Evaluation A2 MEDIA STUDIES CLARA BARROSO
EVALUATION
Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
O
nce I got introduced to the brief for the A2 media studies coursework, I came to the conclusion to create a short film. I made this decision, to create a short film because I wanted to create a final product that would have a meaning and a story that would mean a lot to myself. The production tasks that I had to make were: a short film, film poster and double page magazine article review. So as I was creating a short film, I had to familiarize myself with the conventions of a short film and watch a variety of different ones. Along the way I started to think and plan my short film and the overall message that I would want to my target audience to understand. I also started think about the overall image and design for my three production tasks. The final look for my double page spread magazine article is set in a simple layout with variety of different images. On the page from the short film including the article with simple information for the audience to understand about my short film. From all my research, I’ve learnt that there isn’t any professional convention to a double page spread magazine article when it comes to review a short film. So when a magazine is reviewing a short film, it’s always different to other magazine brands, especially if they’re both reviewing the same short film and using differ-
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 1
ent brand images from the production their reviewing. I discovered all this information when I was doing my research throughout the course, on looking at different magazine articles and seeing their magazine images and how they would lay them out. After doing all the magazine analysis, I came up with my double page spread magazine article layout. While creating my three media products I used the same brand identity “Believe”. I chose to keep my brand title as “Believe” as it connotes with my short film and film poster. It is also a simple brand title for my target audience to remember and keep in mind as it is a one word title. My magazine review succeed a majority of the media conventions. For example, my double page spread article includes three different pull quotes. This way it will grab the reader’s attention to the more interesting parts of the article. The layout also includes four columns per page with screen grabs from a variety of different scenes coming from the short film. Having these type of screen grabs will sell it to the audience and show the cinematography look that my short film has from all the use of different camera shots and will clarify what type of short film it really is. I wrote the article about the creation of the short film and how the concept of making of this short film, came to life and was able to portray through a script and series of images onto the screen.
I have also added different ratings and comments on the double page spread, as it will give a different look from other magazines and it will get the audience to engage more after knowing if it’s worth watching it. Lastly I added a section about the institutional information from the “Believe” short film, right underneath the brand title using the appropriate font that would link back to my short film and film poster. As well as I added 3 different awards below the institutional information about the short film. Which is unusual to see in a double page spread magazine article, however it would promote the production within the article and it would advertise even more and expand my target audience. The concept of having a film poster is to sell the film as much as possible. The layout of the film should include as the important information about the film. In film poster conventions, a film poster is usually packed with lots of information about the film, to tell as much to the target audience. However, when I got to create
QUESTION 1
the main image as the main purpose of the film poster with small information about the production, so the brand title “Believe” would stand out as equally as the main image towards the target audience. Within the conventions, my film poster has included a main image that takes space through the whole page, with the film title at the top, below with slogan for the short film, including with stars and ratings, along with production information at the bottom of the page with age classification and what award the film has been given. My film poster would link to a conventional film poster by the limited colour schemes and use of font. For my additional writing I used “Times New Roman” font in and also in italic. So it would make it easier for
the audience to read the extra information included on the film poster that was written on top of the main image. I wanted the image to grab the audience attention and to represent some part of my production work in one whole image. I also didn’t not want to use huge amount of colours as the main image already had a good range of tones that would make the image seem sharp and clean to stand out to the audience and to make it easier to link back on the whole concept of my film production. In terms of text colour schemes. I only used two colours and they were white and a light blue. I used the white colour on the majority of the text, to make the writing stand out from the image and to also make it clear. And I simply just used the light blue
on the production information at the bottom of the page and reason why I made this decision is so the text can still stand out but not as much as using a white tone and at the same time it also blends in with colour tone of the water in the main image. The photograph that I’ve used was of a young boy standing in the middle looking up as the sun sets down. The audience would of known that the image was taken at a start of a sunset because of all the different colour tones the sky had and also the fact that I was able to capture the sun in the image for my film poster. I have decided to use this photograph as my main image because of all the nature involved around the young boy and how the look of the photograph links to my film production concept, so QUESTION 1 -EVALUATION
