EVALUATION QUESTION 6WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Throughout the process of creating our film opening there were three different stages in which we used a lot of different technologies. The different stages were: • planning and research • construction • evaluation

This presentation will discuss the different technologies used in each stage of the film opening process and what I have leant about each technology used.

INTRODUCTION

PLANNING AND RESEARCH In the planning and research stage of the film opening a lot of software technology was used. We were introduced to three new websites to do and upload our work on. These were Blogger, Prezi and Slideshare. These three softwares were extremely important throughout the whole process of constructing the film opening, not just the planning and research stage. However, it was during this stage that we were introduced to the three websites.

Prezi is a website that we used to create presentations of our work. It is very easy to use and understand but on the rare occasion it loses connection and you have to wait a few minutes to regain connection. When you first login to Prezi the screen in Fig.1. appears on screen. To create a Prezi you simply click the “create a new Prezi” button. Once you’ve clicked this button a new tab opens as shown in Fig.2. This page allows you to choose the design of your Prezi, its very easy to understand and similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. When you’re happy with your choice you simply click “use template”. Fig.3. shows what appears after choosing your template. This is your Prezi PowerPoint. You type your information in areas where it says “click to add text” and you click the circle in the top left to add new sections to the Prezi. It’s very easy to use as it tells you how to add text and is very self-explanatory. If you happen to get stuck there is a help button which leads to very simple instructions.

Prior to creating the film opening I had never used Prezi and it was a totally new software to me. I learnt everything you need to know to create a fully functioning Prezi and it took very little time to understand Prezi due to its simplicity.

Fig.1. Prezi homepage

Fig.3. Prezi PowerPoint

Fig.2. Choose template

Slideshare was used to upload work done on Word or PowerPoint so we could retrieve an embed code to upload the document onto Blogger. After typing in your LinkedIn login details on the screen shown in Fig.4. you then have to get a code from your emails as seen in Fig.5. This was difficult to retrieve in school as yahoo mail doesn’t work on the school accounts. However, when using Slideshare at home it was very easy to use as it was very easy to get onto yahoo mail. Once signed into Slideshare the homepage appears like in Fig.6. Uploading a document is very simple as all that is required is pressing the “upload” button then opening the Word or PowerPoint document from your documents.

Slideshare was another software I had never come across prior to creating our film openings. Similarly to Prezi, I had to learn how to use the website but it took little time because it’s a very easy website to understand. The only slightly difficult part about Slideshare was login in on our school system with a LinkedIn account and not being able to get onto yahoo mail to retrieve a verification code. Apart from that it’s a very simple software to understand and use. Finding the embed code to copy onto blogger was another simple thing to do as it tells you where the embed code is.

Fig.4. LinkedIn login

Fig.6. Homepage

Fig.5. Sign-in verification

Blogger was the most important bit of software used during the whole process of creating the film opening. All work done was uploaded onto blogger for the teacher to access. Fig.7. shows the screen that appears after logging into blogger. To create a new post you simply click the “new post” button then the screen shown in Fig.8. appears. The page looks like a Word document and you type your information straight onto the blank page like you do in Word. To embed a Slideshare or Prezi into the blogger you click the HTML button and paste the embed code in. All the buttons on blogger are self-explanatory as most are labelled or have a title when you hover your curser over the button.

Like the two previously mentioned softwares, blogger was new to me. This was another thing I understood how to use immediately due to its straightforwardness although I had to learn everything about the software. After my teacher explained and demonstrated how to I didn’t need anymore help using it. Blogger also allows people to comment on any work that has been posted so my teacher could mark the work and give us feedback so I could receive the best grade possible in my work.

Fig.7. Blogger homepage

Fig.8. Blogger homepage

In the research and planning stage of our film opening production process we used different technologies to research generic conventions, film opening conventions and everything about our chosen genre. We used the UK Film Council slideshow, that was saved into the student share documents of our school system, to research the popularity of our chosen genre. We also discovered our target audience through this information.

