.  How did you use

new media technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation

stages?

We used a variety of media products to produce our 3 products which include; iPads

iMacs

DSLR camera

We also used a variety of programs to construct our media products, these include;

Photoshop

Illustrator

Word

PowerPoint

Prezi

Soundtrack

iMovie

Mahara

iChat

Final Cut

DSLR cameraWe used a digital SLR camera to film the footage for our teaser trailer. This was a more advanced camera then the flip cams that we had used to film our AS tasks last year. At the beginning of filming for our A2 teaser we found it hard to focus the camera and found it useful to clip on the magnifying attachment to make sure the focus correct. As filming went on we found the camera easier to control and this developed our camera skills.

We also used this camera to take the still shots for our poster and magazine cover. We found the camera was very good for adding depth of field which enabled us to focus on the main character, making him stand out from the background.

iPads and iMacs

We often used iPads to write up journal entries on Mahara. They are a quick alternative to the desktop macs as they are quick to load up and easy to surf the internet. The disadvantages of using the iPads is that we could not add images on our journal entries on them.

For the majority of our post-production work we used the iMacs. We developed our IT skills and adjusted quickly to the apple controls. We did experience difficulties with the mouse on one of the macs but we managed to adjust the settings and fix this problem.

Photoshop (magazine)

We used Photoshop in the early stages of developing our magazine cover:

We cut out Kyri so that we could make the background colourful to match the colours often used on EMPIRE.

We added the mast head on Photoshop

This was the original image that we shot using the DSLR

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We also changed the contrast of Kyri to make his character stand out more and make him more dynamic.

Illustrator (magazine)

We sent the Photoshop file to Illustrator and added all the headings and information. We also added conventional magazine parts such as the barcode, price, images etc.

It was fairly easy to use Illustrator to complete the text whereas Photoshop was a good program to use to change the colours of the original image

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Illustrator (poster)

Illustrator has been a big part of the creation of our poster. We used it to develop and improve the images we worked with in Photoshop (combining two images to create a psychological effect of two of the same bully). Illustrator was at the start, difficult to understand because of the complexity of the program, but we worked together as a team to help improve the overall effectiveness of our poster. We were able to add and develop the text we chose from the wide array available. One problem we encountered was adding the billing block. We used the internet as a way to research how to effectively create realistic billing block, helping to overcome our issue.

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Illustrator (magazine)

We sent the Photoshop file to Illustrator and added all the headings and information. We also added conventional magazine parts such as the barcode, price, images etc.

It was fairly easy to use Illustrator to complete the text whereas Photoshop was a good program to use to change the colours of the original image

3 4

Illustrator (poster)

Illustrator has been a big part of the creation of our poster. We used it to develop and improve the images we worked with in Photoshop (combining two images to create a psychological effect of two of the same bully). Illustrator was at the start, difficult to understand because of the complexity of the program, but we worked together as a team to help improve the overall effectiveness of our poster. We were able to add and develop the text we chose from the wide array available. One problem we encountered was adding the billing block. We used the internet as a way to research how to effectively create realistic billing block, helping to overcome our issue.

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Word (ident)

We used Word to make our company ident that appeared at the beginning of our teaser trailer. We did this by using a combination of shapes and words which we then print screened as an image and added to our timeline on Final cut then animated.

VCircle arrow + V in Chancery font

Final Cut

To edit our footage into teaser trailer we used Final Cut. On here we developed our editing skills. We made a lot of our clips darker to set a mysterious and dark tone for our teaser and cut the clips to add continuity and set the pace for our trailer.

We did however experience technical issues half way through editing. The message that appeared said ‘general error’ and would not allow us to play our teaser back. We had to

start editing again from the beginning but this made it easier for us to incorporate in the suggestions we gained form the feedback.

iChat

When we we experiencing technical difficulties during editing on Final cut we used iChat to call the college tech, Simon. This was very useful because we could talk to one another discussing the issue and Simon was also able to take over our screen from his office in order to try and fix the problem.

Soundtrack

For the sound we used Soundtrack. On this program we could use a variety of copyright free sound effects and loops which we could easy overlay and cut to make an appropriate track to go with our trailer.

We struggled to match the sound and the video together, but after some careful mixing and fading we managed to resolve the situation. Also we did not think that there was a wide enough range of sad piano loops which we wanted to use to set the tone.

When creating the soundtrack for our media piece we encountered some small issues which effected the efficiency of our work.

iMovie

We used iMovie to record various people from other groups giving feedback about our first rough cut and also poster and magazine cover. This was a quick and easy program for recording and simple editing which was suitable for the Vox Pop. The program also allowed us export the project straight to YouTube, making it easy for us to embed into our journals.

We have used Mahara throughout our A2 coursework. This site allows us to add journal entries for each stage of our production and post-production work and research. It also allowed us to embed YouTube videos and pictures straight into the post which was useful in sharing our progress and finished products.

However all of our group have experienced difficulties in embedding a majority of our images as they appear as the white box shown above.