Question 4.In what ways did you use digital technologies in the

creation of your media products?

Why are digital

technologies important?

Throughout the course of research, planning and construction across my teaser trailer, movie poster and movie magazine, I utilized a number of digital technologies that I had never before encountered.

Keeping up with modern day technologies and software is extremely important in reaching target audiences with optimum effects, especially if that target audience is within a young demographic, as they will be the most up to date with the newest social networking sites, digital technologies and soft-wares.

I used a lot of technologies I was already familiar with. Social

networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now

available in App form so the user can interact with the sites on the

go; with their tablets and phones as well as computers. These

technologies were already familiar to me and thus naturally easy to use when conducting my work.

The technology giant ‘Apple’, in particular, have released these apps

through the ‘AppStore’, which allows users to choose from a huge array

of Apps and download them straight onto their phone. This has

advanced the world of digital technology massively and made

audiences more technologically literate, being exposed to new apps

and social networking materials frequently.

Apple Selfie!

Last year, I used Microsoft PCs to conduct a lot of

my work. This was the hardware which I had

been used to all my life. Changing to an Apple

Mac was extremely frustrating at times. There was

no controls to ‘PrintScreen’ like there was on a

Microsoft PC, and the ‘cmd’ key did most of the

work that the ‘ctrl’ button would have, meaning I

was continuously hitting the ‘ctrl’ key cluelessly

wondering why it wouldn’t do what I wanted it

to! It took a while to break this habit but it

happened eventually.

Using WordPress Primarily, each member of our Media Studies class created a blog

on WordPress.com and had to create a number of pages regarding

our coursework in order to make for easier navigation. Here, we

would upload work we had completed on a weekly basis and

create a short introduction for each piece. The blog was extremely

helpful in allowing our class to leave feedback on each other’s

work. I arranged my blog to show different headings on the sidebar

alongside the homepage; Teaser Trailer Research; Teaser Trailer

Planning; Teaser Trailer Construction.

In my research into the movie industry, I used the site IMDB.com in

order to gather information about certain films which had been

successful. Their ‘Top 250’ list aided me in gaining knowledge as

to which film genres have been the most successful amongst

audiences in the past, thus helping me in deciding which genre I

would choose for my own teaser trailer.

YouTube YouTube was the first online social networking site that I used when

conducting my research. I have been using this site for years so it was

naturally easy for me to use. I looked up a lot of trailers on this as they

were easily accessible – YouTube is the general site for uploading videos,

so almost every video on the internet features on it. YouTube is simple

and easy to navigate. I used it to upload my initial drafts of teaser trailers

and was able to embed it into my blog and on my Facebook page in

order to receive feedback.

To present some of my ideas for my teaser trailer I used the online presenting software

‘Prezi.’ This allowed me to create an attractive mind map using shapes such as arrows

and circles. I could alternate the font and colour scheme of the presentation in order

to further the appeal. Changing the size of shapes or sections to make the project

look impressive was very timely. However, the finishing products I made are extremely

appealing to the eye. I used Prezi to present my research on the codes and

conventions of a teaser trailer and to show the rest of my class my own ideas for my

media product. I focused on different aspects on the trailer such as genre, costumes,

setting, actors and sound. Once finished, Prezi allowed me to view my presentation

professionally and I could zoom up on each section to focus on each one individually.

The whole process was very efficient and saved me a lot of time in the long run.

Another technology I came across during my teaser trailer planning

was ANIMOTO, a video making software which combines multiple

images and sound clips to make a short video. I employed a simple,

vintage, projector-like theme in order to promote my teaser trailer and make others aware of its nature. I included a variety of pictures

which I felt accurately reflected themes of my storyline such as

friendship (a picture of two girls holding hands). This would be

important in my ultimate trailer’s effectiveness as they would

immediately gain a sense of what is to come.

I used Microsoft Excel in order to create graphs

when analysing the results of my questionnaire.

This enabled me to create an efficient view of

my audience feedback, giving me great help

when it came to filming my teaser trailer.

After filming my footage I uploaded them to our school’s

MacBooks and proceeded to clip and edit the footage using the

software ‘Final Cut Pro X’. This software was completely new to

me. Even the Mac was difficult to get used to as I am so used to

the PC! Eventually with practice I became accustomed to the

many tools and features that this software had to offer and I

made full use of it which paid off extremely well!

