Evaluation Question 4

Q4 How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? 

Research

The technologies that we used while researching our production firstly was youtube to find examples of teaser trailers that were the same genre as our teaser trailer this help us also to get some ideas of what are story line is. 



This is an example of one of the trailers that we searched on youtube and got our idea from but we didn't want to make it look like a typical horror trailer so we thought that we should make it different plus look professional for our audiences to be intrigued by it



Using the internet to go onto youtube to search for examples of teaser trailers were very useful because it saved us a lot of time, in comparison with looking for teaser trailers at the start of dvd's For example Saw IV. the internet shows us as well as the audience the use of  technology in aiding communication.We also used the internet to study conventions of the genre such as google and youtube, on google we found out what horror sub genre 'Devils Orphan' our teaser trailer came under and youtube we used that to look for examples of different teaser trailers to get a rough idea of what we want our trailer to be about.

This first example of the 'Omen' trailer shows the audience what i typed in to search for the trailer  

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The second example always shows the audience what i typed in to get this trailer

While filming we took pictures of the locations we did and the process of us working as a team setting up the equipment or applying the make up and setting the scene by also  placing the props. We used media technologies such as youtube and google we also used facebook. when researching examples of film posters and magazine covers we used google which gave us some inspiration on how we wanted our magazine cover and poster to come out and we were inspired by 'Empire' magazines. The process is quick and simple because when you type in on google what you are searching for it automatically gives you a list of all the things you might be talking about or what you may have or others searched for already, so it gives you many links to click on.  

This is the empire magazine that used as a guideline to create our own magazine front cover

This is our final magazine cover if you compare it to the one above you can see some similarties and some differences between the two. Firstly underneath the masthead there is writing saying the same thing in a way but in a different content. Secondly the coverlines in both magazines are over the person, a difference is the masthead on our magazine it is behind the subjects head whereas on the magazine on top it is in front of the man's head. Lastly the bnarcodes are the same shape but put it different positions, so on our magazine the barcode is on the right hand side of the page in a rectanglar shape but not put in the bottom corner of the page whereas in the magazine on top the barcode is the same shape but put slightly high then where our one is placed. This shows that we didn't follow the coventions of a magazine with the barcode because usually in most magazine they place their barcodes on the bottom right hand side.  

Planning

Daniela felt that with our process of palnning we didn't what she felt that went wrong was that we were not organised enough as well as looking at other peoples posts, she thought that it was all rushed into without having an actual proper plan. We didn't have trial runs to see whos was better at using the equipment such as the camera we just decided to do a random selection of who would do the filming but we did decided to take it in turns to film between me and billy. Where billy had trouble i tookover for example using the crane, billy found it handling the crane for the tilt scene of daniela so i tried it and found that i handled the crane better than he did when filming that scene, so that shows his and my strengths and weaknesses where he wasn't able i was able.

Billy said even though we had a few mishaps with being unorganised and un experienced, we finally got it and we got down to it.

Beatrice shared the same views as daniela, billy and I we all felt the same way that we wasn't that organised compared to other groups. Overall we did slack but got ourselves together, worked hard as a team and got it done.

Even though we found it difficult the fact that we didn't have a proper plan first was the reason why we were quite unfamiliar with setting up the eqipment and that is the reason why it took us longer to start filming but we learnt from our mistakes and the second attempt of filming came out much better and was planned better than the first attempt which went terribly wrong and that is why the second time we was able to get straight into it because we were a bit more experienced and more familiar with the equipment. After a while we finally got the hang of it without the teacher or adams help. Yes we used other media technologies such as survey monkey to post our questionnaires to the public which we also posted on facebook for more feedback. Our weakness at this stage as a group is that we were very unorganised even though our strength was we worked good as a team in putting different ideas forward within the group. With the use of facebook, MSN, mobile phones and BB messaging are the ways we used to communicate with others for example to ensure that group members know what props to bring in, make up, what costumes are needed and know what date we will be filming. 

