3. Mahara Blog
We used Mahara to store our blog, we have used this a lot to write and keep track of our
work as we went along with our research. Mahara is easy to use to constantly update
your progress and easy to find friends/ teachers. Using this website to import pictures
videos and we were able to embed videos straight from our Youtube channels.
4. Google docs / Word
I have merged these two together as i have used it for both reason anyway; We have
used these to write up our risk assessment when it comes to our filming day, and also we
have used this to create a planning sheet to help us with our filming day.
The good thing about google docs is that we can connect with our friends and edit a
document together, so we really like it and this is what we use to get informations and
post updates on our blog such as pictures of magazines or the progress we are making in
terms of editing, rather than using email which takes long.
5. Survey Monkey
We have used survey monkey to get feedbacks informations from our students mate ,
what they think about our final piece. We constructed a questionnaire that was posted
on our blogs which helped us convert this into a pie chart and get response on what we
needed to improve on.
6. Youtube
I have used youtube to research for film trailers that are similar with our genre. I got my
research from the help from the internet’ and other websites like google. Google was
another useful search engine, i prefer this rather than other search engines as it contains
most relevant posts. I used google to search about informations and images and certain
topics related to our genre so i can back up reference with it.
We have also used Youtube to share our videos, it was therefore easy for everyone to
watch it as we already subscribed to one another which makes it accessible. Also, we got
our feedbacks from our fellow student mates on our final product.
8. Google slides/ Prezi / Slideshare
In terms of presentation, i have combined these 3 online software. I have used these to
carry out my research and present my work shown on my blog. We have used prezi to
present our pitch in front of our class, and from this we have included all our initial ideas
including out storyline and what genre we are going for and what influenced us. I felt that
using 3 different software allowed me to stay creative as i have plenty to choose form to
present my work or research that i have found out. It was the most useful and it was clear
to those who is reading it. I have used google presentation to split up each conventions of
magazines, and use this to show comparisons of what could work well with our chosen
magazine front cover
10. Mac/ Macbook
Macbooks are the computers that we use heavily in media Studies, it has everything that
we need. I found it easy to figure out how to work a mac as i own myself a Macbook so it
shares similar shortcuts etc. It gave us more time to ‘fiddle’ around and experiment when
it comes to editing our final product. The Mac’s are accessible at college and it was useful
because we had a Mac each to do our own research or do other programs such as
Garageband, Photoshop and one of us could be helping with the editing using Final cut
pro. I personally think that Mac’s are better than those normal computers, it is much
more professional and easy to use therefore we worked our final product to the best
standards.
11. Canon 550D - DSLR
The canon 550d is dlsr which has a good resolution when it comes taking a picture and recording a video. This was
one of the most important pieces for our trailer as it allowed us to take a good resolution of videos, this adds the
the professionalism of our product which was good. The camera were accessible from college and around the
campus, we were able to take it outside, we didn’t have limits of where we can go which was also good. There are
also a manual setting where you can adjust the lighting which comes in handy when you are outside and the sun
suddenly change. We were lucky because the weather that day was bearable, the sun was out and we were able to
maintain the lighting that we had from previous shot, especially when we were inside and we were filming near the
window. Moreover, the light setting available in the DSLR worked well in our scene especially in low lighting under
the tunnel shot as we were able to get a focus on our character and the face were still visible without having the
need to use extra light.
12. Microphone
The microphone was used for our voiceover towards the end of our
trailer, this equipment was very useful as it was vital in our trailer, it also
gave us a clear voice over instead of using the built in microphone using
the mac which can pick up other noises in the background; this made it
sounds more professional which created as if it was recorded in a studio.
The microphone was easy to use as it was already connected through a
USB port to the mac and it was accessible from college which was also
useful. From previous years, i have learnt from AS how to transfer clips
onto the mac so it helped me and my group as it gave us more time to
edit the clips.
13. Memory stick/ USB stick
A memory stick was useful when it comes to transferring files made by other student in
my group from their Mac to the group’s. For example, while my group was editing our
trailer i had the job to research our company ident and company logo on my mac and
later on we have used a memory stick to transfer the file. We have also used a memory
stick to transfer the soundtrack from garageband to Final cut , this has spared us a lot of
time as we were able to get on with our work so we won't fall behind.
14. Tripod
This came in very handy, during our shot we have used this
to shoot our still pictures for our magazine front cover and
for our posters. However, in terms of filming, we have not
used it as much as we thought we would, this is because we
chose to shoot in handheld because it was easier for us to
shoot a scene where it makes it personal to the audience and
also it makes it fit in nicely with the crime/ action we were
going for. However, it was extremely useful when filming
pans or a close up as it kept it steady when we were
adjusting the lens on the camera; this created a professional
outlook.
16. Gargeband
We have used garageband to mess around with different
sound that could potentially be our soundtrack by combining
and mixing different sounds in. At first, i have carried out a
research on sounds that best suit action films and
downloaded free sounds from Soundfx and then used this as
a starting point, by the time we got familiarise with garage
band, we then decided to stick to 2-4 different sound and
just adjust it to suit our trailer where it gets to the middle bit
where the ‘action’ fast paced happens.
17. Final cut pro
Last year we had the chance to take down notes on the key shortcut in using final cut, so this year
during my A level i was able to remember the shortcuts and this again spared me a huge amount of
time and it made it easier to use. (Using shortcuts such as; Arrow tool, Blade tool, copy, cut, paste,
Duplicate clips, copy the effects and colour.
The auto save in final is very useful, there are times where the mac was slower as many applications
are in use at once, meaning that we did not lose any work during the process. Using final cut pro for
our trailer benefits us as it is very good editing programme. We were also able to input our photos of
our stills, or images that was used for our montage.It made it easier for us to edit our montage as the
tool on final cut was clearly labelled, we also took advantage of the overlay tool and the match colour
effects so we were able to maintain a certian effect within our trailer.
Once that we were finished with the soundtrack we have transferred it on final cut and made sure that
it all fitted with the timeline. There are bits where we have decided to trim the sound clip a bit and
also adjusted the volume, for example layering the voiceover with the sound clip .
18. Imovie
Imovie was an alternative software similar to final cut but with less tools available. I have
only used this software once as i did not have ‘final cut’ downloaded on my Mac and i
created my animated storyboard and the animated company ident. I have done this by
importing pictures from my memory stick and laid it out on my timeline and used jump
cuts so the transition is faster.
19. For our magazine and poster we have used photoshop software to edit. Unfortunately, i
cannot use photoshop but we were lucky enough to have someone in our group who
knows very well and gets the hang of editing our media ancillary texts. I have helped her
create our company logo and i was the one who made it look like it is animated.
Just like our trailer, we decided to stick with the overlay to make it look iconic to our
audience. What Megan did was she blended/merged 2 different pictures together
(picutres from our stills and the iconic scene in our trailer) In order to do this, it was quite
similar with Final cut and turned down the opacity till the 2nd pictures at the back was
less visible.
