Evaluation 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Without any technology making my short film and coursework wouldn't have been possible. I used different hardware and software technologies e.g. websites and applications.
I used technology like:

• blogger
• slide share
• YouTube

By using websites and social media networks it enables me to advertise and distribute my work all over world. BY putting my short film on YouTube it makes it easier for anyone to watch it and making the film global. The internet is a good digital technology as it can make my film nearly professional. Computers and laptops have made uploading to the internet so easy, whilst seeing other peoples uploads. 

Most used Technologies:

iMac/MacBook:

This was hardware I used the most to create my teen documentary film. I was given the opportunity to use a iMac at school therefore I used it to edit my film. However as all my editing was based at school I had a limited amount of time to do this, making it hard to meet deadlines. The iMacs offered many applications that other computers didn't, making my film more professional looking. However they were very slow and were time consuming e.g. Final Cut Pro would crash half way through editing. I had a MacBook air at home (my personal laptop) which was helpful because I thought it would be easy to transfer my film from computer to laptop as they were the same brand. But as I didn't have Final Cut Pro on my MacBook this wasn't possible. The iMacs at school were helpful as they offered a lot of apps, but when you chose what iMac you were editing on you had to stay on that iMac. It as hard to go in the media room outside of lesson time as it would clash with planned lessons in the room. When I finished my short film I wanted to upload to YouTube, here was a option to upload it through Final Cut Pro but it wouldn't let me login to my YouTube account. So I had to think of another way to upload. I thought I could export the film on to my memory stick but this didn't work. This was when realised the iMacs were taking longer than usual. I used my MacBook at home to create both my ancillary tasks as I didn't want to rush them and this would have happened in lesson time. I had all the raw footage, screenshots and information on my film on my MacBook therefore it was easier to create the film poster and review page. I used a simpler version of Final Cut Pro to upload all the raw footage to YouTube to put on my blog. I used iMovie which is a free application on every apple product. This was an easy and quick way to upload. I didn't have to adjust to using the iMacs at school which speeded up the process as I owned a MacBook. I think by using the iMacs it allowed me to develop my editing skills creating a more professional end product.

Final Cut Pro:

When editing my film at school I used Final Cut Pro which was a great application to use. I found it hard just doing all editing at school. I saw that another media student had downloaded a free trail of FCP (final cut pro) to use to edit her film even through it had a time limit on it. I decided to do the same and edited up to the same point as I did at school. But comparing it to the school editing there were a few aspects missing on the free trail version. There was a computer typing sound effect missing and transitions and backgrounds, which  wanted to use in my film. This hindered me and I decided to go back to working on my film at school. I learnt how to cut my film together in different ways and change the effect, saturation, brightness and add layers and text. I could do all these aspects on iMovie and was very willing to just use iMovie to make my film. But I wanted to use split screen to show several clips at the same time which iMovie could not do. I found editing a fun part as I could manipulate the original clips to create a story/plot. There was no option to save on FCP but when you crossed off the application it would automatic save. But a few times I go back one and loose a few things I did the lesson before, making the editing process longer. There was different ways to upload my film to YouTube. I had already heard from fellow students how stressful it was. I was dreading this part I didn't want it to crash. I decided to try upload through FCP to YouTube and tried to login to my account and it didn't process it making it not work. I then decided to go on to my YouTube account and to press upload and try upload it through there, this still didn't work as I left it for an hour and a half to upload and came back to 0% uploaded which was very frustrating. I got told by there media students to compress my short film before uploading...

Blogger:

Blogger was one of the most important technologies in my media coursework as it allowed my to document the process and stages though all the tasks start to end. I created blog posts for my initial ideas of my film, poster and review page, all the research from existing products e.g. textual analysis. I bogged different media theorists that influenced me. It was a good place to document all the notes I made in class and go back and reflect on them. I could access blogger very easily e.g. my phone, computer, laptop and iPad/tablet. Therefore I was able to blog at home and school so I could check over my posts and not miss anything out. The blog posts would save automatically, therefore if it was it crash it would have still saved, making it very reliable.

