Thomas, Alex, Trevane AS Media: Evaluation Question 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Whilst creating our film, we had to use a number of different technologies to make it into what it is now. In the 21st century, media is now heavily based on technology where everything is made easier through hardware and software of many kinds. It was used throughout each section of the process which included the research, planning, production and post-production.

In terms of research, we used the internet to find sources of information that related to what we were filming. This meant we conducted relevant research on the thriller genre and the aspects of it i.e. the stagecraft of these types of film are different from other films. We also used it to distribute our film to gain feedback from potential audiences through 'Facebook' and 'YouTube' which was important in that we could make necessary changes to improve our film.

For example, we used 'YouTube' to look up relevant exemplar film clips that we could analyse and look towards for ideas when it came to our own film - researching forms and conventions of existing thriller films and opening sequences. The internet allowed us to look over a variety of different texts allowing us to get exactly what we needed for our creativity to flourish in terms of the thriller codes and conventions.

An introduction video about the new features of 'YouTube' and how it works

As well as this we used 'Blogger' to organise and present our project in its different stages. The blog site made it so that we could edit our posts in whatever way looked best in terms of presentation and content - pictures and videos can be published in order for our posts to be an audio visual presentation as well. It allowed others in our group to see it and discuss what needed to be changed and added - necessary feedback was allowed either on an individual blogpost or the blog as a whole.

A screenshot of a review focusing on the features of 'Blogger' and the positive aspects of it

For the planning section of the coursework, we made use of technological convergence to compile our ideas and evidence for location and casting research. Smartphones were used to take pictures and capture videos when we needed to analyse the cast members and location 'reccies'.

This video highlights the photo capturing aspect of the smartphone, 'iPhone'

In the production and post-production, we used both hardware and software to finalise our project to the film it is now. Evidently, we used SD cameras which were portable, miniaturised and user-friendly - it contained features such as auto focus and white balance which helped with the overall filming process. In contrast though, there was the problem where the microphone would not pick up sound correctly sometimes like in an outside environment which is one reason why we limited dialogue in our script that was set outside.

A review of the SD camera our group used

'iMovie' was a piece of consumer audience product that came with the 'MacBook Pro' making it cost- effective. The editing process which was non-linear allowed us to change and edit shots and scenes in any way we thought fit best, for example it meant that we did not have to film in order of shot number in the storyboard. It was also user-friendly in that it had pre-loaded sounds, scores, transitions and effects. However, these features were flawed in that they were basic and did not live up to the standards that were needed for our film. For example, the preloaded scores did not have anything along the line of a dramatic or mysterious thriller film which is why we ended up using the internet to source royalty free scores.