1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Used
A convention we have used within our opening sequel of #Followed is Binary Opposition which is identified and used in many other thrillers. It is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning such as light/dark, good/bad, warm/cold. Throughout our thriller opening, you will approach Binary Opposition all the way through as the shots have cut between the antagonist and the protagonist to emphasise the good and bad sides of the plot. The screenshots taken from our thriller opening represent how we have used Binary Opposition, for instance in both shots, we tried to adjust the lighting and props to help portray the good and evil. For example when looking at the protagonist's scene, it is shown in a brightly lit teenager's bedroom which symbolises that she is the protagonist to the audience as she is represented in a positive light. Whereas the over the shoulder shot of the antagonist shows the dark and sinister effect he has on the camera and establishes to the audience that they should be against him due to the negative light given off. These two shots show a great contrast between them, representing the convention Binary Opposition.
An example of a thriller that also uses this type of Binary Opposition is The Da Vinci Code where the switch of scenes of good/bad is also made. However in the opening of this example, the antagonist is shown in action before the protagonist which is the opposite to our opening. The shot of the lecture room is that of the protagonist in a more positive light presenting a lecture to the students also with the beam of light focused on the speaker, it identifies his importance and that he is a harmless individual. Whereas the shot of the pale man holding the gun, known as the antagonist in this situation and throughout the film is presented in a negative light in relation to our over the shoulder shot of the antagonist. We decided to relate our use of binary opposition to The Da Vinci Code as it has a similar situation to our opening and for example as shown in the antagonist's shots, the camera and lighting make out just the outline of the individuals. I believe we have represented this convention well and effectively. 
Another convention we have inserted into our thriller is Crime, however we have used it in an unusual way to other thrillers involving crime. In our opening we see the action taking place before the crime scene which is shown in the middle of the film which makes it different to other crime thrillers. We have used the element of crime to at to the suspense and action in our thriller involving the stalking situation. This will hopefully entice a different type of audience who prefer for example, a crime thriller to a psychological thriller. When comparing our thriller to the film Se7en, the shot shown below shows a scene right at the beginning of the film of a murder investigation which not only emphasises the crime element of Se7en but it puts you at the heart of the action. Whereas our opening consists of the continuity of messaging between the antagonist and the protagonist which persists to the crime scene later investigated in the film.
I feel we have used this convention well as it shows that not all crime thrillers start off with a detective scene like Se7en which represents a 'typical' crime thriller. We have represented this convention in a built up way by not revealing the crime scene before the film digs into the plot which adds to the effect of suspense. Developed
A convention we have developed would be the use of Voyeurism as though someone in our opening is being watched. Voyeurism really adds to the effect of suspense in our thriller and builds up the mystery as to whom the male character is. During the opening of #Followed, a few shots after the antagonist is presented, shows numerous files that he has created due to his immense obsession with the young girl. These shots really emphasise the plot and his personality as the audience begin to realise what the film is about and how long this obsession has been going on due to the number of dates situated underneath the files.
An example of a thriller that also uses this convention is One Hour Photo which is also about a man who stalks his family and produces photos of them throughout a period of time. This is shown in the shot to the right which also shows the numerous photos he has collected. By using the effect of voyeurism, it makes the audience feel insecure and uncomfortable of the situation shown which is the aim of the thriller. I feel we have distributed this convention well and similar to the way One Hour Photo has done so and I believe it gives off a great effect and adds to the sense of mystery.
In relation to this convention, we have selected The Talented Mr Ripley as an example which is about a man who hides his true personality whilst attempting to complete a job he has been sent to do. In the opening credits, the main character is revealed in a certain way in which only parts of his identity are shown as lines are still covering his face and surrounded by a black background. This indicates to the audience that the film slowly reveals the characters identity throughout the film. The font used in the credit sequence really relates to ours as you can tell the font was created to represent a typewriter. This can also be linked to the film as it is set in the 1950's making it appropriate of its time. I feel that our group have developed this convention of editing for our credits as we thought about the establishment of the opening and how the font and style of credits can relate to the plot which the producers of The Talented Mr Ripley must have considered.
