Evaulation Question Four

1
Digital Technology

• How did we use digital technology in the
  planning, research, construction and evaluation
  of our film?

2
What Technology Did We Use?

• As a group, we used a variation of digital
  technologies in order to produce and present our
  work. The technology we used can be split into
  three groups
• Online Media Blogger, Capzles, Soundcloud,
  YouTube, SlideShare, Blogger, dafont, Prezi,
  Google.
• Hardware DSLR camera, Spotlights, Tripod, Apple
  Mac computer, microphone.
• Software Safari, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro,
  Garageband, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Internet
  Explorer.

3
Blogger

• Blogger has been crucial throughout the entirety
  of our project as it allowed us to present all of
  our work in a logistical, organised way. Blogger
  has made it so that all of our work can be easily
  accessed in chronological order, which made it
  easier to reference back to older work that was
  completed in the planning and research stages
  later on during the production of our film. As
  well as this, blogger has allowed for a form of
  convergence in our project by bringing together
  different forms of media into one place, such as
  YouTube videos and Prezi presentations. In
  addition, this convergence has enhanced the
  audiences experience of viewing our work, since
  it is available online to a wide audience of
  people. This can be seen in the audience
  statistics on my blog, which states that my work
  has been viewed by an audience of people from
  various countries around the world rather than
  the small audience we would have been able to
  reach out to without using blogger.

4
Planning and Research

• In the planning and research stages of our
  project, we used

Since a large part of our research included
taking photographs, Capzles was the best way to
compile them all. In Capzles, I was able to place
all the photos into a stack or timeline where
they could be viewed individually or as a group.
Prezi allowed me to communicate my thoughts and
ideas for the film in a visually engaging way,
which helped to improve our planning and research
by organising it all into one easily accessed
presentation.
During planning, it was important to use search
engines to research films similar to our own and
the conventions we should include in our film,
and Google was the most useful search engine for
our project.
5
Production
Using DSLR cameras was crucial when producing our
film. This meant that we could produce our whole
film digitally and upload our footage straight to
the computer for editing, which helped to keep
our work organised and also made it easier to
back up our work to prevent losing it.
Having access to a smartphone when producing our
film was very useful, since it allowed us to
access the information on our blogs while filming
in locations such as the woods. As well as this,
we were able to take behind the scenes photos on
our smartphones, which helped to track the work
wed completed. This converging of technology
made keeping our work together and organised much
easier.
Having a tripod was essential when completing
filming. This massively increased the quality of
the scenes we filmed by keeping the camera steady
and correctly angled. This was useful for static
shots where the camera doesnt move, such as in
the library scene.
6
Post-Production
Final Cut Pro was the most important piece of
software we used during post-production, since
our film was quite heavily reliant on editing to
bring the story together. As well as this, the
software allowed us to place filters over the
nightmare scenes to make it seem more surreal or
dream-like. Sound editing in Final Cut pro was
also highly useful since music was quite
important to building tension throughout our
film, and final cut pro allowed us to place and
edit the music into scenes in order to achieve
this.
YouTube was useful for a number of reasons during
and after post-production. Firstly, we used
YouTube to search for royalty free music and
sound effects that we could use in our film,
which was useful for scenes where we didnt have
the resources to create our own music that suited
the theme of the specific scene. Also, YouTube
allowed us to upload our film online, which opens
it up to broadcast audience. Using this website
allows us to reach out to a wide audience rather
than limit us to people we could show the film to
ourselves.
7
Ancillary Tasks
Adobe Photoshop was the program I used to produce
my film poster, since it was the most suitable
software available for the photo editing required
to make an effective poster. In Photoshop, some
tools were more useful than others such as the
quick select tool, which allowed me to separate
the picture of our main character, Pandora, from
the background of the picture. The text tool was
also quite important since it allowed me to
include the name of the film and coming this
spring to the poster, which helps give the
posters viewer more information about the film.
We used GarageBand to create the radio trailer
for Pandoras Box. This was the most useful
software available to us for creating a trailer,
since it was easy to upload clips of sound and
edit them in a number of ways. Since we didnt
want to overcomplicate our radio trailer, we
mostly stuck to the basic tools on GarageBand,
such as voice recording and clipping, which
allowed us to select the useful parts of audio
that we needed and place them where they need to
be in order to create the most effective trailer.
8
Evaluation

• Overall, using digital technology made the
  production of our film much more efficient, and
  allowed us to do things that wouldnt have been
  possible if using different technology. This is
  particularly evident in the online media we used,
  which expanded our audience massively. As
  theorist David Gauntlett said, making is
  connecting and by using the web, we were able to
  connect with a large audience through sharing
  what wed made online.
• In addition, the web has allowed for an element
  of prosumerism in our film, through our use of
  audience research. For example, the questionnaire
  featured in my blog post here meant that I could
  reach our to my audience and take their opinions
  on board when planning my own film.
• Finally, creating the film digitally meant that
  it was much easier to keep our film organised and
  safe, as we were able to back it up in a number
  of places to ensure that our work wouldnt be
  lost or the files wouldnt be damaged. This meant
  that post-production went smoothly and the speed
  in which we could finish editing was increased,
  as we had all the files and documents we needed
  at our disposal at all times.