How Did I Use Media Technology In The Construction, Research, Planning And Evaluation Stages?

Media technology is updating across the world constantly, meaning people who previously would be limited to unprofessional looking products, now have the resources to both research and create well polished work that can be used to make a profit. I used many aspects of media technology in the creation of the DIABOLUS trailer.

Research:
The first element of media technology that I used in order to research what makes a good Horror trailer, and the genre in general, was a computer and specifically, the Internet. I used this in nearly every stage of my research, from watching real trailers on Youtube so I could analyse them, to looking up fake blood recipes on Google. Not only this but I used the website Survey Monkey to create a questionnaire for the target audience of DIABOLUS. Once you create the questionnaire, you send the link to your audience who then fill it in, click enter and you have the results on the site along with options to view the answers as tables etc. During the research stage I also watched Horror films such as 'Let The Right One In' and 'House Of Wax' which I then analysed to figure out the codes and conventions of the genre they followed/challenged. I used Google to look at magazine covers and posters so that I could create my own realistic ancillary texts.

Planning:
After research, we started planning our trailer and although much of this was on paper, using the knowledge we learnt from researching the horror genre and how to put together a trailer, we still used media technology in some places. A good example of this is how I used this website Blogger in order to present the work we did at every stage. Online blogs are a good example of how media technology has progressed because it is so easy to link together anything you want to on the web via Blogger. Instead of uploading a whole video yourself, you can upload it to Youtube, from which you can embed the video instead. I did this by opening a video in youtube, copying the embed link (shown above) and pasting it into the HTML editing section on my blog post. It made showing examples of real trailers very easy without having a unattractive hyperlink URL in the middle of a post. In this way, I also uploaded Power-Points to a Website called Slideshare, and embedded them onto this blog too.

During this time, our group went on a recce of the locations we wanted to film in, and we used digital cameras to take pictures of places we thought would make interesting shots. In this way, we were able to see how different angles would look without having to bring along a film camera and tripod.

Construction:
This stage was split into two main parts: the collections of the footage and photographs, and the editing. In order to film our trailer we used a Panasonic HD Film Camera that to be honest, apart from pressing record, we didn't mess around with settings wise. The flip screen was useful in some parts of filming though, e.g. when Chris had to walk with the camera- the adjustable screen meant he could see where he was shooting. Again, for the photographs on our poster and magazine covers we used a digital camera.

When it came to editing, there were two main programmes we used: Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop. Premier Pro is a video editing programme that allows you to import all your footage and then load certain shots onto the timeline meaning that you constantly have easy access to the next shot. The layout of it, with multiple screens, makes it simpler for the editor to synchronise up shots for smooth match-on action that creates realism within your product. When we decided where we would like the cut, we used either the razor  tool to completely cut the footage into two or another option which allowed us to hide the extra footage either side of the in and out points, so that if we want to slightly change the cut at a later date we could do so without having to move the original footage over. This saved us time later on when we had already completed colour editing etc. After we finished the image editing, we went through and systematically removed the surplus audio to create a more professional product. Once this was done, we used the internet to find copywrite-free music and foley sounds which we downloaded and put onto the timeline to create a soundtrack. An advantage of Premier pro is that it has several audio track spaces, meaning you can layer them and have more than one piece of audio occurring at once. You can also do this with video footage which is what we did when Chris wakes up near the start- there is a second edited layer of footage superimposed over the first with the opacity turned down which creates a disorientated look. After we finished the sound, we went through and used the editing options on Premier Pro to colour edit the shots to make them darker and more atmospheric.  Lastly, we rendered and converted the whole video into a file that could be uploaded to Youtube.

In order to turn the pictures I took into a poster and magazine cover, I used Photoshop which allowed me to manipulate the actual image and layer shapes and text over the top of this to create the finished products. On the original picture of me, firstly I carried out colour editing to make my skin whiter, and the contrast more effective. Then I began to edit my eye colour to create a milky colour to show the possession that had taken place. I did this by selecting my iris with the Quick Selection Tool and then playing around with the colour of it. After this, I used the Brush Tool and Smudge Tool to smooth the edges so it didn't look as fake. After this I used the Type and Shape Tools to add on the elements of a poster and a magazine cover.

Evaluation:
For this, there wasn't much media technology to be used that hasn't been previously mentioned, e.g. Blogger, but I also used Microsoft Word and a projector to show my peers the DIABOLUS trailer.

In conclusion, I think it's fair to say that the development of media technology is crucial to saving time and money for everyone, in every stage of creating a media product. Especially useful for pro-sumers is the Internet during the research stage. Essentially, development within the media world has opened up access to many people who previously would have found it much harder to create their own media product, e.g. a film trailer. Not only is it good for people learning about the media, but also for real independent producers who can make products with a minimum budget and release it online.