How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We quickly realised as a group that media technologies are invaluable within the whole construction of the film. To get a first foot through the door, research was essential. We used Youtube to research short films, watching many student films as well as professional ones. We looked for projects related to our own and observed different techniques and ideas that could inspire us to create our own film.
Technology was also valuable to the planning stage. We used Google Calendar to plan filming dates as well as website blogger which helped us to keep a log of all our ideas and plans. Within the group, Facebook and mobile phones were use to communicate ideas and meeting times as well as with the characters needed for the scenes. Software such as Microsoft Office was used to create questionnaires for feedback and handheld cameras were used to film other audience feedback.
BBFC website was used to research the film certificates and allowed us to decide the appropriate certificate for our own film. IMDB proved helpful in researching film genres and synopses.
Other media technologies such as the digital recording technology is what made the film possible and look professional. The HDV-1000 video camera and a Flash Zoom recorder allowed us to record audience research, audience feedback, the film itself and the radio trailer.
We would later import this entire media into an Apple Macintosh where we could edit these using a variety of software. Final Cut Express was essential in editing the film and bringing it all together as a finish product. This software allowed us to use creativity and improve the overall film with both video and audio. We could add different effects i.e. slow motion, wire framing, colour correction, fading and cutting. This software was used nearly every lesson in order to try and perfect our film.
Garage band was used to create the radio trailer, we chose this software as it is very simple to use and we could import sounds from our film as well as a voice over recorded and imported from the Zoom recorder. We used this to create a backing track that created an interesting and listenable radio trailer.
Image editing software, Adobe Photoshop was used in the creation of our logo and theatrical poster. Pictures for the poster were taken using a Panasonic HD handheld camera and once imported we would edit and manipulate with Photoshop. We used many different filters i.e. clouds and pasturizer in conjuction with other effects such as changes in saturation and colour levels.
Social networking sites allowed us to receive feedback for the first draft of our film and we used this feedback to develop what would be our final film. This was exported from Final Cut to be uploaded to Youtube and then linked onto the social networking site Facebook. Facebook and youtube were chosen as it has many users that could give us feedback very quickly and easily.
Technology never always fell in our favour and was often unreliable. Often Blogger wouldn’t allow us to upload pictures and the layout wasn’t entirely favourable – images were difficult to place in the desired position. There were numerous problems with video cameras i.e. battery charge and this created delays and preventing us from meeting subjective deadlines. There were other problems with fault fire wire when trying to import media as well the actual digital camera itself. The manual reel made it difficult to focus correctly and many scenes had to be re-shot as they were out of focus. There were problems with white balance and had to be colour corrected in Final Cut, as well as light issues where an entire scene had to be re-done. There were many human errors i.e. shot positions and mistakes in the acting that were not noticeable until the editing stage, mainly continuity errors.
In conclusion, technology was absolutely essential and allowed me to delve into imagination and creativity and converge many medias together. However, there are so many resources out there that it is so difficult to create original ideas and essentially everything is borrowing from someone else. The internet reduces originality as others' work and ideas are so easily accessible.
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