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EVALUATION- QUESTION1 it all links together. Rather than using BBFC classification age post, I decided to use a little box with with information and the age classification so it’s clear to the audience you can view my film. My short film can relate to other short films within the media conventions. However, I shot my short film with a cinema verite aspects but in some cases while shooting there were shots where people were aware of the camera and facing the camera. As my short film would link to camera verite and people being aware of the camera, my short film would still link to the conventions of a short film. Therefore, my short film genre would have a visal of documentary style but being linked to two different genres, which would be drama and family. Drama genre is highly used in films, however family is not commonly used. The reason why I used family genre within my short film is because of the different age groups that I got as part of my short film and how it brings everyone together within the production. Alos the reason why I identified my film as drama is because of the strong message that I am trying to come across towards the audience, same with the use of background music which would give more of dramatic scene and documentary style with camera verite as there is voice over with a script. The narrative set for my short film is linear narrative as it doesn’t meet Todorov narrative theory where the narrative isn’t set as a equilibrium or disturbance. My short film has a continuous equilibrium as the narrative keeps on going till the end of the short film, without having any disturbance happening in between the film production. My short film could also be related to the omniscient narrative, so my target audience can feel as important as the people on the film. Also whist the audience are watching the film, they would also either relate
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 1
to characters or feel as they are part of the film, as they can relate towards the fact that I mentioned a lot about treating people the same way and spreading love rather than hate as there is enough already in this world.
“MY SHORT FILM HAS A
MESSAGE DEDICATED
TO HUMANITY.” My short film mentions a lot a variety of different topics which are: humanity, young kids that are our next generation, colour/ race, family, religion, equality, sadness and loss and most importantly love. I have decided to mention these top-
ics with the film script as long as it flows with visual series of moments that would relate to these certain topics that are spoken and mentioned a lot these days. Having these topics mentioned, would refer as my script being written in modern text as well as these topics showing some awareness of what we have to go through these days and if it would either be positive or negative impact for the young kids that are representing the next generation. Overall my short film is supposed to portray a positive impact and to show how strong and loving humans are as the background music is uplifting with the soft and positive instrumental sounds till the where the last words spoken is “Believe”. As it would also relate to my brand title for my coursework and my three production pieces of work.
Question 2
EVALUATION- QUESTION 2
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR
MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
M
y media studies coursework required me to do a main product, which is the short film. I had to come with my own short film idea along with two other ancillary texts, a double page spread magazine review and film poster. However, for the film poster, I created a portrait and landscape version of the film poster. My main product and my ancillary texts all fit well together as they all link together to the media convention. This is because I had to make sure each product would follow the same theme, text and colour scheme to make it easier that the main product and the ancillary texts flow together perfectly and it won’t confuse the target audience. For all my products to look professional and successful, I had to make sure I knew what kind of images and shots I was going for and also what kind of photography I wanted to capture to represent my short film through the film poster and magazine article review. A way that I planned all my ideas of how I wanted my three production tasks to look like was by sketching all my ideas and scanning them digitally. So once I travelled to Portugal to start shooting, I would know what kind of shots I was looking for. It made my planning so much easier and also during shooting as it was a risk that I id for shooting all my short film in Portugal for a limited time. But through all my planning
it helped me to get the shooting done also photography and at the same time creating a theme for my film based on nature and humans with a simple clear colour scheme. When I began to create my film poster, I knew that I wanted to keep my film poster clean and sharp and also having the information on the film poster clear and easy to be identified. While I was in Portugal, I already had an idea of how I wanted my main image to look like for my final film poster. I had all my ideas on film poster blog posts where I had sketched and pictured exactly how I wanted my main image to look like. While I was in Portugal I recorded 110GB worth of footage, which I was very proud shooting, as I showed that I had variety of different locations and different people. And for my film poster I was very lucky to capture a couple of photographs of my cousin, standing right in the middle of the location, where I was able to capture him looking up at the while while it was sunsetting. This was a one luck chance, as it was exactly how I pictured my main photograph for my film poster. Despite the fact that I was also able to capture this shot at the beach with a lot of shadowing on the image, as the sun was setting down, which made the photograph more sharp and focus more on the location around rather than the actual young boy right in the middle
of the photograph. So, having my main image sort for my film poster, I knew I did not want to add a lot of information that would take the purpose out of the film poster and make it seem big amounts of block text around the film poster. Instead, I decided to keep the film poster very simple and only include the text that is the most important to promote my short film to my target audience. Having the production information and ratings, already tell enough to promote my short film to the right target audience that I was trying to reach out to while designing my film poster. Besides of the film poster promoting, it’s also supposed to be representing the short film. So the use of fonts, would of been better if they were the same as the short film, so it shows connection between both products. For the title brand “Believe” I used “Quickier Demo” and for the slogan and rations I used “Times New Roman” in normal typing for the rating and also in italic for the slogan, as it would break the boundaries between the both and making it seem as if they are QUESTION 2 -EVALUATION