Challenged
A convention we have challenged in our opening sequel is how the protagonist is aware that she is being stalked by the antagonist which is shown as a twist in our plot. This is an unusual occurrence in thrillers as most of them involve the protagonist being unaware of the situation and continuing her life as normal. Especially involving a social networking site such as Twitter, I believe the film is more attracted to our target audience and the audience today, in the modern world. In this particular shot, the screenshot shows how the protagonist has replied to the stalker which shows that she is aware of the situation by replying with "Leave me alone" which is presented in a Twitter Direct Message format. The audience know who this message is to due to the fact that Ryan is shown previously typing and sending messages which are identified on screen. We produced this outcome to provide a different take on a 'classic' stalker film which would hopefully make the audience feel unsettled and tenser as they want the girl to stop talking to him and take stronger action. The convention also adds to the involvement of technology as the social networking portrays to the audience that the internet isn't safe to teenagers in which the audience can relate to due to this currently happening in the modern world.
In contrast we have used the film Sleeping with the Enemy as an opposing example. In this thriller film, the opposite situation is happening in comparison to our thriller film. -The protagonist is unaware that she is being stalked by her ex-husband. Sleeping with the Enemy grasps the 'typical' stalker thriller well, as it builds up suspense at the beginning making the audience to believe that it isn't much of a thriller however by the middle it digs deep into the story of the antagonist stalking his ex-wife and why that is the case. Whereas in our thriller, the protagonist is aware of the situation and tries to act against the antagonist. In the shot shown of Sleeping with the Enemy shows the antagonist watching his ex-wife and her new boyfriend at a funfair going on the Ferris wheel. This establishes that the man is tracking her vigorously in person mainly whilst keeping out of sight. This shows the comparison to our thriller as not only is in based around twitter but the stalking is not shown in person especially without her knowing.
Although this is a strong convention we chose to challenge, it greatly shows how we attempted to not provide the audience with a 'typical' stalker film but a different take on it. Whilst watching it we also felt the tension and suspense build up as you would in Sleeping with the Enemy however each having slightly different situations and timings.
Another convention we challenged is the normal running of the opening credits as we have placed the title of the film at the end of the opening sequence. This is an unusual approach to use as the title is usually situated at the start of a film to symbolise the importance and dominance of the film. We decided to insert the title of our film ('#Followed') to add to the sense of mystery and tension the audience will feel as they will be guessing as to what they are indeed watching. Looking back at the opening we created, I believe that this convention worked really well as some of the people who took a watch at our opening responded excitedly and wanted to watch more after it had finished. The music and the pace of the scenes also adds to this particular move.
In the thriller title The Sixth Sense, have in contrast to us placed their thriller title at the beginning of the credit sequence however having said this the title at the start is also effective but I feel it fails to portray any tension to the audience. This is where I believe that by challenging this convention we have done well and succeeded the insertion of the tension and mystery as it is followed by the title of our film which also fits into the style of the sub genre and thriller.
I have created a prezi to present the different social groups we have tried to represent in our opening and describe how we have shown them.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This answer will be shown on our Wiki Spaces page:
http://nfgsmedia.wikispaces.com/Followed
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is based around the fact of how different technology has been used in a thriller therefore, our audience would have to have an interest in disturbing and technological films. They would also have to be updated with the modern world today to be able to understand the storyline.
Sammie Burr is a fashionable young girl around the age of 19 who enjoys chilling at home and watching various thriller sub genres instead of a night out as she is greatly interested in the suspense and mystery involved. She comes across as a shy but a bubbly girl once relaxed when comfortable and prefers a psychological thriller over any other sub genres. Sammie enjoys listening to less mainstream music which includes the genres such as Indie rock and relaxing acoustic music. She is currently studying English Literature at a University in London which she enjoys greatly and she lives in her flat with a 2 good friends. Her class would be considered as middle as she earns a fair amount at her job in the fashion store Urban Outfitters but still earns for a living and becomes bankrupt at times although her parents in Manchester lend her some money when times are tough. She tends to spend her money on fashion, gadgets but most of the times as she is a University student she uses her money to buy food and pay her rent once a month.
