CALLUM HENN

I used ‘Wordpress’ to document my learning journey and the processes I went through in creating my ancillaries and my trailer. In my Wordpress page I used a variety of posts, pages and links to organise where each part of specific work would go, you can see this from the images below. I predominantily used Wordpress in the all stages but the majority of posts were from the Research & Planning stages. One of the reasons why I chose to use Wordpress was because my teacher suggested it because this year we were unable to use iWeb. Overall I am pleased with how my Wordpress account worked because I found it really easy to manage and it was easy to get feedback straight onto my posts because people were able to just find my site and comment on it as they please, I would be able to approve the comments before they were published on to my sit to make sure that there were no spam comments being published on my site. Another good thing about the site is that I could access my data and posts from anywhere that has an internet connection whether I be at home, school on the train or using a PC, Mobile device or Tablet. I also found Wordpress useful because it supported lots of different media inputs, meaning I was able to add in pictures, embed videos and use different themes to personalise my website.

I only used iMovie in the construction and evaluation stages. The reason for the use of the software in the construction was because I needed to use this Apple piece of movie editing software to create my trailer. I also used iMovie to edit my video for the evaluation question 3. iMovie contained many different features which enabled me to stabilise the motion of the video, optimize the video quality and add in different transition effects. To construct my trailer I imported my videos directly from my iPhone from here I used iMovie to edit the clips, add in audio, text boxes etc… This is one of the most important bits of software I used through out the whole project. I think that the good things about iMovie are that it has many different features and different capabilities and the bad things about iMovie are that it freezes often and occasionally crashes, it is also quite complex if you’re a beginner at it. Without iMovie I wouldn’t have been able to complete the construction tasks, let alone my trailer. Here are some screenshots when I was using iMovie to make my trailer.

I found that Photoshop is a really brilliant piece of media technology and is an industry standard piece of software. I used Photoshop only in the construction of my 2 ancillary pieces, these were my film poster and my magazine cover. I found that photosop allowed me to push the limits as to what I could with a standard digital image. I found that it let me edit my images well enough so that I could connote the horror genre using these edited images. I was able to upload my images straight from my iPhone which helped me save time instead of emailing them across. Photoshop is a very complex piece of software and has a lot of variations depending on what sort of settings and filters you use because some different effects may not work as well on specific images, making it incredibly hard to use at times. One of the things you can see from the 2 images below is the change of how my original image looked and the final edited image looked. The main pieces that have been edited are the eyes and the skin. I also used Photoshop when constructing the magazine cover, I barely touched the magazine image because all I did is insert a rejected photo from our film poster shoot turned it grey and made it transparent and stuck underneath the boys feet.

BEFOREAFTER

Adobe InDesign was one of the most important pieces of software I used in the construction of my ancillary texts. It allowed me to insert the images that I have edited using Photoshop and add in the generic conventions of a horror film poster ad magazine cover by adding in masthead/title, slogan, tagline, barcode, credit block, colour schemes, sell lines, pull quotes etc.. The programs is a very reliable piece of software, yet frustrating because I could only access it from one specific iMac. I think that the software was crucial in the development of my work because with out it I wouldn’t of completed my ancillary texts. One of the things that I liked about InDesign was that it was difficult but it doesn’t take very long to learn to use it. As you can see from the Images below these what my ancillary texts look like before and after I had edited them using InDesign.

BEFOREAFTER

I used YouTube in all stages (Research and Planning, Construction, Evaluation) YouTube is a video sharing website which has a mass variety of personally uploaded videos which can be used for different reasons, i.e. for educational purposes. I used YouTube in the research and planning stage to watch horror trailer because I needed to analyse them to be able to identify the conventions so that I can replicate this in my own trailer. I also used trailer to upload a video in my ‘recent posts’ to show a clip from the primal stage of horror films. I also used YouTube in the construction stages to watch tutorials on how to make the most of iMovie, Photoshop and InDesign. I also used YouTube to upload my final trailer so that it can be watched by friends, family and people all around the world. I also shared the link on to social networks to gather some audience feedback on there opinions on the trailer. YouTube was also used in the evaluation to host my question 3 video which was based all on the audience feedback that I received.

I used my Microsoft work as my main word processing software. I could have done it on Wordpress, however Wordpress does not have a spelling and grammar check so what I done was type everything I did in my evaluation, construction and Research&Planning and then copy and paste it into my Wordpress page. One of the best things about ‘Word’ is that it’s very simple to use and very easy to get the hang of. I think it was one of the most important pieces of software that I had used in my evaluation because without it, not all of my spelling and grammar would have been correct. Other than that it didn’t really do much else for other than checking my spelling and grammar.

Prezi was an online based piece of software that I used to fill out evaluation question 2. It is very much like Powerpoint but it is slightly more interactive and has more add on features like video embedding etc… Prezi was only used for the evaluation stage, however I think that it has helped me for several reasons. It shows that I have used a good amount of different IT programs to present my work and it is something I have never done before so it will help me in the future if I were to use it again. The problem I had with Prezi was that it doesn’t work on all platforms so editing on-the-go can be difficult. However I am pleased with the way my work has been presented through Prezi.

My iPhone was what I used to record all the video clips for the trailer as well as take photos for the photo shoot. I used my iPhone is the Research&Planning and Construction stages. I used it first of all by editing my Wordpress site via the Wordpress app on my phone. I used it in the construction to take all the videos and photos we needed, after that I went through all the photos and clips that were junk and emailed over all of the decent images and videos. I liked working with iPhone for this project because it was simple and easy to use because I already know how to use one. The cons of working with my iPhone in the construction stages were that the video quality wasn’t brilliant, therefore next time I would use a full HD video camera.

Google was the simplest tool I media tool I used. It helped me in all aspects of my coursework. I used it get images for reference and comparison i.e. Downloading a horror film poster to annotate or to compare with my own. Google is just a search engine so it allowed me to access sites like Wordpress and YouTube etc… But other than that I could only using it as a learning resource but without I think I would be lost with out it. Like YouTube I used Google in the construction of my ancillaries and my trailer to help find out how to make the most of what the software I was using to develop my media texts. Google was used in the evaluation to help me search up different audience feedback techniques. Other than that, there is nothing more to say about Google and how it helped me in my coursework.

I think that all of the technologies I used in the 3 main stages were key in me completing my work. I think that because of technological convergence it has also assisted me, i.e. being able to use my phone as a camcorder and a camera. I think that the 3 most important pieces of software I used were iMovie, Photoshop and InDesign because with out these I would have not been able to make my trailer and ancillary texts. I think that the most important piece of hardware I used was my iPhone because without this I wouldn’t have been able to take the footage or pictures to then be constructed by the previously mentioned 3 bits of most important software. However I think that the media technology I used most was Wordpress because I used this through out my Research&Planning, Construction and Evaluation.