The document discusses the use of various digital technologies in the production of a student film project. Photoshop was used to design the film poster, allowing the use of layers to efficiently layout text and images. GarageBand provided a large library of sound effects and music that were used to create atmosphere and a radio trailer. Final Cut Pro was used for video editing, allowing control over clip transitions and saturation to enhance the horror genre elements.

1. How did you use digital technology
in your production work?

2. Photoshop
When creating my poster I used Photoshop as I think it’s a very reliable software when creating
an image from scratch. I was familiar with the program from my Media Studies coursework last
year and I had to use it in other subjects too, such as I.T. This helped me significantly when I was
creating my poster as I knew from past experience where the vast majority of tools that I
required were. The background picture is the abandoned hotel that we filmed some of
production in, and I changed the photo to black and White.
For the text on the front cover saying ‘Orphanage’ I had it in red originally, however I didn’t think
that it matched up with the rest of the poster, or my film in general because of how bright it was.
I added a lot of effects to the ‘Orphanage’ title so that it was still a blood red and not to bright,
but still stands out. I did this by adding a Satin, stroke and inner glow to create a dark and eerie
effect.
One of the main points as to why I’d say Photoshop is so effective is because of how important
and significant the use of layers can be. I had 20-25 layers on my poster, and I don’t think any
other software would be able to handle that sufficiently. I was able to maintain a high quality of
poster without having to spend a vast amount of time trying to sort out my posters layout.

3. Garage Band
Garage band was instrumental in the production of my work, for example in the creation of
my radio trailer and for a great deal of the sound effects that we used on final cut pro.
Garage band is a really effective program because it has a huge array of different sound
effects, such as; Piano, Guitar, Flute, Dance sequences and Voice over effects.
One of the negatives, however, about having so much choice is the fact that it can be very
difficult to decide what fits a section most appropriately. When creating my radio trailer, I
found my desired effects quite easily. I used a designer synth to create the background
music all the way through and thought that it was very convincing to the horror genre. I did
the main voice over myself, and got a couple of people to do extra sound effects. I recorded
them on my phone and transferred the clips onto the computer.
In my opinion one of the best things about Garage band is how the layers work. The use of
layers means that you can have a vast array of different sound effects playing on top of each
other. For example on my radio trailer I put all of the sound effects and screams on top of
one another to create an eerie atmosphere.

4. Final Cut Pro
When editing my film I used final cut pro for the vast majority of it. The
software took me quite a while to get used too as I had never really used it
before. Once I got used to the program, however, the editing became much
more enjoyable as I further understood how to add and render my clips. In
my opinion one of the best features of Final Cut Pro is that it allows you to
control the transition of clips meaning that you can control how much you
want a clip to fade in and out.
I really like the feature on Final Cut Pro that allows the user to saturate or de
saturate their clips. This allowed us to really enhance the eerie effect we were
looking for in the horror genre when editing our clips, and also heightening
the tense atmosphere portrayed throughout the film.