Evaluation Question Four - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my media product I used various media technologies, these include; 

• Vimeo,
• Twitter,
• Tumblr,
• YouTube,
• Adobe Premiere Pro,
• Adobe Photoshop.

Research

Blogger is the website that I chose to display all of my research and planning on. I chose to use blogger as it allowed me to present all elements of my film in chronological order very clearly. In addition to this, I was able to embed images and videos. This was highly helpful as I was then able to present all of the raw footage I took, any set location photos and any inspiration I found.

During the research stages of my media product, I used Vimeo and YouTube to search for films that inspired me or had similar elements to the media product that I wanted to create. Through using Vimeo, I found 'Imprisoned Paradise' and this short film produced by the National Trust served as my main source of insipration when it came to creating my own short film.

In addition to Vimeo and YouTube, I also used Twitter and Tumblr to gather ideas on what people expect from travel and wanderlust based films; from this I was able to pour all feedback from this into my pre-production plan. From the questions I asked, the answer I got back that had most influence on my film was; "To be immersed in the sense of adventure. To see the visuals, hear the audio and feel free." 
This answer had the most influence on my film as it is what I look to resonate with in travel/wanderlust based films. 

Planning

When planning my media product I used many different media technologies.

I used the website Flickr to search for different locations in my chosen area of shooting - Gwynedd, North Wales. I was able to see other peoples shots of areas in Gwynedd and this gave me further inspiration as to how I could film these areas. For example; Black Rock overlooking Black Rock Sands, Porthdinllaen and Afon Dwyfor. 

In addition to this, I used Sony Vegas once I had filmed all of the footage I needed. When planning my short, I grouped all of my footage together depending on where it was filmed or what day it was filmed on. I roughly cut the footage using Vegas and I was able to look into what sort of imposed lighting or shading I wanted to use later in the post-production of my film. The grouped footage can be seen below;

Construction

Camera Equipment

During the construction of my media product, I used a FujiFilm HS10 to film the entirety of my footage. I decided to use this camera as it provided high quality HD footage and allowed me to adjust the aperture and f-stop in order to deal with low-lit and highly lit locations. In addition to this the auto-focus and manual focus modes allowed me to play with the depth of field in my footage.

I also used this Velbon tripod in order to ensure that the majority of my shots were stable. By doing this I was able to create a cleaner, more professional finish to my film.












Adobe Premiere Pro

My short film was created by using Adobe Premiere Pro. This program allowed me to import all of my footage at one time and view all of the raw footage alongside the edit.
By using Premiere, I was able to create all of the titles that I needed; I was able to trim and cut the clips down to the length that I needed, I was also able to ungroup the sound file from the footage and remove it so that there was no background noise in my film that would disrupt the attention from the footage or the voice over. Lastly, by using Premiere I was able to export my film into the correct file type so that I could upload it to YouTube in the highest quality possible - HD 1080p with the correct frame rate of 29.97

Creation of Titles

This screenshot shows the creation of my titles. I also used Photoshop to create the transparent text file which can be seen below in the next paragraph.

Adobe Photoshop

I used Adobe Photoshop to create my poster, which can be seen below.
By using Photoshop I was able to take a still from my footage on Black Rock and turn it into my poster; I was able to freeze-frame the footage to the exact second that I wanted. In addition to this, I was able to use the dodge and burn tool to enhance and darken the image where I wanted; for example this is evident on the waves and the mountain to the bottom left hand corner. I used the burn tool here to enhance the contrast levels so that they would be far more prominent and evident. I used the dodge tool to lighten the sand and land in the upper left hand corner and across the top of my poster.

To the left is the transparent text file I used to create my titles in my short film; by ensuring that the background was transparent and the text was white I was able to create the overlay feature that showed partial colour of the waves through the titles.







Evaluation

I uploaded my short film to YouTube so that it would be publicly accessible, meaning that everyone could easily view it. By doing so I was able to ask for feedback in the comment section of the upload.
By uploading my film to YouTube it also made it easier to distribute it onto other social media sites such as; Tumblr, Twitter and Blogger.
Through placing it onto these websites, I was able to gather more feedback about my film and this was extremely helpful in the evaluation stages of my product.

I chose to display my evaluation on Blogger as it allowed me to present all my work in a clear, clean, easily readable way. By using Blogger for my evaluation, I was able to upload any footage or stills that I needed to.

FIlm Review

Poster Analysis and Own Poster

Within this poster for 'Gravity' both the title and credits are aligned to the right causing the main focus of the poster to be the image of the two main characters, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. By doing this, the poster accentuates the main theme of the film. 
By putting all of the titles, credits and tagline in white, clearly readable font it causes the viewers to be drawn to them.

The colour scheme of the image used for this specific Gravity poster is highly similar to my own; as the colours used are all quite somber and low in tone. This could have been done to ensure that all of the text; title, tagline, credits etc. all stood out fully to the viewers of the poster.

By placing the tag line 'DON'T LET GO' just above one of the main actors in the film, it gives the viewers and insight to what the film may be about in more depth. By placing the tagline in block capitals enhances its importance and therefore again, draws the audiences attention to it and causes them to ask questions.

The poster in its entirety is quite simple and this is what I aim to do with mine. I aim to keep my poster simple and easily viewable my film its self is rather simple.























The Grand Budapest Hotel

By placing the title of the film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' in an arch-like shape over the idyllic it reiterates the fact that the film its self is based around a hotel. The colours used are all very pastel and calm; which is quite contrasing to the films actual narrative.

ODYSSEY - FINAL CUT.

Above is the final cut of my A2 short 'Odyssey.'

This year, I wanted to create more of an 'art house' film instead of one based off of a linear narrative. I filmed the entirety of the film in Wales over the Christmas period, minus a few shots which were taken in India back in October.

Odyssey is entirely based around the emotions that nature evokes. The voice over included in my short film is a compilation of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Margaret Atwood's The Moment. I chose Dillard's novel and Atwood's poem because in my opinion, I believe that they both encapsulate nature perfectly and I wanted to ensure that this year, my short film was very personal.

MGS Feedback - 27/02/15

- Start creating a poster based on codes and conventions for traditional poster layout.
> Choose a range of stills from my footage that best communicate the message of my short film.
> Analyse at least three different similar posters from my genre, looking at copy, colour, image, camera and tag line.
> Once analysed, use this sense of inspiration to create my own.
> Look into film reviews within publications that would feature my film; online publications, etc. Sight and Sound; Layout of the review, images used, vocabulary used and I need to review my own film. Or any other independant film magazines that would cover independant type products - Cinéast.

Annie Dillard - Audio #1

 

Above I have uploaded a placeholder as I have been unable to record Ms. Lambert as of yet. This will help me with the timings when matching up audio and visuals. 

11/02/2015 - Soundscape Research

Over the past week I have began to look into what sounds I could blend with the audio track/narrative overlay, it has become evident that I am able to use sounds from the footage I took in Wales as it is rich enough but as well as this I will use natural sounds from places such as the video linked below;

I plan to blend all of the sounds together in order to make a sound-scape that fits perfectly with the visuals but does not take the main focus off of them. I plan for my sound-scape to simply enhance the visuals as well as the emotion in my short film.

Parts of the audio taken from my footage that I am able to use are sounds such as;  

• Water,
• Wind,
• Birds,
• Vehicles.