Memory Stick:

My memory stick wasn't the most important aspect to my coursework but it did help to back up my work. I added all my work on to it so I could transfer from school to home without missing any work. I didn't have to worry so much as I knew I had a copy on my memory stick. I used a memory stick to store all my film clips from my phone and this was an easy way to put them on the iMacs at school. I could delete the clips off my phone so it wouldn't clog up my memory. I saved all my drafts for my ancillary tasks which helped to blogging it afterwards. 

iPhone 5C:

I used my iPhone 5C to film my short film as I checked the quality of the phone to see whether it would suit it. I was planning on using the school cameras, but all of my class were using them and you were only allowed a certain amount of time and not out of school time. The school cameras memory gets wiped every term to keep the storage. Therefore If I used it , my clips could have got wiped which I didn't want to risk. I filmed most of my film in my spare time e.g. weekends as I film nothing at school I would have been difficult to film with the school cameras. I had many different filming locations e.g. Lanzarote and London which would be impossible to use the school cameras for. As my film was a social realist film I didn't want my main character to act at all I wanted it to be completely natural as it was about her real life. I used my iPhone 5C to do all the filming and even used the screen shots from the film for the photos in the ancillary tasks, which were a success. I watched through all my film clips on my phone and pausing and taking screenshots. I used an underwater case when filming in the pool in Lanzarote which made my film more fun and capturing more memories. Even though my iPhone had none of the fancy effects and settings like a camera it still came out as 720p/1080p quality which is as good as a school camera. My iPhone was easy to transfer clips as I would put all oft he clips on to my MacBook at home by USB and put them on the memory stick and transfer them like that. Some of my classmates struggled top transfer from the school cameras and in the end I think it was smart of me to use my iPhone 5C.

Construction and Research:

This was the technology I used to construct my film, poster and review page.

YouTube:

Before I started to create my film, I researched on YouTube existing short films in different genres. After deciding on my film genre of teen documentary I searched up existing short films in these genres. I had to be careful not to look at other A2 media students work as some were bad examples. I found two short films I used as inspiration for my films editing, camerawork and sound. I did 2 textual analysis's of existing short films to help find what I wanted in my film and conventions I was going to follow. I also used YouTube to find my background music for my film.

iTunes:

I used iTunes to find songs to use in the background of my film. I wanted to use a pop song called 'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes but the instrumental version. As I thought the lyrics could distract the audience. I bought the instrumental version on iTunes and put it on my memory stick so I could use it at school and home.


Google:

I used google as my search engine, I used this constantly throughout my coursework. I sued this to look at existing students blogs and to see what they have blogged to help me know what I have missed and compare.  I used google to find the film conventions for my short film as I couldn't find this on YouTube. I looked up real feature films posters and review pages and used them as inspiration for my own and did textual analysis's. I used google to find information  about different media theorists and their work. I used this for images to put in my blog. I also looked up existing short films on google to see if anymore came up that weren't on YouTube. I found a website 'Short of the Week' which was a website full of short films from different genres to watch.  

Pic Monkey:

Pic Monkey is an online editing application, this is where I edited my film poster and review page. I decided to use this as I used it for AS media and it was simple and easy to use. I could develop my skills from the previous year in order to make my film poster and review page professional. The application allows me to change and add the saturation, effect, brightness, sharpness and text. I started with a plain white background and from there I added layers. I found Pixlr very confusing to use and not as simple as Pic Monkey.

Planning:

Storyboards:

 Storyboarding my ideas help to imagine what I wanted each scene to look like and what would happen. I decided to draw my storyboard out as I wanted to make it more detailed and there were a few websites to create it online but they were too simple and not detailed. I posted this on my film to refer back to when filming. This helped me plan what I needed to film e.g. camera angles and mise en scene. The storyboard then helped to plan the camera angles and who I needed in each scene to make me feel more organised and not to miss anything out. I uploaded this to my blog so it was easy to refer back to.

Script:
This was my original script before I realised I didn't like the effect of the voiceovers as I showed my peers.

Scene 1: 'This is Beth... She's 15...'

Scene 2: 'And preparing for her GCSE exams.'

Scene 3: (no narration)

Scene 4: (no narration)

Scene 5: 'Stress is a big factor when it comes to doing GSCE's and can lead to bad outcomes. To stop being stressed Beth stays active doing several hobbies.'

