As my final post for media studies I decided to end my blog by talking about how the study of media is deeply connected to the use of technology.
Without technological tools, both the creation and distribution of media products would be very limited. This post aims to reflect on the technological convergence that our team used throughout the development of our film opening, “The shape of regret” covering the research part, production and post-production. Some of these tools were completely new to me while others from my team have been familiar with them for several years.
For this post I decided to create a mindmap of the technology we used for this project. This helped organise our workflow and visualise how each tool contributed to the final film opening.
From my previous posts, many of the technologies I will mention will already be familiar. However, reflecting on them as a whole is so important in understanding how essential they were in shaping our film.
One of the most frequently used platforms throughout this project was canva. Before this year, I had kind of limited experience with it but once I started this project I began using it frequently. I used canva for creating mindmaps, presentations, moodboards or any kind of visual planning elements. It was also essential for designing elements within the film itself such as the credits and title. Overall canva was a key tool in both the creative and technical aspects of this film opening and my journey.
For editing we used CapCut Pro Desktop, and for the raw montage and preliminary exercise we used da vinci resolve. At the beginning my experience with Da Vinci Resolve was very limited, with this being my first ever encounter with it. I heavily underestimated how complex and important editing was in this process so I didn’t pay as much attention to our choice of program. However, when I was in the position to edit, and I saw the overly complicated and layered process, I decided to switch to an app I was more familiar with which was CapCut. After this switch I realised how nice and important editing was and how important this step was in guiding our audience through different scenes and timelines. Although there is still much more to learn, I now feel so much more confident using any editing software.
Another set of tools that played a major role were google docs, google forms and sheets. We used google docs extensively for planning, writing ideas, rough drafts for each blog post and organising our tasks throughout the entire process of creating “The shape of regret”. It became our main space for collaboration, allowing us to constantly update and share information to due its ‘add collaborators” setting. Google forms were particularly useful to collect any target audience research and result and to be able to easily analyse them in a visual format. Goggle sheets were used for the technical planning such as creating shot lists. While it may seem as less creative it was ultimately still essential in keeping our project structured and organised.
For scripting, as our teacher instructed, we used StudioBinder. Which allowed us to format our script in a professional and easy to understand format. This made our work more organised and easier to follow during filming hours. In addition to StudioBinder we used youtube in order to learn how to create a professional script and to understand certain tools offered by this site.
For storyboarding, instead of using canva we relied on procreate. This allowed us to produce a much more detailed and visually clear storyboard. It helped us plan our shots more visually precisely and gave us a more reinforced idea of how each scene will look like before filming. This was extremely helpful during production, as it made the filming process more structured and time efficient.
In conclusion, technology played a crucial role in every stage of our film opening, from planning and research to editing and distribution. I believe that we use every piece of technology mentioned above effectively to support our ideas and improve the overall quality of our work. In today’s world, where media is constantly evolving, developing these technological skills is essential and this project has helped me and my team prepare for any future creative work.