Message to the Moderator

Hello Moderator,

My research and planning posts begin in June 2013 onwards. My production posts for the magazine, poster and trailer begin in January 2014 and continue up until my evaluation which began in April 2014.

I hope that you enjoy looking through my blog.

Rebecca Fisk.

Production: Trailer

Production: Magazine

Production: Poster

Evaluation: Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and planning and evaluation stages?

Mentioned in video: 
•Adobe Photoshop
•Adobe Illustrator
•iPhoto
•Garage Band
•Keynote
•Blogger
•Prezi





Other technologies used:

iMovie

I have been using iMovie mostly for the evaluation stage of my blog. I find it really easy to use and navigate around. I did not use this in the production stage as my partner was the editor. When a project in iMovie is complete you can easily share it into a file which saves to your desktop from here you are able to export the video and upload it to YouTube or straight to Blogger.

Glogster

Glogster is a website which allows you to create 'Glogs' a Glog is like a pin board where you can write anything and use lots of different features that it supplies. I found Glogster surprisingly easy to use, it was very easy to navigate and all the features were labelled very clearly so you can see where everything is. I used this as part of one of my evaluation questions I was pleased with the way it turned out and the ease of use.

YouTube

I have been using YouTube to upload videos like the trailer progress and evaluation answers. I upload my videos to YouTube before blogger because it is just so easy to use and relatively quick. I can then embed the video code into blogger. I find that uploading straight to blogger is very time consuming.

Twitter and Facebook                                   

I have been using social networking websites Twitter and Facebook to upload my products and gain audience feedback, this method of getting audience feedback proved very effective as it would post to all my friends and many of them were happy to respond. I also use these websites to keep in touch with my partner so we always knew where we we up to with the trailer.

Poll Junkie

 

I have used Poll Junkie quite a lot during this project it has really helped me get a good amount of audience feedback as you can publish the polls publicly so anybody can view them. I found this website extremely straight forward to use; it is free and you don't have to sign up. You then simply type out your questions and then share it online. 

SlideShare

Slide Share is an online service which allows you to convert your powerpoint or Keynote presentations into embed-able files. This is very easy and simple as the website pretty much does all the work for you. Once it has finished converting you can then embed the presentation into Blogger. 

Canon 1100D DSLR

We began filming with this camera and had a finished trailer but after looking back at it the quality of the video was not very good, this was something our audience pointed out to us as well when we asked for feedback. So we had to re-film. Other than it not giving us the best quality the camera was relatively simple to use all the buttons have writing or icons on them so its quite clear what each one does.

Canon EOS M

This is the camera that we decided to use to re-film on. This camera produced much better quality videos. This camera is again relatively easy to navigate around as it is the same brand as the Canon 1100D.

5SecondsApp

5SecondsApp is a smartphone app which creates gifs. I used this app to make a gif for one of my evaluation questions. It is very straight forward to use all you have to do is record someone for 5 seconds and the app then turns that video into a gif. You can then from the app share the gif to any social networking site, email or text/iMessage.

WhatsApp

I used WhatsApp a lot during this project it came in very handy when asking for audience feedback as I can send images for free so my friends could see my poster and magazine and give me feedback. WhatsApp is very easy to use as it looks just like any other messaging service.

Evaluation: Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

GIF of audience member

This is a gif I have created using the 5Seconds App. This is who I expect an audience member on my trailer to be.


Audience feedback - from our trailer




Audience Feedback For Poster and Magazine

Evaluation: Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

How does my ancillary tasks link with my trailer?



Glogster

Evaluation: Question 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Magazine




Poster


Trailer

Production: Poster Update

Production: Magazine Update

Production: Trailer Update 6

What has been done:

• Sound added to the footage.
• Sound synced to match the image.

Production: First Draft of Trailer Sound

I have created the first draft of the background music for the trailer my partner has uploaded this to Soundcloud so it is easily accessible and shareable.

Production: Poster Update

I didn't think my original poster idea was working so I have changed it quite a lot. I think the main reason it wasn't working is because it was horizontal which didn't give me much room, whereas now I am able to add much more to it, like the quotes from magazines.

