1. Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?

2. The use of recording the process of my
coursework electronically on my blog
I used a range of websites to upload my work from powerpoints (a) and word
documents (b) into Prezis, Issuus, Slideshare, Youtube videos and Scibds.
Within these documents I involved screenshots from my thriller and other
case studies (c) and imported video clips into them for example in my Prezi’s.
I did this because they made clear, strengthened and supported the points
and evaluations on specific moments I wanted to make, and made analysis
more precise and detailed. Additionally I also scanned storyboards to upload
them for my thriller and preliminary planning (d) onto my blog, I did this
because it made quicker and easier access to them as all my other planning
was on my blog. So when it came to filming I had one location where
everything was in which I could easily reference and check that everything
was precise as we wanted it to be, whereas if it was on paper copies it would
have made it less organised.

3. a
b
c d

4. Blogger
When using Blogger (e), which I had never used before, I learnt how to first of all set up the
layout which I customized (f) to be colourful therefore more appealing to the viewer. I
could embed videos we made ourselves or from case studies off of Youtube using the
HTML tab (g) when doing a new post, this is something I struggled with at first but then
soon figured out therefore developing and revolutionising my knowledge of this website.
Adding labels (h) and gadgets on our blog to make it more sophisticated and organised was
also something I learned how to do. Blogger is what we all used and uploaded our work
onto, it was good because it meant we could get consistent feedback from the teacher
through comments (i) without delay on how to improve our work, and if we needed
inspiration or ideas we could look at fellow class mates or previous students (j) work, that
fit the grade we were aiming for. Whereas if this were paper copies we wouldn’t have been
able to do this as easily and teachers could give feedback that we could see not only during
school time but outside of it also, so we always had work to do. We also may have lost it
more easily and our planning and research may have been disorganised, due to the label
feature on our blogs this wasn’t an issue.

5. e
f
g
i
j

6. Prezis
Prezis (k) was one of my favourite ways of uploading my work onto my blog.
This was because they have many pre-set formats you could work with or
make your own from scratch. When your work was finished you could make
it go into a linear timeline of the order you wanted it in going from one
subject to the next, and you can easily and tightly zoom in on features like
the screenshots so they can be easily analysed, or zoom out to look at the
bigger picture (l). Which is something I found more difficult doing using other
uploading websites like Issuu. Additionally unlike Issuu you can embed
videos within the presentation making it more animating and impressive.
These made it a more interesting and inventive way of uploading my work
therefore the viewer has a better experience seeing it, and gave me the
opportunity to enhance what they were seeing.

7. k
l

8. Video Responses
This was a more intriguing way of presenting my work, because it gave
a more stimulating and lively experience to the viewer, as I was
speaking directly to them (m), and added a bit of a change of reading
words of the screen like the other methods I used. This was the first
time I had ever done a video diary and It took me a few attempts in
mastering it so it revolutionised my knowledge of one way to present
my work. Moreover I uploaded it onto Youtube (n) which I then
embedded into Blogger using the HTML tab when composing a new
post which is also something I learned.

9. m
n

10. Research and Planning
Without the internet research into other thriller films would have been very difficult. For example many
websites like http://www.amazon.co.uk/ recommend other similar films if you look at one you already know
(o), this was helpful because it helped me study and broaden my knowledge and conventions of the genre by
watching these similar films. When doing case studies on thriller films Youtube (p) always had the clip I wanted
to analyse, this was helpful because it meant I could easily press the screenshot button on the moment I
wanted so I could examine and identify conventions of the genre without owning the film. The International
Movie Data Base (IMDb) http://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home ,(q) was also incredibly helpful because it had
many aspects that were of use to me, for example that similar to Amazons of suggesting similar films. It also
gave demographics (r) which I have found very useful more recently when doing my research and planning for
appealing to target audiences and backing this up with screenshots from this website. For example IMDb offers
you the ability to find out the age and gender of the target audience of a certain film, so this helped us choose
which films to inter textually reference which our specific target audience will notice and understand as we
would choose a thriller with a similar target audience, like The Killing, which target audience was similar to
ours. This website also contained immense detail of a specific film like the actors, director, awards it won
pictures, the time it came out etc. at a convenient place, therefore this website sped up the process of case
studies, planning and evaluating as I didn’t have to waste time individually finding this information elsewhere
on the internet, and I think without the internet this sort of information would have been near impossible
especially the demographics.

