EVALUATION QUESTION 4

Evaluation Question 4 - Prezi

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

Will: (Slide 2) Planning and research required multiple media platforms to be used for the most in depth investigation into our chosen genre. The internet acted as our main source of information. Research began by using Google search engine for a broader background on social realism. It built on our knowledge on previous social realism genres which we already knew about and wanted to incorporate into our own production such as Skins. (Slide 3) Just by using Google images, we found hundreds of other social realism and British drama films, such as Fish Tank, Bullet Boy, This is England and Thirteen.

(Slide 4) We then used video sharing websites such as IMDB and YouTube to watch similar genres and acknowledge the stereotypical codes and conventions used. We aimed to watch trailers that were from independent, smaller production companies, as we would have a small budget to work with. We looked at both the ratings and comments to assess whether these trailers had been successful and if the audience had identified the codes and conventions used.

(Slide 5) To present the information that inspired us, we used Blogger, which allowed us to each individually share our experience and track our progress in creating our final product. It was an extremely simple, but effective tool to use, allowing us to embed pictures and videos from various websites, such as Prezi and YouTube.

Katie: (Slide 6) Also by using blogger, we were able to create an archive in which we could access any previous work over the course through the use of tags. Other features included publish planning documents, such as filming times and audience questionnaires. We could also customise the layout and design of the blog to match the brand appearance and style. We could also create polls, which was extremely helpful when our group could not decide between ‘DR10’ and ‘Inertia’ as our trailer title.

(Slide 7) Audience feedback was crucial for a successful trailer and ancillary texts. At AS we had hardly researched into technologies, which allowed us to receive feedback from a wider audience, we only used small focus groups at school, which had limited demographics. However, using Survey Monkey enabled anyone worldwide to watch and respond on our trailer with open-ended questions. Social networking sites such as (Slide 8) Facebook and (slide 9) Instagram were also helpful in feedback and improvement, we were able to get more likes and views on our trailer by sharing it with friends.

Bee: (Slide 10) Construction

(Slide 11) Ultimately, we decided to use an iPhone 5s for the shooting of our trailer. We considered using a higher quality camera such as a Canon and Nikon, however we needed a device that was portable and could shoot in cramped locations and slow motion. Instead we used a photography camera for the material on our ancillary texts, this enabled us to blow up pictures and alter the colour of them without interfering with the quality.

(Slide 12) Once we took practice shots of our trailer, we used Photoshop, which we had not previously used before to adjust the colour, saturation and fade of the photos, enabling us the layer them to reflect each feature of our narrative, for example, the relationship between Ross and Emma, use of the car and a police sign, then transfer these onto a Word Document to arrange the text.

Milly: (Slide 13) Once we gathered enough filming material, we began to edit our footage on iMovie, which is a free editing software on Apple Mac devices. We had previous experience with this technology from AS and our preliminary experiments, which made our editing process more efficient. With our drafted storyboard, it also made it easier for us to know in what order we wanted our shots. 

(Slide 14) We did not originally plan on using Garage Band at the beginning of our production, but as we developed our trailer we realised that there were some sound effects we wanted were not available online, royalty free. We had never used this programme before, but watching a video tutorial helped us understand the basics. We recorded our own voices and used a muffled setting on the clip to create a '999' emergency phone call sound effect.

Evaluating our work, we have noticed a great transition between the use of technologies between our preliminary, AS and A2