Media EvaluationQuestion 4

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

Technologies

0From the beginning of the year we used a range of technologies, throughout the stages of Research, Planning, Production and Evaluation.

0We did this as we were more confident with using technologies due to our progression from last year meaning we were more confident.

0This allowed us more freedom when we chose our production genre and style.

Apple Macs

0We used Apple Macs throughout our three stages as this was our main PC that we used universally. This was useful as Macs have a lot of Memory and RAM meaning it cut down processing speeds when using large software such as editing or photo manipulation software. These were very easy to use for us as it wasn’t our first time using them. We had experience from last year.

Research and Planning0The technologies we used during

research were:0Word press – We used this as a blog

for our audience to see our posts. We used this during research to post trailer analysis as well as character analysis, storyboards, scripts etc. This was also useful in obtaining feedback from our audience from our surveys. This was therefore very beneficial. We did not struggle with this website as we had plenty of experience from last year.

0Slideshare- We used Slideshare in our Research to post our Audience Feedback onto our blog. This was useful as this meant our audience could see the results as we had arranged them on a powerpoint presentation. This was more useful to upload on slideshare as we could embed it onto our blog rather than having to send the powerpoint file for people to see. This was again very easy for us to use as we had experience of using this website before.

0 Scribd- We used Scribd to upload scripts and shotlists on to our blog. This was useful as it meant we could embed it onto a post on our blog rather than having to upload a Word Document which our audience would have to download. Therefore, it was much more convenient. We had some minor struggles using this product at first, but as it was very similar to Slideshare we were easily able to navigate the website.

0Digital Cameras – We used HD camcorders during research every time we attained audience feedback for one of our drafts. This was important as we needed to know what improvements our target audience wanted. With the use of digital cameras, it was much easier to capture as it was portable and easy to transfer the clips off the device. We had no struggles with this technology as we had experience from last year.

0 iMovie – This was used after we had captured the audience feedback or research videos, to edit all the clips into one whole video. This was useful as we could easily link all the clips together to piece a video. This was not a struggle as we had experience of this last year when we were editing for our AS production.

0Google – We used Google as our primary search engine whenever we were searching for sites or images as it was very convenient. This meant we could easily search for movie websites or images. This was useful as we were able to find websites as we didn’t know the URL. This helped us during our research particularly for ancillary research of websites.

0Youtube – We used Youtube during our research to find videos of all the similar products of our genre such as trailers to analyse. This was useful as we were easily able to search and analyse the conventions of a trailer. As it is also a web2.0 website it was also useful when we were uploading research videos such as audience feedback to share in our blog. We had no difficulties what so ever with this website as we knew how to use it very well.

0Social Networking sites – We used Facebook and Twitter to communicate within our audience as well as ask them for feedback on any polls we had posted or what they thought of our products. This was very important as these sites were something our target audience used on a daily basis so it was more convenient for them also. We found these websites very easy to use as we had known how to navigate these pages through personal use.

0 We used Social Networking Sites to establish our communication with our audience as we held polls for soundtrack research through facebook. This meant our audience could vote through our page and we could gather up the information of what they liked.

0 We also used Social networking sites to link trailer similar to our genre so our audience would know what type of movie we were looking to make.

Production0 We used a range of technologies during our production

stage. These were:0 Adobe After Effects – We used this as our main editing

software as iMovie was too basic for the editing we had in mind such as the special effects. We also used After effects to record sound for voiceovers. We had not used this product beforehand so we did have difficulties navigating and finding everything at first. But we soon got used to the software and used the technology to its full potential.

0At the start our production we were totally aware if we were going to achieve an authentic action/sci-fi movie with special effects we were going to have to use expert video editing software to do it. We used After Effects it as it was easily accessible as it was already installed on the school mac’s and our editor had purchased it sometime ago.

0We first of all found it hard as it was really complex compared to easier software like Imovie, but with a lot of tutorials for example on videcopilot.net , we were able to learn base fundamentals to progress and be able to comfortably use After Effects. The london missile scene near the end of the trailer was a specific example of a tutorial used, by learning how to make it we were able to manipulate it into our trailer with our theme.

0Cameras – We used cameras to record footage for our movie trailer as well as take pictures for our anciallary task. This was very useful as recorded in HD. It was also portable and compact meaning we didn’t have to carry huge pieces of equipment when we went to shoot in different locations. Also it was very easy to transfer the video clips from the camera onto the Macs. This was a very easy piece of technology for us to use as we already had experience on it beforehand.

