Jessica King Q.4: HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES “In the past 20 or so years, digital technologies… have had a massive effect on all phases of film-making and distribution processes” Micheal Allen, 2009 As emphasised in this quote, technology has advanced rapidly and without this progression it would not have been possible for us to produce our trailer and ancillary products to the standard and budget we have. Originally, in the 1980’s when the internet came into being, there was web 1.0 and later came version 2.0. These are the levels at which we can interact online. 1.0 simply allows for consumption of the media through individual browsing. 2.0 is much more participation based creates the ability to connect, collaborate and create. It means everyday people can become media producers. This convergence has been particularly successful in creating opportunities for indie, low-budget producers who now have the means to use previously expensive, time consuming software and equipment.

RESEARCH & PLANNING There were a number of different websites I was able to use during the research and planning stage. The BFI was a useful site in providing technical information and statistics. It helped in understanding the theoretical aspects of this project and enabled me to add an informed perspective to my research.BFI YouTube was another really useful point of access during this stage as it provided visuals which allowed for pastiche and inspiration. This is an example of where web 2.0 is beneficial as without people being able to upload, comment and share videos we would not have had such a quick and varied method of pooling ideas. Using YouTube is also great in being able to take screen shots to example and display an effective we were aiming to achieve. Another obvious tool that I used during research and planning was PowerPoint. PowerPoint is a great way to present ideas and findings in a more interesting and interactive way than a plain document. Within PowerPoint I can use hyperlinks, screenshots etc. to evidence or explain my points. Our college Moodle system was also a brilliant way to access information. It provides a virtual link which was useful in getting templates for storyboards, risk assessments etc.

It’s really easy to upload files, images and videos and to link or insert them into posts. This is a perfect example of the how the interconnectedness that web 2.0 had provided has created new opportunities for creativity and production.

CONSTRUCTION To film our trailer we used a Canon EoS 600D/550D digital camera. This was effective in capturing high quality, clear footage. In order to edit our footage and cut it all together we used Adobe Premiere Pro. This is a package that is relatively cheap but provides a high tech experience with tools that meant we could use advanced editing techniques such as time remapping. It was also an organised, efficient way of editing our footage as we could use processes such as logging. This meant labelling clips as either good or bad then sorting them into neat categories depending on these labels. Websites such as Incomputech provided us with royalty free music. Short of constructing our own musical score which would be difficult and time consuming, sites like these give an alternative to attempting to gain copyright permission to use pieces in our trailer or having to pay large sums in order to get it. Incomputech was an easy way of finding music based on tone or mood that we could then download and use in our trailer. As it is instant and easy, we could trial several pieces of music with our footage to find one that suited. Adobe Photoshop was another technology we used when constructing the graphic stills in our trailer, the love hearts as well as our poster and magazine cover. Photoshop is a software that enables you to work with multiple layers within an image which means you can use more effects to create an interesting and high quality picture. This was particularly useful with our magazine and poster where we needed to layer text over our main image over a background. For out titles we used DaFont, a website which lets you select from a myriad of different font styles before downloading it. Alongside this we also used After Effects to personalise and animate our font, adding a blue, neon haze similar to that used in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. As well as our musical score, we used a series of sound effects to replicate the hyper-reality often found in graphic novels or comics. We mainly took these from the shared sound effects file on our college system which is yet another example of how advancements in technology has made sharing so much easier. There was also a website we used called SoundFX that, much the same as Incomputech, provides free, downloadable sounds.

EVALUATION In order to present my work I tried to use a variety of different digital technologies. The main way was obviously through the blog however I also used PowerPoint, word documents, scanned images and a directors commentary. As evaluating is very wordy and descriptive, using more visual methods such as scanned images and PowerPoint is a useful way of breaking up the content and exampling what I am talking about. The directors commentary in particular, was a dynamic way of explaining aspects whilst displaying them at the same time. I also used the social networking site Facebook to gain evaluative points. This was a beneficial way to connect with our focus group in an instantaneous and cheap way. It allowed for a host of different opinions and constructive criticisms.