How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning

and evaluation stages?

Research – Internet

We used the internet to research the conventions of short films, we did by looking over the work of the past years media groups.

We also used it to familiarise ourselves with the media theories that apply to this media format such as Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory, which we used to develop the narrative of our film

Through the internet we were also able to research movies through the IMDB, this allowed us to research movies that had the same genre as our short films, which we could draw inspiration from.

Research – Books

We used the schools library as a place of research as they had books which were dedicated to explaining media theories and the conventions of the different media formats

The school also subscribed to a media magazine, which we could access, this particularly came in handy as it provided us with first hand experience of what the conventions of film reviews are, which we later applied to the construction of our own film review for our ancillary task

Research - Youtube

We conducted research on Youtube, by finding channels that would offer tutorials on different film techniques

An example of this was the channel Film Riot which we watched tutorials about filming, for example we learned how to properly conduct auditions, and that we shouldn’t criticise the actor and should not make them uncomfortable, but instead we should make them as comfortable as possible and thank them for their time

The channel also offered tutorials on how to achieve Hollywood standard filming on a smaller budget, which we took notice of and applied to the filming of our own film.

Research – First Hand Experience

We mainly used this research method in scouting locations for our film This allowed us to get first hand look of the place and first see if it was

right for the scene we had planned, then we would pick out possible camera positions and we would plan the layout of the scene, which we would then transfer into the format of a blocking plan which we would then use during the filming process.

This allowed us to be prepared for our filming sessions as we had full confidence that we knew the location and that we had already picked the fright camera positions to capture he best shots for our film

Planning – Photoshop

Photoshop was used in the planning stages to create the storyboards which were then turned into the animatics we showed to the actors.

It was also used for the production of the ancillary tasks as we used the image manipulation tools to make the film poster which we would then develop with the other tools such as altering the contrast of the photo to make the image look crisper and more professional.

Photoshop was instrumental in the creation of the movie review as it allowed us to layer text with images which we then manipulated into a layout which fit the conventions presented by professional movie reviews.

Construction – Camera

The camera that we used for our film was the Cannon 7D, we chose this camera over the Sony HVR A1E, as the Cannon produced the best quality filming which we wanted for our film. We discovered this after we had created a demo reel with each camera, and the footage captured by the Cannon was produced at a higher quality then the Sony

We practised filming with this camera, so that when we came to filming we would be proficient enough with the camera, so that we could capture the footage efficiently

Construction – Microphone

The microphone that we used was the Rode Video Mic. We used this microphone as it was built to focus its recording on the

audio in front of it, so it eliminates most of the background noise which usually clutters up the audio of a film.

It is also mounted on a cradle which will prevent it from rocking and missing audio, this was an advantage as a couple of our camera shots are handheld, and this helped to keep the audio to a good standard during these situations.

Construction – Editing Software

The software that we used to edit our film was Adobe Premier Pro CS4 We got to grips with this software by using during the editing of the

behind the scenes videos that we did for our Youtube channel. It allowed us to cut out the specific parts of the recordings that we

wanted, we would then drop them into a timeline which we could manipulate the clips into the order that we wanted for our short film

The program also allowed us to import audio files which we could manipulate aspects of it such as its sound and its length. We could then overlay this on our clips to be included within the film.

Premier Pro also allowed us to make post production changes such as changing the colour contrast or the movie and adding black bars which added a sense of professionalism to the film.

Evaluation – Microsoft Office

Microsoft office was used for the initial write up of my evaluation which I would then transfer into different formats so as to make it more interesting.