Evaluation Question 4

Research
Within the research stage of our film I have used many new media technologies, mainly the Internet. The Internet offers a variety of things such as Youtube, The BBFC and Blogger. The Internet has a range of content that helped me within the research stage of production. It helped from researching into the genre of domestic comedy and what the conventions of the genre, to researching into music that we could have in the background of our film.

Youtube helped with researching into similar films such as Step Brothers and Home Alone. This helped us research what went into a Domestic Comedy and what was expected of a Domestic comedy. We realised that a domestic comedy is conventionally set in a house and around a family.

Youtube also helped us look for example shots within films, a good example of parallel editing that I found in The Silence of the Lambs.

We decided to use parallel editing within our film, however ours has dialogue bridged between all the separate shots which assists with continuity. This allows the audience to see the plot develop, with Matt packing a bag and going away and Laura talking about her troubles at the same time.

To gather audience feedback we used Google Docs, specifically its survey feature to collect data and put it into a graph. We handed out the surveys by email and social media sites such as Facebook. 

Within the research stage, I used Blogger to post all of the research for our film, Blogger allows you to add pictures, link websites. embed videos and write about the content. However there are some issues with Blogger, 

Planning
Within the planning stage of our production, we used Celtex, Microsoft Word and online storyboards. We used Celtex to write the script for the film, this allows us to film without forgetting lines. Celtex is user friendly and is easy to use. It is a professional software which helps us give our production a more professional feel.

Notes Script

The website we used to create the storyboard was www.storyboardthat.com. This website was good as it offered it's services for free and it had a lot of options for the background, characters and even props.

Microsoft word helped with creating a shot list. This allows use to film and it allows us to know what we are supposed to be filming. The useful thing about word was that there is an option to create a table, this helped us as it allowed us to say which shit we wanted, who was in it, what was going on in the shot, any dialogue and the equipment we needed for that scene.

Shot list here.

Construction
In the construction stage of our production, we used industry standard software which helped create a professional standard product. To create a professionally looking film poster we used Adobe Photoshop.
 
I have decided to get some practice on Photoshop for when we have to design our own film poster.
The first poster I decided to do was for a horror film. With this poster I practiced how to layer images, crop out images and add text. This was my first time using Photoshop, I wanted to learn the basics of Photoshop.

With the second poster I decided to do it for a sci-fi. In this poster I tried to enhance my skills of cropping and layering. I also tried to add effects, I added a lens flair.










Having learnt the basics of Photoshop, I decided to create my film poster. I was pleased with the final product and it was what I imagined in my mind.
One good feature of Photoshop is the font steel tongs, which have short cuts to certain words, I added these four tags to show the main people that worked on the film and their jobs.

To edit our film we used Premiere Pro, it is a professional editing software that is used regularly within the film industry. It was also my first time using Premiere Pro, however I have had practice in using other editing software and Premiere pro was similar.

One good feature that Premiere Pro has is its multiple layers that you can have for sound and imagery. This allows you to have multiple sounds overlaying each other in a scene, For example you can have the sound from the scene, layer over the top some sound effects then have music over the top of them all.

The effects tab

Constant gain

Another good feature is the array of pre-set effects that Premiere Pro has. One effect that we used within our editing is the volume effect. This allows you to change the volume on your audio. Another effect we used was a constant gain, this effect allows you to fade out the volume of your audio so that it is not an abrupt stop in sound.

Video effects

Premiere Pro has a vast array of video effects, We used a zoom, cross dissolve, fade to black and crop, to name a few.











One difficulty when using Premiere Pro is that it is a complex software it use to begin with. The tools on Premiere Pro are difficult to understand however once you know what they are and what their function is they editing process is much easier.

One tool that was difficult to find was the cut tool, this is due to it being called the razor tool on Premiere Pro. Moreover the icon is a razor blade whereas i am used to the cut tool being symbolised by scissors




Another tool that was difficult to find was the in and out marker, within Premiere Pro they are symbolised by these brackets. This was misleading as it is unclear that these brackets mark in and out.


The camera we used was the Canon Legria HFG25, this camera is a high quality camera that gives a professional standard recording. There are great features that this camera can do which gives the film a professional look. One feature it has is a focus pull which we used in our title sequence. Another feature we used was the cameras, easy to use, manual focus setting, this allows you to set one thing in the frame in focus and also does not make the recording distorted when it is over exposed to light. To keep the camera in a fix position and steady, we used a tripod. This makes the film footage not shaking which aids the film and makes it of a higher quality. 
 


The Zoom Recorder is a professional voice recorder which captures the voice at a industry quality. We used the voice recorder to capture the voice of the narrators voice in the radio trailer. We also used it to record the voice over in our film of the new reader on TV when Laura turns the TV on.










Evaluation
In my evaluation stage I used different software such as Blogger, Powerpoint, Prezi and word. These were useful, they allowed me to use different types of media into my evaluation. Blogger is a multi-media platform, it allows you to use use photos, links to other websites and allows you embed videos. The only issue with Blogger is that sometimes the formatting gets messed up when you copy text or photos or embed videos. Then you have to copy the text into an un-formatting document, such as notepad, to remove the formatting. This is very time consuming. Powerpoint is a useful platform to use, you can add photos, text, links and videos. You can also use Slideshare to embed your Powerpoint onto Blogger. Prezi is easy to use it is similar to the others as you can put the same things one. However it was difficlut to insert a video onto Prezi and took a while for me to find out how to do so. Word is very straight forward it is easy to use and you can add photos, text, links and videos. Then I used One Drive so that I could link it on Blogger.