How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
CONSTRUCTION
In the construction of our A2 trailer we had access to a variety of modern technologies. We used a video camera which stored our footage on an SD card (San Disk card), the SD card allowed us to transfer our footage onto the imacs which allowed us to then use editing software such as imovie to give our trailer a more professional look. We used the video camera for a range of different camera shots, many of those that complied with the typical slasher movie shots. The editing software (imovie) allowed us to edit the brightness and contrast of our footage. For example the opening mid shot in our trailer, the brightness and saturation was altered in order to make the shot look darker and unnatural.
In order to edit our poster we used an editing website known as Picnik. Our original image was taken with red lighting and in our final poster the image is blue. The blue image was used to represent the viral influence in our trailer and the blue resembles the colour that of computer screen lighting. Picnik was a new to all of us, we had never used it before, so at first we were just trying to get used to using it and what all the different effects did. As a group we eventually became accustomed to using Picnik, everything became easier to use and we were eventually able to edit the image and use it on our final poster design
In order to get the music track ‘mellowhype – 64’, we had to convert it from YouTube to an mp3 file, we did this using covertomp3.net. This was a simple programme to use as we used it in our A2 project, when testing different sound track out. Once we converted the track we did multiple things when editing it in Garageband. We learnt how to use much more advanced effects on garageband through trial and error, testing different styles and effects out to see which worked best. We eventually extended the drone at the beginning and cut the whole track down so it fitted the trailer length, we also cut a area from the middle of the track and put it at the end which created an ere feel but also builds tension and keeps the audience wanting more.
When creating the font for anon we browsed through different fonts on ‘Dafont’ but none of them appealed to us as they were to simple and didn’t stand out to us. We worked together to make our own font using ‘paint’, this is a very simple programme to use and with experimenting with different shapes and the use of other fonts we managed to create our font.
RESEARCH
During the research stages of our A2 project we watched a wide range of YouTube video’s to gain inspiration for our trailer.
We initially deconstructed a music video by ‘Tyler the Creator’ called ‘Yonkers’, the lighting and camera work in this video appealed to us the most. We liked how the camera kept going in and out of focus, and during the hanging scene it was a silhouette of someone. This linked to our trailer as it is mysterious and anonymous. This encouraged us to keep the killers identity hidden and also the victims, the only victim you can identity is the girl at the end, the others faces are hidden.
Despite not being of the same genre as our trailer, we creating our website, we took inspiration from ‘Cloverfields’ website. The simplicity of it, having photos of the events in the film collaged across the page was very appealing. This influenced our website as we had a video in the background rather than photo’s and kept everything very simple.
PLANNING
When creating our branding scene we created multiple storyboards in order for it to be in the right place of the trailer. Originally we were going to have the branding scene built up throughout the trailer, but decided against this because we felt it would be more effective in having multiple torture scenes. When had an issue with the lighting when filming the branding scene as it was too dark, we overcame this problem by using natural lighting in the filming and then editing the brightness of the footage on iMovie.
EVALUATION
Once our draft of our teaser trailer was complete we uploaded it to YouTube and facebook in order to get some audience feedback. Our audience commented on both links which gave us the opportunity to see what they liked and disliked about the trailer, we were then able to edit the trailer to appeal to our audience.