We made storyboards of what we wanted our scene to be and know what types of shots we will use in each scene. i think that the purpose of doing storyboards is that it keeps us in order and to remember what scene goes first, second and last and also it it just easier to look at step by step without getting modelled up and confused. Once we did our drafts we had to scan them on to the computer and post them onto our blog as evidence. 

This is one of our drafts of our storyboard. This storyboard shows us a plan of what our trailer is about showing the different shots.
We also had to do more drafts but for the magazine front cover and poster go on photoshop make one change it to a (jpg file) and post it onto pur blogs as evidence that we did mock ups first before we did the real thing.

As a group we had to do a treatment which basically tells the audience what our trailer is about, who we are targeting our target audience at which is 16-24, it also talks about the definition  of horror films and their purpose and what potential camera shots will be used. So it shows the use of words.



Photography/filming 




                                               

This is the Canon Eos 7D which we used to film our teaser trailer and to take pictures the picture underneath it shows it with the flash becuase it was needed when taking the pictures.  

 







The tripod where the camera was placed on







This is very similar to the track that we used in the studio to film





The use of the card reader was used when we finished filming or taking pictures showing the process of our production to transfer or phototage onto the computer so we could take save it to our USB's




  





This is the crane that we used to film. when using this eqipment weights helped to balance the crane 







It is the same type of lights that we used but it doesn't look the same as you can see in the next picture as it shows on the next picture.

While filming we used the camera but it wasn't straight forward because we had to learn new things that we didn't know all ready so it kind of slowed the process down  of filming but then it become easier when we got use to it. We learnt that when doing a zoom in shot you have to  cut first then or we use  the tarck to zoom in instead of pressing the zoom butto becasue you will get not get a staedy shot and also the shot then becomes out of focus. We had to film twice because the first time we filmed it failed. With our first footage it went terribly wrong becuase we wanted to use a really low key lighting to give it that horror effect it came out too dark so the light was under exposed so looking back on the computer it looked too black and you couldn't really see the people in the footage, we were not pleased with the results of our trailer so we decided to try again with a second attempt and the second time it worked out much better beacuse we had learnt from our first attempt of filming. As a group we think that we worked harder as a group and we were more experienced with the equipment so we worked fast. Our weaknesses were we was not well planned but  enough and less experienced with the eqiupment.     

We took many pictures of us in the studio, the third location we ended up using , our old location and our second location which we didn't use, it was a distressed primary school and we took pictures of the rooms that caught our eyes which had potential for us to film for our first shots.


These first three photographs of where our second location of the nursery which we didn't end up using we took these three photos and thought that it was the perfect location to film but we didn't end u using it 

This are pictures showing us setting up the eqipment These were are first attempts for filming:

This photo of billy shows him putting the tripod up and placing the foot onto the top of the tripod where the camera gets place upon.

 This picture shows me putting up the light stand, setting up the lights

This picture shows daniela collecting the props for the priests outfit who billy is acting out as

This is another picture of billy but in this picture he is showing the audience the props we used in our teaser trailer, we decided to use this props because it fitted in well with the scene and the outfit but we didn't want to affend anyone using it especially because of the title of our trailer. I think that it shows a meaning that the priests he seems veiry holy and doing good with his bible and cross but really he is evil and doesn't help drive the demon out of the girl.the bible was billy's and the cross we made that out of cardboard.

This next pictures are from the studio we went to film in.

This shows all the make up that we used to create this look. in both pictures below it is the same make  up and on the same day but in the last picture we added more black eye shadow under the eyes as you can see the second photo daniela's eye looks darker.     

In this picture i applied the make up. To make her face white we used talcum powder all over her face and neck and to make the veins look quite effective was red lipstick and green eye shadow which also gives it a more realistic look to it and it is all painted using a brush.  

This picture of me shows me wi0th the eyeshadow case mixing colours i was in charge of doing the make up

This picture shows billy sticking the scraps of ragged paper with blue tack onto the distressed wall. Also the wall gives it an authentic look to it especially with the scraps of paper

This is a great picture of the setting in the studio with all the equipment set up into place. It also shows daniela getting into character and showing billy at action filming that scene.

