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

  RESEARCH AND PLANNING

  The internet is an invaluable resource when it comes to researching a project. The main sites I made use of when researching for my trailer were Metacritic, IMDB,  and tvTropes.

Metacritic

  Metacritic is a review site for movies, television programs, games, and all sorts of media. It averages critic and public reviews for a product and gives a score based on this. It is incredibly useful for determining the popularity of a film and of entire genres at a point in time, and thus was invaluable for deciding what kind of film to create in order to appeal to a large audience and to ''cash in'' on current trends. Here I learned about the rise in popularity of subtle, suspense based horror thrillers like Insidious and Sinister, and more recently Dark Skies.

IMDB

  The Internet Movie Database is a site giving detailed information about films, from release dates and casting, to random trivia and public message boards. This website I found useful for researching techniques used in movies, as well as following individual director's trademarks and style. The message boards are very useful for collaborating with other film fans and for discussing horror theory and current subgenre trends.

tvTropes

tvTropes is a website that documents genre conventions, or ''tropes'', used in TV and Film. This site is a personal favourite, as it meticulously lists and explains genre conventions in a theory-solid and humorous way, listing films that make use of them, directors that favour them, and then providing a list of similar conventions and lists of films that deliberately defy those conventions. Here I did research on subjects like ''Breaking the Fourth Wall'', ''Found Footage Films'', and other relevant horror tropes.
  These tropes went on to be used in my trailer, for example at the very end of the trailer when one of the characters accompanied by the Slender Man stare directly at the viewer.

CONSTRUCTION

  The trailer and ancillary productions (interviews and suchlike) were produced using Final Cut Express, an ergonomic and professional piece of editing software. It allows easy rearranging of clips and sound, as well as many filter and transition effects, such as the ''Chroma Key'', which allowed the insertion of images into the background when using a greenscreen, and distortion effects, which were used extensively in making the classic interference effects that are associated with the Slender Man.





  The sound editing portion of Final Cut allowed me to cut down on irritating and distracting background noise in the forest scenes, using the 3 Band Equalizer to reduce the high pitch sound (leaves crackling) while keeping low pitch sound the same (footsteps and suchlike). The software also allows setting keynotes at precise times to lower or raise the volume, and this provides a very easy way to control which layer of sound is dominant at what time.

  LiveType is another program used in the production of the trailer; it allows easy manipulation and animation of text and the addition of motion backgrounds. LiveType was used to create my ''Forbidden Pictures'' production company; first the text was given a flame animation and blurred slightly, and then set against the chains moving background. The result was then placed during the trailer. LiveType was also used to create the title shot in the trailer, this time also adding movement to the type itself, causing it to shudder and jump around.