Below is a montage of images that show the technologies I used when creating my work, in order of explanation.
The technologies I used:
Photoshop: I used photoshop to create both of my ancillary texts. I had previously used Photoshop but did not have much experience in using the program, but found it was easy to find what I needed in the program. Photoshop allows you to edit and manipulate images and text until the original graphic is unrecognisable, which was handy as it meant if we needed to, multiple members of our group could use the same image for their ancillary texts and the final outcome would look completley different from one anothers. Luckily, we did not need this. Through the use of editing and layers, Photoshop enabled us to add conventions of the horror genre onto our ancillary texts, which made our final products look convincing.
Final Cut Pro: This was the editing program we used to make our trailer. I had not used this program before and did find it difficult to get the hang of, but after a few lessons using the program and watching others use it, I was able to help edit our footage together. I found it was a good program to use, as you can cut and slice your footage together and use effective transitions between the shots, which helped make the trailer look professional. If I had experience in using the program, this would have improved the quality of our trailer, but I feel we made the best trailer we could with the experience we had. Other members of the group found this program easier to use than I did, and I believe this was the hardest program I had to use when producing my coursework.
Video Camera: We borrowed a video camera off the media department in our college to make our trailer, and we also borrowed a tripod to ensure the footage was steady. However, we did hold the camera when filming the majority of our trailer, as this fitted in with the conventions of our 'low budget british horror' genre, as these films are usually made with low budget equipment. The tripod allowed us to experiment with angles when filming our trailer, and effects on the camera such as night mode meant we could make our trailer seem scarier and more like a horror trailer. Also, the video camera wasn't a large professional one, so we could easily bring it back and forth to college and our filming locations.
Digital Camera: We used a digital camera when taking photographs that could be used for our ancillary texts. These images were then sent via email to all members of our group, ensuring we all had a fair amount of images to choose from. We could use the camera to our advantage, for example experimenting with taking the flash on and off to see which looked better for our ancillary texts. However, this wasn't essential as Photoshop could ammend any lighting difficulties we had with the images. As the camera was small and light, we could take it to various locations without any problems.
Myfonts.com: We used this website to find our logo for our film, as it contains many logos for public consumption, so we were able to use these without any copyright issues.
Youtube.com: This was a vital part in research for our trailer, as it is free to watch any amount of videos you like. We were able to watch endless amounts of horror trailers to see the conventions of horror trailers, and to gain inspiration for our own trailer. I also used the website to show evidence for various elements of my blog, such as the differences between teaser and full length trailers, and evidence for my analysis of various different horror trailers. We also used the website to find the ending piece of music in our trailer, which had very positive feedback in our audience feedback. When we had finished the first draft, and final draft of our trailer, we uploaded them onto youtube to be shown to our class for audience feedback. As this website is global, we could access it anywhere we liked, and luckily our college does not block the site, so we were able to access it at college whenever we needed to.
Google.com: We used this search engine to find websites such as Myfonts.com, and to search the answers to any editing questions we may have had. We also used it to find definitions, and used the 'images' search option to find film posters and magazine covers to analyse when researching and planning for our ancillary texts. I used this search engine as from my own experience I find it is the best one to use, as it gives you the most useful results, and the website is easy to use.
Nokia C3: This is my mobile phone, and I used it to contact other members of my group. I needed to contact them about filming times and loactions, and to ask them any questions I had about my work when they were not with me. Luckily, I already had the phone numbers of two of my group members, as we are close friends.
Mac PC: These were the computers we used to edit our work. The college has a great amount of these PCs, so we could use them whenever we wanted to edit our footage. Also, these are the only computers in the college that had the program 'Final Cut Pro' on them, which we used to make our trailer. We also used these computers to email each other resources we might need, such as images and links to useful websites, and to use the internet. These are very fast and up to date computers, so these were the best to use when making our work look professional. However, I do not have a Mac PC at home, so I could only edit the trailer at college. This was no problem though, as we all worked hard in our lessons to ensure we did not need to take time at home to edit the trailer.
Blogger.com: I used this website to create my blog, on which I upload all elements of my coursework. This is because this website is easy to access and easy to use, so it makes using it easy for me, and marking my work easier for the examiner. You do not need a password to access the blog, so it can be accessed by anyone who needs to see it. Also, I can upload images, upload slideshows, leave hyperlinks and embed videos onto this blog, which makes showing evidence of my work very easy. The blog can be made personal, and I did this by customising the template I used and creating a heading picture on Photoshop, which I uploaded onto my blog so it is the first thing visitors see. This picture ultimately shows my blog contains college coursework, and is about the horror genre. This not only makes it more interesting for me to work with, but it also makes it more interesting for the examiner. You can also customise the layout of your blog, which can result in the blog looking more professional.
Flickr.com: This website was very useful when conducting research for my coursework. This website allows you to upload images and add 'notes' to them, which I used as annotations. I uploaded images of film magazine covers and film posters, and annotated them explaining what I thought the connotations of different elements of these were, and explaining why elements such as age certificates and magazine logos were used. I also uploaded stills of trailers, and annotated them in terms of my own connotations, and good use of lighting, characters and props etc. This helped me to gain knowledge of the genre of horror trailers, and helped inspire me for my ancillary texts. This website was extremely easy to use and the bright, clear colours were easy on the eye so I found it easy to stay on the website for hours on end doing my work. I could also directly link my annotated pictures to my blog, using a part of the website called 'Blog it'. This meant that, through Flickr, I could upload the image to my already configured blog, and this would appear in a new post on my blog. When visitors to my blog clicked on the image, they would be taken to the image on my Flickr profile, and they would therefore be able to see my annotations. It was incredibly easy to configure my blog to my Flickr account, and this therefore made the whole evalutation process so much easier. I would definately use this website if I needed to do any work of this type again.
HP Pavilion Entertainment PC: This is my laptop, and this is what I used if I needed to do any work on my blog at home. I could not work on my trailer or ancillary texts at home, as my laptop does not have Photoshop or Final Cut Pro. This was no problem though as I finished these at college. My laptop has wireless internet, so I could take it anywhere and access the internet and therefore my blog to work on my coursework. It is not too heavy and comes with a case so I could take it places easily, which meant I could take it to my friends' houses, my boyfriend's house and my dad's house. I also used an Epson Printer with a scanner built into it with my laptop, to scan in my storyboards for my blog. This was connected to my latop using a USB cable, so it was incredibly easy.
Microsoft Paint: I used this program on my laptop when creating montages of pictures. I would use Photoshop at college, but I do not have this program on my laptop. An example of one of the montages I have made using this program is the image at the top of this blog post. This program is quite well known and old so it was very easy to use.
All these programs helped me gain experience and creativity when creating my work, as I was able to experiment with my work and add my own touch to everything I did. I have learnt to use programs I previously had no experience on, which means I will be able to use them in the future. This has all been helped by my using of Web 2.0 technologies, which is the term used to describe advanced technology and internet technologies. As these are free, this has meant I have been able to use them without worrying about the cost. This is also an advantage to film makers with a very low budget, as they do not have to cater for them in their budget, so their money can go to different areas of their film making. This also means many people with no film making experience can make their own films for a hobby, and people who are making the films can access information quickly.
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