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

When completing the trailer, film poster and magazine cover we had to use a range of different technology to help ensure that it was of high quality. We used this technology specifically in the ares of construction and research, planning and evaluation.

The construction stage was the most reliant on technology as we had to film for our trailer and then edit it, take pictures and design our film poster and magazine. The first most essential piece of technology we had to use was a video camera to shoot the footage that we would be using to create our trailer. We also had to use a still camera to take the pictures for our film poster and magazine.

When it came to editing the footage for the trailer we used a new programme called 'Power Director 9' and this is something which we hadn't used before as when completing our AS work we used 'Pinnacle studio 12'.

Although the layout of these two programmes are quite similar it appeared that 'Power Director' was a lot more successful in creating our trailer. We used it to cut down our clips, add in transitions and effects, add in titles and overlay sound. Overall I think we were a lot more happier with the new programme as it created a very professional final product and was easy to use it also enabled us to and the voice over and the music together something which proved difficult so it appears that this technology helped us a lot.

When it came to creating our film poster and magazine we used 'Photoshop' and this allowed us to design our own layouts. We were able to erase the background of images which left us with just the two people from the pictures which meant we could add our own background and this was important for us to do. Another thing that Photoshop offers is layering images over each other which helped when it came to the magazine as wanted to add in new images and different shapes and text so this enabled us to do this. We were also able to crop, re size and change the colour of the images and overall it helped us to create extremely high standard product which we were very pleased with.

The research part of this product was helped greatly by YouTube as it was all based around film case studies and looking in to trailers something in which YouTube allows you to view. So when looking in to the different elements that make up romance trailers YouTube played a huge role as I was able to watch and analyse them through this site. The Internet also helped out a lot when it came to researching film posters and magazines as I was able to look at them using site such as 'Google Images' and again analyse them. So this helped a lot in my research and meant I could create effective case studies on my chosen genre.

When it came to planning the use of technology was extremely important in helping us to organise the filming and ensuring that everything had been thought about. We were able to use Microsoft word to create script and prop lists but we were also able to use it to create shooting schedules and call sheets so that everyone knew when they were needed and where. Mobile phones also played an important role in helping to improve group communication and also so that we could contact our actors and keep them up to date. The Internet was also extremely helpful as we were able to use this to find the correct music for our trailer.

The evaluation was helped a lot by technology as we were able to post our trailer on to Web 2.0 to get audience feedback. I posted the trailer on to FaceBook and also YouTube to see what people thought of the final product and this proved extremely helpful. We have also been able to use Web 2.0 when looking in to other trailers.