Evaluation question 4:How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

While creating my coursework I used a variety of software's, both internet browser and fixed

computer, to present my work and create my final pieces of work including: film trailer, film

poster and front cover magazine. In this essay I shall show how I used each one and what the strength and limitations where of each one.

Word

Before I started my coursework I was very familiar with word, I was familiar with its user interface and the way It presented the text in a clear and easy editable way. I chose word over other text writing software's due to its accessibility ( it was available In nearly all computers), its rare crash statics ( word very rarely crashes, even with high amounts of text) and its easy of use to edit mistakes and to easily move text around without something become corrupt or disappearing.

I used word mostly for my planning and research task, it gave me ease it getting my ideas and analysis down quickly without fiddling around with getting the correct text box or correct size of text which I might of struggled with in other software's like publisher.

Although word was not very creative it was easy to use and to add to without problem. I often used word to write up my ideas and to get my ideas down before then copy and pasting my work into a more creative software such as Prezi.

PowerPoint & SlideShareAs with word, I was very familiar with PowerPoint before I started my coursework and was therefore very confident with using it. I knew how to get the program to do what I wanted without looking it up on YouTube and therefore the pieces of work that I used PowerPoint for where quicker and easier to create, I feel that this means those documents will be higher quality as I could concentrate more on the quality of information rather than the creative side of the coursework, however, both of these aspects are very important in my coursework so my coursework may have been improved if I spent more time having a draft in PowerPoint and then insert the draft into a creative document such as Extranormal.

The biggest use for PowerPoint was my analysis of my other products. I could easily input a picture of the product ( or a link for the videos) and then easily annotate around them using the arrows that the software's allows you to use. However, this was a fairly un creative way to show my analysis.

I used a program called “Slide share” which enabled me to upload my presentation and then embed the link into my blog which means you can easily access my PowerPoints through the blog.

PreziPrezi was a software I learnt to use in my AS coursework and therefore was fairly familiar with it, however, over the course of my A2 portfolio I learnt new skills which could be used to present my work in a better way.

Prezi is a browser software which is similar to PowerPoint, however, allows the user to have a more creative and 3D effect to the presentation. The software allows you to move between boxes, circles and squares over a background of your choice. This can means the reader has a ease of use and a smooth transition between points when getting the information. Prezi also was easy to embed into my blog which would mean it could be accessed easily.

Although Prezi was a interesting software to use, it did have its problems. When using the software it would often crash and then not save. This was mean that I would often find my self re-doing work that I had previously done but lost in the software crashing. This was hugely frustrating and made me think twice when using the software.

The software was also often hard to use and hard to get to where I wanted to be. It was troublesome when trying to select a box or text and would not be able to differentiate between the two. The links to videos and pictures would also often become corrupt and therefore unable to be used, this would mean I would have to re-upload them to the Prezi.

Due to the large range of options and feature Prezi had it made it easy to make the documents creative, I spent a lot of time trying out a range of designs and ways to use the software to get my point across. Although there are some weaknesses to the software I would use it again in future as it is powerful when working correctly.

InDesignThe software InDesign was completely knew to me and therefore I had to spend some time on Google and YouTube to learn how to use it. After I had learnt to skills I found it enjoyable and reliable to use. I had no problem after understood the software and used it to its full advantage. I used it for my magazine front cover and for my film poster, both of which needed extreme detail in the design and colour.

The features of InDesign that where most useful to me was the line boxes which meant I could make a symmetrical and defined magazine where all the text and pictures where placed correctly and smoothly. I also thought the range of colours was incredible and enabled me to get the exact correct shade in my products.

Although InDesign was mostly great, it did have some weaknesses such as pictures sometimes becoming corrupt, however, this only happened twice and was easily fixable as I had saved the pictures in a easy place to re-input them into the document.

InDesign was easy to upload to my blog, I simply saved it as a JPEG and uploaded it onto the blog.

Premier ProPremier pro was also a new software for me and I again spent time on YouTube and Google learning how to use it. However, I had very little experience with using any video editing software so spent a good day learning how to use the software to it maximum potential, I wrote notes on my notepad about how to do key things so that if I forgot I could turn to it to quickly remind myself.

Premier pro was a challenging software and I had to engage heavily with the software to use it correctly and to not make any mistakes. I often found myself with a memory blank about how to do simple things, however, I soon got the hang of it and can now use it with confidence.

Premier pro allowed my to use a range of transitions and editing techniques to make my trailer look as professional as possible. For example I often used the ‘fade black’ transition to make my trailer look dark and mysterious, this also made it follow the conventions of professional horror film trailers and enabled me to create a final convincing and powerful product.

PhotoshopFrom my AS coursework I had learnt how to use Photoshop. I was confident with this software and it was hugely helpful when editing picture for my film poster and magazine front cover. I could easily cut and change the composition of imaging using this software which meant I could get the most out of a picture.

Photoshop was reliable and was great as saving the file to a range of formats which meant it was no trouble when uploading a picture to PowerPoint, Prezi or an adobe software which often have specific formats to be able to upload pictures.

Photoshop was useful also to change picture slightly, for example to turn a picture to black and white was a easy job and was often used for my products which needed to give off a horror film vibe.

YouTube & YouTube Converter

YouTube was great for inspiration and to gather clips for analysis, I could easily embed the link onto my documents or blog without problem. YouTube was also used as a sound resources, I found a perfect found track for my trailer and used YouTube converter

which pulled the sound out of the video and saved it in my documents as a MP3 file, this meant it was easy to upload in

audacity for small editing choices.

Audacity

I had had experience with audacity, I knew how to use it to its full potential. Audacity itself it a easy and plain software which

has limited features, however, it did the job of cutting and slowing down my track to the speed I wanted it to be. This

meant I could reach the full potential of my sound in my trailer to create the best environment for the audience to watch the

visual side of the trailer.

Laptop

My laptop was used to work at home. Although it did not have as much software on it as the college

computers, I simply downloaded trial versions often software to use at home. I also mostly used my laptop for creating word files to get down information which I

could then put onto a more creative software in college.

Camera

My camera was used to take pictures for my print products and to film my trailer. This was my camera and therefore I was

familiar with the functions and could use it easily on the day of filming. I also was confident in its ability to capture high quality

pictures.

Although the camera was good practically it would often run out of battery, this meant that valuable time(weather circumstances)

was wasted due to the camera having to charge.

Hard-drive

My hard-drive was very useful for moving my documents from college to laptop. The hard drive has a large memory of a terabyte and

therefore I had no problem with memory space.