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EVALUATION different fonts. For me to get the “Quickier Demo” font, I used the same website that I got the font for my magazine from, “www.dafont. com”. The options were endless, which I was happy about, which meant I had different options to pick. The reason why I picked this specific font is because it has a visual calming look to it and it reminds me a lot to calligraphy writing, which makes the brand title of my short film seem personal to all the characters, which should gain the audience attention to relate to the audience throughout the short film. I have done this because I wanted to have a limited number of different fonts for my film posted and productions as whole because I didn’t want the target audience to get distracted with many different fonts than rather focusing on the information about the short film. Overall, I think my film poster gained the right attention from the audience and it flows and links perfectly to my product and my other ancillary text. For my second ancillary task I took the same approach when it
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 2
came to design my double page magazine article review. However, for this ancillary task I had more freedom to design but a lot more to add about my short film, especially to promote it in comparison to the film poster. I decided to talk about my making of my short film within the magazine article along with some some questions and answers (q&a). I’ve purposely decided to write my article with informal text and with this layout, so the audience can engage with my short film and at the same time the article layout would meet the conventions of a magazine article review. As I had a lot more of space to show of my short film. I added my own photography and also screen grabs from the short film, so the audience can have a feel of what my short film actually about. I also kept the brand title as the same as it’s seen on the film poster and short film, with the same font, so the audience will know each ancillary text is all promoting the short film. Below the brand title, I have decided to add institutional information about the short film with also awards that the short film has
won. Having the institutional information and awards together will make it clear to the audience how much of a good film it must be along as they would notice that this is family and drama film from all the different screen grabs displaying people from all types of age and background. I have also written comments and ratings which would help to promote my short film even more to the audience. I wrote about how good my short film and how it creates the audience understand the message that I was trying to send out to the audience. This way the target audience will take the short film seriously. Overall, I designed this whole double page magazine and I also created my own film magazine masthead for this double page. This way all the work inside the double page is original. The magazine title that I gave to my own magazine were “Visual Effects Magazine”. I have decided to call it visual effects, which can relate to a editing term to most producers while they edit their own films. So using this term as part of the magazine masthead will highly relate to films and editing.
QUESTION 2
“MY SHORT FILM HAS A MESSAGE ABOUT SPREADING LOVE AND PEACE TO EVERYONE.” All the blog posts and ancillary texts all linked together with all my production work, which is my “Believe” short film. The purpose of my short film was to send a message out to humanity, everyone equally about spreading love and not hate, taking care of the world as we take it for granted now a days and also treat everyone equally no matter the colour or race. Another purpose for my short film is to show the audience a better understanding that within the whole negativity we live in this world, there is positivity and caring that we should all share with everyone, that’s why I always mention love, as it’s a strong word that can be interpreted in many different ways by the audience. The audience after my short film will think about the way they come across towards other people and change their ways of communicating and treating other people
in a positive way. Many people look at what is going around them in a very different way compared to mine, especially if they come from a different country and have different backgrounds. As I have portuguese roots, all the footage that I filmed was in Portugal, where I grew up. So all my footage is very honest and it shows a lot of diversity that a person would see in Portugal, which shows how accepting people are. This is the reason why my short film has a strong cinematic look and a very family look and also very personal to me as a producer. I still use the same calligraphy font for the brand title for my short film “Believe”, especially at the start and ending of the short film. This way the audience would identify that the production work and the two ancillary texts link together as a whole production pack. The screen grabs from my double page spread article page come from
my short film, so it all links together and it promotes one another as media productions. For my short film thumbnail, I kept it clean and clear for the audience to identify that it is a short film. I took a screen grab from the intro of my short film and then wrote the band title in the “Quickier Demo” font (which is the same font that I used to promote my short film in all of my production tasks). And then at the bottom I wrote ‘short film’ so it makes it clearer and more obvious to the target audience. Leading to a conclusion, all my footage was well combined and it turned out as a success short film with a strong double page review and film poster which gives the short film a professional look and makes all my production work have a high quality look with a simple message- spread love and happiness to everyone and believe. QUESTION 2 -EVALUATION
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EVALUATION
Question 3 What have you learned from your
audience feedback?