Production: Trailer Update 5

What has been done:

• 10 more shots to the sequence of the trailer.
• Used image and audio enhancement on all of these clips.
• Adjustment of the timing of some of the shots - now less than one minute long (see last meeting post for reasons for this).
• Removed the audio from the montage of clips (0:39 - 0:44) and instead added audio from another shot.

Production: Trailer Update 4

What has been done:

• Improvements made to audio quality of clips, reduced background noise. Used the 'Frequency Remover' tool to remove the wind from the outdoor scenes, and electronic interference in dialogue.
• Improvements to image quality making the opening shots sharper.
• Shortened the trailer again to give more time for the title sequences and credits to be added.

Production: Poster Development

Here are the changes I have made to my poster

Production: Editing of the poster image

Production: Trailer Update 3

What has been done:

• 10 more shots have been added to the trailer.
• Used image and audio enhancement on all of the new clips.
• Adjustment of the timing of some shots to make the trailer be less than one minute long.
• Removed the audio from the montage of clips (0:39 - 0:44) and used the audio from another shot.

Production: Trailer Update 2

What has been done:

• Trimmed down and added 10 new shots to the trailer. 
• Used the audio and video stabilisation/enhancement features of Final Cut Pro X to improve image and audio quality of the clips.

Production: Trailer Update 1

My partner is currently in the editing process of the trailer, I will be putting the progress on here as and when I am updated my partner.




What has been done so far:

• Trimmed first 12 shots (which make up the first 20 seconds of the trailer) using Final Cut Pro X.
• 'Automatic audio enhancement' feature of Final Cut Pro X has been used on each clip.
• 'Automatic shake reducement' feature in Final Cut Pro X has been used on each clip.
• Each of the clips have been structured to our 'Shot List'.

Production: Editing the Magazine

Production: Magazine Update

Production: Editing of Magazine Photo

Production: Behind the Scenes

A few behind the scenes photos from our filming day.

Fill lights used to help us control the lighting for the filming & photographing.

A still shot from the trailer.

Script, used to help the actors prepare for filming, it also help myself and Jake so we knew where we were up to and what needed to be done next.

This is the shot list after we had finished filming. It helped us a lot in knowing what needed to be done & what had yet to be done.

Production: Edited Magazine Photograph

Original 

Edited/Finished 

Research and Planning: New Photographs

Today (14/02/14) I have taken new photographs for my magazine and Poster.

Production: The Footage

This is the raw footage for our trailer. )

Research and Planning: New Shot List

Research and Planning: Another Script Update

Scene 1:

Chris: So, you excited to meet my parents?

[Aby looks unimpressed]

Scene 2:

[in car driving to parent's house, we can hear the couple bickering]

Scene 3:

[Chris knocks on his parents' door, but nobody is in]

Chris: I don't believe this. They're not in.

Aby: You don't say. [sighs] At least we have the house to ourselves…

[Chris smirks]

Megan: Chris?!

[Chris looks shocked/worried, looks at Aby]

Scene 4:

[In the kitchen, there is tension between Megan and Aby]

Chris: Drinks?

Megan & Aby: Yes [just Megan] please [just Aby] please.

[Aby gives Megan evils, Megan tries to ignore them by smiling and looking away]

Scene 5:

[Aby and Chris are standing in the hallway. Megan is in the bathroom]

Aby: Who is she Chris?
Chris: She's…

Scene 6:

[Chris is on the phone to his best mate, Adam]

Chris: I don't know what to do, they're gonna kill each other!
Ryan: Look mate, you love her

Chris: She's beautiful [shot of Aby with hand stuck in hair] She's smart [shot of Megan burning herself with coffee] She's Sophisticated [shot of Aby falling up stairs] 
[shot of Chris]
Chris: She's everything I want

Ryan: [fake vomiting expression] Yeah

Scene 7:

[Megan and Aby are awkwardly sipping their drinks]

Research and Planning: Final Re-draft of script

Scene 1:

Chris: So, you excited to meet my parents?

