Katie Nightingale
Evaluation Part 3
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? In the initial stages of our project, we needed access a wide variety of films, trailers and images to compile a strong amount of research. Our research was essential as it provided us with an insight into how existing media products work and the conventions they follow in order to meet their aims. To begin with, I started researching my films on IMDb.com, which gave me access to information on thousands of films. My second film review was on Silent Hill (2006) for this, I needed information regarding the director, year it was made, the actors/actresses and a general synopsis. All of this information could be found on IMDb by simply typing in the name of the film into the search engine. Here you can see the result of my search for Silent Hill (2006). IMDb provides you with the option to watch the trailer, look at popular photos and stills, listen to the sound tracks and even find famous quotations. All of this made the research process easier as we had instant access to the materials we needed to use. In addition to this, it allowed me to filter my search through various auteur directors, determining which aspects of their style made them successful. The next research task involved reviewing and analysing a variety of film trailers. To complete this task we used YouTube to gain access to thousands of film trailers. This made the research process a lot easier as YouTube had trailers for all sorts of horror films that are hard (or expensive) to find elsewhere. Not only was this a useful research tool, but it also allowed us to provide a visual demonstration of what we had been discussing in our research. For example, almost all videos had the option to share. By copying the embed code into the HTML on our blogs, we could have a video example of the trailer on our posts. As part of my research, I was able to review six separate trailers including: The Toxic Avenger (1986), Cloverfield (2008), The Bay (2012), House at the end of the street (2012), 28 Days later (2002) and Evil Dead (2013). These trailer reviews helped me to gain an understanding of the horror conventions which guided the planning of my own horror trailer.
Katie Nightingale
Evaluation Part 3
Finally, Blogger offered me a place to upload my research and present it in a tidy, professional manner so it was easy to read and understand. By composing a post using HTML, videos and images could easily be embedded. In addition to this, Blogger provided a section for labels. This meant that each post could be labelled and put into separate categories. Therefore I was able to label my posts by film research, audience research, and planning.
The construction of our media products required us to use various Adobe softwares. For the construction of the horror trailer, we used Adobe Premiere CS6. To begin with, we needed to import all of our shots so that they could be edited on the timeline. To do this, we went to the File tab and selected Import. This allowed us to browse all of our footage and select the mts clips we needed to use. Once imported into Adobe Premiere, we could use the cut tool to determine where we wanted each clip to begin and end. Placing the clips onto the timeline allowed us to begin to develop a sequence which would end up being our trailer. Adobe Premiere also provided the opportunity to add multiple sound tracks, and effects. For example, you can see there are multiple sections that allow you to lay audio over the top of other audio. This allowed us to include a sound track, dialogue and sound effects all at the same time which emphasised the the scary aspect of our trailer. Similarly, we could put footage over the top of other footage and blend them together. Again, this helped to add to the spooky and ghostly sensation we wanted to convey. In addition to this, Adobe Premiere also allows you to add effects to your existing video and audio. Here you can see I’ve searched for the Brightness and Contrast effect which can be found under Colour Correction. We also made use of transitions like Dip to black and the Pen tool to gently fade in and out. Similarly, audio effects could be employed; for example, Denoiser helped to remove the crackliness of some of the dialogue we had recorded. Finally, the audio mixer was also useful when adding sound effects over the top of the soundtrack, we were able to adjust their volume so they didn’t become overpowering. In the same way, we could increase the volume of the dialogue to allow it to be heard over the top of the soundtrack. Overall, Premiere was a very efficient program to construct our horror trailer on, as it allowed us to use industry standard software to create a more professional looking trailer.
Katie Nightingale
Evaluation Part 3
In order to create our ancillary products, we used another industry standard program, this time the photo editing software (Adobe Photoshop). To begin with, I started by adding background layers and using the jug tool to fill them black. To start constructing the products I added multiple layers including images, fonts and shapes. In addition to this, I added various textures and blood splatter effects to give the magazine cover a grungier look. By changing the Opacity of these different layers, I could decide what would be most prominent in the frame. For example, the fog layer had a very low opacity so that it didn’t overpower the main image. Creating layers in Photoshop also allowed me to save time. For example, after creating a specific shape I wanted to use, I could duplicate the layer which would provide me with an instant copy. You can see here I’ve duplicated layer 30 and the new layer is called ‘layer 30 copy’. To manipulate the layers further, I could also right click the layers and go to the Blending options tab. This allowed me to create drop shadow, stroke, glow, bevel and emboss as well as various gradient effects. Here you can see that layer 2 had been given a drop shadow effect, this allowed me to make specific layers stand out from the page and look three dimensional. As a result the image is more likely to grab the viewer’s eye. However, to emphasise the element of horror on my ancillary products, I found using image adjustments beneficial. For example, for the main image on my magazine cover, I used brightness & contrast, adjusted the white levels, adjusted the colour balance to make the yellow glare more blue and changed the vibrancy so the image was closer to black and white. All of these effects contributed towards making the main image look far more sinister and evil than the original photo. Not only this, but it also allowed me to make use of conventions; for example; I could make a photo look like low key lighting had been used. Finally, Photoshop also allowed me to create filter effects. Here you can see I’m adding a grain texture and adjusting the intensity and the strength of the grain, this allowed me to recreate the style of oldfashioned horror magazines that looked worn and scratched. Overall, Photoshop was the most efficient photo editing software as it provided hundreds of different options and tools to manipulate images and create interesting, professional looking compositions.
Katie Nightingale
Evaluation Part 3
In the final evaluation stage of my project, other online technologies helped me to evaluation my media products. Flickr provided me with a platform to upload my ancillary products and other existing media texts and analyse them. Here you can see I have selected my horror film poster and to add annotations I go to the actions tab and select the option ‘add a note’. This allows me to draw a box around the section of the image I’m analysing and then allows me to type my annotations. This was particularly useful when evaluating the effectiveness of the combination of my ancillary products as I was able to compare my own work to existing examples.
Finally, issuu’s website allowed me a further professional way of presenting my work. For example, I could type up my evaluations on a word document, and save them as .PDF. files. After, I could log on to issuu and browse my files until I find the correct evaluation and upload the .PDF. Once uploaded, the document becomes interactive and the viewer can click on the document to read it. They’re also provided with a side bar that they can click to be taken to the next page as if they’re reading a book. This is far more presentable than uploading straight to Blogger or simply attaching a word document that the viewer can only scroll through. Here you can see an example of an earlier post I uploaded to issuu and the options that are available for viewing.