Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation question 4 from LeahSmith99

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

Synopsis: Our film, Haunted, is a psychological thriller, which we gave a rating of 15. As our film is a psychological thriller, the aims of our film were to create fear, suspense and tension for our audience, as a psychological thriller concentrates on being able to really tap into people’s mental and emotional issues. We decided that our film would most likely be a rated 15, as there could be imitable behaviour in our film, considering it involves a young looking person committing a robbery and murdering a person, which could be easily copied. There is also threat and violence in our film, as Chloe gets murdered.
Our film is based around a young girl, in sixth form, who believes that she is being haunted by her cousin, Amy, who she believes died in an attack with a burglar. The film follows her ‘grief’ and confusion, however at the end, there is a twist that reveals she was actually the one who died and struggled to remember this, and was stuck in limbo. Our film was inspired by the film, The Others, which surrounds around a young family, who live in a mansion post WW2 in England. The young girl says that there are ghosts in their house, a man, a woman, a young boy, and a grandmother. However, at the end of the film, it is revealed that they are the ghosts, and the other family moved in when they had died.

Our main project was modelled around Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia and the Uses and Gratifications theory. Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia suggests that there are five things that a film is able to provide a viewer. These five things are energy of the film, transparency, which character are good and bad, and intensity, the character’s emotions. There are also community and abundance, however we modelled our film on the first three things a film is able to provide to the viewer, as we thought that these things are easy to get across in a thriller, as a thriller is likely to have energy, characters that are good and bad, and intensity, as psychological thrillers rely on emotions. We also looked at Uses and Gratifications, and focused two uses, which are socialisation and entertainment. As our storyline featured grief, we thought that this could potentially create socialisation, as well as the unexpected twist at the end, meaning that the audience can talk about what happened throughout the film. In terms of entertainment, the film is able to create this, as it matches the iconography of a psychological thriller, and therefore will be suspenseful.

When we created our film poster, we wanted to make sure that there was some synergy between the film and the poster. In order to be able to create this synergy, we found and matched elements from our film into our final film poster. Firstly, we tried to make the text from the film poster and the actual film have some synergy between them.

While the font from the film poster and the actual film are not the same, we decided to try and make them both a similar shade of red. We did this because it would allow the film be convey the horror iconography of our genre, showing that there could be death or violence within our film. As well as this, we also allowed our poster to be in synergy with the actual film. As we created our film poster during the final wraps of making our film, we decided to use a screen shot of an image from the film. Here it can be seen that the clip from the film has been used in the making of the film poster, however the image for the film poster is more zoomed in, so that the centre focus is around the main character and the location to which she is standing in.

Above is our final film poster. I believe that our poster reflects our overall aims and intentions of our film. Firstly, this is because the main image of the poster is in black and white, which could be able to convey the emotions of the main character, Chloe, as Chloe is a ghost stuck in a limbo world on Earth. We also wanted to get across that the main character is lonely, which can be conveyed through how small she looks on the poster. We also decided to use a screen shot from the film, where Chloe walks through an archway, as it has a cross statue in the background, and we found that this could be quite symbolic to what our film is trying to portray, as our film is centred around the theme of death and grief. Overall the film poster could be able to convey the mysterious psychological thriller theme of our film, as the poster is black and white, and features red coloured fonts.

Film posters can essentially be incredibly effective form of an advertisement, simply because film posters are more likely to be able to reach a lot of people, as they can be seen on social media, particularly if a production company has a Facebook page and releases teaser posters on there. Film posters can also be seen on billboards, at bus stops and on buses, meaning they are likely to be able to reach a wide demographic of people. In order to also make a poster an effective form of advertisement, it should also try to be eye-catching to actually draw people in to wondering what the film is about. When we were in the early stage of designing our group film poster, we decided to research into psychological thriller posters of real films to see what should be included in a film poster. I looked at a range of psychological thriller film posters, including The Others and Insidious, and found that on all of the film posters tended to have the main character is the centre part of the film poster, along with a background that could provide more information as to what the film could be about, along with typical information seen on a film poster, such as billing block and actor names. We also found that the title of the film should be bold on the poster, in order to catch the eye of potential audiences.

