Media Exam Evaluation

Digital Technology

1.      How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

YouTube was particularly helpful in researching in the beginning of our research stage as it allowed us to access a wide variety of opening minutes in multiple different genres that could we could analyse and learn from. It was also helpful in the planning stage as we could use it for tutorials on the editing software to learn more about it so we could produce a higher quality piece.

2.      What software was used?

Adobe elements and Sony Vegas were used to edit our trailer Adobe is on the school computers so it was easier to access in lessons when we were all together rather than having to find time outside lessons to edit it but Sony Vegas was helpful in creating a rough draft on my laptop so we could easily replicate it in Adobe when we got to school. Although it is not excessively complicated we watched a few tutorials to learn how to use it as we wanted to make sure we used it to its full capacity. At AS our film was fairly high quality production piece but it was far less complex with less shots and only one piece of music so we improved at A2 as we had over 50 shots this time round and 3 different pieces of music.

3.      What equipment was used

We used a school camera which was not of the highest quality but it got good enough shots and saved us having to spend an excessive amount on a high quality camera. The only fundamental issue with it, alongside its terrible battery life, was that it struggled to shoot in low light, I feel it’s one of the biggest flaws of our entire trailer is the fact it’s so light when it’s supposed to be a horror. Although the trailer exudes a degree of fear in the audience if we’d had a higher quality camera it could have been so much scarier.

4.      What were the technical pros and cons of the software and hardware?

The camera shot in quite high resolution meaning the end product is quite high definition but as the microphone was quite small the sound wasn’t as good as we had hoped it would be. There was also a few shaky shots which although were good near the end of the two minutes and added to the effect of making the audience feel like they were there in the woods, it would have been better to use a tripod at the beginning to get more stable shots. This is something we learnt from and incorporated in out A2 production to ensure we got far more professional looking shots. A pro of Adobe was it was clearly laid out and had extra features (like trimmer, speed) to help make a better looking final piece but a con of it was as we were unfamiliar with it we had to spend time learning how to use it and still then we didn’t know all the things we could do with the software so may not have used it too its full capacity.

5.      In what ways was technology used to create the production?

YouTube was used to research openings, blogger was used to present our findings, and the school camera was used to film our piece whilst Adobe was used to edit it.

6.      In what ways did the technology constrain or enable the production to be developed?

The school camera limited our quality as to look at the resolution is not as high as we would have hoped for, also the audio recorded from the camera wasn’t as clear as it could have been. Adobe enabled us to produce a fairly high quality production even with low dialogue and shaky shots as we could add music in and cut shots effectively to make the opening scarier.

7.      How have you developed these skills at A2?

At A2 we re-recorded dialogue to get a more professional feel to our final product and improve upon our audio skills at A2.