How did you use new Media Technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?"

In order to research, plan, construct and evaluate the main and ancillary products it was essential to exploit the benefits of new media technologies. Below are icons and screenshots of the various programs used with an explanation on their prevalence.

Youtube
Youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/, exploits one of the newest growing Web 2.0 phenomenon, allowing easy access to homemade and professional videos and the ability to upload own media. The use of youtube was essential in the planning stages and allowed me to search through an endless supply of horror movie trailer free of charge. This was useful to gather and present ideas; linking blogger and youtube was easy with an embedding code and thereon I could write about and evaluate a video. investigating the horror and trailer conventions that I felt were helpful to me. The easy access of youtube meant that finding research material was easy and relevant - relevant because youtube is about video media and therefore the website is respectful of video quality and copyright infractions. In addition to research, youtube is a useful means of presenting the final trailer. Uploading the final trailer video onto youtube meant that it could be viewed on and shared easily. This meant I could present it effortlessly on my blog and importantly, share the link to the video in order to gain audience feedback and make any necessary amendments.

Survey Monkey
Survery Monkey, at http://www.surveymonkey.com/, is a free-to-use Web 2.0 internet website/program that allows a user to navigate or create surveys and questionnaires. Survey Monkey was an essential step research and planning portion of the coursework and allowed me to tailer-make a questionnaire that asked questions that I needed. The benefit of using this website is that questionnaires are created in an interactive digital format with a direct link/url which meant it could be easily shared with peers. The additional advantage is that the questionnaire was embeddable, leaving me the oppurtunity to embed a working version of the questionnaire onto my blog as both: a working example and the oppurtunity to gain more relevant information.

Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is an official email program created by Microsoft and is present in my workplaces and accessable by most computers with internet. I made use of Microsoft Outlook as an extension of the use of Survey Monkey. Using the link/url supplied with the created questionnaire I created an email to peer groups and teachers within college asking them to answer my questionnaire. This was very useful as a means of planning, giving me a direct connection to my peer group, who are the target group for the horror genre, as well as gathering opinions from other age ranges. The direct link meant that the interactive questionnaire could be answered quickly and was hastle free, with little pressure in answering it and lying about answers to questions.

Facebook
Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/, is the worlds most visited social networking website and allows users to share videos, pictures, web media and exchange comments between peers. Facebook was used in a similar way to Microsoft Outlook; sharing the questionnaire link/url offered Facebook friends the oppurtunity to answer questions in a hastle-free environment. This was essential in the planning stage as we could acquire a high range of response material from our targeted audience.

Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a program created by Microsoft typically for business purposes and allows the user to configure and present data in a number of ways. Using excel was fundamental in the planning stage and allowed me to configure, present and evaluate the questionnaire responses. Tallying the responses from Survey Monkey meant I could generate graphs to present the data; the visual representation of findings was an essential way to present target audience trends and helped mould the plot and production of the final product. Saving the Excel graphs as jpeg images meant they could be easily uploaded and evaluated within my blog.


Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is non-linear industry quality video editing program designed specifically for use on Apple Macs. There are several benefits in using Final Cut Pro on a Mac; the speed and power of the Mac and the program meant that video editing and reviewing was smooth and effortless while the program itself was professional and easy to use. Final Cut Pro is the main program used in the creation of the final film trailer. Learning to use the software was fairly easy as I have had some experience in the use of Adobe Premiere Pro and so I had to adjust to the interface of the program. Through extensive use of this program I learned the benefit of colour-corrections and the effectiveness of transitions - for instance where and when to use cuts or dissolves. I found the system for creating titles were far more diverse and the overall interface was less confusing and more managable than anything I have worked with before. It quickly became apparent that from the multitude of various editing options which ones were suited to both the context of our trailer and to the horror genre as a whole. In fact; the production of the video was limited mainly to altering the length, brightness, contrast and colouration of the scene. The use of keyframes was a learned experience for me and helped me to understand the ways in which effects and transitions can be applied to complement the edit. Using this program meant that the imported video maintained a high level of quality throughout editing and with export; the export file is a widely recognised file which meant it could be easily uploaded onto youtube for sharing, reviewing, presenting and evaluating.



