Evaluation - technologies

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

Throughout my course work, I have used a range of new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages, which has eventually led me to creating a poster, magazine cover and teaser trailers. For starters, my overall campaign has been presented on Blogger. Following this, I also had to create my own Sound Cloud account, as well as feeling comfortable with Youtube. I used these sites for embedding and uploading audio/visual files onto my blog posts. 

At the start, I found it quite confusing to understand how to use the technology accordingly, however, as my skills progressed I gathered a much better perception on the tasks I had to perform. Blogger enabled me to organise my tasks accordingly, making it a lot more efficient and sustainable. This is mainly in regards to my audience, as they are clearly able to view my research, with accompanying images, videos and audio files, in order to enhance a sense of engagement for them. 

New media technologies has widely come into play, whilst creating my film poster, such as Photoshop. Photo shop allowed me to use tools and blend certain effects to achieve effective, eye catching results for audiences. 

Below I have placed a screen shot of the tool bar, a long with a screen shot of my poster in the post-production process on photoshop. 

For instance, in order to cut out the image of my central antagonist, to use for my dominant central image, I used the magnetic lasso tool. This was useful as it allowed me to draw freeform segments, around a selection boarder. Additionally, this tool was beneficial as it enabled me select areas around my characters body, which had well defined edges. 

Below you can see how I achieved this:

Additionally, I also used the smudge tool, in order to create a 'lens blur effect'. This helped me blend my over all image, thus boosting its aesthetics. 

I went through various stages in the creation of my poster, whereby I individually added each of the poster conventions; e.g. dominant central image, names of stars and the 'white reflection' behind the antagonist. This enforced a compelling appearance for audiences, which was exactly what I had hoped for. Furthermore, I was able to express a clear indication to Horror genre, through photoshops abilities of allowing me to play around with colour schemes and fonts. I therefore ended up with dark, neutral colours and forceful text. 

When it came to creating my magazine cover, I also used a high range of new media technologies, as I also created this on photoshop. I was therefore able to crop and move around images, in order to give an authentic feel to existing magazine covers, of a similar publication.

During the post production process for my magazine, I went under many different stages. For instance, I flattened the image, by merging the layers together. Essentially, this merged all the photoshop layers, to one back ground layer. 

Below is the image of my final magazine cover, once flattened:

Although visibly, my magazine cover looked the same as it did just before being flattened, this worked beneficially as it meant that it was easier for me to align everything, as well as making it appear more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.   

Below I have included a screen shot of the Drop Shadows tool. I used this for creating more depth for words on my cover, especially the mast head. This made texts stand out more, thus being more captivating and engaging for audiences. Drop shadow's are created by separating the object from the background, before adding in a custom shadow.  

This is a screenshot of my mast head, and you can clearly see how I have altered the shadows, in order to emphasize the dramatic effect. 

I feel as though I used the most advanced form of new media technology when it came to creating my teaser trailer. 

The software I used to edit my teaser trailer on was called Adobe Premier and it was all done on a PC. 

For the filming of all my shots I used the HC-VX980 Camera, which enabled me to produce high quality motion images. I was also able to delete any of the shots which I wasn't happy with.

In order to get steady shots, I used the Manfrotto Tripod. 

I was able to implement songs I wanted for my teaser trailer, via importing them in from Spotify. Although the slower piano music at the start accurately positioned the audience with the relationship between my characters, I feel as though this music was more suited to a thriller genre. I could have thought about editing the music, by speeding it up a bit. 

Towards the beginning of my teaser trailer, I included shots of my antagonist taking photographs of both my protagonists. Technology enabled me to manipulate shots to make them appear as photographs, as wanted to make it appear sinister as possible. I used camera sounds from BBC's sound effects library, and I also used four frames of white, in order to symbolise the camera flash. 

Below I have included the sound file for this:

 

Another way in which I ensured these photos looked as though they were being taken by the pyscho ex boyfriend stalker, I turned the photos black and white, as they needed to look different from my other other shots. I did this by turning the saturation down on Premiere to zero, as well as turning up the contrast. 

I also cropped the images, using the crop tool, in order to get a close up. I did this as I felt it would create more intensity and mystery for the audience, as they wouldn't be aware as to where the stalker was taking these photos from. 

My research taught me that tag lines were consistent conventions in all teaser trailers, as well as posters. Therefore I felt as though it was necessary that I put mine in. I created my tag lines using photoshop. 

In the final part of my trailer, I cut to black, where my films title came in. 

The way in which I managed to achieve this was via two photoshop images; one with 'BOYFRIEND' and one with 'X' behind it. I cut from one to the other, and I put shadowing behind 'boyfriend' to make it look more 3d and more distinct from the 'X', so they wouldn't clash. I used the drop shadow key to achieve this, like I did on my magazine cover. 

I also used key scaling to start the shot with the boyfriend, and it ends with the actual image being in the same place it actually should be. 

When the 'X' appears it faded into a negative and the colours were inverted, then faded into a normal one with an impact sound underneath it. 

I also used photoshop to create the image for my billing. 

I also organised all my shots by uploading each of them into editing bins. As I labelled each shot accordingly, I didn't find it that confusing to access each of my shots. Along with my shots, I also had separate bins for music, titles and sound effects. This worked out extremely beneficial to me during the editing process. For instance, I managed to get things done in a much more orderly and efficient pattern. My bins also enabled me to stick to my trailers running order, which I had created, much more accurately as well. 

The software I used, Adobe Premiere, also had a multitrack feature. This allowed me to place all my existing shots onto one single layer. I was then able to place my other features, i.e. sound effects, music and captions onto separate layers. Again, this worked out extremely beneficial for me. 

My teaser trailer included a number of voice overs, for instance when my female protagonist shouts "It's my ex boyfriend, I think he's stalking me!!'

I faded down the volume of music whenever there was any dialogue from actors, especially in the third part of my trailer, where the music was the loudest. 

I recorded my voice overs on the same camera, which I recorded the rest of my shots on and then uploaded them onto the computer. 

Below is a screen grab from one of my voice over shots:

During the shot where I included the phone call of my antagonist speaking through the phone, I included a sound effect of a ring tone from the BBC sound effects library. I did this instead of using the Apple Iphone ringtone which I recorded, as this didn't sound like a typical ringtone which is used in a Horror trailer. I also equalised the sound, by taking out some bass and treble, in order to make the phone call sound more realistic. I performed this equalising task during producing my radio show, therefore, this time around I felt a lot more confident whilst doing this for my teaser trailer. 

Overall, modern media technology enabled me to produce an effective marketing campaign, including a Teaser trailer, poster and magazine, for my Horror film. I feel as though I managed to convey all the conventions, from existing examples, to the best of my ability. Moreover, I feel as though my skills have largely developed from the production of my AS work, and I have gained further insight into the production stages which Hollywood takes part in when producing marketing campaigns.