How did you use new media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages?

By Matt Everatt

During my A2 coursework I have used a mixture of old and new technologies throughout my coursework. Below is a list of the technologies I have used.

Research• Internet• Laptop• PC• PowerPointPlanning• SlideShare• Still Camera (Photo function for storyboard)• Wordpress (Blog)Construction• iMac• iMovie • Still camera (Video function)• Photoshop (CS4)• Video Camera• WordEvaluation• PowerPoint• Excel• Viddler• YouTube• SlideShare• Wordpress (Blog)

For my research I used a PC and the Internet as well as my Laptop and my Mobile Broadband (dongle) so I could access and utilize the information i found from the internet. I then used PowerPoint to present my research.

I already had quite a lot of knowledge and experience with all the equipment and technologies used so i didn’t necessarily learn anything new from using these different technologies and from presenting my Research for my production.

For my planning i used a Still Camera to take multiple photos which I composed along with PowerPoint to make my storyboard. I then used SlideShare to first upload my storyboard and then transferred a link to embed it onto a post through Wordpress and onto my blog, this was rather clear to do however i found it a little tricky on how to use SlideShare but thanks to help I was able to gain knowledge rather quickly and use it with ease.

I didn’t find any problems with using a still camera because I had used one before for my AS coursework and I had also used Wordpress to present my research and planning on my blog for my AS coursework as well.

For my construction of my A2 coursework I used an iMac which had the programme iMovie already installed on it.

I used iMovie for my AS coursework last year so I had already had some experience using the programme. Although I did find some difficulty using parts of the iMovie programme but after playing around with the programme i eventually learned these odd occurrences and was able to use it with no difficulty at all.

Also for my construction I used two different camera’s because I always used zoom on the Video Camera so i switched too a Still Camera (Video function) which was a lot more effective because it restricted my use of zoom and I was able to achieve a lot more shots for my main production.

For my ancillary tasks which consisted of a movie poster and a magazine cover, for my movie poster I used Adobe Photoshop (CS4) this was my first time using Photoshop so I had very little knowledge of how to use it but after having a play around and doing a lot of tweaking I was able to use Photoshop a lot more smoothly. For my magazine cover I used Microsoft Word I found I could use this a lot more easier because I had a sound knowledge of how to use it and what to do.

I uploaded my finished production to Viddler and then to YouTube I had quite a bit of knowledge on how to use YouTube but not as much as I had hoped because i didn't know how to achieve this as I had never uploaded a video before but thanks to the instructions from YouTube I was able to upload my production fairly easily. I had used Viddler for the first time so my experience wasn’t that great although i found this easy to use by following the various steps however it was a little tedious waiting for my trailer to upload.

To present my final evaluation and bits of research I used PowerPoint and Excel these two programmes were easy to use as I had a lot of knowledge on how to use these, I then used SlideShare and Wordpress to upload these onto my blog.

The technology I found the most easiest to use was PowerPoint and SlideShare however it was difficult to learn how to use Photoshop I also found that this was effective a rather easy to use.

The technology I found the most difficult was Photoshop and Viddler but after playing around with both programmes I was able to use both of these easily and make a really effective Movie Poster for my production.

I hope to continue using this array of different technologies and hardware in the near future.