T
hroughout my whole project, I kept on asking for feedback from my target audience. I asked for feedback for my whole three production tasks. In my opinion, I feel like if I didn’t ask for feedback from someone from my target audience, my final products now wouldn’t be as strong and effective as they are. I only asked one person for feedback during the making and drafting of my three production tasks. She is a female and she is 19, therefore she is part of my target audience. I made this decision on asking only one person from my target audience, because she does A Level Media Studies Film and TV and has more knowledge in this type of media work than I do as she has more practice. So I trust her with all the feedback that I would receive and the fact that is also always in full detail and specific with what she thinks I would need to change in my three products. The target audience for my short film are from the age 17+ both male and female from every social grade from the demographics of A,B,C1,C2,D and E. This is because my final product is aimed at anyone equally from any background. However, my target audience for my short film can be younger than a 17+. As my film has been classified at a “PG”, younger audience can also view my short film. They won’t be able to understand the message
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 3
that the film is trying to tell the audience, but visually there isn’t any harm or violence that a younger audience wouldn’t be allowed to view. In fact my short film doesn’t have any age restriction. Looking into the psychographics, each group will interpret my short film differently, which there is nothing wrong with it. It’s good that different groups interpret my film differently. And there is also nothing wrong with having younger years below the age of 15 watching my short film, they won’t understand the deep message that me as a creator was trying to come across with. However, again, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s good by having younger audience interested on the product I did and having their own idea of it. To make sure I was happy with the outcome of my short film and it reached the expectations that I was hoping to reach for myself and for my target audience. I had to make sure I was asking for as much audience feedback as possible. I did record my feedback on my blog, but only from the 19 year old that also studied Media Studies. Outside of my blog, I asked a big chunk of different age group of people. I intended to ask feedback from face-toface, by messaging or social media once they watched my short film and my other two ancillary texts. I would also ask my teachers for
QUESTION 3
extra feedback and comments, all in person, so then they could give me in full detail in what specific area or task the teacher would of thought that I would of had to change. This would help me to carry on editing till I was satisfied with the outcome. By gaining feedback at different stages of my editing and drafting for my three productions, I was always asking feedback from different number of A2 Media Studies students, which were from the age of 17- 18. Which as a whole, only asking this age group, makes it seem very selective and bias rather than wide. Therefore, I would show my production work (my short film, film poster and double page spread of a magazine review) to my family and friends, that do not study media studies. Asking for feedback as full detail as possible, from different age groups. This was I would be able to see the perspective from different age groups and how they think my production looks, especially if it’s good enough to be used and finished as a final product.
By the time I wanted to gain more feedback, rather than the stereotypical feedback “it’s amazing and it looks professional”. I would start setting my own targets with the most feedback as possible and always going back and seeing what would make my it look better than my other drafts and stand out the most. Also the quality was very important especially with how my work would look like once it was exported and if it was professional looking and highest quality, so everything on each production company would be clear and sharp as possible. All of my comments from all my drafts for all my production work were very positive and I did notice as each time I would ask for feedback on each draft, the feedback would get less detailed with more positive comments rather than what I should change about that specific production work. From all my short film drafts, I would get a lot of editing feedback on some specific of the raw footage that I would use for the final draft and also about the light-
ing in some certain night shots that I applied into my short film.