She believes in equality and fairness of humans and values her family time hugely whom she visits regularly. She isn't religious but on Christmas Eve each year, she likes to spend some time going to church each year.
Her favourite films include The Sixth Sense, Taken, The Talented Mr Ripley and One Hour photo. However she does enjoy a good romantic comedy such as The Notebook or Confessions of a Shopaholic.
As a group we feel that this particular person from our target audience would enjoy our film as we have based the plot around the modern world today as we have included the social networking sites such as Twitter. As we have portrayed this individual liking to spend money on gadgets, her attention will also be attracted to liking this film as we have involved a smartphone, tablet and laptop as shown in our opening.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The answer to this question is featured in our end product '#Followed' located on YouTube. (Also can be found on our YouTube channel).
http://www.youtube.com/user/TsunamiStudiosMedia
We have included annotations and notes on our video, I personally believe that we as a group delivered to our target audience well and met their expectations accordingly.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout our thriller opening, we have presented and used a variety of different technologies and learnt various techniques to make our production better. As a group, we have all managed to expand our knowledge on the technologies we used, online and offline. Especially as our film opening is based around the social network of Twitter, it demonstrates how technology has changed over a period of time and it taught us how to use it as well as film on it.
Blogger
As a group, we all have used blogger to show our work on creating our media product, from the creation of planning and finishing with this evaluation. Having encountered Blogger on the internet before, I had a decent knowledge of how to use it and publish posts. It helped me to learn different ways of presenting my work, from uploading prezis and survey monkey questions to a YouTube video. When styling our blog to the public, we wanted to show the aesthetics we have by creating it in a modern and eye capturing way. We were able to test out different fonts and arrange it in a certain way which turned out well as our blog relates to our production company, Tsunami Studios. We decided to incorporate waves into our background as we felt it symbolised a Tsunami and by having the font in a light blue, it helps establish and remember our production company.
Twitter
As our opening is #Followed, it indicates that the film is based around the social network of Twitter therefore we had to create a couple of accounts for our characters. However by already having a well used account on Twitter myself, I was able to use it efficiently and easily. Before we started filming, we created two accounts for Lucy Jones and Ryan Smith which worked well. With my knowledge of twitter we were able to make the accounts realistic and appropriate for the personalities of our characters. For example, we made sure that the background of Lucy's profile was feminine so we chose purple as it comes off to the audience as innocent and young and created various 'Tweets' about her lifestyle by tweeting a status like 'Great night with the girls' which would show she is fairly outgoing and that anyone can read that status.
To produce more popularity of our production company we made a Twitter account for Tsunami Studios. This helped give us more knowledge of Twitter by creating the profile before filming and making the character's profiles.
This online programme was easy and simple to use although filming on it was particularly hard as filming a laptop screen doesn't come out in the best quality of imagery.
Prezi
Using the online software, Prezi was fairly simple and easy to use and understand. We used it to present our work on it in a particular style to make our posts more interesting, exciting and presentable. Prezi is used as an online slideshow creator which presents your work as a three dimensional images when selecting the correct template. However the layout of the software did confuse me a little when first starting to use it as it was quite complex, although now i am able to create an online slideshow, it has enabled me to alter text, shapes, insert images which helped me a lot. Personally I believe Prezi has also benefited me and the group greatly as it is an exciting and different way of presenting information with it's path viewer in which you can direct the path of what is viewed. I would certainly recommend Prezi and intend to use it for a variety of presentations in the future as it is so successful.
Apple iMac
Having to use iMac to do our work on and not encountering one before, I didn't have the knowledge to use it quickly and knowingly. However as we began to use it more and more, I can now use it well and efficiently. The iMac was essential to us as it contains what we used to edit our production, Final Cut Express. The iMac was a perfect choice as it enabled us to become quick at doing our work and made it easier at doing so. I believe it benefited our group greatly.
