Evaluation Q4)

How did you use technologies in the construction, research, planning and

evaluation?

What is Technology?

• In this day and age, media technology is an universal and an integral part of our lives. Not only does it make our lives easier but it also removes all distances: geographic and social. You can reach anyone at anytime thus making the world more interconnected. Using media technology in our video production provided us a great deal of help to reach out to people and spread our video production to a very large platform in forms of websites, digital cameras, audio and videos etc…

• Without these new media technologies, we would have had to use old technologies such as newspapers and, magazines to market and sell our product.

What Technology did I use during the construction, research, planning and evaluation?

One of the software’s we used in the early pre-production stage was Bubbl.us. We used this to create a detailed mind map of our idea. The mind map was essential tool to us as it helped us organise our ideas and themes . The different colours allowed us to colour code different subheadings and headings, making it easier for us to understand and continue planning our work without hesitation.

Although it helped us organise our ideas tidily, we had trouble embedding the code onto our blog due to disruptions with our blog. Another problem we encountered was the size of the mind map when embedded onto our blog. It was too small and to view from a standard blog view, so we’d have to zoom in a lot to view the map.

Blogger is a free weblog publishing tool from Google, for sharing text, photos and videos. Throughout our coursework, we posted all our pre-production and post-production documents up onto blogger. This enabled us to share our ideas and our final product to a wider population. Each of the group members made a personal blog which I attached onto our main blog. Our personal blog was created to upload our evaluation and ancillary tasks.

Blogger is a tidier way to organise all our research and planning as doing it on a printed paper might be risky if it gets lost. The labels of our names allows people to see which group member has one what. I was made in charge of our blog, this meant that I had ensure that our blog was organised and all posts in each of the stages were up to date with the production schedule. If there were any mistakes with dates and files, then I had to tell group members to fix it or do it myself.

Issuu and Scibd are separate websites that do the same job. They convert Microsoft documents (PDF) into a compatible format for it to be viewed on the internet. Most of our research and planning was done on Microsoft Word therefore we had to upload them onto Issuu or Scribd, which then converted the PDF into a HTML code, which we then pasted onto our blogs. This interactive tool allowed us to present our work in a proficient way.

However we encountered problems. Sometimes it took long to convert the documents into HTML codes, often the file would stop half way through so we would have to upload it all over again. On the other hand the websites were good because we could adjust the size so that it can be viewed without difficulty. Another benefit of using this is that we can set our files on privet or public, this meant that other people cant view or download files without our permission. Finally both websites had a database for our account, this was useful to us as we could retrieve it again in case one of us deleted or lost a file.

Slideshare is the world largest community for sharing Powerpoint, Open Office presentations, PDF and info graphics. Through out the course work we used this Web 2.0 based slide hosting service to upload and Powerpoint documents onto our group land personal blogs in a professional way. This is similar to Scribd and Issuu as we had to convert PDF files into a HTML code so that it is compatible with our blogs.

We used this tool to upload our ideas e.g. the pitch and representation of characters. We didn’t encounter any problems with uploading the document. It was quick and easy to use.

YouTube was one of the main websites that we used throughout our coursework. We used it in all the stages; from pre-production stage to post-production. YouTube was used on both our personal blogs and group blog. During Pre-production stage, YouTube was a key tool to us as it helped us research ideas. We used the website to watch various short films that will help build a foundation for our own video production. Watching different short films as well as trailers and clips from huge films allowed us to identify different genres and how directors use mise-en scene, cinematography, editing and sound to construct that particular genre. As the editor it allowed me to visualise what kind of shots and sound and footage I wanted to use to construct our own short film.

