1. QUESTION 4
How did you use new media technologies in
the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
DEAD MAN’S HAND
Joe Habben

2. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
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In the research and planning stage of our production, Web 2.0 was
used very frequently for a wide range of things such as searching on
the video website ‘YouTube.com’ to watch trailers of the films which
heavily influenced our production such as Reservoir Dogs, Jackie
Brown, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kill Bill and a few others.
•
I then created slide presentations through Microsoft PowerPoint,
analysing these trailers in depth to gain both information and inspiration
from them. Once I had completed these PowerPoints, I then uploaded
them onto the website ‘SlideShare.com’ where people can upload there
presentations to share with the world, I used this website so that I could
embed my PowerPoint onto my blog so that it was much more
interactive and not just a simple hyperlink.
•
Copyright free music websites such as ‘Incompetech’, ‘Free SFX’ and
also ‘YouTube’ came in really handy when it got down to the postproduction stage of our trailer. Here there was a large archive of music
and sound effects which we could download for free with no risks of
being sued for copyright claims. This is where we found all of the sound
effects that are featured in the trailer for Dead Man’s Hand.

3. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
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The Varndean College intranet came in very handy when using
Moodle, here our tutors had uploaded all of the class worksheets,
templates, helpful websites and links and many more aiding tools
which helped us on producing our ancillary texts.
•
Whenever we produced a piece of work, we could then upload it
onto our own personal media blog, where we slowly built up a
progressing portfolio which developed as the project went along.
We could personalise our blogs by uploading pictures from google
images which we could then use as a background for our
homepage. Throughout the project we have been using the media
blog, where we could attain feedback from the teachers and
communicate and work together with our group, if we were even
unsure on something then we could look back onto our blog for
guidance on what we had done and needed to be done. It became
a great tool which developed our ideas to produce what we have
now. On our blog we imported a wide range of different medias
consisting mainly of word documents, PowerPoints and JPEGS. A
really handy tool which I discovered was the embed button where
we could embed whatever we wanted into to the blog, such as
YouTube videos, this aided me to make the blog stand out more
visually and didn’t just look like a blank page of text.

4. PRODUCTION
In the production stage of our project I was entitled to large barracks of equipment that we could use
to film our trailer. I ended up a with a variation of different tools which all contributed to the
production of our film.
•
Over the course of our 3 day filming schedule, I used a few different tripods, these all led to the
result of the static shots being so stable which made our footage look very professional, and not
anything like a college project.
•
The ‘Steadicam Rig’ was a piece of equipment which I could attach my camera onto as if it were
a tripod. But what separated this from a tripod was that it was mobile, so that I could move
around quickly whilst maintaining steady shots, this was by far one of the most helpful pieces of
equipment and it encouraged me to be more creative within my shots due to the opportunities
which it enabled me access to.
•
‘The Track’ was a train track-like tool which we carried this around with us on all the filming
days. When we came to a scene where there was a lot of movement, I set the track up and
fitted the tripod onto a panel which glided along very smoothly (maintaining the continuity). This
allowed me to move and match the speed of the subjects/actors who were moving about. Due
to the track, the appearance of the footage made the viewer feel part of the action as if they
were running with the characters.
•
The camera I filmed on was a Canon EoS 600D DSLR which filmed 25 frames per second in
high definition. Whenever we shot a photograph or piece of footage, then it would be sent onto
a SD card which held everything.
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Other pieces of equipment which we used were a Slider, a 50mm Tamron lens and a wide-angle
Tamron lens. We were very lucky to have access to so much technology which benefitted our
trailer hugely.

5. POST-PRODUCTION
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Once we completed all of our filming, we reached the editing suite where I could simply eject
the SD card and insert it into a USB port on an Apple Mac. On this computer was a range of
different Adobe programs such as After-Effects, Premier-Pro and Photoshop. I used Adobe
Premier-Pro to edit and create our trailer by importing all of the footage which I had filmed on
our camera. Here I imported all of the clips, sound effects, titles, Foley sounds and spent a lot
of time constructing our product by creating interesting postmodern effects such as timeremapping and a split-screen effect. Once I had created the final cut of the trailer then we used
Web 2.0 to export it onto YouTube.com where we could share our production for the world to
see and interact with the trailer that we had created.
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When creating our trailer a website called DaFont.com came in very handy, this website
contained a selection of fonts in all shapes and sizes which were free to download and use.
Here we searched for the possible font that we could use for our trailer and other ancillary
products.
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In the post-production process, our tutors gave us feedback and said that the trailer sounded a
bit quite, I quote ‘similar to a music video’. Due to this, I came to the idea that we should record
some dialogue from the actors over the trailer. To do this I used a set of recording equipment in
the studio, I then imported this into our edit and it enhanced the content of the trailer, by adding
an aural edge.
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When producing our other ancillary products, I used Adobe Photoshop Cs5 to edit and create a
series of posters and a magazine cover advertising our film. This software allowed me to edit
the photographs which I had taken and enhance them to look professional, I then added titles,
and finally the ‘credits’ and magazine cover template which I found on the Varndean Moodle.

6. EVALUATION
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I presented my evaluations of what we had constructed through a range of different medias. A couple of my
presentations were created on Microsoft PowerPoint which I find looks very smart and gives my evaluations
a formal appeal, after I had completed these, I used Web 2.0 to upload them onto SlideShare.com where I
could embed them onto my blog and also share them with my group.
•
For Question 1, we used a microphone to record our commentary about the production over the top of our
trailer to give viewers an insight into certain aspects and elements. This made it more entertaining for
viewers so that they could be listen and interact with our work hands-free.
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I have also used Prezi and Time toast to present some of my work which gives the viewer more interaction
with what they are reading so that they don’t get fed up of reading a black and white word document.
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Throughout the project I constantly used Google, Google Images and YouTube to add links, find out
information and give my question more appeal and make them more interesting. I find that these have been
the most helpful over the course of the project due to easy access.
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We also used YouTube to share what we had done with friends and family via Facebook by sharing the
trailer, pitch and posters to see what they thought.
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From the beginning of our project we used Facebook to interact with each other within the group so that we
could share tips, ideas, contact info, dates to meet up etc. This was extremely helpful in allowing us to keep
in contact when not in college working together to create our products.