Evaluation Question 4

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

Research

The majority of our research was carried out through online searching. Google was the sole searching engine we used to carry out this operation. We searched through out the research stages, finding hundred of horror poster, magazines to create textual analyses on to post on Blogger. Through careful examinations we began to familiarize ourselves with the conventions

of horror and what similar things we wanted to include in our own products. Also youtube was our main source of viewing horror teaser trailers. We analysed the length, mise en scene, lighting, titles and content of all trailers from old to new to gain a greater understanding of the genre.

Another form of research technology we considered at this stage was the IMAX 3D film screenings of Resident Evil Afterlife at the Odeon Greenwich. The screen is 15.5m wide x 7.76m high for maximum picture effectiveness. We organized to go and view the film on a day we did not have college in order to analyse the use of 3D zombies in horror genre/action subgenre.

http://reaction1993.blogspot.com/2010/10/research-on-zoombies.html

Finally, during the research we had to find a mean of finding the target audience's interest in the horror genre. Therefore for maximum efficiency we used online service "Surveymonkey" to create a questionnaire with a list of questions on the horror genre, posters, trailers and magazine covers. From the results we produced a detailed set of graphs using the website to analyse and study the results given.

Planning

The main form of technology, and most blatantly obvious is our Blogger account. Yet without this vital service provided by google we would not be able to post our work date by date in the correct order of creation. The account was simple to make and we all joined our own accounts as admins for editing work.

We created a facebook group after adding eachother's accounts as a means of contacting eachother. Being used to the social networks site and checking it regularly we found this was the fastest way to send work and plan meeting via the event creator.

The use of our our mobile phones was utilised in planning. When experimenting with make-up techniques, and taking images of the Imax cinema we used a state of the art Blackberry mobile to capture the shots live and simultaneously upload the images to Blogger. From the Blackberry mobiles we could also contact eachother easier through the chat and our facebook group.

State of the art Apple Mac OS version 10.6.4. was the model we used for most of our planning work, the written storyboards and filming scripts were uploaded using a scanner then imported to photoshop on the Imac computers to then post to our blog. All images were converted to Jpegs and the fast running speed ensured maximum efficiency in our work.

Production

Within the Production Technology we ascertained, we had to consider a number of factors including health and safety, handling and care of equipment and knowledge of how the equipment was used. We made sure the fake blood was non toxic and ensured that the actor was comfortable with the latex and use of contact lenses. We already had a background understanding of using the filming equipment and exercised extreme caution when handling cameras, tripods, etc. The equipment bags were used at all times, and all screws were tightly secured at all times.

When it came to the make-up technology for the zombie costume we wanted to keep the technique and materials used simple. Extensive use of the make-up technology would have resulted in an unrealistic looking horror trailer. We ordered a 1 litre bottle of fake blood, 10 blood capsules and a pair of white contact lenses off of www.amazon.co.uk along with the latex and make-up we already had for the zombie outfit. During the production these were vital for certain shots of dripping blood and close up of the zombie's face and eye.

For the majority of the still images caught for our blog posts we used the Canon 400D digital. This camera allowed us to shoot images for background pictures etc while using the main camera to shoot the film. This camera was used mainly in our production process. The camera was an efficient tool within our media product as it was easy to adjust to different environment by changing the white balance and exposure for quality images

When it came to the filming of our trailer we utilised the state of the art Canon 7d. This professional production tool is capable of changing the forecast and filming in High Definition video that can be imported to both Final Cut and Youtube for efficient editing and audience feedback. The advantage of a High Definition filming instrument is also that most modern contemporary media film and television productions are now available in HD.

Post Production

We used Adobe Photoshop when creating both the Magazine Cover and Film Poster. The softwares use of layers allowed us to deal with the titles, background, foreground and filters of the images on different levels allowing us to seamlessly create professional horror products. The dodge tool and burn tool were used to great effect in the magazine cover as they allowed us to darken or highlight the shadow in the subject's face to contrast with he ow-key lighting of the rest of the image. The titles were inserted alongside the image using a varied amount of horror and professional film fonts, from hear we could edit the size, spacing and alignment of texts on both products.

Final cut was the key to editing software when it came to post-production technology. With an already sound background knowledge in editing the group dissected and cut their way through various used and unused footage as displayed on our youtube account. Using the left hand screen we could analyse the imported footage, choose which section we wanted and drag it into the sequence timeline on the left hand side. Once all of the footage was arranged and cut, the main editing stage had to be addressed. We imported over the soundtrack created by Micah from garageband then again, carefully cut the remaining footage to match the beat of the score. We decided to use the colour corrector, desaturate and noise filters for the flashback sequences under the video filter tools. We also used a "Fade in Fade Out" Dissolve on various shots to symbolise the passing of time and to fade into the ending title sequences. Once the editing stage was done we used Final Cut to import our high definition trailer straight to our youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReactionsProduction

Motion was the software we used to create the two title sequences of our Teaser Trailer. For the first Epidemic sequence we imported the same font that was used in our film poster for continuity and to keep within horror conventions. We then used a "Noise" filter combined with a "Bad TV" filter for a typical horror effect that helped to impact at the conclusion of our trailer. The second title screen simply sates the date of release in cinemas along with the film website, an information page. In both title sequences we used the base colour of the font in red and the same filters. The second title sequence utilises a Times New Roman font to contrast with the "Epidemic" font.