Media evaluation question 4

1. Evaluation Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
You will have used digital cameras and editing resources and digital sound recording equipment.
You have also used the internet for research and you have created a blog.
a) How did digital technology enable you to develop creatively and are there examples of the
technology obstructing or preventing your creativity?

2. Research
• While conducting the research section of my coursework the main new media
technology that I have used is the internet. I used a website called
"shortoftheweek.com" in order to find a short film with a similar genre to ours so
that I could analyse how the editing and cinematography techniques could be
transferred across to our film.

3. Research
• I also used the "YouTube" in order to find videos explaining different editing
techniques. This has helped me by showing me how to use them while filming
our film and also so that I can decide whether or not it will work well with the
plot of the film itself.

4. Planning
• When planning our film one of my key roles was to look into and to decide on the
certificate for our film. To help me with this I used the BBFC website which gives a
breakdown of each certificate and therefore i could match this to the script and
shot list for our own film. This meant that i could therefore give an appropriate
certificate for our film but also alter the script and the shot list in order to give
our film a certificate which would match the age of our target audience.

5. Planning
• I also used the Word program while planning our film. I used the table tool in
order to create a template for our shot list. I was able to select the number of
columns to fit all of the relevant information separated into categories and also
colour-code different blocks which helped to highlight which shots were in
different settings. This made it easier later on, while filming as it meant it was
easier to see which shots all needed doing on each separate shooting day. I also
further developed this by using the copy and paste tools to make new
documents for each day of shooting (shooting schedule).

6. Planning
• We also made use of the Celtx program to write our script for the film. It was very
helpful as it allowed us to use preset formats in order to structure the script in a
way that was easy to understand and acceptable to regular film makers. Filled
with descriptions of scenes, actors movements and expressions and also
dialogue.

7. Construction
• While shooting for our film we used "Cannon D50", "DJI osmo" cameras. The Cannon D50 gave us
a much higher image quality than the cameras used in previous years and was perfect for filming
to the standard that we needed. We used the D50 to shoot the opening scene which was set in
the house. This camera gave us great sound quality and we could adjust the focus in and out in
order to create a nice effect when the scene first begins. We used the osmo camera in the second
scene in the film and the camera comes with a hand held feature meaning we didn't have to use a
tripod and could easily complete a smooth pan or tracking shot. This has helped to enhance the
cinematography of our film and also made it more original as most people create a short film
won't have had access to tis type of camera. However with the osmo camera the sound quality is
not as good as with the D50 and therefore we had to mic up the actors while filming using apple
earphones and our iPhones. We simply recorded the sound while we were recording the footage
and matched the two together in editing.

8. Construction
• To edit our film we used Adobe Premier Pro. This included features which meant
we could insert shots into the working area and crop them down so we had the
desired shot length and content. We also re framed some shots to smoothen
transitions between them, particularly on the shots where the piece of toast gets
smaller and smaller showing it was being eaten. While editing the film we
inserted the sound files from the voice recordings and matched them up to the
footage we had used in the final film. This was made easier as premier pro shows
the sound levels at each point so we could use claps and loud sounds in order to
see where the sound from the recordings and the sound from the camera were
the same.

9. Construction
• I also used the Adobe Photoshop program when creating a poster for the film. I
am quite inexperienced with Photoshop so spent some time testing the software
for a couple of hours, I became a lot more confident using it and discovered that
it had some really useful features. I particularly liked the feature which allowed us
to alter the contrast, brightness and saturation of our background image for our
film poster. We used the ability to change font in order to make the different
features stand out more than others, specifically the title.

10. Evaluation
• Blogger is one of the main components used for our coursework and film
planning. It is a place where we can store all of our research, planning,
construction and evaluation posts in order to work together as a group and it also
allows us to post individual work to help each other. Dates and labels are also
used so we know who made certain posts and when and also allowed us to meet
deadlines and plan our film correctly without being behind. Blogger has a feature
where it allows you to embed different features such as videos from YouTube,
PowerPoint presentations and images in order to keep a nice variation of media
texts and to keep our work nicely illustrated.

11. Evaluation
• I used PowerPoint as a way to present some of my evaluation. This was good
because it meant I could separate each section into different slides with clear
headings to which part of the project it has helped me with. I could also copy and
paste screenshots of my work and the programmes which I have used. This is
good because it means that it was illustrated and easy for people who read it to
understand what I have been doing throughout. Once I had finished my
PowerPoint I used Slide Share in order to import it to blogger.