Evaluation Question 4

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

     The first thing I had to do was do research in order to find out as much information as possible that would help with making the trailer and ancillary texts. I began by doing  research into the history of trailers and how they have changed through the decades. I also looked at different genres and posters, I researched teaser trailers and magazine covers. The media tools at my disposal to do this research were Google and Google image. YouTube was incredibly useful for getting film trailers form analysis.  After this I chose the genre of trailer I wanted to do. I drew a storyboard that I could follow when shooting the trailer, I aimed the trailer for a 2-3 minute length. I drew several storyboards before choosing a final one, even this was further refined even as I shot the trailer. 

   I found the shoot to be simple and straight forward and accomplished most of what I eventually used in one day. I used a Panasonic digital palm cam to shoot footage. Most of my research was done online. Any research, planning and modifications I posted on my blog. I tried at all stages to get feedback from my colleagues and teacher. For my ancillary texts I used "Photoshop" to create and edit images for my poster and magazine cover. This tool allowed me manipulate and create pictures and text, I used such techniques as cropping, colour gradients, cut and paste, filler and air brush tools. 

 I used "Premier Pro" to cut and edit together my trailer. I found this package much easier and a far more powerful tool than "iMovie" which I used last year and found to be slow and cumbersome to use. This package allowed the linking and linking of video and audio. I found to be a very powerful and time saving feature. Video could be linked with layers of sound that can be built up slowly. I allowed the removal of unwanted diagetic sounds and the addition of sounds of my choosing whether diagetic or non-diagetic. The video could also be very easily manipulated, sections of footage could be cut and arranged in the order of my choosing very quickly and with the minimum of fuss. Text could be added at will and made to fade in and at out very easily. All this made the construction of the trailer very easy.

      

    The evaluation was done through a questionnaire which I prepared on Microsoft Word. This was printed and handed out to my class mates, other friends and family that wished to take part. These were then collected and analyzed for to determine what was positively received and what was negatively received. 
    
 All the research, construction, planning and evaluation work was continually updated and posted on my blog account on Blogger. At first I found this media tool to be difficult to use as I had never blogged before. But with practice this has become second nature and I have been able to construct blog pages that contain high definition pictures, videos and text. 

Finally I used a iDVD burning software on my computer to prepare a DVD with my trailer and the ancillary texts as DVD extras.