Use of Media Technologies

Various use of different media technologies, and pieces of software during this whole project varied, as i made use of both Windows 7 and Mac's during this project, many different Applications were used, varying due to the fact i used both of these operating systems.

The use of Media Technologies in the

- Construction of my Project

The Main media technologies i used during the actual making and production of my Main task, was the use of iMovie '11, iDvd, Adobe After Effects CS5, Sony Vegas Pro 10.These were used for the following reasons, and given specific roles in my production:

iMovie '11 - The cutting and syncing of raw footage, which was then exported as a movie file ".mov". The reason I exported for further use was i found it easier to bring together my clips and sync them with music, into the correct order for my final render of my Film Production.

iDvd - iDvd was used to export my final project onto a dvd, but also to create a dvd menu to suit the style of the film, and make it easy to access. Although the process of using iDvd was very short, and most of the time was spent whilst waiting for the final dvd to render and copy over to the dvd.

Adobe After Effects CS5 - I used AAE (Adobe After Effects) To create my Entire Title Sequence with a blue and black theme, i think this taught me a lot about the use of advanced software for the creation of video, but also showed me how time consuming it can be to create a 20-30 second title sequence which was split up into separate titles and inserted in between Camera shots to seem more like opening credits, but to also help it look more like the start of a film, as appose to a trailer for a film.

Sony Vegas Pro 10 - Sony Vegas was used as the main "Editing tool" for my piece, as i prefer to use this to iMovie, as i find it easier to work with, but a downside to using this is that the render times tend to be longer, but the outcome/final product after a long render tends to be of a high quality.

Research -

The Media technologies used in my research for my product are the use of already existing forms of media that can relate directly to the ideas and plots of my production, the main example relating directly to the plot of my film was the film "I Am Legend" The main reason this directly related to my production, is that the plot is more or less a clone as to my film, the main difference being that in my production there is no use of creatures that appear to be following the main character, the survivor, he is in fact the only survivor, but still appears to be searching for others.

Planning -Originally i used a program for the Mac's called "Comic Life" which is a simple program for creating cartoons, comics but also gives the option to create custom templates, with this a template similar to a storyboard can be created, which i did create, printed, and storyboarded for my product on it. However, after drawing, and attempting to scan in these storyboards, they were of a poor quality, and hard to see. (My drawing skills are also not the best) which forced me to recreate my storyboard using a combination of Microsoft Paint, and Adobe Photoshop CS5. I tried to recreate my story boards to be as close to the originals as possible, but with a higher level of quality and understanding, to make them more viewable and clear to others reading them, as appose to just myself.

Evaluation -The only real use of Media Technologies in terms of the evaluation of my product, is the use of an application called Quicktime Player, which enabled me to watch my production alongside a document to record me evaluation, which gave me the opportunity to pause and slow-mo my film to highlight certain parts of it, and heavily evaluate my piece, bit by bit.

My final Piece, and what I Think of it.

I think my Foundation Production didn't go exactly to the plans in quite a lot of ways, however i am fairly Happy with the outcome. things i would definitely change if i were to do this sort of thing again, would be to plan a lot more, Plan my time in advance and make my own deadlines, and stick to them. The main issue was the collaboration between various softwares as well as 50% of work done being on a Mac Platform, and the other 50% Being done on Windows 7, this made things a little awkward, and a pain to transfer over constantly, would have been much easier all in one place. As a whole I think the main problem with the actual final piece is the shots, this could've been done a lot better, with better angles, locations and times of day to have more suited my original plans for the production.

Overall the creation and planning, and the final product of my Foundation Production was a very good experience, and has taught me exactly how much time and effort is involved, and if i were to do this again, i would definitely take a first step by Improving the quality of camera used to make the film look much cleaner, and to also focus a lot more on sound to be added to the production.

Progression from Start to Finish.

I feel as if the Product has greatly changed but also improved since the start of the project, but also since the start of my planning stages, a lot has changed to my production. The main thing i learned from the transition from my preliminary over to my main task, is that organisation and planning of time is key, certain parts of filming were left too late, and HUGE render times on Adobe After Effects certainly slowed down the creation and working on my Production, however these can easily be overcome by simple planning.

Attraction of Audience

The way i Tried to Attract my audience to my Production, is to keep them "hanging on" like a sort of cliff hanger, wanting to find out what happens in the production, and by keeping the film looking very modernized and up to date, this makes it tend to appeal to a younger audience as to say a film that was created a few years ago, as technology has improved greatly over this period.

Media Institutions

The Ideal Institution to examine my finished product would be some sort of Film institution but would be even more useful if this institution had already came across/created films of a similar genre and nature, as they would then know the EXACT things for this type of film that appeal to an audience, and the best type of audience to advertise and market this film to. A good Example of a Film Institution that would be suited directly to my Foundation Production is FilmLondon, or Skillset. These are both events and places the focus on TV And Film, and have seen a variety of films and genres since being open, and could best distinguish how a film can work, and how it needs to be marketed and advertised to consumers.

The Audience for my Production.

The main Audience for my Foundation Production would have to be 16-25 year olds essentially, who have a similar taste of general thrillers, but also people who are interested in crime dramas, and general dramas (not just movies, also Tv Programs) could all relate to my foundation production, and are all a possible audience that would enjoy this product.

The main outcomes, and points of Learning.

During the creation of my Foundation production, the main point i have taken out of it, is the high importance of sound in a piece of filming, as it adds a lot of emphasis to what is happening in the filming, but can also completely change the mood and scene of a shot if the music/soundtrack is different, and can be used essentially as a tool to deliver the piece in a different way to the audience.

The next Important thing i've learnt from this Foundation Production, is that Camera shots and camera angles, are also of a high importance, perhaps more so than sound, but does the same sort of thing as a sound in that, different angles and shots can give a completely different view on things, and can give the audience different ideas where changed.

Making this Foundation Production has also helped me learn more so how to use a bigger variety of softwares and learnt how to edit/cut in a way which is suited to a certain audience, and the pace/amount of cutting needed is a lot more substantial than i first thought.