Final Cut Express
In order to edit our production, we had to use Final Cut Express, a software located on the iMac. Personally, I have never encountered Final Cut and was probably the technology I felt most uncomfortable using. However after using it for our Preliminary Task, I felt much more familiar with the programme as I learnt the basis of importing clips/videos and how to slot clips together as well as arrange the length and size of each individual clip. At first sight the prospect of having to operate Final Cut was quite daunting as there is so much to think about and do but other a period of time and after we completed our preliminary task, I felt much more comfortable with using this piece of software.
As a result of this, I am now able to edit footage and audio and add in a variety of effects, for instance different transitions such as cross dissolve.
Now having the knowledge of how to use Final Cut Express, I really enjoy using it and it helped our group hugely when creating our film opening.
YouTube
In contrast to Final Cut Express, YouTube is a site I am most familiar with and I have had a lot experience with using it as I encounter it everyday. As a group we used YouTube as our main site for uploading our work for example, our Preliminary task and our storyboard. When coming across to the point of adding and editing annotations onto our work, I found it simple to use with my knowledge. Not only was YouTube easy to operate but it was simple to receive replies and opinions on our work which helped us to improve the piece of work and evaluate people's opinions. Overall, YouTube has been a delight to use which has made uploading our work as a group much more easier and the effectiveness has been great.
Wikispaces
I have never come across this site before although I found it rather simple to use as I know it's linked site of Wikipedia. Once you have joined the site, it is very easy to use and create your own online page which enabled us to insert pictures and text. This was a very useful website as it enabled us to promote our film opening.
Camera/Tripod
The camera we ended up using in the end was a HD Cannon which did the job really well. Previously I have had no experience using this type of camera but in the end I found it easy to control. However, when using the camera and also the tripod, we encountered a problem which was soon fixed by gaining some knowledge of definition, at first we shot a few scenes in SD and when looking back on our footage, my group and I realised the problem and then we shot the footage in HD giving our production a much better quality and professional look. I found it quick to use the handheld HD Cannon camera as learning the basics was easy as the on/off button was simple to locate and using zoom in/out, pause and capture was easy to find as well. What was really useful about using this particular camera was it enabled us to take photos as evidence of filming our production.
When figuring out how to use a tripod for the first time, I found it easy to adjust the height and angle of it best suitable for filming with the camera. However, we also encountered a problem when using the tripod we found a screw loose which made our shots we had captured a bit slanted as the tripod couldn't hold the camera steady at times. This was soon fixed because we were able to replace the tripod with a newer and better one which gave us better, more steady shots. Yet without the tripod, our shots would not be straight, stable and clear, and it became easy to move about which gave us the access of placing it on a desk to improve the shots of the laptop screen.
Both the camera and the tripod were great pieces of equipment to use as we wouldn't have been able to create quality shots without them. I would recommend both and use them again if wanted a steady and clear shot.
Survey Monkey
When researching our target audience, Survey Monkey was a great help as it enabled us to make an online survey which is easy for the audience to answer and use. By creating an online survey, it benefited us hugely as we were able to post it on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which produced more and more opinions and responses. After the collection of results, I made the responses more clear to the public by creating pie charts on Microsoft Office Excel where I produced a spreadsheet and copy and pasted the pie chart onto my post. This also made it easier for me to evaluate the answers and figure out who our target audience is.
Survey Monkey was a great use of help and easy to and I would recommend it and I would personally happily encounter it again.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The answer to this question is featured in our video of our Preliminary Task which includes annotations surrounding the clips and shots. These will explain the progression from our test run to our full product.
After the preliminary task, I felt I had learnt a bit more knowledge on using the specific camera and tripod which really helped when it came to filming our full product. It really helped me gain some more confidence at filming and working with the rest of the group. As we had to research and plan out our official thriller opening, it taught me more of how to use the equipment and online software and technology.
Below shows the first attempt at filming our full product. It demonstrates the mistakes that could go wrong and how we improved it by filming again to get it right.
