How did you use new media technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation stages?

RESEARCH
Throughout the exploration and construction stages of my project I used YouTube to
do some market research into different horror trailers and which aspects appeared to
be most popular (which was over voices, dark lighting and EXCU). I found this very
useful as I could see which trailers exceeded others by the amount of
viewers/subscribers there was on each video. I also used word documents to
process my risk assessments (due to easy access), and other pieces of coursework
within the project such as my genre research. Lastly, I used twitter and Facebook to
engage with people that stood in the range of my target audience (15-21) to see
what entices them into a horror trailer/film. For example, I found out that tension is a
huge element within the scare genre as it builds a relationship with the action on
screen and the audience.

CONSTRUCTION
When I began filming my horror film trailer, I used a Cannon DSLR, as it was easily
accessible due to it belonging to the school. I used this camera to record my entire
project, however looking back at my recordings; it wasnt the best camera to use, as
some shots were extremely grainy. This prevented some parts of my trailer looking
professional therefore I had to transfer my video onto different software to edit the
lighting and get rid of the grainy appearance.

I used a tripod for almost every shot as I found that it steadied the camera and
concentrated more on the action itself. For some shots I used the floor (as I wanted
to create high angles for my villains to make them seem more intimidating) and for
some shots I just used my steady handalthough I needed at least one shot to
seem shaky when the car hits the body & when the teens are listening to music in
the back of the car.

Lastly for my video, I used a Rode Mic so that the camera was better at picking up
sound. The mic made a huge difference in the sound quality and added another
touch of professionalism to my horror film trailer.

Going onto my ancillary tasks, I used the Cannon DSLR camera to take photographs
for my poster and magazine shots. I used the photo studio to edit the lighting to an
appropriate standard (low/dark to relate to the darkness of a horror film). I had no
problem taking the photos as I was fully experienced with photographing different
people (from previous projects).

POST PRODUCTION
For postproduction I used iMovie to edit my initial film trailer. The main reason for
using this software was because it was the easiest application to get hold of. Another
reason being that it was ideal for adding an over-voice element to my film trailer (an
aspect stereotypically used in most horror film trailers i.e. The Forest, Mama). To
make my over-voice sound more professional and higher in quality I used a Samson
Mic. I was new to this piece of equipment therefore I had the challenge of using it
successfully. iMovie also allowed me to add in slow motion effectsso when I filmed
the car coming to halt it didnt really look like a big stop, but adding a slow-mo. effect
exaggerated the car stopping and it made it seem like a real crash.
For my ancillary tasks, Photoshop was the main base of my editing. I found it difficult
to use at first but after a few lessons from my teacher, I became more familiar with
the software and had no problem using it effectively. Photoshop allowed me to mess
around with each image and give different examples of how my final design would
look. For examplewhether to skew the title or add a 3D effect to it. Whether to
make my poster white and clinical or dark and gloomy. My overall decisions from
Photoshop made my ancillary tasks fit in with my trailer and I developed a really
strong digipak overall.
Another really helpful element that Photoshop helped me with is my general poster
design. I needed to develop a hallway for my poster however there were no
appropriate/sinister looking hallways that I knew of. SoI took a photo of a one-
sided wall and duplicated it to develop my own co-existing hallway.

CONCLUSION
When it came down to making a conclusion on all of my work through the evaluation
questions, I had used a lot of the same applications before. For example, Prezi,
Scribd, Word, PowerPoint. These pieces of software were the most easily accessible
and were also appropriate for how I wanted to present my coursework. I also did a
directors commentary over iMovie so that I had a range in my presentation of work.
Overall, I believe that my use of media technologies within each stage of my project
process were all at top quality and were displayed in very versatile ways.