Digital Technology

Digital Technology played a pivotal role in both my foundation portfolio by creating the opening sequence to a thriller film involving rival gymnasts and my advanced portfolio which involved the  creation of a teaser campaign (trailer and poster) and magazine cover for a hybrid genre “sports flick” film on a tennis theme entitled On the Baseline.

Research, Planning and Evaluation

In AS a Wordpress blogging site was used to undertake audience research through the creation of an online forum whereby my main audience of teenage girls and secondary niche audience of tennis fans could access my research, planning, evaluation and video’s via the blog and provide comments. I also used Wordpress to gain feedback from my target audience about key creative elements of my film opening such as whether the mode of address via the voiceover, attempts to create humour and choice of music were effective through the submission of questionnaires onto the blog.

Wordpress was used to display the research that I had undertaken into opening film sequences produced by other film companies, film posters, title texts and the basic typical features (conventions) I identified. The research was presented through the submission of blogs, pictures, hyperlinks and video’s. 

Wordpress however proved to be difficult when trying to link to other programmes such as slideshare and vidler. Through trial and error I discovered that the best way to submit information onto Wordpress was to do it directly through the Wordpress programme.

In A2 my research, planning and evaluation tasks were all uploaded to the internet through the blogging network ‘blogger’. Blogger was more effective than Wordpress as it allowed me to hyperlink to slideshare and use this as a way of evaluating my work.  Through the use of a Blogger app I was able to upload the trailer from the hyperlink directly from my YouTube page onto blogger more efficiently avoiding the use of the disk I had burnt the trailer onto (by exporting the trailer onto Idvd and burning it onto a DVD).  The image tools on Blogger also allowed me to manipulate the size and positions of the images used on my blog making it more aesthetically pleasing.

In A2 the social networking site Facebook was used to send out hyperlinks to my blog and trailer to my target audiences in order to obtain feedback regarding my trailer, film poster and magazine cover. I also uploaded images and podcasts that I had taken from my blackberry phone straight onto blogger as part of my evaluation stage.

Real Media Texts and Conventions

In AS my film opening was created primarily as a result of my existing knowledge of thrillers from watching TV drama series such as the Marchlands and Orphan along with the movies Death of a Chearleader and Stick It. My first hand experience of producing a GCSE drama piece of the same genre was also drawn upon. The internet (Youtube and IMBD) was used to enable me to view examples of the creative dramatic footage used in thriller film opening sequences, and to begin to pick up commonalities stereotypical of the genre. For example, not to start with scary action footage as most thriller films start in the daytime and in equilibrium. From watching the openings I also began to recognise the prominence given to promoting the name of the production and distribution company in the opening sequences of films – a feature which I tried to replicate creatively in my opening. The internet also allowed me to find copyright free music sites such as …………. where I obtained the music for my soundtrack and uploaded it onto Imovie.

However, in A2 the internet played a much big role in helping me develop a deeper understanding of the features needed to create a quality trailer that would appeal to a specific target audience.  Wikipeadia was used to identify conventions of genres and obtain lists of relevant films to analyse (although I realise that the source is not totally reliable) then Youtube and IMBD were used to analyse trailers (Mean Girls, Coach Carter, A League of their Own, Bend it Like Beckham) in detail, for the use of or subversion of the conventions associated with both sports films and chick flicks so that I could create a hybrid genre that would appeal to a main and secondary niche audience.

Movie Production

In my foundation portfolio Imovie 09 was used to create my opening sequence. The software allowed me to upload the movie footage from a range of digital cameras and up load them onto a Macintosh computer.

I was able to use the programme to insert title text and names of characters to create a professional look to the opening sequence.  The programme also allowed me to build tension through the use of “footage editing tools” to create accelerated and slow motion and cut unwanted footage. However, Imovie also presented me with some difficulties when trying to save a hard copy of my footage by ‘burning’ it onto disks.

In AS I also used a range of digital cameras to create the opening sequence for my thriller. Most of the footage was filmed using a Sony camera. The advantages of using the Sony camera were that: it had a large memory which allowed me to take and store lots of footage; it also had a good range of zoom in/out options allowing certain scenes to be made more dramatic; and the lighting options allowed me to film part of my opening sequence in the night, whilst making the objects visible to the audience.

A flip camera was selected to get detailed close up shots of key objects as it produces a sharper image when zooming in than the Sony camera (although the range of the zoom in is less).  It was the most appropriate tool for filming the details of the coach’s notebook as it allowed me to dramatically reveal the contents of what had been written by the character clear enough for the audience to read.