I also used a hardware device to upload copyright-free music to

feature in my trailer. The music I found was so appropriate that I

was compelled to include it! I connected this device into the USB

port of the MacBook Pro and proceeded to import it into my

project for further altering.

I used the software ‘Garage Band’ to record and edit the

voiceover for my teaser trailer. This software was very easy to use

and was well laid out. I selected a vocal track to record on and hit

the red button located at the bottom of the window. From here, I

asked my actor to speak her lines into the microphone. It was easy

adding effects to this as there are some template effects situated

on the right-hand-side of the screen. After I had a few takes of

each line, I exported the track to ‘Final Cut Pro X’ for further

clipping and to add more effects.

The final software I used in my construction page was ‘Grab’ – a

software which helped me complete my shot-by-shot analysis of

my final teaser trailer. This application allowed me to effectively

take a ‘screengrab’ of a certain window and save it as a jpg.

Using this, I played my teaser trailer and paused the screen on

each frame, then waved the cursor over the ‘capture’ option on

the top bar and selected ‘capture window’, allowing me to take

create images of each moment in my trailer. From here, I could

begin to analyse and justify my final product for others to see.

From basic editing of my own personal photographs and creating a music magazine in the course of my AS Media, I already had some previous experience of using Adobe Photoshop. However, throughout the course of my movie poster and movie magazine construction, my knowledge of the software increased enormously as I became accustomed with many special techniques and devices within the program. Becoming used to this program was of utmost importance as I believe the image of a movie poster and on the front cover of a magazines is the selling instigator for the film they regard. As I practiced and learned more about Photoshop I became enabled to use such processes as airbrushing and cloning. Using these techniques to enhance my images would allow me to create professional-looking, authentic products.

Magnetic Lasso I used the magnetic lasso too in both the creation of my movie poster

and movie magazine cover. This allowed me to select a region of any

picture by connecting points that were attached and of the same

pigment. I used this tool around the region of a photo collage on my wall and also on my actor’s face and then proceeded paste them

both onto plain, A4 backgrounds for further editing.

For the first draft of my movie poster, I duplicated this collage by

utilizing the copy and paste application like I had previously done, only this time I filled the whole page with the photographs. I then selected

the right half of the picture and selected the ‘Blur’ filter and fixed it to a

horizontal gradient so it almost made he picture look like it was

beginning to move. This was exactly the effect I was looking for as it

suggested metaphorically the idea that the memories are leaving or

drifting away, hence the title: ‘Forget Me Not’

I noticed through researching various movie posters that

they all have a very similar, very small font featured at the

bottom of the page where they mention a lot of the

production team.

After ‘googling’ want this font was, I came across the website

‘www.dafont.com’ which told me it was called ‘Universal

Accreditation’. Not sure whether it was the real thing or not,

judging by its pictures I downloaded it anyway!

This font ended up looking extremely authentic on my poster, and

it was something which PhotoShop didn’t offer me, meaning I had

to go out of my way and find it! It gave me great satisfaction

seeing it look so good on my drafts!

The software Kizoa was extremely useful, helping me to present my

photographs on my blog. I could embed it and they would play in

a slideshow automatically, looking very professional and seamless.

Facebook was another site that I had previously used as a

socially interactive 18 year old. I was familiar with all the tools

and the site already, and with the knowledge that the

majority of people within my target audience age had an

account, I decided to post drafts of my teaser trailer, movie

poster and movie magazine on it in order to receive

constructive criticism and advice.

Twitter, is another hugely popular social networking website

amongst my target audience demographic. I concluded that

posting drafts of my media products here would also be good for

receiving target audience feedback.

From posting my media

products on so many social

networking sites, I began

receiving feedback

through text messages from

people that had my

number! This was very

exciting as I gained a sense

of the impact that my products had on my target

audience!

When it came to the evaluation stage, as well as using softwares such

as SlideShare, Prezi and Video, I came across a new software called

Powtoon, which allowed me to create an exciting, eye-catching

presentation. I used this software to create question 2 of my

evaluation. In the beginning it was extremely hard to use as I could

not get used to the aspect of 20 seconds to a slide. It took me about

3 days in total to complete this evaluation question! However, I feel it

worthy as it is extremely professional-looking and I am proud of the

outcome!

Through the use of new digital technologies and

those I was already familiar with, I feel that I have

created a number of authentic, professional-

looking media products!

Thank you for watching this evaluation