One film poster that I researched was Insidious, as it had some similar themes to our film, in that Insidious is based around the supernatural and violence. Here, you can see that the film poster for Insidious also has some similar elements to our own film poster.

1. The title of the film is in a bold font, to allow it to be eye-catching. The title of our film is in a thick red font, as this will stand out to the audience. On the Insidious poster, the font is also on the middle of the poster, and includes the title in the middle.

2. An important feature of a film poster is the background of the film. In the Insidious poster, there is a strange looking house seen in the background, which could be able to give a hint on what the film is about. In our own film poster, the background is that of the entrance to a graveyard, which could be able to convey that the film may have some mention of death in it.

3. In the centre of a film poster, a main character may be featured to show that they have a certain level of significance within the film. In the Insidious film poster, a young boy is in the centre, and looks like something supernatural may be happening. On our film poster, our main character is in the centre of the film poster, along with the background, as to convey the character’s loneliness.

4. A possible selling part of a film poster is having the names of the main actors within the film. This is because star power can help sell a film, as people may see a film because of certain actors. On the Insidious poster, the actor names are just above the billing block, and on our own film poster, they are just below the title.

5. At the bottom of the film poster, there is also a billing block that could include a variety of different information, including production staff and the actors.

6. At the bottom of the film poster next to be billing block is also social media information and the production company. This allows the audience to be able to find the film’s social media and follow it for updates. As this is common on real film posters, we also included our own social media information for the film.

As well as our film poster, we also created a radio trailer. Radio trailers can be an effective form of advertisement, simply because, while they are called ‘radio trailers’, they can be heard on other platforms as well. Radio trailers can be heard on the radio, and can target people at certain times, for example, during the morning when people are commuting to work. ‘Radio’ trailers can also be broadcasted on online music services, such as Spotify, particularly if they are trying to target music soundtrack fans for a film. Before we created our radio trailer, we also had to research what may be included in the trailer. We found that there are a few certain elements that are included in radio trailers to be effective. Most radio trailers include:

• Quotes from the film to get the audience’s attention
• A voiceover to provide information about the film
• Music and the use of sound effects

While researching into radio trailers, I looked at the radio trailer for Gravity, as it does have some thriller aspects to it. The radio trailer for Gravity included all these elements, to be suspenseful about what was happening, as the film was set in space. The trailer included dialogue from film, such as “We have to go, we have to go go go”, which can be used to create an intense atmosphere. The voice over also tries to sell the film, by calling it an ‘cinematic masterpiece’, and advertising it in IMAX and 3D. There is also a sound effect that could also hint that there was an explosion. Finally, there is voice over information about when the film will come out.

When we created our own radio trailer, we wanted to make sure that the trailer reflected our aims and intentions of our film. We also wanted to make sure that there was synergy between the trailer and the film, like with our film poster. Firstly, we used a voice over to give information about our film, and try to effectively sell the film, as the radio trailer starts with the voice over saying “This autumn, comes the exhilarating thriller you've all been waiting for”. After that, we have a quote from the film, which is Chloe saying “Dear diary, I think I might be going crazy”. There is then the voice-over, which says that “Critics have named it thriller of the year”. After this, there is a quote from the film again with Chloe saying “Every time I close my eyes, I see it.”, before it cuts back to the voice over again with “A thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seats”. After this, there is an intense scream, which the audience may not have expected. The voice over then says the two main actor’s names, and then there is a quote from the film again, with Amy saying “I miss you”. Finally, there is information given about the production company, the title of the film, release date and how to view it. “A 15-rated thriller, Outsider Productions presents, Haunted, available on YouTube, October, Friday the 13th.” Throughout the radio trailer, there is also non-diegetic music over the top of the quotes and voice over, which was also used in the final graveyard scene. We added this to be able to create suspense, so the audience would wonder what the film was about, and who was being haunted. As our radio trailer followed all the elements a real radio trailer should include, then our radio trailer reflects our intentions for the film.

Here is an example, using the online app, PhotoFunia, to see what our film poster may look like on a real billboard. The first picture is our film poster on a train station bill board, and the other picture is our film poster on a city billboard, along with real film posters to see the comparisons. Our film poster looks very real next to actual real film posters.

