How did you use new media

technologies in the construction

and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
The Research Stage
We were always using the internet for
research when creating our trailer,
magazine cover and poster.
Google is often the main search engine
I would use to find my research to help
me develop my work. Google, and
other search engines and websites
helped me to research into soap
operas, history of the soaps,
characters, storylines and many other
different things that helped me with my
coursework. Also, I was able to
research posters and magazine covers
to see what they look like if I could not
go to a shop to look at them. There are
websites dedicated to the soap opera
magazines and this was extremely
helpful to see all the different colours
and layouts used. I was also able to
look for posters that advertise soaps,
like what I am also completing for my
ancillary task.
Using YouTube helped me to look at other soap opera trailers and this would
often help me to get some insight in to what is needed within a soap trailer and
how we could make ours look as professional as possible. The total number of
YouTube videos are over 120,000,000, so there are many different videos of
trailers to look at and it was always easy to research.
Having a school account for our media class, was helpful in being able to
upload drafts of our trailer to, to then embed into our blogs for people to watch
and also this helped us get feedback as giving the link to people was easier
than giving them the trailer to watch on a disk, for example.
It was also helpful to upload videos that we had made as a group, such as our
storyboard. Having the option to complete sections of coursework using multi-
media, made it more interesting to do and for people to watch and listen
instead of reading simple text. Again, we could embed them into our blogs and
this was much easier.
• YouTube has also helped us to distribute
our film to others and this ultimately
helped us gain and receive as much
feedback as possible, as it was easy for
people to view just through clicking a link.
Blogger is the programme I use to display
my work. Blogger is extremely easy to use
and upload pieces of work to. Having an
individual blog and a group blog was helpful
to display my work that I do individually and
the work we do as a group. Blogger allows
you to embed documents uploaded from
scribd, embed pictures to back up points
within the post, there is also the option to
make words into links which you are able to
click and be moved to the different website.
When needing to change posts, it is easy to
edit what you have written.
It also allows you to look at other peoples
blogs to see how they are doing the work if
you are confused or stuck. When having a
group blog, such as our ‘whodunnit’ blog, we
could all contribute to the blog.
The Construction Stage
We used similar cameras to ones such as these. As we have used the same
cameras throughout our media course, we know how to use the cameras and
this helps us when we needed to set the cameras up quickly and easily. The
settings on the camera were simple to use and we often made use of the
picture setting to take pictures which we could use for our coursework,
magazine and posters. You are able to twist the screen so everyone within
the group is able to contribute towards the positioning of the camera, the
angle and the framing of the shot.
We found that they are extremely light and easy to carry and with the bag
they are carried in, they are safe from any damage. We used three cameras
altogether to shoot different angles of the same shot to help us when we
came to editing and putting it all together into our trailer.
The cameras are not particularly complex with the settings you can put them to, to
enhance the filming. For example, there are simple adjustments that can be made
such as where you can alter the colour you film in, for example greyscale. There are
no settings where you can make sure the light doesn’t ruin the filming for example,
such as a filter. A major complication we faced was the day when it was foggy. We
knew that the cameras were not advanced enough to cope with the weather and
they wouldn’t film anything of any use afterwards.
The tripods are really useful when filming lots of different scenes at different angles.
As it is important to keep the camera really steady, they help this enormously as the
camera will always be steady and the shot still. This also helped us if we wanted to
leave the camera running while we looked at the other angles as they don’t always
need to be transported all the time.
You can adjust the height to whatever is necessary with the two different adjusters
and you can also use the handle to move the camera around and change the angle
it’ll shoot at.
The main problem we faced with tripods were that they are awkward to carry
around, even with the bags included. When we needed to move location, we didn’t
have sufficient time to take down the tripods each time as it was time consuming to
keep taking them down and putting them up. This lead to difficulty putting them into
a car still up when we needed to transport them.
• For my magazine cover and
poster, I used Photoshop to
edit pictures to convey the
message I intend to send to
the audience. For example, I
used the settings on
Photoshop for the poster
which allowed me to turn the
picture black and white but
also enabled me to keep
Helen’s shoes red which
connoted her sexuality and
femininity.
The Evaluative Stage
I use scribd to upload documents that I
have completed on word to embed into my
blog posts. This helped me to get feedback
on my posters and magazine covers as
they are easily accessible to people to look
at.
A problem I often found with scribd is that
is was often slow to upload and was time
consuming if trying to meet a deadline.
It is easy to embed documents into a post
and can be done by simply clicking a
button. A problem I sometimes
encountered was that the layout would
change when uploaded. A way around this
was to PDF the document, and then
upload it again. But this was also very time
consuming.
The programme we used to edit our filming was iMovie on
the Apple Mac computer. This was an advantage to us as
the programme is sophisticated and advanced and was
quick and easy to use once I’ve learnt the basics. It was
very clear how to use and with the two set out sections with
one to hold all your clips and one for your editing, you have
everything all in one place to look and work from. It works
extremely quickly and we could cut and edit clips within
seconds. This was helpful when we are always working to a
time limit.

One thing we found especially useful for our trailer, was the
option to just use the sound from one clip and put it over
another. This was perfect to help us get the correct timing
of the sound of Helen’s heels, which from the original clip,
weren’t loud enough. Also being able to adjust the volume
of the sound was good.

We were able to use royalty free music off the programme

to add into our trailer. This helped us and saved us hours
of time looking for royalty free music websites we could
use.
Microsoft word is a computer
programme which allows you to
type documents which can then be
used for all sorts of things helpful
for evaluation. I have often used
Microsoft word to type transcripts I
will use for voiceover’s over an
evaluation I am recording. It has
helped me with other questions as
I can use images from screenshots
and these can then be cropped
and edited using the tool bar. This
was particularly helpful when
drawing visual comparisons
between real media products and
our production.