When progressing onto my Advanced portfolio Imovie was used again to create the trailer teaser.  However, I did make creative use of new functions such as the ‘crop’ option to draw the audience’s attention to key moments in the action. For example when the “underdog” was holding the medicine ball above her head, I used the ‘crop’ option to zoom into her face to show the strain and her dogged determination up close for the audience.  On reflection, although I used the same movie making equipment I used it much more creatively than in my A2 work to allow the audience to read connotations into the camera shots and action sequences.  For example, the fast motion  footage of the players training together which culminates in them performing synchronised star jumps with perfect timing symbolises the coming together of the partnership and the development of a positive relationship between the antagonist and protagonist.

I also discovered how to format the title text in advance then fade it onto the screen positioning it around the film footage using Imovie.  This allowed the audience to simultaneously view a clear image of the footage whilst being able to read the title text (On the Baseline) and provide a professional look to the opening title sequence. I also used my USB memory stick to store, then upload, a company logo which I had created on my home PC onto Iphoto.

Creating Sound

For my Advanced Portfolio I used ICT to create a range of sound effects to support the action denoted in the trailer, retain the attention and elicit a range of reactions from the audience in a short space of time. 

The opening soundtrack of my advanced portfolio consisted of imported copyright free music directly from iTunes straight into Imovie using the music button option.

In order to retain the audiences interest throughout the trailer I also created an upbeat ‘Rocky’ style inspirational music sequence using Garage Band software.  This also creatively added humour and intensity to the key scene where the 2 players are in training and relationships are developing.  To add further humour to my trailer I also used some of the sound effects from the Imovie inventory, for example when the underdog collapsed in a press up during training I inserted the ‘cartoon boiiing’ option to create the conventional comedy effect typical in chick flicks by portraying the incompetence of the character and also removing the time demands that would be needed to portray this using through dialogue.

In A2 I also used Imovie’s voice over tool to produce a conventional feature of the chick flick and create a mode of address that allowed me to set the scene from the perspective of the main character for the audience.  The quality of the work was improved using the audio adjustment tools “slider” function which allowed me to alter the volume of the voice over (and speech in the footage), sound effects and the music soundtrack in relation to one another. This allowed me to be more creative in the use of sound and the audience to clearly hear the combination of sounds without one overpowering the other.

Digital Photography

In AS I used the Sony camera to take ‘still’ photo’s which were used for part of my research relating to what a poster for my film would look like. On reflection, I probably didn’t give enough thought to composing an image that would allow my audience to gain a sufficient insight into the substance of the plot or characters to be intrigued enough to want to watch the full film.

In A2 to create my poster and magazine cover the original images were taken with the Sony digital camera. Then they were uploaded onto my home computer where they were edited firstly in Microsoft publisher. They were then copied into “Paint” to try to lighten the images to create more summery (tennis season) feel and add to the overall verisimilitude of the shots.  However, neither Publisher or Paint could lighten up a dark background and editing functions weren’t precise enough to erase it altogether. So I took the images from publisher onto Photoshop where I could further edit them for precision of lighting and texts arrangements.  I also used the magic wand tool and zoom in functions in Photoshop to remove the background altogether from my key photograph in order to improve the quality and so that I could conform with conventions magazine front covers by using a strong, single image often with no background evident. This made them look more aesthetically pleasing, attractive to my target audience and allowed me to use a quality photograph to create intertextuality in my main and ancillary products.

Overall technology played a key role in both pieces of coursework as it helped me keep conventions as well as make my work look more professional. In AS foundation portfolio I used technology to obtain basic levels of editing and skills. However in my A2 year I used a wider range of programmes to create my work and used the programmes I had used previously in the AS year more creatively, by discovering new functions/tools on them.  In AS, on reflection, I think my focus was more on the need to develop the technical ability to produce an opening using the ICT with some creative moments being captured with basic skills.  In A2 I was actually thinking creatively in advance of the production about the effect I wanted to achieve and the impact on the audience then looked at using the ICT which would best facilitate this.  A2 was more about the overall impact created (through sound, action, camera shots etc combined) and connotations of what was being filmed rather than how or what was being used to do it.  This evaluation supports Banaji, Burn and Buckingham’s view that “creativity isn’t an inevitable consequence of using technology.”