Finally, I think that our ancillary texts were effective overall. This is because the use of the film poster and the use of the radio trailer means that these can reach a wide demographic of audiences, as most people are likely to be able to see a film poster in a bus stop, or on a billboard in a town or city, meaning that it can reach many different people. We also asked people in our friend groups if they thought that the ancillary texts were similar to those of real media texts, and the majority of people said that the poster looked like a real film poster and the radio trailer was what they expected. The use of the radio trailer means it can target people who may listen to the radio in the morning or on their way to work. The two ancillary texts work well together for this reason. Both ancillary texts were successful in getting across the aims and intentions of the film, which was to promote our film, and create a thrilling atmosphere and reach our target audience, which was mainly young people. After we made the film poster and the radio trailer, we asked a few different people on whether they thought that the ancillary texts were effective, and most people did, simply because they got across the thrilling atmosphere that the film intended.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film "Haunted", both respectively conforms and also challenges the typical codes and conventions of other films similar to ours. The film we have created is a psychological thriller/ horror hybrid which invites intrigue and tension for the audience. The film follows a young teenager named Chloe, who is at a troubled time of her life, with the passing of her sister not too long ago. The audience goes on the unforgiving journey with Chloe as she struggles to face her new reality.

For instance, we have included continuity editing in our film. This is a common feature in modern cinema today, which is done so that the audience can easily follow and understand the plot of the film. Continuity editing includes the editing processes of Shot- Reverse Shot, Match On Action and the 180 degree line rule. Each of these editing techniques combined allows for an understandable plot. We have used these techniques in our film also, in order for the story to be able to flow clearly. An example with the use of Shot- Reverse Shot is the 'Canteen' scene. This scene involves two characters talking about what they are going to do at the weekend. To show which character is talking at a particular time, the camera changes focus from one character to another switching between two different medium shots. This scene also implements the 180 degree rule, to maintain the characters positions. 

Match On Action is used throughout our film in many scenes in order to connect them logically. Such as, when the main character Chloe is walking into college, the shots used match to the actions the character is performing.

Our film is influenced by many films of the thriller and horror genre, which have helped to shape our film into what it is now for our final product. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax, which usually includes a plot twist, an unexpected ending and or leave the story being open ended. During the main feature red herrings are included to confuse or drive the audience towards a different idea of the conclusion, allowing for a plot twist have much greater effect. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Some sub genres of thriller include; psychological thriller, horror thriller, crime thriller, supernatural thriller etc. There are some typical features of the thriller genre like; jump cuts, fast/slow paced editing, transitions and many other forms of editing are used to create a successful thriller or horror film. For instance, the film 'The Sixth Sense' was a major influence for the narrative aspect of our film. We have translated the narrative beats of 'The Sixth Sense' and created a homage of the twist reveal from the film.

Our film can be regarded as conforming to the ideas of Richard Dyer's Utopian theory of audience pleasure. This theory suggests that the audience actively participate in choosing what film they watch, in order to experience a certain emotion from it. These emotional experiences are characterised into five different Utopian Solutions. These Solutions are; energy, abundance, intensity, transparency and community. The Utopian Solution that we applied to our film is the solution of Intensity. This particular aspect of Dyer's theory has been applied to our film, as we aimed to have the audience experience strong emotions throughout the film and experience a wide variety of emotions.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation question 2 from Owen Chapman

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3
Throughout both the pre and post production of filming for 'Haunted', we made conscious decisions about our audience and how they would react to our film. Before we started filming however, we conducted thorough research into our target audience of young teenagers aged 15-35 years old. From our research we found that our target audience are highly interested in film genres like thrillers and suspenseful films. In the UK we found that 53% of the UK population are typically interested into thrillers. 58.8% of these are over the age of 35, this means that we have almost an even split of our target audience being young and middle aged. This how we confirmed that this would be our target audience with the majority being interested in the type of film we were creating, a very tense and suspenseful, psychological thriller.