0Microphones – We used microphones during production for voiceovers which were used in the movie trailer. This allowed us to record our sound in clear quality. It was also small and didn’t take up a lot of space. We did not have any difficulties using a microphone as we had already used it before so we knew what to do.

0 VideoCoPilot – This was a website we found from google when were researching. This website had tutorials for special effects on Adobe After effects which allowed us to find the effect we were looking for and learn it easily and create it. This was very useful as it had a handful of effects we wanted for our movies such as the interior of a space shuttle etc. We had not used this site last year so it took us some time to navigate but as it was very similar to Youtube we quickly got the hang of things.

0Photoshop – We used this software for our ancillary task of poster. This was a image manipulation software which allowed us to edit our images. We used this software over others on the market such as Paint because this was more advanced and had the technology we were looking for. We already had experience of this software through personal use so overall we found it easy to use. However, we did run into some hiccups but we were able to solve them very quickly.

0 Wix – We used Wix for our ancillary task of a website. We had researched into this website through Google and saw a lot of potential so we decided to use it. This was beneficial as we knew this was very helpful for making a website. We struggled with the website at first as we didn’t know how to navigate or design the pages. It had a steep learning curve as a lot of features were hidden under menus but after tinkering with the software we were soon able to design the website we wanted with links to everything from our social networking sites as well as our embedded video and poster.

0Dafont – We researched Dafont from the use of google as we were looking for fonts to put into our movie, poster and website. Dafont was very useful as a lot of fonts were downloadable from the website. It also had a search bar and categories so it was easier for us to navigate. We used Dafont to download our font “NeuroPol” from the website and used it for all three of our products. We had no struggles whatsoever with this website as we already knew how to use it through personal use.

0 YouTube – We used YouTube for our production as a way to distribute our video. It also allowed quick trimming of the video once uploaded onto the site. We used it as it is the most popular site for video sharing so it was also more convenient for our audience who used the site on a very frequent basis. We uploaded our main movie trailer through this website. We already had plenty of experience of this website through our personal use as well as from the Research stage. Therefore, we did not have any troubles using this website.

Evaluation

0These were the technologies we used during our evaluation:

0Cameras – We used Cameras during our evaluation as we recorded ourselves for some questions. This meant it was easy for us to record as the camera was portable and record in good quality. This was again a very easy task as we could easily use this technology through our experience from production as well as research and planning.

0Microphones – We used microphones to record our voices for our evaluation. We used this for one of our questions as we recorded a podcast. The microphones we used were useful as it captured our voice in clear quality as well as being able to transfer the clips to the computer. We had no problems by this stage of using this technology as we had already used it numerous times.

0Sony Vegas – We used Vegas as our main editing software in our evaluation. We did this as it was basic and we didn’t need anything fancy for our evaluation. It was quick and easy to use for our editor. We needed this software to edit the sound clips and the video clips into one. Also as it was something which we all had a lot of experience using through personal use, we knew we would suffer no setbacks at all.

0Youtube – We used YouTube, just like the production, to distribute some questions of our evaluation. We did this as YouTube has an embed feature meaning we could embed our video onto other sites. This was very useful as it meant we could have all our evaluation answers in one place. We had again no difficulty using this product as it was very easy to use and we had plenty of experience.

0Social Networking sites – We used sites such as Facebook and Twitter to get screenshots of evidence for questions in our evaluation. This was very useful as all our audience feedback was recorded on these pages. We also mainly recorded feedback for our website as it was more convenient for our audience. These sites were easy to use and navigate as we had used it a lot before.

0Prezi – We used prezi in our evaluation as we wanted to branch out with the technology we used in our evaluation. Prezi allowed us to present our work in a more interactive way. It allowed us to add voiceover as well as have smooth transitions through one main hub. We hadn’t used prezi before so we did have some difficulties using the website. We found it difficult to move around the frames but again we soon figured it out and believe we have used it to its full potential.

0Wordpress – We used Wordpress in our evaluation for screenshots as we needed it for reference in our questions mentioning the target audience. As our Wordpress was organised well, it was very easy for us to take samples of what we needed. As we had used the website for over a year, we also had no difficulties at all.

0SlideShare – We are using Slideshare right now in question 4 as you can see. We used slideshare as it was easy to upload our PowerPoint onto the website as well as being able to embed it onto our website. It was also much more convenient than having to open up a powerpoint presentation. We had already used this website before so we found it very easy to use.

0Wix – We used wix in our evaluation to create a website mainly for our answers to each question. We used this software as we already knew what we could do from the production of our ancillary website. We could embed Youtube Videos onto our pages as well as organise it very well. We had no difficulties using this due to experience.