Garageband
Garageband is an exclusive Apple Mac product that allows a user to simulate, record, order and create their own music. For this reason, Garageband was essential in the construction process to tailor-make a soundtrack for the "Monk" movie trailer. Where Final Cut Pro specialises in moving imagery, Garageband specialises in the manipulation and creation of audio. I found this program very useful in creating and layering various pieces of music to form my own audio piece; the program was fairly to simple to use and meant that I could create my own sounds and merge them with pre-existing music (more below) to make music that fit well with the trailer. The benefit of Garageband is it's convergence with Final Cut Pro, whereby the visual elements of the trailer could be imported and therefore allowed for the soundtrack to be edited in perfect timing with the visuals. This convergence also allowed for easy transference/exportation of the audio back into the Final Cut Pro project to finalise the entirety of the trailer.




Incompetec


Incompetech, at http://www.incompetech.com/, is royalty-free music website which allowed me to browse through a variety of free-to-download music tracks. Finding the right tracks was time consuming but necessary to find sounds that I could otherwise not make myself. Downloading the song itself was easy and saved as an .mp3 file, meaning it could be easily imported into both Final Cut Pro and Garageband.


Adobe Photoshop CS5


Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the latest digital photo manipulation/processing program available from Adobe - Photoshop has prevalence throughout the world and is the absolute best in it's field of digital manipulation. Photoshop was essential in the construction stages of the ancillary products - the movie poster and magazine cover. Photoshop allowed me to manipulate primary source images in a number of ways that helped to create a recurrant theme presented in the final film trailer. Previous experience in Photoshop meant that I found the construction of these pieces easy and enjoyable and I feel I have created a product I am happy with. The benefit of Photoshop meant I could use many layers of effects and imagery, in some cases hundreds, to achieve my final piece; this is supported by the use of .psd files (Photoshop Document Files) whereby I saved the project as .psd and allowed me to manipulate the various layers each time I opened it. Upon finishing I saved the images as a well recognised and accepted .jpeg file, this allowed for easy uploading onto flickr and my blog for further presentation and evaluation.

Blogger
Blogger, at http://www.blogger.com/, is used in order to exploit technological advances and Web 2.0 technology. The entirety of the A2 Media coursework makes use of this modern day technology as a way of grouping together the planning, constructing, researching and evaluating stages of the coursework brief. Using a blog service is a brilliant way to construct a portfolio of coursework in a realistic manner; blogs are the online version of diaries and so using a blog is a new and visually appealing way of presenting work. Updating the work online means that the coursework can be accessed anywhere and more importantly can be assessed by a teacher anywhere at anytime. Recieving comments from the teacher on my blog has been useful in altering my material to ensure I attain my best possible grade. The main benefit however, is it's versatility in presentation - the proliferation of the website "Blogger" has meant that I can directly link between other media websites such as Flickr and Youtube to present research, planning and the final products.

Flickr
Flickr, at http://www.flickr.com/, is, like youtube, another Web 2.o based website that allows for the easy navigation of amateur and professional photography, with the ability to upload own content. Flickr was an excellent help in planning and researching for the final and ancillary products. Using Flickr I uploaded screen shots, movie posters and magazine covers of sample work and my own ancillary tasks; using Flickr's annotation tool I applied annotation directly onto the image and then subsequently linked the image onto my A2 media blog. This was a new and exciting way of performing a textual analysis of media products and exploits new digital media. Using the direct annotation tool made it easier to highlight portions of images and made the analysis clearer and more visually appealing.

In terms of evalution; I found the use of a blogging program refreshing and creative as opposed to a traditional paper-based or essay-based format. My experience in other A2 subjects: Photography and Communication and Culture helped me to shape the way my blog could be viewed and alternatively widened my range of presentation devices in these other subjects. I felt it was useful to incorporate the technological zeitgeist and combine work from various internet-based sources such as: flickr, youtube and blogger. To me, it meant that various type of medium: text, still images and audio-visual content could be presented and evaluated visually; it allows the viewer to remain engaged and interested due to a wider range of stimulus. While some people prefer to remain conservative and traditional by writing an abundance of essays; I enjoyed presenting work in an organised and visually enticing way that was intune with modern technology.