“ALL FEEDBACK I WOULD RECEIVE WOULD ALWAYS BE IN FULL DETAIL.” In regards about my film poster. I only had one film poster draft. So the feedback that I would receive back would be straightforward and very clear on which section I should of improve or change the fonts using the online fonts website “DaFont. com” that I have been using since the start of the course to create my brand title and to show a clear link between the 3 production tasks. Finally, when it came to create my double page spread magazine article review, I also only had one draft to get feedback from. Again So the feedback that I would receive back would be straightforward and very clear on which section I should of improve especially on the layout of the page and extra information that I was missing and that should of be added onto the final production. QUESTION 3 -EVALUATION
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Question 4
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
I
have used wordpress to show all my coursework tasks for my A2 media studies coursework. The good thing about wordpress is that you have many different ways of presenting your work. Especially the fact that I wanted my blog posts to stand out from one another. That was the beauty of using wordpress and the freedom to present your work in many ways, showing your technical skills through ways of representing your work (with boundaries). Sometimes, showing my research or planning through simple block of text on a blog post, is usually the best way, as you can also show your work through different uses of new media technologies that would make my blog post more interesting to read and to reach to the target audience to read about my research and planning before they reach out to the three production tasks. Some of the new media technology and softwares that I used along this course was either taught by myself with the use of books and the internet or it would either be taught by the teacher. However, I was always very interested to learn more about the softwares that I was provided with and learning by myself different tools from that specific software, that I knew it would help me to use further on when it came to the time of starting to create the three production tasks. Within the use of using wordpress
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 4
as my blog platform, I was able to embed video that would inspire me or videos that I would upload myself onto YouTube to be as part of a particular blog post. Not just this, but I was also able to upload PDF’s into Issuu (company to upload digital content) and I was also able to upload any Word or PowerPoint documents onto SlideShare and then embed all these files onto a blog post as part of my coursework. I used all these different websites to upload the majority of my research and planning blog posts. And from all these websites, my most viewed posts would have to be on YouTube, especially as YouTube being known as the creators website, where people can upload their content onto a Youtube channel. However on the other hand, many people do also take the advantage of Youtube, not being aware of the content their posting and not thinking that it could harm or make a viewer sensitive. Most of my blog posts are done as a video, which then I would post onto YouTube. I have also gained my inspiration to create my short film, from viewing different short films on this same platform. So I felt the need of uploading my final short film onto YouTube, as it can potentially help anyone in the future that needs ideas for short film. I also uploaded my final short film onto Vimeo, where is similar to YouTube, however the
uploaded version of my short film seems more professional looking and is in a category of being under as a short film. But when it came to upload or embed videos into a blog post, I would mainy use YouTube, as it’s easier with the unlimited amount of video storage you can upload onto it. For most of my research and planning, I used a variety of different softwares, such as : slideshare, google docs, and Powerpoint. Or I would just simply use the plain text onto wordpress blog posts. Slideshare would allow me to upload any information that I would want to be presented from a PowerPoint. It was an easy software to represent my research or planning towards my production tasks. Showing all my work on PowerPoint would allow me to represent all my raw work and information in very different styles. I was very proud with all the work that I have published using different softwares and platforms, showing all my skills that I have with different softwares. While I was watching other final products and getting inspired by them, I noticed that the quality of other final products, were not as sharp and clear and also not the highest quality. Some of them, the quality would go up to 240p/ 360p. However, while I was shooting and the final outcome of my raw footage is 1080p. The good thing now is that you can create your own short film or shoot something in good quality, it’s affordable and easier than never.
QUESTION 4 While I was shooting, all the equipment that I was shooting with belonged to me. I took all my equipment with me whilst I was travelling to Portugal. I used a Canon EOS 700D DSLR body camera, with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens(if I wanted to capture close ups with great depth of field and good shallow focus between the shots. I also used a Canon 18-55mm f/3.4 lens (if I wanted to capture shots with a weaker depth of field and and more into long shot or extreme long shot). With all this equipment, I knew I was able to create a high quality short film. Therefore I also used my photography skills to always shoot on manual, as I am already used to control the camera by myself rather than the camera focusing by automatic settings. As
I was always shooting on manual, I always had to be aware if the subject matter for thar specific shot was focused, if I was using the right ISO (shutter speed) speed settings, right aperture and also the colour balance with the white tones and making sure if the shot was on the right exposure. With today’s technologies, we are able to record for hours and anything we wish whlisback in time it was all limited. This is another reason, why I took extra equipment with me to shoot. I took 5 extra batteries, so I could be shooting for long hours and also took 2 different SD cards to store all my raw footage. I took SD Extreme 32GB and SD Extreme 16GB, these would allow me to store all my raw footage in the highest quality as possible. With this extra equipment
and my hard drive, I was able to store everything more than once and not be worried about losing raw footage that I shot in Portugal. Another good thing about DSLR camera is the FPS (frames per second) which allowed me to give the cinematic look to the footage that I was filming while I was shooting on 24 frames per second. I decided to shoot on this setting as it’s the one setting that allows me to be working on higher resolution with a softness on the screen with a good standard of frames being shot per second. Shooting within this criteria, would help me while I would be editing my short film, especially if there would be any slow motion that I would want to add onto a specific shot that I shooted in raw.