Scene 6: 'Beth's favourite hobby is dance as she finds it enjoyable and relaxing. She becomes more confident when dancing and feels free.'

Scene 7: 'Another way for Beth is to hang around with friends.'

Scene 8: 'She enjoys art and drawing different people and things she's saw.'

Scene 9: 'Beth finds going holiday every year very exciting and distracts her from her GCSE's. This year she wen to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.'

Scene 10: 'Her last hobby to stay less stressed is walking her dog.'

I didn't have to use a script because there is  no actual dialogue. The script helped me to plan my film before making it.

Sketches: 

By drawing/sketching out my initial ideas for the two ancillary tasks  it helped me develop the tasks. It helped me to understand what i needed to research more about and what to include. Even though the sketches were brief I still blogged them s I could refer back. I also made lists to know what I still needed to do, this helped to organising my blog.

Evaluations:

Prezi/slide share:

Prezi allows me to present my work in a more interesting and engaging way rather than just using a plain PowerPoint presentation. I used as a different way to blog my coursework instead of just typing it up. I used slide share/prezi to see other students coursework to help me improve my own. Slide share has so much information on it about the A2 media course. I used both of these websites to present my evaluations. I chose these as I had previously used them in AS media and they were simple but effective to use.




Keynote:

Keynote is the apple version of PowerPoint and is a good way to display work. I used this throughout my blog and for my evaluations. There were so many different options on Keynote and was not limiting at all. I preferred this to prezi and slide share as it was so much easy. There are many different templates to choose from.

 

YouTube

YouTube is an interesting way to present my evaluations as you can see it visually and listen to it. I think this makes the evaluation more engaging as you don't have to just watch but listen too.

Difficulties I came across:

 

There were many technical difficulties along the way to creating my film.

• The iMac's saying it didn't have enough 'disk space' and after trolling through all the old photos and documents not needed and deleting them, it still said this.
• Another difficulty was exporting my film through Final Cut Pro, as my iMac was already logged in t someone else's account it would allow me to use it. It kept saying my username or password was invalid.
• I spent hours on the iMac's trying to export my film, the first time I did it, it only exported in to a VLC format which meant I couldn't even watch it.
• The next time I sat for two hours waiting for it to export on the desktop and didn't see any progress. But without me knowing it had already appeared on the desktop but didn't notify me.
• When I first uploaded my film through YouTube, it uploaded in a low video quality which bugged me a lot.
• The most annoying difficulty was final cut pro quitting unexpectedly. At this time I had just uploaded my draft and then went back on to edit a few aspects then upload the final film. But it wouldn't even let me on the app. I tried many different solutions e.g. searching on google, asking peers and teachers and nothing worked.

Evaluation 2: what have I learnt from my audience feedback?

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Just to remind you, my target audience is very conventional to my film genre as teenagers will find a teen genre film more interesting than adults e.g. middle age. I think there is a gap in the teen/documentary market as they all convey the themes e.g. school parties and proms and not the friendship built through school. I am making my short film a bit of a twist on a teen film as I am going to make it a documentary style. A teen plot is typical based on love, rebellion and arguing with parents but I am going to challenge this by making it about a growing friendship. But I am doing a more realistic topic e.g. stress as everyone goes through it. I think I am attracting a mass audience as everyone has been to school and can relate and don't want to exclude certain types of people. 

Transcript:
Throughout the process of creating them main product and two ancillary tasks I asked for audience feedback. I did this for two reasons, to develop my products to make them the most realistic and professional. Secondly I asked my target audience which is teenagers to see if they liked it and to see if it suited my audience.I asked for feedback three times with each product I made before making it my final product e.g. with my short film, film poster and film review page.
Film Poster
what have I learnt from my audience feedback?
Throughout the process of creating them main product and two ancillary tasks I asked for audience feedback. I did this for two reasons, to develop my products to make them the most realistic and professional. Secondly I asked my target audience which is teenagers to see if they liked it and to see if it suited my audience.
I asked for feedback three times with each product I made before making it my final product e.g. with my short film, film poster and
I felt like the film poster was the second most important aspect. As it is what you are going to see on billboards and you will see it before seeing the actually film. So I needed to make it eye catching to entice my target audience. The title, size of photos and billing block stayed the same through all the drafts. But the layout, tag line changed the most from the audience feedback. I created five drafts of the film poster all slightly different. I 
developed each draft from the feedback e.g. Beth said to have all six photos, three on each side. My media teacher told me to change the word 'relievement' in my tagline to 'alleviation' as it would make more sense. I changed the layout of the poster on my last draft to have the tagline above the title as my target audince thought it would make more sense. I gave out a print out of my poster to my target audience to what they liked and disliked on my final draft. I took the feedback and applied it to the final draft. As I kept developing my poster I think it suit my target audience very well and informs them about the film clearly.

