• Digital Technology
* How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The main editing software which i used was Adobe Premier Elements 10, which was the platform which i spent the most time editing on. However I also used Windows Movie Maker Live in order to start as initially I had more experience with it in the past so felt more comfortable editing. Although editing using Windows movie maker Live was much easier at the cost of not having enough variation, meaning transitions would be basic and it would be much harder to edit the music.

For filming we used a camera, a light so that we could focus on the antagonist when the panning shot was used along with the match on action. We also rented out a scout hut so that we could use the lights there since it was fairly dark and the lights illuminated the area slightly giving it a darker tone. We also used a ladder to get a high angle shot of the protagonist leaning against the tree, as we were not tall enough to get the shot. Another piece of equipment we used was a tripod which we attached a camera to in order to keep the filming more smooth much like a glide cam.

The pros of using Adobe Premier Elements 10 was that we could apply several layers of music and apply sound effects without the music having to stop which would be the case with windows movie maker or other free software. During the editing process although at first it is hard to understand how things worked since it was so advanced once we got into the swing of things we could include sound effects which work with the music to increase the intensity along with being able to cut a section from the film and mute it. The great thing about the software adobe being so advanced is that you can get better results from the editing rather than having to stick to simple and boring transitions. The pro with the equipment we used such as the tripod was that we were able to hold the camera  a bit steadier and because of this we wouldn't have to film with a shaking hand and if we were to use the audio from the camera we would sometimes hear the breathing from the camera man so if we got a good shot that we wanted to use the audio for, such as if it had dialogue in it we would have to mute it and just apply music then do another shot with dialogue which might not be the same quality. The good thing about using a torch is it makes the antagonist seem more threatening towards to protagonist and also towards to audience, since the audience tend to see things from the protagonist's point of view which would increase immersion of the film. Also it makes it easier to see the antagonists' face instead of having to do even more editing and possibly ruin the film by having to apply a filter to make it lighter, when horror films should be dark.

 The main ways the technology was used to create the production was through editing and blogger. Adobe played the biggest role technology wise as we had to complete all of the editing using this, and had no other platform to work on. The other software which we used was Blogger, Where we were able to talk about how we edited, show the audience the behind the scenes shots as well as talk about our film and our story before we had actually released it so that they could get an idea of what it is. Another benefit of blogger is we were able to plan out what we were going to do for our film and if we forgot about it we could also go back to the blogger and check again to make sure we are on the right track. Blogger also helped our group keep in check and keep up to date with tasks to complete, for example if we had an empty blog we would have to fill that in so that we could complete the task on adobe, in this example planning out the Title.

 Technology enabled the production to be developed through the means of keeping it mixed up and at the same time Adobe Premier Elements 10 allowed a broader horizon of editing to be completed, whereas other technologies would not have sufficed due to the simplicity. Sometimes advanced can be better in production, especially if it is A2 coursework. Blogger enabled us to plan out the editing much better than if we were to write it down in word and have to document everything in different folders which would be far too complex and would only make things much harder and more difficult to process meaning more time is spent in planning than actual editing, so blogger was easier to use in order to plan out things so that we could edit straight away with little to no worry about confusing things.

 I have developed these skills through the two years as at first Adobe Premier elements was uncharted territory for many students when first approached, however once the basics are mastered, such as clipping, entering text, and being able to find your way around the whole software becomes much easier with practice, for example at first I couldn't even find out how to get transition up, but once you are shown and get into the habit and also finding the right button, since there were so many options and edits to chose from it was hard to make the choice of which one fits well, so after being able to find out which transition or sound effect fitted best in the scene was probably the hardest thing. However after time, I am now able to edit much more effectively and feel more at home with the software, and realized after a while its not so much about guessing which transition goes with whatever scene but it is more about what your intuition tells you, such as a common fade to black which relates to a change of time of scene.