Question 4 - Final Draft

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

As opposed to using log books, like last year, we were introduced to http://www.blogger.com/ where we would be using blogs to display every step of our A2 coursework. This allowed us to be more creative and personal within the way that we presented our work and use of layouts and images could be included, we could relate the look of our own individual blogs to the 'world of our film.' It also created familiarity for us as students, we use the internet on a regular basis within our own time on websites such as www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com etc, so we were already accustomed to the basic settings of blogger.com. The fact that it works through the internet meant that we could access it at any time and in any place, whether it was at home or within school. This meant we had more time to do work as we weren't restricted to one location where the work could be completed. The blog's gave us the opportunity to communicate with other people, both in and out of our own groups, and provide comments and suggestions towards their work. It also meant we could access each others blogs, through our department blog - Barking Abbey Media department and see what other class mates had done that could perhaps inspire us and give ideas. The department blog was also a way of distributing our work to us as we could check it frequently and complete any work that was posted on the wall under 'Year 13'. This meant even if we were absent for any reason we wouldn't fall behind on too much work because it would be available to us on the blog. We were also using a new editing software, instead of Avid which we were familiar with from AS, we were now using Premier which was a lot better than our original software. There were different transitions and effects that we could interpret into our work and the programme was a lot easier to comprehend and I became familiar with how it worked within a few hours. The use of the new effects allowed us to create different atmospheres within our scenes, such as passing of time, change of activity etc... The digital technology we use today to edit our films allows us to use non linear editing which means we don't have to edit in the order that we film. We are able to import and upload film onto a computer and edit in which ever order we prefer so chopping shots has become a lot easier and faster.
The internet was a huge aspect of our coursework as we were regularly using it for all kinds of reasons. Due to us having blogs that were accessible to everyone via the internet we frequently accssesed them to receive feedback from other class mates. We were also able to post comments through the internet which allowed easy communication and a simple way to provide suggestions and ideas towards people's work. Through internet we were also able to use emails to contact people with information. We were able to send teachers emails informing them of any students that would be missing lessons etc, which allowed us to be time efficient, preventing us from wasting time trying to find teachers that weren't available. In the same sense we were able to email cast members with information concerning rehearsals, auditions and filming times. So technology assisted us regarding communication, it was a quick and efficient way to contact people with any neccessary information. During research and planning we used the internet to find images and clips that related to our work so it made sources of information available to us with easy accsess. If we weren't able to access the internet researching would have been a lot more time consuming and tasks would have taken longer to complete. Where we were able to simply use www.youtube.com to find videos and clips from films we would have had to actually watch films in cinemas, on dvd's etc and it would have taken us more time to do this and we would have been restricted as to where this could be done. Therefore technology provided us with simple and effective ways to complete tasks and benefitted us hugely.
Another software we used was Adobe Photoshop which I used to create the posters for our film. Although it's not professional equipment we were able to create posters of good quality that didn't look too far from real film posters. The programme allowed us to copy and paste images into the document and add effects, layers etc which improved the overall look of our posters. There was also software that could be imported through Photoshop that provided things such as new brushes that weren't available on the original programme. Therefore with a convergance of the internet and Photoshop I was able to create our film posters. As opposed to programmes such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop provided us with the software we needed to create an imitation of a real film poster.
As well as computers we used filming equipment such as cameras and sound booms which also aided our coursework. We were already familiar with the equipment as we had previously used them in our AS course, but this year we had been introduced to new techniques and effects that we could interpret into our work. The equipment we used allowed us to have portability, the Canon camera that we used for filming doesn't require a huge crew which made moving around a lot easier which ultimately made filming quicker and more time efficient. The equipment isn't very complex to comprehend and learning the controls and buttons didn't take very long, this is because the digital revolution has made using cameras a lot easier and simple. It's also allowed people to be more creative because they don't have to be a professional camera user to be able to use one, the digital technology that we have available to us has meant that anyone can make a film and distribute it.
Due to the easy accessibility of technology we were able to do a lot of things that weren't neccessarily possible a few years ago. The internet and things such as firewire leads and usb cables enabled us to create a film, edit it and publish it on the internet for our audience to see so digital technology assisted us with the construction, marketing and distribution of our film and as students we were able to create a real short film. The technology available to us is considered universal, the technologies all converge with each other and provide new and creative ways of doing things, in relation to films it allows us to make them without the need to be a professional director or film maker.