WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Before I started my media coursework I had not used ‘Blogger’ before. Blogger helped me to organise my work in a precise way, it also made my work look creative and professional. Whilst using blogger throughout my coursework I quickly learnt how to make and publish posts. Also as I became more confident with blogger I was able to edit the layout and design of the page making it better suited to the genre and then later better suited to the production itself with the use of the picture of the mask. I also figured out how to make different pages on my blog. This meant that I was able to organise my page better and also made it easier to navigate through for people looking at my page. I also figure out how to add myself and Alice’s production company logo to the sidebar of the page and then below that a link to Alice’s blog. This is also useful for people visiting the blog.

LOGGER

POWERPOINT AND SLIDESHAREThroughout the duration of my coursework during planning and research I used PowerPoint as a way to present some of my work. I did this because PowerPoint has some designs that can make information look more appealing and less boring to look through. PowerPoint is also simple to use as I had use it before however throughout my coursework I was able to experiment with different designs to make it fit the design of my blogger with dark colours and accents of red. However I couldn’t directly upload my PowerPoints to my blog so instead I had to upload my work first onto slide share. Slide share was a new programme for me to use but I quickly learnt how to use it and found it was a quick and easy way to get my work onto my blog by embedding the link from slide share.

A software I used many times throughout my coursework was Prezi. Prezi enabled me to make my work more interactive and therefore more enjoyable for anyone looking at my work. I hadn’t used Prezi before so I was at first quite confused. However as I used it more I learnt quickly how to do certain things. The software is straightforward in terms of putting information however when it comes to editing it becomes increasingly confusing at times. I was able to completely change the looks of the Prezi and then the pathways and transitions that were used as I became more confident. I was even able to create my own template when writing about the subgenre’s of the horror genre. However a problem with Prezi's could be that they sometimes lack detail when there is too much focus on the design, however I hope I overcame this as I went back and added more detail to some of my Prezi’s when I found I had spare time.

IMOVIEMyself and Alice used IMovie to edit our production. We decided to use IMovie because we both had past experience with the editing software and felt we would be able to use it more confidently. On IMovie we were able to firstly make a rough edit of our production and trim clips down and also mute all the volume. We were then able to in more detail go through the production and then make more exact changes to our production. We then added sound from freesound.org such as exact sounds we wanted like a door opening. After this we were then able to create the non-diegetic sound to create an eerie soundtrack that would add to the atmosphere of the scene and make it more frightening for the audience. Whilst using IMovie we were able to edit our production fully including final trimmings, slowing some clips and the saturation and brightness except the title sequence which we decided we would do on Final Cut Pro. One of our shots does seem still a bit too bright which is something we could improve if we went back to it.

FINAL CUT PROWhen we had finished editing on IMovie we both decided that we did not like the fonts available to make titles for our production. As well as if this we didn’t like the transitions that were available with the titles as we simply wanted them to appear as they looked more professional than if they dissolved in or flew in from outside of the frame. Because of this we decided that we would import our IMovie project into Final Cut Pro to complete the titles. When we did this we were also able to convert these clips that we were adding the titles to, to black and white to make it look more professional and effective and striking. For our title we decided on two simple fonts in grey and white that made them look like they blended into the colours of the background but at the same time they stood out without them looking too obvious. When we moved our production to Final Cut we were also able to add our production logo with a transition that we were unable to do on IMovie.