Google Images- Google images was used in terms of research for both the main teaser trailer product for stills from existing horror trailers and for the ancillary texts for pictures of existing magazines. Searching for pictures is fast and efficient as well as you can save any image you find in order to make it much easier on us so we can always look at a design or existing product we liked all the time.
Youtube- Youtube was used in my research to look at existing teaser trailers in order to see how they were filmed and made to look like. We spent a lot of time analyzing many theatrical and teaser horror trailers in order to come up with a way in which our groups product would actually look like. It was always used in terms of research for shots, angles and styles of music to be placed into the trailer and was very useful.
For Construction I used the following:
Camcorder- The camcorder is the most important piece of equipment used for the actual production for the movie, without it the project couldn't be done. We had to film it in a 4:3 ratio as some camcorders didn't all have the 16:9 widescreen ratio. We used tapes for the recordings and the camcorder allowed us to film the whole thing in no time as well as experiment with some of the features like backlight and night vision etc when we were on dark sets.
Camera- A camera was used to gather pictures in order to complete the ancillary tasks (Poster/Magazine) it wasn't as used as a camcorder but it was required to get the texts done. We only used it on odd occasions towards the end of trailer production, when we were filming we found a shot that we thought would look good for a poster so we would take a picture with the camera (so being resourceful). There were many functions or settings we had changed to get different shots including shutter speeds and even using the tripod to get some still shots which were straight or canted.
Tripod- A tripod was used in order to get some still camcorder work and also for some still close ups for our picture taking. It is a very useful piece of equipment which is ideal for getting nice steady shots or photos compared to the human hand. It is basically a necessity when it comes to filming because you never know if there is a shot you may want still.
Final Cut Pro- This is the editing software we used (which was only on the college Macs) it is a professional editing suite that even today film developers use. We took a while to get used to how it worked and for me myself I used different editing softwares which made it tricky for me to, but it was apart of a learning experience. Final Cut Pro gave us so many different ideas to do and the functionality and compatibility with other Mac software was great (It allowed us to create some odd tunes in garage band and import them in, also the 'live type' for inter-titles was compatible as well which made the product look much more original and professional). During the editing stage we were able to accurately cut clips down to size which is something I haven't properly experienced with other editing suites.
The massive library containing hundreds of effects to use on the product including the one we used at the end called 'Bad Tv' aren't just effects but fully customizable which gives so much depth to the product. Cross fades were the most common throughout the trailer and the importing of existing tunes we found made this project easy to do. But the most handy of features is the log and capture function allowing you to plug in a tape camcorder and for it to capture any selected clips you say and save them into the library. This was a very useful tool and did not waste time at all which gave us more time for other parts of the trailer.
Creative Commons Sound Sites- These websites allowed us to search and download freely via creative commons rights. The ability to find a soundtrack or sounds that we believed to be suitable for use in the teaser trailers background. Without music/sounds there would be no interest in the trailer. Finding the music for the actual trailer took a long time it was really a process of trial and error in terms of finding a song or tune that would deliver the horror punch we needed. In the end we came to a conclusion of a classical piano horror theme which in the end came out very effectively. Odd sound effects like the bang or boom if you call it were found on there as well as a means of tension.
Adobe Photoshop- Photoshop allows us to create our ancillary tasks (Poster/Magazine) with ease and gives us a more in depth software package to allow our imaginations run wild, the only thing preventing us making something looking great is our imagination. Photoshop is something that is required if you want to get a professional look to the overall text products whether its simple font (or even very complex fonts using effects such as glows etc and different writing styles) effects (shapes, gradients, lines, paintbrush etc) or image manipulation it is the software which most businesses use. Photoshop allowed us to create absolute anything we wanted, and we had the help of online tutorials or help from the teacher in case we got stuck, but as you can do so much with it, it was kind of needed in some cases and well we always asked for feedback on it before we changed the product again.
Planning/Evaluation/Research Info etc:
Blogger- Blogger being an online blog site gave us the chance to make a blog which held all the information of our research (Screenshots, trailer links, storyboard screens etc) it allowed us to post our finished content as well as making it very easy to read our written research and essays regarding other horror movies. Blogger is very efficient to use and is less time consuming then physically writing it all out, with the idea of picture upload into the essays, hyperlinks, videos etc it becomes a more interactive experience. As well as being simple to use it was also easy to find the work we done by the idea of labeling which made it much easier to find work which would be much harder with paperwork.
Flickr- Flickr is a website that is used for annotating stills/pictures you upload and is quick and easy to use.We used this website alongside blogger which we used as a place to look at images we have collected and annotated regarding key conventions of the horror genre, it wasn't overly used but if people were to use it, it gets your work going a lot more quicker and saves space, another brilliant feature is to merge it with blog sites and blogger is one of them, when uploading a picture to flickr and posting it, it would automatically place it onto your blog site.
Youtube- Youtube again was used for the final part of which being uploaded to the rest of the video world, this way we were able to show people we knew and ask for feedback on how our teaser trailer looks etc. We had two versions of our product on youtube in the end, the normal version and the final cut version which was altered from the audience feedback we had got. Youtube allowed us to show the internet our work and hopefully get some comments or feedback regarding it.
What do you mean by "sound site (change)"?
ReplyDeleteYour layout is well organised but there is not enough detail here. You need to really go into depth on the processes such as Final Cut Pro post production, and also be more reflective about the web 2.0 methods of doing your evaluation compared to more traditional methods.