I must say, writing online is much easier than writing in blood...
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
(IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS, HERE IS THE LINK TO THE PREZI)http://prezi.com/p93jhyo_2m5t/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Throughout the production of my final product, I consistently was in touch with a member of my target audience. I felt that this was important during this stage because it would allow me to gain more knowledge of what will make my product successful and consider what will be most appealing to my audience.
Below are some notes that I took, with added explanations of how I added them to my media text to improve it:
I asked a member of my TA about the problems of modern media horror texts:
TA: Today, horror films are repetitive and predictable and I feel like I've become desensitised to what I see. Gore and violence, don't appeal to me anymore, sometimes it makes it seem too fake or over the top and then I don't feel scared.
With this in mind, I made sure that there was only limited gore in my horror film this would avoid it becoming too graphic which as my TA mentioned does not appeal to them. Instead, I only used signs to suggest graphic activity, and I used subliminal imagery when I did use special effects to keep the gore at a minimum.
In accordance with the Uses and Gratifications theory, I asked my TA about why they watched horror films:
TA: I chose to watch Horror films for Entertainment, normally if I watch them to admire iconic scenes or because I like the director. I like to watch cult films.
This information gave me an insight into viewer psychology. My target audience watch films for entertainment and because of their identity- they watch films which become part of their social identity. Therefore, I wanted to really engross my viewer by making the viewer active as the protagonist. Also, this information told me that they admire films as an art form, thus, I could be experimental with my film because they don't always watch films to educate or for social activities where they will bond with friends over the film. This means that my cinematic experience can be personalised for the viewer.
I questioned my TA about their favourite aspect of horror films:
TA: I like it when something makes me question my own beliefs, when the film makes me feel something that I don't understand myself, a feeling where I feel scared is a successful film. This can be through camera framing, setting or editing.
This showed me that I could be experimental in my film because discontinuity editing makes viewers feel confused and uncertain and I believe that these feelings are truly scary and thus make the audience question their own beliefs.
RESEARCH STAGE
Transcript:
CONSTRUCTION AND EDITING STAGES
ANCILLARY TASKS
EVALUATION
Similarly, I used slideshare, an online website where I uploaded presentations from Microsoft powerpoint that I made, so that they can be viewed online and embedded onto blogger. This is a useful website, which helped my blog become more interactive, it also allows the public to see and share my work.
Lastly, I used 'Fromtexttospeech.com', this is where I am. This is my voice. I've read out everything Kim told me to say and then she downloaded the soundfiles onto her laptop for you to listen to this question. Artificial, digital Intelligence is scary and uncertain, it is smart... who knows what will happen next...
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
I needed to gather audience feedback in order to measure how successful my production and promotion pack are in appealing to the target audience. I devised a questionnaire which consisted of mainly open-ended and closed questions to gain qualitative and quantitative data, this would ensure that the feedback was reliable and valid. I made sure to ask members of my Target audience whom were both male and female:
The feedback is discussed in this slide share:
Audience feeback from K E
Throughout the production of my final product, I consistently was in touch with a member of my target audience. I felt that this was important during this stage because it would allow me to gain more knowledge of what will make my product successful and consider what will be most appealing to my audience.
Below are some notes that I took, with added explanations of how I added them to my media text to improve it:
I asked a member of my TA about the problems of modern media horror texts:
TA: Today, horror films are repetitive and predictable and I feel like I've become desensitised to what I see. Gore and violence, don't appeal to me anymore, sometimes it makes it seem too fake or over the top and then I don't feel scared.
With this in mind, I made sure that there was only limited gore in my horror film this would avoid it becoming too graphic which as my TA mentioned does not appeal to them. Instead, I only used signs to suggest graphic activity, and I used subliminal imagery when I did use special effects to keep the gore at a minimum.
In accordance with the Uses and Gratifications theory, I asked my TA about why they watched horror films:
TA: I chose to watch Horror films for Entertainment, normally if I watch them to admire iconic scenes or because I like the director. I like to watch cult films.
This information gave me an insight into viewer psychology. My target audience watch films for entertainment and because of their identity- they watch films which become part of their social identity. Therefore, I wanted to really engross my viewer by making the viewer active as the protagonist. Also, this information told me that they admire films as an art form, thus, I could be experimental with my film because they don't always watch films to educate or for social activities where they will bond with friends over the film. This means that my cinematic experience can be personalised for the viewer.
I questioned my TA about their favourite aspect of horror films:
TA: I like it when something makes me question my own beliefs, when the film makes me feel something that I don't understand myself, a feeling where I feel scared is a successful film. This can be through camera framing, setting or editing.
This showed me that I could be experimental in my film because discontinuity editing makes viewers feel confused and uncertain and I believe that these feelings are truly scary and thus make the audience question their own beliefs.
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
CLICK ON THE TITLES IN BOLD TO HEAR SOUND FILES!!
My robot friend answers these questions in an American accent in these sound files...
My robot friend answers these questions in an American accent in these sound files...
RESEARCH STAGE
Transcript:
Hello
Listener,good morning, good afternoon and good evening. I will now tell you how
I used media technologies in my advanced portfolio for media.
1. As a previous BTEC Media student I
had already had a basic knowledge of media technologies. This knowledge has
enabled me to challenge myself and experiment with using more professional
softwares and technologies in my A2 coursework.