11. o
p
q
r

12. Research and Planning
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ (s) is a good reviewing website which I would go to if I hadn’t
seen a thriller film but wanted an insight to the plot and whether it was good or not, as it offers
critic reviews, and user reviews, so a mix of opinions that I can see to help me decide whether or
not the film would be useful to me.
Even little factors like weather on the day of our shoot, we used the internet for. Overall the internet
has incredibly enhanced , sped up and transformed the process of research, planning and
evaluating, as it gave me access to these websites needed for me to creatively present my work, in
which before I had little knowledge of previously.
Before truly investigating locations we used https://www.google.co.uk/maps and street view to
explore specific initial locations (t) we had in mind for our shoot. This meant we didn’t have to
waste time and effort going to each location and seeing if it was right and conventional for our
thriller, this way made it easier, quicker and convenient. Once we found the location we liked the
look of we used a digital camera to take photos to upload into our planning. We also used this
digital camera to take photos of evidence of us shooting, props and objects, costume, lighting (s)
etc. We did this because first of all it strengthened our planning, and secondly it helped take stills of
what the lighting would look like on a screen, as it may have been different to what we saw and
wanted it to turn out and we could play around with it.

13. s
t
u

14. Collaborating/Social Media
Social media has revolutionised how modern society keeps in contact
with each other, and this is how my group collaborated, through social
media, we created a group chat in Facebook (u) which we used to
contact each other about the schedule of our shoot. Also we used it to
go over details with each other and ask questions if we were unsure
about something specific to our production and we couldn't contact
the teacher immediately. It made us working together more efficient
because of the easy availability we had with each other (v). We could
send things like links, screenshots, pictures we took etc. very easily to
one another. We also kept in contact through our mobile phones
around the time of the shoot, so we could ring each other up and ask
about availability, especially useful if nobody replied in the group chat.

15. u
v

16. The Shoot
The digital camera we used to record our thriller, a Panasonic HDC-TM55 (w), had a long battery life
so we were able to record multiple versions of one shot and for a long time without having to
recharge it; this was particularly useful for our shoot as we were in a forest far away from any of our
houses so if we ran out of charge it would have been very inconvenient to have to go back and
recharge it then go back to the forest. Moreover our digital camera allowed for easy and immediate
playback from scenes we just recorded, so we could re-watch them immediately to see if we liked
the footage or if we needed to do it again. For example when we did the shot of Billy putting away
the mug and the mug covers the camera, in some of the takes the mug doesn’t fully block the lens
therefore the shot was wrong, and we could see this and immediately re-do it (x). The memory card
we used, a Transcend 16GB SDHC Class 6, had a lot of space so allowed for all this spare footage to
be stored without us having to worry about space, which may have made us cautious on what we
film if we were, this could have restricted our creativity, as we wouldn’t have been as explorative in
our filming (y) so we had a lot of discarded footage. To make our production more visually appealing
we used a ContuorROAM 2 digital camera (z) which had capabilities of being waterproof, so we
filmed a shot underwater, making our production more exciting and have variety. All these
advanced features of our cameras meant we were more efficient in filming speeding up the process,
and eliminating issues that would have come up later in editing and that we may not have been able
to fix, such as playback meant we could hear diegetic background noise, which would have been
difficult for us to take out post production as we kept all our diegetic sound in.

17. w
x
y
z

18. The Shoot
Digital cameras have only truly been around in the past 50 years,
however availability for media students like me to use them use them
has only been available in the past 10/15 years. This is because 20+
years ago digital cameras were too expensive for the majority of
schools and students to get their hands on, like in 1995 they mostly
cost around £1000 like the Ricoh’s RDC-1. Where as digital cameras
today and in the last 10/15 years have become cheaper so students like
me can easily get their hands on one and film projects like our thriller
opening. This is because they are cheaper; are more portable; have
higher quality; and have more features to them. This has meant I and
many others am able to shooter better quality and more creative shots
for the audience to view.

19. Editing
To edit our opening we used Adobe Premier Pro (1), editing a video is something I had never done
before starting media studies, so doing this really revolutionised my knowledge of this technology. I
learned how to add transitions like fade to black (2) or cross dissolves (3) from one clip to the next,
which was especially important for our production because of its narrative and themes of visions
and reality, the transitions helped for the audience understanding of what is going on. Moreover we
were able to upload soundtracks from http://freemusicarchive.org/ and synchronise it with
characters and key moments within our production, therefore this enhanced the viewers experience
by adding intensity and building tension. We added a sound bridge from our titles into our first
sequence of heavy breathing by adding this sound on another layer, this caught our viewers
attention. We also added colour alterations like black and white (4) filters and altered the brightness
to make it more visible on a scene that before would have been too dark (5). This is because black
and white is incredibly conventional of thrillers like in The Third Man therefore we wanted to
establish genre, and without the colour alteration on a certain scene it would have been too dark
for the audience to see, therefore this was simply making sure their experience watching our
opening was as best as it could have been. We got many fonts off of http://www.dafont.com/ (6)
this website had thousands of fonts to chose from, and were able to import many initial fonts into
our thrillers titles to see which one worked best before we chose our final one. We edited our titles
to fade out each letter individually, this made it look more professional and showed off the new
skills I had learned (7).

20. 1
2
4
3
5
6