The first questionnaire we created was in a video format. which was uploaded to YouTube. This initial questionnaire helped us in shaping the rest of our film, thanks to the positive responses we received. For example, before we started filming we were able to change our films story slightly in order to make it more accessible for our target demographic. 
During the pre- production of our film, we had a consistent theme throughout the development of our film. This theme was the theme of isolation. We conveyed this in our film, by having the character in the majority of the film be shot in deep space and away from any other character. In the scenes where the protagonist can be seen with other people on screen, in the context of the film its shown how she is ignored by everyone and therefore reinforcing the theme of isolation.
In early drafts of the story for our film, we gave the synopsis to a sample of our target audience in a video questionnaire. This questionnaire was very insightful in seeing what our audience thought of our idea, what they did/ didn't understand about our film and any ideas or suggestions in order to improve upon our idea. For example, in our first rough cut of the film, we received feedback on the music we used for the film in key scenes. When reflecting on this, we decided to change the music we used and add more appropriate sound effects in order to improve our film and appeal to the audience.

In the feedback from our final film questionnaire, we saw that the changes we made to our film benefited greatly in the audiences enjoyment of the film. With the more appropriate music and sound effects being used, it allowed for the audience to better focus on the characters and story of the film, rather than be distracted by the obvious flaw. In this questionnaire, we additionally found out what percentage of our audience understood the film when they watched it. 83.3% of our audience did understand our film, whilst 16.7% did not understand the plot/ story of the film. One reason for this could be that the film we created is very open for interpretation and rather than give much exposition, instead opts for more inference from the spectator. Another reason for some of our audience not understanding our film, could be due to the very diverse audience we have, that come from different cultures and aspects of life. This point could be an aspect on why some people may not understand our film, due to it being difficult for an audience of a certain cultural situation to interpret the film.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 1

 

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts? 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

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

Research Stage:

In the research stage we mainly used the internet to create an understanding of short, independent thrillers within our group. I generally used Google to research into genre, short films, radio trailers, credits, posters and everything else we needed to know to help us in the production process. In particular, I looked at Prezis and SlideShares that previous people had made on the same subject which was very helpful as all the information I needed was in one place, whereas when I did go on other websites, such as Wikipedia, I could be looking through a lot of unnecessary information before I actually get to the part that I need to know. However, since other people had made these Prezis and Slideshares, some of the information may have not been 100% accurate and so I had double check that the information did seem accurate. Google, however, was extremely useful as it provided a large range of information and there was information on every area that I had to research and so when it came to the production process, there were very few unanswered questions we had on what we needed to do, and when there were, we were able to get the answers quickly. For example, when we changed our film slightly and added voice-overs (diary entries) into our film, we had to research how this should be done and found that it should be quite loud so that the audience feels as though its being spoke directly to them. This was really quick and easy for us to research and so Google was very beneficial for us. Therefore Google was very beneficial in our research stage, allowing us to create the story line idea that we now have.

Some disadvantages I found of using Google was that sometimes it went really slow which can be quite frustrating when you want to find out a fact really quickly. Another disadvantage was that some websites on Google are made by anyone and so it is hard to know how reliable the information actually is.

I also used Google to get onto the BBFC website which allowed me to research into age ratings of films and what is appropriate for each age rating. This allowed us to come up with an appropriate age rating for our film.

I also uploaded some of my research and documents onto Google Docs which gave us easy access as it was all in one place. Therefore it was easy for us to find important documents quickly. We used this as blogger wasn't always easy to upload certain formats, for example when we had too many pictures, sometimes blogger could be difficult to lay it out. Also, when pictures are added to blogger, it can make the text go central and sometimes it doesn't let you change it back. For example, I uploaded my title sequence analysis onto Google Docs (with there being a lot of pictures) and the shot list as we are unable to copy and paste, or create tables, tables onto Blogger. However, one disadvantage of Google Docs was that I was unable to embed videos in it, so for my title sequence analysis I wasn't able to have the video with the text and so had to put it on a blog post, with the link for the analysis.

We also used a Canon LEGRIA HF G25 camera during research to do some tests shots and see how we can use these techniques in our film, and what techniques would be best to use in our film. Another reason we did this was to practice our filming and editing techniques for basic continuity. For editing we used a programme called "Adobe Premier Pro CC" which allowed us to research into editing techniques and give us hands on practise before we started editing our actual film. The camera was extremely good for us to do this as it was small and light, and therefore easy for us to carry it around the college (up and down stairs) to film. It was also a simple camera which wasn't too difficult for us to use, therefore it was the perfect camera for us, inexperienced filmmakers, to use for practise. Premier Pro was also good for us as although it does appear quite complex, it was in fact easy for us to use due to its simplicity and layers for putting shots and audio together for practising our continuity skills.

