4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

TRAILER - Please click play on the youtube video to see my tagged trailer.

POSTER - Please click on image to take you to Flickr website. 

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER - Please click on the image to take you to the Flickr Website

Below can be seen a shot of the software and hardware that I used in the research and planning, construction and evaluation stages :

Final Cut Pro:

• This was a new software to everyone at the beginning of the year as we downloaded the new software from Final Cut Express. It took some time getting used to, but by the end of the construction I could appreciate how much quicker and more sufficient the new software is. 
• Everything in the editing and evaluation stages went through Final Cut Pro at some point; whether it was the editing of my main trailer, the editing of my storyboard graphic, the creation of idents and graphics and finally the place where I could edit interviews and vox pops made for my evaluation stage.
• The first stumbling block I had to overcome on Final Cut Pro was to accustom myself to the new tool bar so I could edit and put effects onto my original shots. This included being able to match the colours and lighting in one shot to another which meant that in my trailer I did not have any scenes that stood out without me wanting them to. This enabled me to establish a mood to my film with the low-budget British grittiness coming through with dark scenes and low-lighting.
• In the evaluation stages, I used Final Cut Pro to make a Director's Commentary and overlay that over images of my Magazine Front Cover, Poster and shots from my trailer itself. Final Cut was able to record my voice-over directly into the project which meant there were no issues in trying to align the images and speech. 
• My development in Final Cut Pro has been drastic, from having no experience of the software at all, to being able to manipulate images, shots, videos, graphics and more, to how I want them, has enabled me to complete my products on time and without too much hassle.

Blogger:

• My skills on Blogger first developed in AS level whereby I had to create a blog to show off the research and planning and the evaluation of a 2 minute opening to a film. For the blog to look relevant, I changed the background of my blog to suit the theme of the main product. For instance at A2, I have made a trailer for a British Drama and therefore my background is an iconic image of the London phone box which everyone can relate to and associate with that location.
• A difficulty that I had to overcome on Blogger has been the ability to fit images and texts to size so that they do not look bigger or smaller than any other texts on my blog - so there is consistency and it looks smart.
• Embedding powerpoints off slideshare, downloading fonts of DAFONT to have in my texts, embedding videos off youtube,uploading footage from Imovie and giving hyperlinks to websites such as flickr are just a number of things which my development of Blogger has enabled me to do at A2.