The track in this picture shows a black piece of tape on it which you can see is in front of the wheels. We decided to place the piece of tape in that position while filming so that when we tracked in would would know where to stop so we basically used the tape as a stopper. When we used the track we found it easier  to put the tap towards the end of the track.

Mise En Scene

We decided to use these props for our trailer such as Candles, pillow, the curtains that daniela had around her, make up e.g eye shadow, lipstick, powder etc, scraps of papers, the priests costume e.g shoes, hat, blazer, the cross and bible and the stained nighty.

As we filmed we had a camera (Canon EOS 7D) with us which is the same camera we used to film, we did this so that we could show the audience the process of all the things we did in order to create a great teaser trailer and to show how good we worked as a team which we then posted on to our blogs. We also used green light filters to create a green feel and gives it more of an effect which also makes it look more like a horror trailer and we thought that it was really different using a green light becuase most trailers use red lights. To make it look like a scary teaser trailer we decided that we will use low key lighting because we wanted to follow the conventions of horror trailers so that it looks more professional. 

Our main priority was thinking about mise en scene throughout the process of planning, we thought of our props that we were going to use the type of lighting we wanted, the costumes we were planning to bring in to use and we also thought of the type of setting we wanted our teaser trailer to be set.  

Strengths and Weaknesses

Weakness: As a group we found that with our first footage handling the camera was very weak because when we filmed the camera wasn't parrallel to the subject such as the table.Also we found that some of the footage was out of focus.And as i've mention at the beginning already that we were unorganised and un experienced with the equipment used. The evidence that shows our lack of experience was  in our first film footage.

Strengths: Our strengths are that we worked hard as a team didn't have any quarrels compared to other groups and even though we slack in the worok a bit we put our heads together and really got down to doing it and getting it all down in time.

Post-Production

Photoshop was our main site we used to construct the poster and magazine cover. we used facebook to create the mock up of the poster the final magazine and poster.

The shadows that you can see in the picture were done with a shadow effect of the priest and the little girl it looks somewhat cartoonish and to create the shadow around the girl and priest was used by downloading brushes that had splatters which built up a shiny layer that is why it looks smooth. We also used plasticity brushes giving it that sharp look to it,  The internet provided us with downloadable resources such as textures used on the poster background and magazine background and mast head.It also allowed us to download "steel tonings" the professional and widely used for the poster creadits at the bottom 'dafonts.com'. This helped get a professional  feel to our work. So we mainly used basic brushes, textures and brushes were the main keys that we focused on when making the magazine and poster we decided as a group to make the text depth and not look to much we thought that giving it a simple but effective look will grab the readers attention. 

We also used photoshop to create different ideas with our horror poster to promote it in different marketing strategies such as putting our poster onto a bus or billboard as in this picture we decided to promote our poster on a bus stop billboard.

These are pictures of our final magazine cover and poster all the techniques that we used for the mock up we applied to the final task.

Youtube and facebook was two of the main media technologies used for maketing strategies. When we posted our blog up on youtube so that we could get views on our trailer we tagged it in reason related topics its linked to for example using words such as excorism, orphan, teaser trailer etc. instead of using justin bieber, usher and so on. Also when we labelled our teaser trailer we decided to name it devil's orphan when searching for it because when people search they will see it as a new trailer being released and not as A2 coursework, which could give us a much wider audience e.g views from america. The other forms of maketing strategies that we used was to quickly photoshop the poster and place it on a bus to give us an idea of how it would look, we also put it up on itunes where they show trailers. We noticed that our teaser trailer appeared by accident on weird sites and news (NME Articles).

More marketing strategies was broadcasting the link for people to view and comment if they have a youtube account on BB (Blackberry Phones) to all contracts on our phone and we also posted our trailer on to facebook.

 

This screen shot shows our trailer posted on to facebook and also shows the two comments our friends made about the trailer.

Using Final cut pro there wasn't much that was done because what we did was take the original idea of the storyboard and put it together to produce and edited piece of the trailer.