Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
The editing programme I used the most for my independent ancillary texts was Adobe Photoshop. I used the techniques I gained from my Graphic's lessons, I was able to use layers in my work. This meant I was able to keep everything I wanted on my poster or magazine cover separate, so I could move things around and change the size of things, without disrupting anything else on that page. I was also able to edit the layers into each other, making my poster and magazine cover looking smooth and professional. I could 'dissolve' the edges of the mask into the background making it look like it is actually attached to that texture. There is a small side bar of editing tools, opacity percentage and layer arrangements that I could use on my poster and magazine cover. For my magazine cover I copied and pasted the 'Empire' title so I had two, I moved the layer containing one of the titles on it below the mask layer, making it look like the title was behind the mask. I then placed the copied layer on top of the other title layer making it look like there was only one, I then moved that layer above the mask layer so it was laying on top of the mask, and lowered the opacity to 25% so it was still visible but faint enough not to distract or ruin the image of the mask.
 

There was also a bench in the image I used for my film poster, which I did not want in my poster. For this I rubbed out the bench leaving it invisible, then copied sections of the wall and placed them over the invisible patch. Once it was fully covered it looked better, but noticeable that I had done this. I then decided to used the 'spot healing brush tool' which allowed me to select an area that made it obvious that I have placed piece of the wall in that section. And smooth it over, and hiding the edge of the wall that was obvious, this made the patch of wall blend in with the rest of the wall hiding the fact there was ever a bench there. I then turned the image black and white using the Image Adjustments.

For the film editing as a group we used Adobe Premier Pro. This programme allowed us to add clips we had shot on our video camera, and trim them, speed them up and structure them in an order explain the plot. We trimmed down nearly every clip we used, to shorten the time of the trailer and only use the few seconds that we needed. We sped up a couple of clips, where I shook my head violently. The idea was to make Victim #2 - me, look like I was going insane. We recorded about 10 seconds worth of me shacking my head and sped it up so it only lasted 1 or 2 second, personally I think this clip was a success, I liked how it turned out and thought it was very effective and obvious.

For my research I used YouTube and Google mostly. I used Wikipedia for information about certain films and the characters in them, for example the plot of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger information. I used Goggle for images and information about films/trailers/characters that I couldn't find anywhere else. YouTube was only used during my research and my three trailer analysis, apart from that I only used YouTube to show examples for a point I was trying to explain, supporting a theory.

To present my work I used this website, Blogger. Blogger is a blogging website that lets me add images, videos and text posts to present my work and the research I had done. My blog page is for the work, and research I have done to learn about the background of horror, techniques professionals use in films and trailers, and of course the process of my horror trailer.