Although this filming and editing piece was a fault to our production, by looking at the end product it shows how we changed our filming method around and made it better. For example, we made the mistake of filming in SD rather than HD which made a big difference to filming, therefore we had to film again and the quality ended up being much better as we learnt from this mistake.
Challenged
A convention we have challenged in our opening sequel is how the protagonist is aware that she is being stalked by the antagonist which is shown as a twist in our plot. This is an unusual occurrence in thrillers as most of them involve the protagonist being unaware of the situation and continuing her life as normal. Especially involving a social networking site such as Twitter, I believe the film is more attracted to our target audience and the audience today, in the modern world. In this particular shot, the screenshot shows how the protagonist has replied to the stalker which shows that she is aware of the situation by replying with "Leave me alone" which is presented in a Twitter Direct Message format. The audience know who this message is to due to the fact that Ryan is shown previously typing and sending messages which are identified on screen. We produced this outcome to provide a different take on a 'classic' stalker film which would hopefully make the audience feel unsettled and tenser as they want the girl to stop talking to him and take stronger action. The convention also adds to the involvement of technology as the social networking portrays to the audience that the internet isn't safe to teenagers in which the audience can relate to due to this currently happening in the modern world.
In contrast we have used the film Sleeping with the Enemy as an opposing example. In this thriller film, the opposite situation is happening in comparison to our thriller film. -The protagonist is unaware that she is being stalked by her ex-husband. Sleeping with the Enemy grasps the 'typical' stalker thriller well, as it builds up suspense at the beginning making the audience to believe that it isn't much of a thriller however by the middle it digs deep into the story of the antagonist stalking his ex-wife and why that is the case. Whereas in our thriller, the protagonist is aware of the situation and tries to act against the antagonist. In the shot shown of Sleeping with the Enemy shows the antagonist watching his ex-wife and her new boyfriend at a funfair going on the Ferris wheel. This establishes that the man is tracking her vigorously in person mainly whilst keeping out of sight. This shows the comparison to our thriller as not only is in based around twitter but the stalking is not shown in person especially without her knowing.Although this is a strong convention we chose to challenge, it greatly shows how we attempted to not provide the audience with a 'typical' stalker film but a different take on it. Whilst watching it we also felt the tension and suspense build up as you would in Sleeping with the Enemy however each having slightly different situations and timings.
Another convention we challenged is the normal running of the opening credits as we have placed the title of the film at the end of the opening sequence. This is an unusual approach to use as the title is usually situated at the start of a film to symbolise the importance and dominance of the film. We decided to insert the title of our film ('#Followed') to add to the sense of mystery and tension the audience will feel as they will be guessing as to what they are indeed watching. Looking back at the opening we created, I believe that this convention worked really well as some of the people who took a watch at our opening responded excitedly and wanted to watch more after it had finished. The music and the pace of the scenes also adds to this particular move.
In the thriller title The Sixth Sense, have in contrast to us placed their thriller title at the beginning of the credit sequence however having said this the title at the start is also effective but I feel it fails to portray any tension to the audience. This is where I believe that by challenging this convention we have done well and succeeded the insertion of the tension and mystery as it is followed by the title of our film which also fits into the style of the sub genre and thriller.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I have created a prezi to present the different social groups we have tried to represent in our opening and describe how we have shown them.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This answer will be shown on our Wiki Spaces page:
http://nfgsmedia.wikispaces.com/Followed
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is based around the fact of how different technology has been used in a thriller therefore, our audience would have to have an interest in disturbing and technological films. They would also have to be updated with the modern world today to be able to understand the storyline.
Sammie Burr is a fashionable young girl around the age of 19 who enjoys chilling at home and watching various thriller sub genres instead of a night out as she is greatly interested in the suspense and mystery involved. She comes across as a shy but a bubbly girl once relaxed when comfortable and prefers a psychological thriller over any other sub genres. Sammie enjoys listening to less mainstream music which includes the genres such as Indie rock and relaxing acoustic music. She is currently studying English Literature at a University in London which she enjoys greatly and she lives in her flat with a 2 good friends. Her class would be considered as middle as she earns a fair amount at her job in the fashion store Urban Outfitters but still earns for a living and becomes bankrupt at times although her parents in Manchester lend her some money when times are tough. She tends to spend her money on fashion, gadgets but most of the times as she is a University student she uses her money to buy food and pay her rent once a month.
