youtube to blogger.

The search engine 'google' also helped when researching my subsidiary tasks and finding out about producing, distributing and marketing my trailer. Just type in anything to do with magazine covers and film posters and I learnt so much.
I also was able to copy and use some pictures I found on google to analyze, the film posters and magazine cover, for example. This was helpful because I could then see how to construct and produce my subsidiary tasks. The mood board was also created through google images. I simply copied images from google to a word document and then I could instantly see the types of shots, costume colours and general feel for a romantic comedy trailer.

My own knowledge also helped when researching into the type of trailer I wanted to create. Romantic comedies have always been my favourite genre of film. Therefore I was lucky enough to have some knowledge of what makes a romantic comedy film and trailer. Having not looked at trailers in depth I noted some immediate conventions when watching the romantic comedy trailer. However, using the sites such as google and youtube I could construct a completely conventional trailer. General knowledge of how a trailer, film poster and magazine front covers are made also helped when constructing conventional products in a certain genre and age group. Having taken As media studies I also knew quite a lot about which company would produce this trailer or who would distribute it worldwide.

Planning:

The 'blogger' site helped me with keeping up to date with what I had done and what I had to do. For instance, we were given dead lines for particular things to be done and uploaded onto blogger. I could upload everything, rough cuts, analysis and ideas for subs. Having this blog made it easy to access at school and home so that all set work could be completed. Writing the heading of the blog title then saving it also reminded me of what needed to be done so that nothing is missed out. I found that keeping the blog organised and up to date helped me plan what needed to be done and on which days. Almost like a diary.

I didn't make a complete call sheet as it took a lot of time that I didn't necessarily have. However, I did make sure I had everybody in the trailers phone number when it came to planning which scene I would shoot next. I could easily contact them and ask if they are able to film the next day and if they could, would they bring particular clothes in for that scene. If they couldn't do that day then I would either ask someone else to film with me, carry on with my subsidiary tasks or edit together what I had filmed. This way I could use my time productively even if I'm not filming.

Having good tutors also helped when planning what I would do next. They gave out and set homework that I have already mentioned and were always there to help when it was needed. Constructive feedback was always given so that I could note down what had to be done as well as what was good about it.

Construction:

All the shots for the trailer were recorded on a Panasonic camcorder which were provided at school and we were able to use them in school time and sign one out to take home. They are simple and quick to use so I didn't have any problem when filming and uploading the scenes constructed. It was light and I was therefore able to use many different camera angle shots in the trailer. With a heavier camera, experimenting with different shots may not have been so easy. Along with the camcorder I also used a tripod to make sure the majority of the shots were stable. These were also provided by the school. The only negative point about using the tripod was the fact you couldn't do motion shots...this had to all be done on the camera but hand held. It would have been better if the tripods had some form of wheels on them to allow steady shots when walking along side the actor. However, this means more money.

The programme 'Imovie' on the apple macs has helped me a great deal when editing my film together. Uploading all the shots onto the programme is easy and then selecting which parts of the shots you want is straight forward. There are different icons alongside this programme where you can add a voice over, edit the clip and audio, add text and music. In As media it was the first time I had used a programme like this but now I'm doing A2 I have experimented with the programme more and I am more happier with the final product. I didn't have any problems when using this programme.

When constructing my subsidiary tasks I used the programme 'Publisher' on a normal windows computer. However, I edited the images using Iphoto on the macs then uploaded them to Publisher. Having used I-photo in other lessons I was able to do this efficiently and publisher, once again was pretty straightforward. There were many fonts and layouts to choose from but having used the programs I used when researching all the information I constructed the subsidiary tasks without any problems.

All the pictures where taken on a professional digital camera to get the high market feel that all romantic comedy film posters and magazine advertisements have.

The final programme I have used to construct my trailer was GarageBand which is also a programme featured on the apple macs. It is a very complex programme to use, which is why I have done my voice overs and feedback using the icon in Imovie. I used this particular programme when editing and splitting tracks for Itunes. This was the only programme which split the track. I think if I had had more time I would have liked to have recorded voice overs and music on this programme so that the quality was better and more professional.

Evaluation:

As I have gone through the construction stage of the trailer I have also received a lot of feedback from a general audience and target audience. I have used many methods when doing this. For instance, in my market research I used the iphoto application to create a 30second video about what they wanted to see in my trailer.

I also used a voice over on top of the actual trailer when asking my target audience what was good and what needed to be improved. I didn't just want to use questionnaires or written answers as I feel doing the above is more credible on the blog and for me personally as it is easily saved and takes less time.

As I have not finished the trailer yet my final evaluation has not been done. However, I am planning to record myself discussing how effective the main task and subsidiary tasks are. I will use a mood board of photos taken during filming to show how I have kept to conventions and challenged them in a particular way. For the final evaluation task I shall record peoples reactions to the trailer and then ask them a few questions so that you can see they have been honest and constructive when evaluating my trailer.