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

Evaluation-Question 4

During the research phase of my production, I used YouTube to find existing soap opera trailers such as ones for EastEnders and Hollyoaks and then I analysed the codes and conventions of these products. YouTube proved to be a great form of digital technology to use for research as it offered a variety of existing soap operas for me to view , it even gave the option to view non British soap operas such as Home and Away and neighbours. Through this I was able to compare British soaps to others and realise that whilst other soap operas glamourized life British soap operas gave a sense of realism , which is a convention.

Whilst using YouTube I either had a PowerPoint presentation up besides it where I would screen shot certain aspects of the clip such as the use of an establishing shot in the opening to introduce the location , & then transfer this screen shot to the PowerPoint document for analysis once the clip had ended or I sometimes had a word document opened so that whilst I was watching the clip on the YouTube page I could also be typing my analysis down so I would not forget it once the clip had ended.

YouTube proved to be a very useful and efficient digital technology to use for my research as I was able to see examples of existing soap opera trailers and choose aspects to incorporate into my own trailer and those to avoid. This can be seen with our decision to create a storyline specific trailer. After watching examples of seasonal trailers we decided that trying to create one would be too difficult for the group due to our lack of actors and time , this was also the same decision we made once watching a thematic trailer, whilst they did look interesting they would be to difficult for us to create , therefore we chose to create a storyline specific trailer as we realised that after viewing a few like this we believe that we could be time efficient and create a good storyline specific trailer as opposed to creating a thematic or seasonal one.

During my research into the ancillary tasks I mainly used the Google search engine to find results on existing soap opera magazines and posters. I believe that google was the best suited form of () to use as it gave thousands of examples for the soap opera magazines. By searching with Google I was able to see various soap opera magazines , ranging from Soap life to TV Choice this proved important as I was able to analyse the conventions of different soap opera magazines.. This was a really quick and effective way of gathering my research as the results given from the search included old as well as new soap opera magazines , it even showed examples of soap opera magazines created by other A level students.

Research

Here you can see that by using Google I was given Numerous amounts of relevant results for my research

Planning During the planning stages of my production I created a storyboard and

shot list for our trailer onto A2 paper as a rough copy of what we wanted to include in our trailer ,However I later transferred these images to final cut pro X to create an animatic storyboard this was really beneficial as final cut pro allowed us to add voice over and music to accompany the shots , which gave us a better understanding of how our trailer would look once we had completed it.

In addition to this we also created an online survey on survey monkey to gain feedback from our audience, this enabled us to gain some valuable feedback , and proved much easier than creating the survey by hand and then distributing them and having to collect them again , by using survey monkey we were all able to view the results at anytime

Filming&Editing:Trailer

To film our trailer we used a Cannon camera. This proved to be the best camera for us as it enabled us to easily transfer the footage onto our Mac computers , which we we were then able to edit using Final cut pro X. Final cut pro was a very good editing software as it allowed us to add special effects and cut specific parts of the clip using various tools such as the blade, which meant our editing looked smoother. The Mac computers were really good to use as it allowed us to use sophisticated programmes that were not available on the other computers in our school, such as The Dell computers. Using the tripod helped to keep the camera steady and help us record better.

Final Cut Pro X

Magazine and Poster We used a Nikon camera to take the photos for our magazine , this was done in the planning stage of our production, at first we did not use a tripod and we then noticed that because of this our images were blurry , so we then rescheduled another photo-shoot where we used the Nikon camera as well as a tripod.

In addition to this we also used photo shop for the construction of both ancillary tasks . This proved to be a great software to use due to all the functions and editing tools it offered. This helped us to create a realistic soap opera magazine and poster, as opposed to software’s such as Microsoft publisher .Photoshop was also a great software to use due to the availability of tutorials available for beginners on how to use this programmed , which really helped me to complete my products

Evaluation

For my evaluation I used several different methods of presenting my answers. Each software proved best suited for the question. For example using Final Cut Pro to create a video which I then uploaded on to YouTube , was best suited for answering the question ‘How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?’. This proved the best suited as I was able to present the magazine and poster at the same time as having a voice over of the specific areas of the magazine and poster I was discussing. I was also able to zoom into these areas by using the Kens Burns effect. In addition to this I also used Emaze,Prezi and slide share.