She believes in equality and fairness of humans and values her family time hugely whom she visits regularly. She isn't religious but on Christmas Eve each year, she likes to spend some time going to church each year.
Her favourite films include The Sixth Sense, Taken, The Talented Mr Ripley and One Hour photo. However she does enjoy a good romantic comedy such as The Notebook or Confessions of a Shopaholic. As a group we feel that this particular person from our target audience would enjoy our film as we have based the plot around the modern world today as we have included the social networking sites such as Twitter. As we have portrayed this individual liking to spend money on gadgets, her attention will also be attracted to liking this film as we have involved a smartphone, tablet and laptop as shown in our opening.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The answer to this question is featured in our end product '#Followed' located on YouTube. (Also can be found on our YouTube channel).
http://www.youtube.com/user/TsunamiStudiosMedia
We have included annotations and notes on our video, I personally believe that we as a group delivered to our target audience well and met their expectations accordingly.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout our thriller opening, we have presented and used a variety of different technologies and learnt various techniques to make our production better. As a group, we have all managed to expand our knowledge on the technologies we used, online and offline. Especially as our film opening is based around the social network of Twitter, it demonstrates how technology has changed over a period of time and it taught us how to use it as well as film on it.
Blogger
As a group, we all have used blogger to show our work on creating our media product, from the creation of planning and finishing with this evaluation. Having encountered Blogger on the internet before, I had a decent knowledge of how to use it and publish posts. It helped me to learn different ways of presenting my work, from uploading prezis and survey monkey questions to a YouTube video. When styling our blog to the public, we wanted to show the aesthetics we have by creating it in a modern and eye capturing way. We were able to test out different fonts and arrange it in a certain way which turned out well as our blog relates to our production company, Tsunami Studios. We decided to incorporate waves into our background as we felt it symbolised a Tsunami and by having the font in a light blue, it helps establish and remember our production company.
As our opening is #Followed, it indicates that the film is based around the social network of Twitter therefore we had to create a couple of accounts for our characters. However by already having a well used account on Twitter myself, I was able to use it efficiently and easily. Before we started filming, we created two accounts for Lucy Jones and Ryan Smith which worked well. With my knowledge of twitter we were able to make the accounts realistic and appropriate for the personalities of our characters. For example, we made sure that the background of Lucy's profile was feminine so we chose purple as it comes off to the audience as innocent and young and created various 'Tweets' about her lifestyle by tweeting a status like 'Great night with the girls' which would show she is fairly outgoing and that anyone can read that status.To produce more popularity of our production company we made a Twitter account for Tsunami Studios. This helped give us more knowledge of Twitter by creating the profile before filming and making the character's profiles.
This online programme was easy and simple to use although filming on it was particularly hard as filming a laptop screen doesn't come out in the best quality of imagery.
Prezi
Using the online software, Prezi was fairly simple and easy to use and understand. We used it to present our work on it in a particular style to make our posts more interesting, exciting and presentable. Prezi is used as an online slideshow creator which presents your work as a three dimensional images when selecting the correct template. However the layout of the software did confuse me a little when first starting to use it as it was quite complex, although now i am able to create an online slideshow, it has enabled me to alter text, shapes, insert images which helped me a lot. Personally I believe Prezi has also benefited me and the group greatly as it is an exciting and different way of presenting information with it's path viewer in which you can direct the path of what is viewed. I would certainly recommend Prezi and intend to use it for a variety of presentations in the future as it is so successful.Apple iMac
Having to use iMac to do our work on and not encountering one before, I didn't have the knowledge to use it quickly and knowingly. However as we began to use it more and more, I can now use it well and efficiently. The iMac was essential to us as it contains what we used to edit our production, Final Cut Express. The iMac was a perfect choice as it enabled us to become quick at doing our work and made it easier at doing so. I believe it benefited our group greatly.Final Cut Express
In order to edit our production, we had to use Final Cut Express, a software located on the iMac. Personally, I have never encountered Final Cut and was probably the technology I felt most uncomfortable using. However after using it for our Preliminary Task, I felt much more familiar with the programme as I learnt the basis of importing clips/videos and how to slot clips together as well as arrange the length and size of each individual clip. At first sight the prospect of having to operate Final Cut was quite daunting as there is so much to think about and do but other a period of time and after we completed our preliminary task, I felt much more comfortable with using this piece of software.As a result of this, I am now able to edit footage and audio and add in a variety of effects, for instance different transitions such as cross dissolve.
