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

Without media technologies it would not be possible to construct my media products. Media technologies have been a huge contribution to the process of construction, research, planning, and evaluation stages.

Throughout the whole making of my coursework I used an Internet site called Blogger to present my work upon. This has been a huge advantage for both my teachers and I because it has allowed easy access, anywhere and anytime to my coursework making my coursework inputs flexible in addition to my lessons. My teachers have been able to view my work and keep track of what I have been posting and my peers have been able to access each other's Blogs for help and guidance. The element of feedback can be gained as people can comment your posts and give criticisms and positive guidance.

Firstly, construction stages involve many media technologies due to editing, filming and the creation of both the film poster and magazine cover. When filming our trailer we used a digital camera to shoot our scenes, we then used an editing programme called 'Pinnacle'. This programme allowed us to finely edit our footage, add sound tracks, add transactions and titles- this enabled us to sort through the best suited and quality footage and add elements such as titles (as seen on the left) to further elaborate what my partner and I are trying to represent. When producing our film poster we used a programme called 'Photo Shop' which allowed my partner and I to first fix the image we was going to make into a film poster, by increasing the quality of the image, colour boosting and adding a higher contrast to make the image more eye catching. After this we were able to add word art on to the image to make it more believable as a film poster. We used the Internet to research images on 'Google Images' of existing film posters to grasp an idea on how to present our own poster. The accessibility of the Internet helped gain relevant ideas such as including a quote from the magazine company, 'Empire'- this was something that was not previously considered and without the Internet we would not have included this feature. On the other hand, the construction of the magazine cover was processed on the Microsoft programme 'Publisher' this application gave a wide range of features that we used in the process of creation. For example, various types of font and colour were available to be incorporated on to our magazine cover which made it more interesting as a product because audience would be drawn in to reading it- increasing popularity to the media products.

Research consisted of the analysis of film posters, magazine covers and trailers- Internet sites, such as, Google and YouTube were a vital necessity when producing this work as I needed to first gain the images and videos in order to analyse them. Throughout the research stage I have also created questionnaire on 'Microsoft Word' to be given out to the potential target audience to receive information about what they enjoy about trailers. Once collected this information was inputted to 'Microsoft Excel' whereby numerous bar, line and pie charts we established in order to present the findings of the research. Technology on this part was hugely rewarded as it made this process easier, quicker and cheaper.

The planning stages of the film trailer consisted of the creation of:

• Mind maps- these were created on 'Microsoft Word' allowing arrows and texts boxes to express our ideas.


• Shooting scripts- these were made on 'Microsoft Word' an existing template was used, in order to input dates and procedures for those days, making it easier in the production process.


• Scripts- also formed on 'Microsoft Word' fonts on this programme allowed the script to look realistic.


• Call sheets- again processed on 'Microsoft Word' an existing template consisting of named text boxes allowed instructions to be made about filming.


• Shot lists- a simple list was formed in chronological order upon the programme 'Microsoft Word'.


• Location shots- occupied by the Internet function of 'Google Maps' access to the street view gave images to potential areas we could film and directions on how to get there.


• Props list- established on 'Microsoft Word' images were found on 'Google Images' to make the piece more presentable and eye catching.


• Cast list- this was directly inputted to 'Blogger' images were gained using a digital camera to let the audience know who the cast were.


• Job roles- directly posted on 'Blogger' and the images were again captured on a digital camera so the audience is aware on who produced the film trailer.


• Story board- an existing template on 'Microsoft Word' allowed easier creation and cut down time wasting. We in ported images from print screens of existing footage we had and may have used in our final cut.

The planning for both our film poster and magazine cover differed slightly. Although we do use the Internet to gain existing images of these two media products through 'Google Images' this allowed ideas to be developed and later portrayed in our work. The planning was directly uploaded on to our blog and consisted of images gained from a photo shoot using a digital camera. These images signified potential magazine and film poster covers and through the use of a blogger we were able to upload them on to a post and write about their strengths, weaknesses and their suitability factor. When my partner and I decided on a idea for both ancillary task we stretched up an abbreviation to interpret what we expected from the final outcome, I then scanned this sketch so that it could be finally uploaded. Choosing the programme for both tasks was easily done, as the film poster image needed to be edited so this function was found in 'Photo Shop'; whereas the applications found in 'Microsoft Publisher' were more suited to the magazine cover.

The evaluation of our final product consisted of looking back over my existing 'Blogger' using the access of the Internet to analyse the posts to answer each question. An element I found easy to explain comparisons was an Internet formatting programme called, 'Slide Share' this enabled 'Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations' to be uploaded on to 'Blogger'- giving more interactive method to explaining and evaluating my work. I also, print screened and imported still images from my film trailer were used to explain areas of my film- this gave a more visual understanding. Below is an example of a print screened picture, in this I would explain that the character is susipicous of being pregnant and the shot of her looking in the mirror signifies her questionable identidy. I also created questionnaires, conducted interviews and recorded feedback to gain ideas about what the target audience thought about my media products.