[Aby looks unimpressed]

Scene 2:

[in car driving to parent's house, we can hear the couple bickering]

Scene 3:

[Chris knocks on his parents' door, but nobody is in]

Chris: I don't believe this. They're not in.

Aby: You don't say. [sighs] At least we have the house to ourselves…

[Chris smirks]

Megan: Chris?!

[Chris looks shocked/worried, looks at Aby.]

Scene 4:

[In the kitchen, there is tension between Megan and Aby]

Chris: Drinks?

Megan & Aby: Yes [just Megan] please [just Aby] please.

[Aby gives Megan evils, Megan tries to ignore them by smiling and looking away]

Scene 5:

[Aby and Chris are standing in the hallway. Megan is in the bathroom]

Aby: Who is she Chris?
Chris: She's…

Scene 6:

[Chris is on the phone to his best mate, Adam]

Chris: I don't know what to do, they're gonna kill each other!
Ryan: Look mate, you love her

Chris: She's beautiful [shot of Aby with hand stuck in hair] She's smart [shot of Megan burning herself with coffee] She's considerate [shot of Aby not giving up her seat for Megan] She's everything I want [shot of Megan and Aby sat on sofa]

Ryan: [fake vomiting expression] Yeah

Scene 7:

[Megan and Aby are awkwardly sipping their drinks]

Research and Planning: Meeting Post 6

It was suggested in our audience feedback that we re-draft our script as it was to much like an actual film. So whilst doing this we realise that our new trailer was looking to be more of a 'teaser trailer' and that this would work best for us. We have now been able to make each scene much shorter and 'snappier', we have cut some scenes and also added a new one and introduced a new character to play the role of 'Chris' best friend'

We will now be making a new shot list and we will carry out our own 'teaser trailer' research to see what the conventions are and to help us collect some ideas for our own trailer.

Research and Planning: 'I Give It a Year' Trailer Analysis

It was suggested to us that we have a look at the 'I give it a year' trailer because it is the same genre as our rom-com. From watching this trailer I know that the film is based around four main characters. Two of these characters are married which relates to ours because two of our characters are in a relationship. The trailer uses lots of fast cuts to show that it is a fast paced up beat film, the scenes in the trailer are also not in chronological order. This is conventional to most trailers because the producers don't want to give too much of the films plot away.

I think it would be good for us to use some ideas from this trailer as it is very similar to what we want. One scene in particular that stands out to me is the 'best friend' scene with the two me sat on the sofa listing the pro and cons of the main characters wife. This clip is very comedic and something similar to this could benefit our trailer.

Production: Trailer Graphics

My partner Jake has designed first drafts of the graphics to go with our trailer.

Production: Magazine Progress

Research and Planning: Re-draft of Script

Scene 1:

Chris: So, you excited to meet my parents?

[Aby looks unimpressed]

Scene 2:

[in car driving to parent's house, we can hear the couple bickering]

Scene 3:

[Chris knocks on his parents' door, but nobody is in]

Chris: I don't believe this. They're not in.

Aby: You don't say. [sighs] At least we have the house to ourselves…

[Chris smirks]

Megan: Chris?!

[Chris looks shocked/worried, looks at Aby. Aby knows who Megan is]

Scene 4:

[In the kitchen, there is tension between Megan and Aby]

Chris: Drinks?

Megan & Aby: Yes [just Megan] please [just Aby] please.

[Aby gives Megan evils, Megan tries to ignore them by smiling and looking away]

Scene 5:

[Aby and Chris are standing in the hallway. Megan is in the bathroom]

Aby: Who is she Chris?
Chris: She's… my ex.

Scene 6:

[Chris is on the phone to his best mate, Adam]

Chris: 
Adam: 

Scene 7:

[Montage of Megan and Aby, whilst Chris/Adam have a conversation on the phone]

Scene 8:

Megan:

Research and Planning: Audience Feedback

Research and Planning: Audience Feedback - Trailer

We presented our trailer to the class and this is the feedback we have been given.