Evaluation 4

There are numerous advantages for the low-budget film-maker with regards to using Web 2.0 software. When it comes to research, sites like SurveyMonkey allow a company of any size to collect primary data from a potential audience, creating demographic, psychographic and socio-economic information that is available to anyone. Google Docs allows for collaboration through the internet in the writing of a planning document, meaning that part-time film-makers are able to proceed through pre-production in a time-(and-space-)efficient manner. Sites like Dafont allow for acquiring of production resources that aren't otherwise available to low-budget film-makers. When it comes to release, video-based social networks like YouTube or Vimeo offer a free space to host the film whilst also promoting it through internal algorithms. Used software Different technologies were used within the pre-production and production stages of development to varying degrees of ease and success. For editing both the trailer and all video entries to the blog, Adobe Premier Pro was used. Firstly, the clips and media were chosen, cut to an acceptable length with the razor tool and placed in an order in the timeline. Then, transition and video effects were added to the clips to change the feel and look of the piece. Additional audio was recorded and placed on the timeline. Within the essay videos, text was added to the clips using the 'title' tool. This software was relatively easy to use due to its standard video-production-software UI. The texts created using this tool were of a good quality, although the lack of colour grading within the software meant other software had to be used. The colour grading tool used for the trailer was DaVinci Resolve. The exported Premier Pro file was imported and placed into the editing timeline. There, editing keyframes were added to each transition and the colour variables were changed within the 'Color' tab (highlights, shadows, red balance etc.). It was then exported as a separate file and uploaded to YouTube. The main problems with this software came about due to the quality of the clips, some of which were overexposed or grainy, making it hard to grade effectively. However, the final product looked markedly better than the input video. YouTube was used to host the video content that was produced. Due to the ease-of-use of the software, uploading was simple and embedding was a case of clicking the share button, copying the embed code and pasting it into the Blogger blog. There was a loss of quality in the upload, although this was minimal. Blogger was used to host all the content for the coursework (including this). Each post was given a title and a label to find it easily, and then the appropriate content was embedded or pasted into it. There were a few problems using at first, especially with mislabelling entries, but this was changed later on to be consistent. Prezi was used to present information, much like Powerpoint. This software was more time-consuming than Powerpoint due to a path system of navigation that can be a little awkward, although it is easy to use. It could have been better utilised within the coursework, as it was used like Powerpoint rather than as its own software. Photoshop was a major tool with the creation of the magazine and poster. To create the poster, a black background was created using the fill tool. Then a photograph taken with the camera was placed onto a new layer and placed using the transformation tool. The polygonal lasso selection was used to select specific areas on the image which were then cut, pasted onto a new layer and then filled in with a colour. Once the whole image had been replaced like this, the polygonal lasso was then used to select shadows, which were filled with a darker colour to create a 3D effect. Text was added and edited using the 'Character and Paragraph' tab, then placed accordingly. The magazine was created with the same first step as the poster. Then the main source photograph was placed on a new layer and cut out with the lasso. From there, the edges were blurred using the feather tool and then refined with several adjustments under the image tab. The text was placed and edited as above, with the 'H' and 'E' in 'Horrorcore' edited using the pen tool, then the text layers were given a drop shadow using the FX tab. The cover graphics were created using the rectangle tool and the elliptical marquee tool. The final results produced with this software are quite effective, with the poster being simple but cohesive and effective, and the magazine looking more professional than actual horror genre magazines. Conclusion Throughout this project, my creativity, skills and knowledge have developed. My knowledge of colour theory and image editing has improved, and this can be shown with the grading of the trailer and the composition of the magazine and poster. Using different editing software has honed my knowledge of editing as a whole and how different methods can be used to come to a similar outcome. My knowledge of framing and shot set-up has progressed, and now I understand that making sure that the quality of the shot is incredibly important when it comes to editing and grading. When it comes to skills, my ability to grade has gone from absolutely nothing to being able to do an acceptable piece. My ability in using Photoshop has improved greatly, and this has allowed me to create more advanced pieces than my previous portfolio. The merging of my personal increase in knowledge and skills has led to greater creativity as my reference pool became bigger and my ability to execute ideas became larger. The trailer subverted conventions in a way that added to a piece, and these choices wouldn't have been made by me a year ago as I would not have had the knowledge nor skills to challenge those elements of the horror genre in a way that did not ruin the text. This has led to mostly-professional pieces that are effective and manipulate the audience into an emotional response.