After we had completed a full continuity edit, we decided to practise our elliptical editing skills, again using Premier Pro. This allowed us to practise editing techniques, that we were sure to use when filming our actual film, and become even more familiar with the programme we would use to edit our film. Therefore, a valuable part of our research.

We uploaded these videos onto YouTube as it gave us easy viewing access which in turn allowed us to look back at these videos to see what we did and what we needed to improve on.

We uploaded all of our research onto Blogger which was very useful as it meant that all of our research was in one place and so it was easy to access. Also, it meant that all of our group was able to access all the information and each others research. However, as I previously mentioned, there were format issues on Blogger which sometimes made it quite difficult and frustrating to use.

I often used Prezi to put my research onto which I then embedded it onto blogger. Prezi was extremely useful as it was a change of format and made our blog look more interesting went embedded onto it. It was also easy to use and read from. However, one problem of Prezi is that it is an American website and therefore spell check wanted to change my spelling to American English which was quite frustrating as I kept thinking I had misspelled words, such as "emphasise".

In the research stage, we created various questionnaires, using various digital technology, to find out if our story line made sense and was good enough to create an effective thriller film. Firstly, we creates a written questionnaire on Microsoft Word which was really simple to use. However, putting some symbols on was sometimes a little bit difficult and the layout often did not go how we wanted. We also used the Canon LEGRIA HF G25 camera to create a video questionnaire which we edited on Adobe Premier Pro CC. Again, both the camera and Premier Pro were easy to use, allowing us to put together our video questionnaire quickly and easily. We also used Google Forms to create an online pre-production questionnaire. This was particularly useful as we were able to create an unlimited amount of questions with different forms of answers (check boxes, multiple choice, short paragraph and long paragraph) allowing use to get a wide range of feedback between qualitative and quantitative data. We were also able to see individual response as well as an overall view of all the responses which were put into different types of graphs for us. This meant that we did not have to create the graphs ourselves. However for the written and video questionnaires, we had to use Microsoft Excel to create each graph. This was easy to use, however it did take quite a while to do and so Google Forms was a lot more beneficial for us. Also, due to it being online we were able to share it on our social media accounts easily. However one problem of Google Forms for our questionnaires that sometimes the graphs created were not suitable for the question, such as when we asked what occupation. There were often just one bar with one response for student as it was spelt wrong or had a part time job with it.

We made various social media accounts to keep our audience updated on the research stage of our film. This also allowed us to get feedback from the very start as we were able to share questionnaires, and story line ideas onto this. However, one disadvantage of this was that we did not have a large following and so did not reach many people at this stage.

Planning Stage:

During this stage we used Microsoft Word to create our shot list. We found this extremely useful for this purpose as we were able to keep going back to it and updating it when we created changes on our film. However, when we deleted shots it meant we had to go back and change every single number of ever shot, whereas if we had used Microsoft Excel we may have not had this problem.

We also used Celtx to create our script. This meant that our script look professional, in a simple layout and easy to understand and read. Therefore our actors and actresses wouldn't have any problems reading it. There were no problems for us when using Celtx.

We also used our phones to take photos of the locations and characters. For example, I used an iPhone 6s to take some of the location photos. This was good as we basically had a portable camera that was easy to carry around and so it was easy for us to take the photos. However, one problem of this was that when I uploaded some of them onto the computer, they went blurry and so some of the photos on our blog were not to the best of quality and so we had to retake the photos.

At this stage, we again used Blogger a lot which meant that all of our planning was in one place, again allowing all members in our group to have easy access to everything. However, there was still the problem that it was hard to put photos onto it and have a tidy and appealing looking format.