Box Office Mojo and IMDb were two websites we used to discover information regarding the popularity of films and how much money they make. The websites also allowed us to work out whether the film is mainstream or niche so we can get a greater understand of the popularity of our chosen genre. This allowed us to decided whether our film should be mainstream or niche and whether it would make a lot of money.

YouTube was used to watch other AS Media film openings so we could gather inspiration and find out what our target audience liked to watch. We also discovered different shots that looked good in our genre and found out what makes the film opening realistic.

All the websites used in the planning and research stage were not new softwares so I knew how to used them. For this reason they were easy to use.

CONSTRUCTION During the construction stage of the film opening process I had to learn how to use a video camera and a boom mic to record the footage needed for our film opening. Having used the camera in the preliminary task, I knew what I was doing as all I had to do was turn the camera on and press record. However, there are many settings on the camera we didn’t explore like infrared mode and changing the depth of field. This was because no one in the group knew how to change these modes, but nor did we want to change them because we were happy with using a simple shot with the basic mode set on the camera. The boom mic was a hardware I had never used prior to filming our opening. One member of our group had used it before so explained how to turn it on, this being all that was required to use the mic. Both the camera and the mic were easy to use and only required you holding them or leaving them stood on the tripod after them being turned on. Neither of the items were temperamental and they worked very well and were simple to use.

For the construction of the product we used Movie Studio Platinum to edit our film opening. This was another technology used in the preliminary task so I was aware with how to use it but I hadn’t explored the software in detail so there was a lot I learnt during the film opening process. Adding a filter, cropping the framing of a shot, adding externally made music, slowing down a clip and adding Photoshop text are some of the things I learnt how to do in Movie Studio Platinum. These things were very easy to do once explained to me by my teacher. The one thing I found difficult was matching the contrast and brightness of two different shots. When filming we took an establishing shot of the woodland then took a closer shot of the same area of the woods. The establishing shot made the grass seem darker than in the following shot so I had to try and edit the second shot to make the colours match. My teacher taught me how to edit the contrast and brightness of the shot but I still found it difficult to match the shot exactly so I required my teacher help to find a way to make them match.

Photoshop was another software used during the construction of our film opening. We used Photoshop to create our studio logo, AJA Productions, and to create the titles featuring in our film opening.

Our studio logo was very simple to create as it only consists of text, no pictures. All I needed to do was add text, which was done by simply clicking the text tool, then change the colour of the text, by clicking the text colour box. I then changed the background colour by using the paint bucket tool. I was familiar with using Photoshop due to using it in other subjects so creating the studio logo was a quick and easy process.

Creating the titles was another simple process. When creating the film title, Riverside, we used a similar process to when creating the studio logo. The only difference was with the title text I changed some of the layer style setting to create a title that fitted our genre. I didn’t know how to do this but someone in my group showed me that they could be changed so I learnt this and changed some of the settings to get our final product.

EVALUATION After completing the planning and research then the construction of the film opening, I then had to evaluate my work. Prezi, Word, PowerPoint, Slideshare and Blogger were some softwares I used in the evaluation stage as well as in the two previously mentioned stages. This meant I gained even further knowledge of each website so I could use them easily and efficiently. In the evaluation stage I had to answer seven different evaluation questions. To further my knowledge on different softwares I used new ones to answer the questions. Emaze was a new software I discovered and learnt to use for the evaluation stage of the process. Emaze was a software I found took longer to get used to because of my total unfamiliarity with it. When choosing a template to use I found them all quite confusing so I chose to use a blank Emaze. I then discovered that Emaze is quite similar to PowerPoint but was more temperamental. Sometimes when typing Emaze wouldn’t register what I was typing so I had to log out and finish the presentation the next day. Apart from this it was quite simple to understand once I got to the blank template.

YouTube was used to upload the film opening, the target audience interviews and our groups pitch so we could add the videos as evidence in some evaluation questions and take screenshots from the film opening as evidence. Prior to this I had never uploaded a video to YouTube so this was something I learnt.