Film Review Page
In AS media I created a music magazine double page spread it helped me know what was effective to include. I did a different process to create it, I showed the process of making it e.g. taking screenshots than making different drafts as I had an idea of what to include. In every screenshot I added another convention. I looked at existing film review pages to see what I should include, I wrote the review out on word and showed some of my target audience and they approved it. I showed the final draft of the review page in the same way as the film poster by printing it out and passing it round to my audience. 
they said:
'I like the colour scheme- it matches the teen genre.'
'looks realistic and effective'.
'I like the chose of photos- suits the film'.
;'looks like a teen review page'.
'maybe match the colours of the border'.
'good way of showing film information'.
'I like the layoyt'.
Included all review page conventions.
'Make the film rating key bolder'.

Short Film
My short film was the main part of my coursework. Throughout filming and editing my film I asked my target audience their opinion which were teenagers. As I am a teenager myself I took on everyones opinions but still had the final say. I showed 5 different hobbies in my film which I filmed on different days. I collected all the clips together and uploaded all the 'raw footage' on to YouTube, I then asked a small amount of my target audience to watch it and give me there opinions. I asked them which clips they liked the best and which ones I shouldn't include. This helped me understand what my audience wanted to see. 

Feedback:
Holiday clips -Donna said 'I like the underwater clips and makes you look professional'. - Sophie said 'The beach clips of Beth and her friends is nice as it is natural and not acted out.'
Art clips- Alice said 'I like the point of view shots of Beth drawing it makes it effective. - Jess said 'I like the use of different angles of her drawing as it is more realistic but could have got more'.
London friends clip - Katie said 'You can see Beth and Friend are having genuine fun without it being staged.' Billy said 'I like the clips of what Beth can see, its like you are sharing her memories.'
Dance Clips- Ella said 'I like the clips of Beth turning and the different clips of her feet'. Chloe said ' I would cut out all of her standing still and cut all the dance moves together'.
Dog walking clips- Emily said 'You shouldn't use any of the clips where Beth is looking at the camera'. - Lewis said 'I like the various clips of her walking from different angles like your following her'.
When I started editing all the clips together I showed sections of it to my peers which are my target audience to see their opinion and change anything I agreed with.

To conclude, I found my target audience feedback helpful for all three of my products: short film, film poster and film review page. I liked seeing the audiences opinions and helped me create the best version of my end product as they would pick up on small aspects I could have missed.

Uses and Gratifications my audience can get from my coursework?

There are many different theories when it comes to uses and gratifications.

Entertainment: was the main factor I was thinking of when making my film as I wanted to giver a positive, upbeat message and influencing my target audience in a good way and leading them in a positive direction of life. I can personally say I have done this as most of my feedback is saying e.g. 'very different to other typical teen films as it gives a realist good message'. A factor of entertainment is to escape from reality. I think this is an important factor when it comes to my film as my film is about a teenage girl getting away from stress through doing her favourite hobbies. By showing this it distracts my audience and influences them to do the same. My film is entertaining through the different camera angles showing her hobbies, the music upbeat music in the background and the positive text on the screen.

Integration and social interaction: I think as my film is a social realist film it is easy to relate to my character and doesn't matter about gender and both gender go through simpler stages in teenage life. My audience wouldn't sympathise for my character as my film isn't sad in any way.

Personal identity: As there is no dialogue it doesn't clear show 'Beth's' personality as they cant relate to her voice. I used text on the screen to tell the story and tell her a few facts so the audience can take the facts and relate to her.