QUESTION 4 -EVALUATION
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EVALUATION- QUESTION4 One of the reason why I wanted to shoot mainly my whole short film with my aperture lens (which are my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens) is because of the shallow focus look in the background, making it easier for the the target audience to identify the subject matter within the shot filmed or used. And also the experimentation that I gained throughout the whole shooting schedule especially on creating cinematic shot by looking soft or crisp especially if I either filming a person or a specific object that I wanted to be focused on by using a great depth of field on the screen. I also used filter accessories for my other pair of lenses, as it would give extra colour to the shot I filming. I would mainly use these while shooting a long shot, extreme long shot, mid shot or even if I was filming landscape. By using these filters it would help to colour correct the shot if needed while editing the short film. There would be shot that I would film as hand held shot, despite the fact that I would know the shot that I was filming would look shaky. But in some other shots, I also used my own steadicam, which allowed me to shoot more of a still shot with no shaky camera movement.
“USING DIFFERENT SOFTWARES
ALLOWED ME TO SHOW OFF
MY SKILLS THROUGHOUT
THIS MEDIA COURSE.” When it come to start working on my post-production side of my production work, I used a variety of different Adobe softwares: Lightroom: I only used this software to mainly edit my photography. I would add filters and adjust the
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EVALUATION- QUESTION 4
settings on the images to make it stand out and to make the raw photograph different from the final edited photograph. I have decided to do use this software to edit my photography for my film poster main image and also all the photography that is displayed on my double page spread magazine article review. Using this software helped me to understand the different stages of editing an image and all the different adjustments on the image. Whilst I was editing, I was keeping in mind that all photography that I was editing and that would be used on my final productions, I would not want it to be heavily edited or filled with too many colours that dont even appear on the raw photograph. In fact, I wanted to keep my images with a very natural and real look, as all my photography were based outdoors. Photoshop: I used this software for the majority of my production work. I used Photoshop to edit all my photography, to remove unnecessary bits that were visible on the photograph. I used all my skills on photoshop to create my drafts for my film poster and also retouching and redesigning my final film poster. As I wanted to do a landscape version of my film poster but i didn’t take and image as a landscape mode while I was in Portugal capturing the portrait version of my film poster image. I used Photoshop to present my skills and my knowledge I have for editing the same image but into landscape to create my my landscape film poster. Indesign: I have used this software, to design my double page
spread magazine article drafts along as developing my ideas and receiving feedback from my article drafts to go back and re-use this software to create the final magazine article. I have also used this software to simply place my final film poster and export it as a PDF, so it can be published onto Issuu and embedded onto my blog. I have also used this software to create each individual magazine evaluation question and the separate evaluation magazine pack with all the questions on it. Using this software was not hard, as I used Indesign on my AS media studies coursework to create my R&B music magazine. So I just used my skills from last year to develop and create new evaluation magazines using the same software. Premiere: Out of the whole Adobe pack softwares that I’ve used. This is the one software that I spent more time on. This software was the one that I was able to use to create videos, to show my research and planning and get used to use the software as it would be the programme that I would be using to create my short film. On this software, I was able to create all my drafts and export them, having the audience feedback and going back to the saved file to edit unit I was happy with my final production for my short film. Doing all my moving image work on this software, allowed once the video is exported to upload onto social platforms, which YouTube and Vimeo, where I wanted to present my short film along being embedded into my wordpress blog for my A2 coursework.