2. Genre Research
The internet was my main tool when doing research into the horror genre. The
internet gave me access to loads of information that was necessary for me to make my
production work as effective as possible.
Google was very useful for my research as it allowed me to browse through hundreds
of excising products very quickly to learn what the norm and conventions are in the
genre.
To present my initial research into horror genre conventions I used bubbl.us, a
free bubble diagram site. This allowed me to present it in a simple easy to understand
format that looks easy on the eye at the same time. Similarly to bubbl.us I used
Popplet to present my institutions research, this is another example of a spider
diagram, after using both Popplet is my preference as it looks more professional.
Because my analysis’ on posters, magazines and trailers were very long and in essay
style, I used Microsoft Word as it is the most simple software for essay style work.
I used YouTube to watch and analyse excising
trailers which was again very useful for learning the
convections and norms.
3. Audience Research
The first technology I used for my research was Survey Monkey, which is a free and easy to
use survey creating website that I used to create and easily gather results for questions
relating to my production work. My first survey was to find out who my target were,
asking people if they liked horror movies, and asking questions about their psychographics
and demographics. I used email to send the survey around and also twitter to tweet out
the survey to my followers. To summarise my results I used Powerpoint as it is a simple
and easy to use software that allowed me to make a presentation quickly and easily.
Padlet enabled me to add a trailer to my blog, and ask people to view it and write their
opinions on it underneath on the padlet that I also put on my blog, this is a very simple
way to get opinions and feedback from multiple people.
Animoto is a free to use 30 second video creator that I used to make my audience profile
after my research, it allowed me to add text and also images.
I recorded a focus group interview with a video camera and used iMovie to edit it, this
was because iMovie is a simple and easy to use editing software that enabled me to add
text and freeze frames to the video easily.
To finish off my audience research I used Powerpoint again to make a presentation
summarising my audience research and what I found out. Powerpoint is good as it is
simple to use, has a range of design templates and allows the addition of text, shapes
images, charts and things of that nature.
4. Planning
For my horror genre production concept and zombie horror concept I used Popplets to showcase them.
This was because I wanted them to be in a simple mind map form to make them clear and easy to
understand. I used a Padlet to get feedback on my concepts, allowing people to write feedback directly
onto my blog.
For my pitch I used PowerPoint, this was because it is a simple software for making presentations, it
allowed me add text, images and also comes with default templates and designs which was very useful
for this particular task.
For tasks like my script, shot list and risk assessment I used Microsoft Word. Word is very useful
software for work that requires a lot of text like the script, and features fonts that are similar to those
used to make professional scripts. Work also allowed me to make simple tables which is why it was
useful for the making of my shot list and risk assessment which were both in the form of tables.
For my our story board we took pictures using my phone and put them straight onto Blogger as images.
To make my ancillary drafts I used Photoshop, Photoshop is a very good program that allows editing of
images and the making of things like magazine covers. It has lots of different tools that can be used for
numerous jobs such as shapes, paint brush, crop and smudge that can be used to edit images.
To find music that I could use for my trailer I used SoundCloud. This allowed me to search for the songs
I wanted, download them and also add them to my blog to get feedback using a Padlet. This helped me
decide on the song I wanted to use and I went with the majority from the feedback.
For my animatic I used iMovie, like for the focus group it was suitable as it was easy to use. Also it
allowed me to use fade to blacks, add the text for breaking news and add sound.
5. Production – Ancillary
For my Ancillary the main technology I used was Photoshop. I used Photoshop to edit my
images and bring the whole magazine cover and poster together. Photoshop is good because
it offers loads of different editing tools to use to make the most effective ancillary possible.
Editing images
Photoshop allowed me to edit this image to make it look like it is blended into
the black background. To do this I changed the properties of the image to
make it more dull, and I then used the brush tool to add the faded black effect
around the outside. I also removed the background from the original image
before beginning to edit it, getting rid of everything but the face and neck.
Editing this image for my magazine cover was much more simple, because I
didn’t need to add an effect to it I only needed to remove the background
from the original image.
6. Production – Trailer
To film the shots for my trailer we used a video camera. This meant that we could get good
quality shots with an easy to use and easy to move and adjust camera. This helped us film as
it made it easier to carry around into different locations. The camera also had a tri pod that
allowed for us to keep our shots steady and use pan and tilt.
For the editing of the trailer itself, we used Adobe Premier Elements. This program is very
effective for editing videos. It has lots of transitions, including fade to black. It also allows for
lots of options when making title screens and when adding text over footage. For example
the actors names in my trailer and the title screens were all done through this program. The
title screen showing the name of the film was possible as the software allowed me to add an
image onto the title screen.
Another good feature is the ease at which a sound track can be added. All that is required is
too drag the track into place and then you can edit the length.
Another helpful tool to use was that I could change the properties of my clips in order to
remove sound from the clips that didn’t need it.
The scissor tool allowed me to alter the size of the clips and cut any excess.