Information: I wanted to give my audience a small sense of learning therefore I added in quotes throughput the film saying what the character thinks. My film pushes boundaries as it doesn't have a typical tee story of all the stereotypes it is very realistic that it is about a teenagers real life. I also did this because most American teen films stick to the stereotypes, but I'm not in America so I wanted to make a British realist version. My film is very different as it shows positive hobbies not drugs, alcohol and parties which don't influence teens in the right way. As I am a teenager myself I watch teen films ad can never relate to any of the character so I thought id make my own character which I think is more real- from what she looks like, to how she acts.

My target audience may get a variety of different meanings and messages from my film but it should be influential in a positive way.

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My short film:

I also challenged sound extremely as through feedback from my target audience I got told the 'voiceovers' weren't effective. Therefore from this I took them out and replaced them with text on the screen. This challenges the normal convention of the genres as they usually always have dialogue. I have also turned all the clips sound off as I didn't want any backing noise.

My film poster:

I used 'Confessions of a teenage drama queen' a teen comedy by Walt Disney Pictures as the main inspiration for my film poster. There is a clear similarity between both posters. The conventions for a film poster are:

• masthead/title of film
• tagline/slogan
• image(s)
• billing/credits at the bottom
• release date
• logos

I has initial ideas for my film poster but no clear layout. From the textual analysis's it helped me to decide what I wanted to include on my film poster. I wanted too give an insight to my film. In the existing film poster they had 9 photos on it, which is a good idea to introduce your character to the audience. I used the idea of the collage of the character pulling different faces I developed as I used it in my actual film than my film poster as I thought it would look interesting to have each of the photos as a video instead.

Firstly I used only 4 videos of her but added another video in the centre which pops up after. I filmed my character in her school uniform to show she is in school and to go and suit my mise-en-scene of the school rooms scenes.

 

Layout:

I decided to only use 6 photos on my film poster as I though 9 photos would look too much and give away the synopsis of the film so I challenged this convention. I got the idea from the other textual analysis I did of a documentary film poster called 'Under Fire, Journalists in Combat' to use screenshots from the film than photos taken after as it doesn't relate to the film as well.                                       I liked the use of colour in the first textual analysis as it suits the teen genre. Each photo has a different coloured background, I used a different screenshot for each which shows a different activity which are all different. E.g.

• art
• dance
• swimming
• London
• main character
• holiday
• Overall it makes the poster look very eye-catching and interesting.  

I developed the layout of my film poster to see which look more effective. I did this by moving the text and images till it conveyed the teen genre clearly.

Here are some of the drafts:

Taglines/Slogans

After researching taglines and slogans I realised the short simple ones were the most effective so I tried making mine simple to suit the teen convention of taglines. I couldn't decide what tagline I wanted to use therefore I did a survey to see which my target audience preferred. There was a clear winner of 'the alleviation of stress'. I wanted my film to be called 'Stress' therefore I would repeat the word 'stress' twice on my poster as I include it in the slogan. Therefore developed the layout to put my slogan above my title which challenges the conventional layout as the title usually is before the tagline.
Title
I used a more unconventional choice of font for my title as it is in the documentary style. Therefore I used a font called 'eraser dust' which is a detailed font which looks like someone sketched it. I thought this would relate to 'Beth's' hobby of art and gives a more personal look as it looks like my characters handwriting. I challenged the masthead as I made my title bigger than the existing poster's titles as my title was a single word and not a sentence.


 
Billing Block:
I used a very conventional billing credits at the bottom of my film poster, I created this at the start of the drafts and kept it the same through all the drafts as it looked like a real poster credits. There was a certain font the credits were wrote in on teen feature film posters, I found a font similar called 'amatic small caps' which was all in capitals and used this to make my poster conventional to the genre. I used the same order of what to write in the credits as the 'Confessions of a teenage drama queen' as it was a typical teen film which was successful and my target audience liked this poster. I included:
• production companies
• starring actors and actresses
• music
• casted and written by
• director
• producer

Underneath I used the same font and colour for the release date as it suited the rest of the colour scheme of the poster so far. I added a website link underneath to make it look as my film was real. The documentary poster didn't include the release date and the credits weren't effective so I challenged my credits to the documentary credits. But it is still conventional as I have included documentary and teen conventions together.
Logos
There were small logos of the production companies used in the existing film posters which indicated to me it was an important convention to include. I created the logos on a free website to make them look realistic, I chose to use the colour so they don't stand out and take away attention from the rest of the poster. I placed them at the bottom of the page as both film poster did this.