Construction Stage:

One of the main digital technologies we used for this stage was the camera Canon LEGRIA HF G25. This was extremely beneficial for us as it was easy to travel with it to the filming locations, especially the grave yard, as it was small and very light. Another positive of this was that it has LED screen which allowed us to play back our filming. This was especially important for when filming our film as if a shot went wrong it would mean reshooting it which could sometimes be frustrating. This camera also had a large memory and so we were able to film a large amount of shots without worrying about running out of memory. However, the LED screen was quite small and so it was hard to get the full effect of the shot and to have a good view of it to see if it went well. This meant that when we did get to editing, some shots such as the graveyard (walking under the arc) shot still needed reshooting and so we had to re-film again. Also, the battery life of the camera was limited and so when we went to film a large amount, sometimes the camera would die on us. For example, when we filmed some scenes at Chloe's house and the graveyard on the same day. This meant that we had to carry around a back-up battery to ensure filming could be continued and would not be disrupted.

Another one of the main digital technologies we used during construction was Adobe Premier Pro CC. We used this to edit our film together and most of the time it was extremely beneficial to us. This is because a lot of the editing on there was quite simple and although it seemed quite complex at first, it was quick to learn the most used features. However, some shots were slightly more difficult to edit together due to the complicity of the programme in some areas. For example, when editing a mask on Amy (walking past the toilets). This was quite difficult as this is not a common technique to do and so it took a while to figure out what effects we should put on it and how to actually do it. With this said, we were able to edit our film in a professional way with us being able to change colours in some shots (e.g. on Amy in the graveyard scene), add effects on some shots (such as the echo effect on Chloe in graveyard scene) and have multiple layers of sound which allowed us to have a voice over for out diary entry. However, there were some complicity with sound as there were different things we could change and it was hard to know which did what but overall, Premier Pro was extremely useful.

We also used a Zoom H1 Recorder to record our voice overs for our diary entries and the radio trailer. This was really good as it allowed us to record a voice with no muffled sounds.

Just like for our Pre-Production Questionnaire, we used Google Forms for our Mid-Production Questionnaire and Post-Production Questionnaire. Which again was very useful as we were able to share it on social media and reach a much larger audience to give us feedback. It also created graphs for us however as I previously mentioned, the graphs were not always suitable for the question.
 

At this stage, we also used YouTube to upload our rough cuts and radio trailers to. This was good as we were able to get more feedback from a much larger audience as well as allowing easy access to view our film and see what we needed to improve on. However, one disadvantage of YouTube was when we were uploading our film and radio trailer, it often took a while to upload which could be a little annoying to wait.

We did in fact receive a comment on our YouTube page.

We also used Photoshop to create our poster. This was really good as there was a wide range of tools to use. For example, we were able to change the colour of the original photo we used. However, Photoshop was extremely complicated to use as there were such a wide variety of tools and we were unsure what a lot of them did.

We also used social media at this stage to share teasers and keep our audience engaged in our film. This was beneficial to use as we were also able to share our questionnaires onto it, as well as sharing teasers and poster ideas to keep our audience engaged. However a disadvantage of it was that for social media to be really effective, you need a big following and so for us, an independent short film, the effectiveness was limited.

Amazon was also beneficial to us during this stage as we ordered a ski mask of our burglar to wear. This was really easy to do this purchase, however it did meant that we had to wait almost a week for it to arrive which put us behind on filming a little bit.

Evaluation Stage:

During this stage, one of the main digital technologies I used was Prezi. As I have previously mentioned, this is very useful in creating appealing Prezis to put onto my blog. However, one problem with it was that it often did not provide enough slides on the Prezi templates and so I had to add them myself which was often quite annoying. Also, as previously mentioned, the spelling was American English and so it tried correcting my work to their spelling rather than to English spelling.

I also used Blogger during my evaluation stage. During this stage, Blogger was overall quite frustrating as a post, such as this one, for the evaluation was quite large which meant I had to keep coming back to the draft. While in drafts, Blogger can often glitch and so some pictures would not insert, it kept deleting some of my text, and when pictures did upload, they went in a funny format. However, Blogger was good for the purpose that my work was in one place so I didn't have to save it on a memory stick or email it to myself so I could do it on a different computer.

I also used Microsoft Word to type up some of my evaluations. One of the reasons for this being that Blogger kept on having glitches and so it was easier to use Microsoft Word. Word was very useful as it is a simple format, allowing me to type while also providing spell check for when I miss spell. Word also allows you to insert pictures so overall it was very useful. However, one disadvantage of word is that sometimes when you insert pictures, they can suddenly disappear or cause or text and pictures to go funny and therefore it can sometimes be frustrating and time consuming, and the layout of it can look messy.