Katie Charman used various media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation of her project.
In the construction stage, she used a Canon EOS 550D camera and tripod to film footage for her trailer. She edited the footage using Final Cut Express software. She created original songs using GarageBand software. She designed marketing materials like a poster and magazine cover using Photoshop.
In the planning and evaluation stages, she used Wordpress to create a blog to present her work. She shared presentations using Slideshare and created an engaging Prezi presentation to report her research findings. Overall, Katie demonstrated use of different hardware, software and web technologies throughout her project.
3. Hardware used….
Canon EOS 550D Tripod
In order to film our trailer ‘Freeze’ we used a Canon EOS 550D which allowed us
to film in HD and create all the shots we wanted. As the camera is good quality
we were also able to make use of the specialist features such as setting up a
depth of field shot in some scenes. Overall, by using this specific camera we
were able to make sure all of our footage captured was sharply focused which
made the overall trailer look more professional.
I used the same camera when I took the photos for the magazine cover and
poster. By using this specific make it allowed me to manually focus the pictures
which meant I could make Selina’s poster photo appear sharper than the other
two characters in order to show her dominance.
The tripod we used was fitted
in with a specialist handle so
that we could pan smoothly in
some scenes such as when
Selina entered the bar. The
tripod also allowed us to keep
a steady shot which again
meant the footage would
make the scenes appear
realistic.
4. Web Technology used…
laptop which meant that when the examiner was to finally watch the
trailer, it would hopefully work and load properly.
Another benefit to using YouTube was that we could see the number of
views our final product had received. This was interesting as it showed
us the popularity of the idea.
YouTube
When the rough draft and final edit of the
trailer were completed, we needed to upload
them somewhere so that our audience could
view it and so we could embed it onto our
blogs. YouTube allowed us to do this as we
created an account which then gave us the
opportunity to easily show people what the
finished products looked like.
As YouTube is a well known and trusted
brand it works on every single computer or
5. Software used…
One type of software we used
in the construction of our
trailer was: ‘Garage-Band’. It
is a software which is a music
making programme which
helped us create the two
original songs that we used in
our trailer.
GarageBand
It gave us the opportunity to create the exact sound we wanted as
it had a sophisticated range of sounds we could choose from such
as ‘hip-hop beats’ and ‘drums’ which gave us the base to our
songs. As we wanted to create a change of pace halfway within
the trailer, GarageBand allowed us to achieve this as we had
complete control over when the first song ended and when the
next song started.
6. Software used…
Final Cut Express
The main type of software
we used when constructing
and editing our trailer was
‘Final Cut Express’. This was
because it has extremely
detailed editing techniques
which allowed us to create shots such as the split-screen
shown in the picture in the right hand corner of the screen.
In our AS media production we only used iMovie software
which although created a good finalised product, compared to
the software available on Final Cut it was only providing basic
editing technology.
7. Software used…
The toolbar in Final Cut
Express.
The Pointer Tool- This tool allowed us to select
footage and manoeuvre it about. This was the most
used tool as we were constantly moving clips in order
to make them appear in the correct order when
constructing our trailer.
The Pen Tool- This tool allowed us to pin-point exact
moments on the clip which we wanted to edit or cut
down. This was extremely helpful when editing sound
as it allowed us to mark in and out points from the
sound clip and we could then either make them
louder or mute them completely.
The Scissor Tool- This tool aided us when we wanted
to split a clip. This was used quite a lot when we
knew we wanted to cut a clip, but we didn’t want to
delete the end of it.
8. Software used…
The browser to the top left hand side
of final cut express was an extremely
useful feature. When constructing the
trailer, it was very difficult to know
where to place each scene and so
with the browser at the top, it allowed
us to create different ‘bins’ which
meant we could sort out each scenes
into a separate bin. This meant that
our whole project was organised and
easy to manage as we could easily
locate each scene. Music was the
same as we could create different
‘bins’ for different sound clips such as
the music itself and the voiceovers
we re-recorded.
9. Software used…
The tool box in Adobe
Photoshop Elements
The Hand Tool – This tool allowed us to move the photos around so we
could easily manoeuvre around the page which helped especially when
we were first constructing the image and planning what it looked like.
The Wand Tools – These tools allowed us to both cut round an image
and highlight it. This was extremely helpful when we were
superimposing the three images together for the poster as we needed
to cut three separate pictures in order to create the final poster.
The Eraser Tool – When we used the wand tools, we didn’t cut the
photo as precise as we wanted and so by zooming in on the image we
were able to erase out some of the excess image that wasn’t needed.
The Text Tool – This allowed us to write text over the images which
was helpful as we knew when planning that we would have to create
text such as the films title.
The Background Tool – This tool was extremely helpful when trying to
cut and erase an image as we could change the background from back
to white as we pleased and so could see if there was any piece of the
image which needed changing.
10. Software used…
The layer tool to the bottom right
hand side of Photoshop was
extremely useful when constructing
our poster and magazine cover. This
was because we could clearly and
precisely layer up the different
images so that the looked as though
they were taken at the same time.
There was a ‘lock’ button which you
could use to keep an image still from
moving, this was particularly useful
when making the poster as we would
occasionally make the mistake of
moving the wrong image and so, by
having the ‘lock’ button, once we had
perfected an image we could keep it
still.
The Layer Tool on Adobe
Photoshop Elements
11. Software used…
Live Type
Another piece of software we used
was called ‘Live Type’ which was a
font editing programme. In the
planning stages of our production
we decided to create the
production company name called
‘Vertigo Studios’ but we wanted
this name to be unique to our
marketing package and so we
decided to edit and construct it on
Live Type.
Live Type aided us in constructing
the company name as we were
able to create a moving font image
which is typically seen in trailers.
This would not have been able to
be achieved it we had only created
a name on Final Cut.
We also used a still version of the created
image onto our poster as this showed
continuity.
13. Web Technologies used…
I used ‘Wordpress’ as a way of presenting all my A2 media work.
Wordpress is a blogging website which allows you to freely post and
embed documents onto a blog which you have created yourself.
In order to show that I was working within the film-noir genre, I
uploaded a photo from Google images of a man in a trilby hat being
held at gun point in black and white and put it as my header photo.
On the Wordpress blog, I was able to manage all my individual posts
which allowed me to keep all my planning and evaluation posts in
date order and so they were organised.
14. Web Technologies used…
When planning and evaluating
our products, I used the
website ‘slideshare’ as a way
of sharing my presentations as
it was easy to embed onto my
blog so that the examiner
could read it. I tried a range of
different presentation websites
beforehand such as ‘scribd’ but
ended up choosing ‘slideshare’
as it looked more professional
and I believed it looked more
aesthetically pleasing when
embedded.
Slideshare
As I uploaded a lot of
presentations onto my
blog, it was good to use
slideshare for all of these
presentations as it meant
there was continuity
throughout the blog.
15. Web Technologies used…
When planning the initial idea for my A2
project, I researched a few theories such
as the ‘Utopians Solution Theory’ in order
to gain more of an understanding of how
people respond to media texts. When
reporting my findings I found that using a
normal presentation wouldn’t capture the
audiences attention and so I created a
‘PREZI’ which allowed me to present in a
much more technical way.
Prezi’s take a while to complete but once
finished they make the presentation look
extremely eye-catching.