 My final review page:

I researched many different film genres review pages to get an initial idea of what I wanted my review page to look like. When I made my review page I looked at the conventions I needed to include. E.g.

Some of the review pages I used as inspiration:

I liked the simplicity of the 'Spiderman 2' review page layout as the name of the film magazine and film name are bold and stand out and these are important parts to making a successful review page.

 Summary Box:
I realised that both 'Total film' magazine and 'Empire' magazine use a small section of the page say all the film's information, which is called a summary box. I thought this was an important convention to be able to show all of the information needed. I used the same sub title in the summary box as the 'Twilight' review.

Before making my review page I looked at all the existing examples and made a list of conventions that were effective and not effective. I kept going back to this list with I went through the making op

 Images:
My two main inspirations had different amounts of images on the review page. 'Spiderman 2' review page uses one large main image and then the 'Twilight' film review uses 4 different images. I looked at another review page 'Avatar' and analysed that they used 4 images. Therefore I thought it would be best to use 4 images than just one as My film can't be summarised into just one image.

 Masthead:
For the review page I wanted a large film magazine name and film name. At first I wanted my magazine to be from 'Empire magazine' as I thought it would suit my film but the masthead is the same size as they font for the review making it hard to read therefore I developed it by changing the font size. I got inspired by the masthead of the 'Spiderman 2' review page one. I used a bold font for the film review title. I didn't want to copy 'new films' from 'Total films magazine' there I changed it to 'Upcoming films'. I used the same font for my film name from my film poster to make my film a brand identity and to make it recognisable. I hadn't seen any of the previous review pages do this so I challenged this convention. I added a small aspect on the right side saying 'Film of the month' as the 'Spiderman 2' page did this and it was my inspiration to help make mine professional and realistic.
Colour scheme:
When I first started making my review page I kept a plain white background but this wouldn't entice my target audience of teenagers. In the existing review pages each review had a different colour scheme depending on the film. Therefore I couldn't take much influence as my film wasn't the same genre as any of the examples. I challenged the colour scheme aspect by making my own to suit my film. I used the colours- blue, grey, white and coral pink and added coloured rectangles behind the title.
Film review star rating:
I was influenced by 'Total film' magazine to add a key of what the star ratings mean. I added this convention to the left side of the review name as extra information. I added the film rating as well as it is important to give information to the audience in order for them to go and watch it.

    Layout:
I planned my film review before putting it of the double page spread by following conventions. I decided to use a similar layout to the 'Spiderman 2' review page by positioning my review into 3 columns as I think columns make it easier to read. I then added the 4 images on the other side of the review page (to the right). I added grey borders around them to make it more interesting and the 'Avatar' review page has a bold black border making the images stand out and this is why I used this convention. I added a quotation in the middle of my review as two of the existing review pages did this and makes the reader want to read the rest of the review. I changed the font and colour to make it stand out from the rest of the text. I added a large 'T' at the start of the review articles as all of the existing film magazines I have looked at use this and shows the reader where the article starts and is an important aspect to make my film review page conventional. I added the small aspects at the end e.g. page number and issue date and magazine name on the bottom corners. I used a similar font to 'Empire' magazine as it was easy to read.

Overall:
I have used, developed and challenged conventions from existing products for my short film, film poster to my film review page. As I combined two genres together I had to combine both genres conventions together and using examples from each genre  e.g. 'The Duff' and The 'camera. Therefore I challenged the conventions as I had to develop them to suit the 'teen documentary' sub genre. I had to do this in my two other ancillary tasks because I couldn't find any examples of teen documentary film posters or reviews. I used both genres convention with the stereotypical codes and conventions to create a realistic text that suits the genre. I developed many conventions by not using as many influences as they were not suited to my genre but I still got inspired by the layout and what top include.