Now having the knowledge of how to use Final Cut Express, I really enjoy using it and it helped our group hugely when creating our film opening.
YouTube
In contrast to Final Cut Express, YouTube is a site I am most familiar with and I have had a lot experience with using it as I encounter it everyday. As a group we used YouTube as our main site for uploading our work for example, our Preliminary task and our storyboard. When coming across to the point of adding and editing annotations onto our work, I found it simple to use with my knowledge. Not only was YouTube easy to operate but it was simple to receive replies and opinions on our work which helped us to improve the piece of work and evaluate people's opinions. Overall, YouTube has been a delight to use which has made uploading our work as a group much more easier and the effectiveness has been great.
WikispacesI have never come across this site before although I found it rather simple to use as I know it's linked site of Wikipedia. Once you have joined the site, it is very easy to use and create your own online page which enabled us to insert pictures and text. This was a very useful website as it enabled us to promote our film opening.
Camera/Tripod
The camera we ended up using in the end was a HD Cannon which did the job really well. Previously I have had no experience using this type of camera but in the end I found it easy to control. However, when using the camera and also the tripod, we encountered a problem which was soon fixed by gaining some knowledge of definition, at first we shot a few scenes in SD and when looking back on our footage, my group and I realised the problem and then we shot the footage in HD giving our production a much better quality and professional look. I found it quick to use the handheld HD Cannon camera as learning the basics was easy as the on/off button was simple to locate and using zoom in/out, pause and capture was easy to find as well. What was really useful about using this particular camera was it enabled us to take photos as evidence of filming our production.When figuring out how to use a tripod for the first time, I found it easy to adjust the height and angle of it best suitable for filming with the camera. However, we also encountered a problem when using the tripod we found a screw loose which made our shots we had captured a bit slanted as the tripod couldn't hold the camera steady at times. This was soon fixed because we were able to replace the tripod with a newer and better one which gave us better, more steady shots. Yet without the tripod, our shots would not be straight, stable and clear, and it became easy to move about which gave us the access of placing it on a desk to improve the shots of the laptop screen.
Both the camera and the tripod were great pieces of equipment to use as we wouldn't have been able to create quality shots without them. I would recommend both and use them again if wanted a steady and clear shot.
Survey Monkey
When researching our target audience, Survey Monkey was a great help as it enabled us to make an online survey which is easy for the audience to answer and use. By creating an online survey, it benefited us hugely as we were able to post it on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which produced more and more opinions and responses. After the collection of results, I made the responses more clear to the public by creating pie charts on Microsoft Office Excel where I produced a spreadsheet and copy and pasted the pie chart onto my post. This also made it easier for me to evaluate the answers and figure out who our target audience is.Survey Monkey was a great use of help and easy to and I would recommend it and I would personally happily encounter it again.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The answer to this question is featured in our video of our Preliminary Task which includes annotations surrounding the clips and shots. These will explain the progression from our test run to our full product.
After the preliminary task, I felt I had learnt a bit more knowledge on using the specific camera and tripod which really helped when it came to filming our full product. It really helped me gain some more confidence at filming and working with the rest of the group. As we had to research and plan out our official thriller opening, it taught me more of how to use the equipment and online software and technology.
Below shows the first attempt at filming our full product. It demonstrates the mistakes that could go wrong and how we improved it by filming again to get it right.
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