Let us
begin with the research stage. Firstly, I had to set up a digital blog on the
online website 'Blogger.' This was so I could document all of my coursework
during the key stages. This year, I focused on my blogs aesthetic appearance.
This meant that I had to adjust the template, colour scheme and blog features
such as: polls which made it more interactive for any visitors. Not only this,
but I enjoyed developing the interactivity of my blog by referencing
appropriate Horror film quotes and writing in a tone to engage the page
visitors. I found that using digital technology such as blogger for my records
was the best choice because creating separate pages for each stage allowed me
to update information whenever I wished to. Furthermore, it was a clear layout
and allowed me to publish my own digital work.
For the
research stage, I also used the internet. Which is a fast and convenient way of
finding out all the relevant information on the topics that I needed to learn.
This is more convenient and a better method to using books which are expensive
and don't always include the relevant information that I needed. Collectively
over each stage, the internet was a crucial part. I used the website 'Youtube'
to access film clips, such as the first ever horror film 'The Devil's castle'
and short clips by David Lynch and many more clips not readily available on any
other platform. I have found YouTube to be a very useful digital platform for
research because it has visuals and audio which are easy to follow and to
understand.CONSTRUCTION AND EDITING STAGES
2. For the
construction of my main and ancillary tasks I used a wide variety of digital
technologies. Many of which, I had not used before.
Firstly,
for the production of my film I used media film equipment. This included a
Digital Camera and Tri-Pod. I already had knowledge of this equipment and I
thought that using them would be more effective if I knew how to use them
because I could develop my skills, but I also had the assurance that I could
trust the outcome of the film with these technologies. Tri-Pods are useful
because it allows the balance and stillness of the images, thus I would not
have to waste time adjusting this in the editing suite which would not be an
effective use of my time. One problem
that I faced when using the digital camera technology was that the images would
not sync and upload onto the MACs when connected. This was difficult because
the Macs were where the editing suites were, so I needed to upload them. So, I
had to transfer all my filming onto my home laptop and then onto a memory
stick, to insert into the mac. This was successful.
Then when
editing my film I had to use Final Cut Pro which was installed on the apple
macs at school. I already had knowledge of this software from BTEC media. The
advantages of using final cut pro for my work were: that there is plenty of
pre-recorded sound which was helpful for my production, it is also easier to
Frame the film clips such as the 'Super-8' film look. It also has many filters
which make the film look more professional and high quality. However, I had
problems when I wanted to create the milli-second jump cuts, because they were
so quick the MAC kept on crashing. So, I used an alternative software at home:
Adobe Premiere Pro. This was a new software for me, so I developed my knowledge
of this. I found that this software did not crash on me, so I could carry on
through with the jump, subliminal cuts. It is also better for colour
adjustments because it allows you to type in the percentages rather than toggle
the ratio which can get confusing. Using both editing softwares was critical
because editing creates meaning for the audience and I wanted to create an
eerie atmosphere.
ANCILLARY TASKS
3. For my
ancillary tasks I used a number of different digital softwares.
To edit my
photography images for my poster, I had to use Pixlr. I already had a lot of
knowledge of this software, this allowed me to create the most suitable image
for the task. It is better than using Photoshop because it is simple and has
the essential features that I needed for my poster. This included: Blur filters
with adjustments, creating a transparent image and deleting unwanted
backgrounds. I also used, Microsoft word to add the text into my poster. This
is a good software to use because it has a lot of selections of fonts, however
they are limited so I had to download a customised one online. This ensured
that my poster was cohesive with the genre- Psychological thriller/ Horror. I
did not use Pages because it was not readily available.
For my
Double Page Spread I had to used Photoshop and Illustrator on the Adobe Cloud
suite. This was a good software to use because I could adjust the format and
layout to the right measurements of a real product. This is more difficult on
pages and I did not want to use an online generator, as I wanted to develop my
own skill in these online digital softwares; which are used and practiced in
professional areas. I found it easy to place text, using text boxes and there
are also margin guidelines which ensure a professional look.EVALUATION
4. Finally
for my evaluation stage, I really pushed myself to use and develop my skills in
presentations of my answers.
Again, I
had to use YouTube but this time I used it to upload my own videos. I had never
done this before but I found it to be a very good website for uploading videos
because they processed quickly and I did not face many difficulties in this process.
I preferred this than Vimeo where I would have to create and pay for an account
to upload a video longer than 5 minutes. YouTube also uploads videos in high
definition ensuring the audience optimal viewing experience.
I had to
use Prezi, an online presentation maker. Prezi allows presentations to be more
active and visually appealing. One problem with Prezi is that sometimes the
images that I include in the presentation take a long time to load when viewing
it. This is not good because images are crucial in my evaluation presentation.
Similarly, I used slideshare, an online website where I uploaded presentations from Microsoft powerpoint that I made, so that they can be viewed online and embedded onto blogger. This is a useful website, which helped my blog become more interactive, it also allows the public to see and share my work.
Lastly, I used 'Fromtexttospeech.com', this is where I am. This is my voice. I've read out everything Kim told me to say and then she downloaded the soundfiles onto her laptop for you to listen to this question. Artificial, digital Intelligence is scary and uncertain, it is smart... who knows what will happen next...
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