During the construction of my ancillary tasks, I used YouTube to help me use Photoshop. As an inexperienced Photoshopper, I had trouble using the software, subsequently I searched for tutorials for beginners on YouTube. This was very helpful as there were many videos and channels from all over the world that I can view to help me with my problems. I also used YouTube to upload first drafts and our final product of our film. One of the main reason why YouTube was essential to us was when we had to film the third time. During editing I noticed that we were missing lots of little extra scenes, I uploaded what we already had onto YouTube and when we were filming again, we can identify where we went wrong an re-film the problems again. This saved us time from trying to think and guess what was missing. Our final product was also uploaded onto our channel so that people from all over the world can view it and give feedback from our target audience.

Photoshop CS5The construction of both my ancillary tasks (poster and film magazine review) was one on Photoshop CS5. I completed both of them in school and at home. The photo editing software was very difficult for me to use in the beginning as I had no experience. I looked on search engines such as Google and tutorials on YouTube to help me understand the software better. The new updated Photoshop software was already part of Macbook Pros which was of assistance during my media lessons and in my free time during school. The only problem with the software is that during school I used the full paid software CS5 whereas at home I had to used Photoshop CS, a trial version, which was different to the school one as it did not have all the advanced tools like CS5, thus making it harder and a more slow process.

Using Photoshop has been a whole new experience for me. I understand basic tools such as cropping with the magic wand tool and cleaning it up with the rubber rather than the actual tool and making it look messy.

Facebook is a social networking site which enables individuals to share photos, videos, status’s and connect with each other from all over the world. We created a Facebook page to keep our target audience updated on what’s been happening with our film and also get recognition from a wider audience by uploading status’s to notify everyone about the release of our film. The page also allows us to gain feedback from the audience and in future improve.

Outside of the group Facebook, we also used our personal Facebook to communicate with each other i.e. to discuss deadlines, ideas and inform each other about work and reminders. This saved us time from sending a message to each member in the group individually as we created a group conversation.

Twitter is another Social Networking Site which we used to interact with our target audience and keep them updated on what has been happening with our film. It also allowed group members to interact with each other anytime through messages and tweets. We can also share our video on here and get feedbacks from a wider audience. From this we can learn our mistakes and improve of them in the future to meet the audiences expectations.

Final Cut Pro

Having been the editor in our previous AS media production, I volunteered to edit our film at A2. This is because I already have experience with the software but also develop my skills and knowledge with it. I was able to discover new tools such as how to split screen and use the colouring tool at a high standard. As the editor I had to edit the 3.7 hour footage, which took me 4 weeks.

At first I had to log an capture all the footage we had and after doing this I watched through it all and noted down scenes which I was going to need and use and ones that I didn’t. During the first week , I captured the scene that I needed and dragged them onto the timeline/sequence in chronological order. During the editing process, I realised that we were missing many scenes therefore we would have to re-film again. Without the software I would have been stuck and not know what to re-film again. To ensure that editing was made easier for next time, I exported the footage in a video format and uploaded it onto YouTube so we could watch over it and identify the scenes which were missing so I know how or where it can fit in the sequence.

SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables people to upload, record, promote and share sounds.

Although I didn’t use SoundCloud for anything, Uzair Babar our sounds person used the website to research for soundtracks and sound effects for our production. He also used it to upload the sounds that we used in our film. The only problem that we encountered with the website was there was a limit to the number of sounds we can upload. We overcame this problem by only uploading one we thought were essential to us and used most in our video.

The positive aspect of using SoundCloud is that once the sound is uploaded we can embed the video and paste the code into the HTML box on our Blog, so that the sound can be reached to a wider audience.

Macbook ProThrough the coursework, I used a Macbook Pro in all stages of my work. It was very useful for us to use as it had a long battery life as we would have to use them for long hours to research and plan our work. The system also had software's’ such as Photoshop and Final cut pro, this meant that I could complete my ancillary tasks in school as well as outside of school. It was very easy to use and less time consuming than the standard computers. Uploading and downloading files onto and from Blogger were done with ease at a high resolution.

The only problem that I had with the Macbook was creating documents. The Microsoft Word on the Macbook is very different to the one on a standard computer. At first I had trouble changing the style and size of the font but soon I over came the problem with the help of my group members.

Photobucket is a free image hosting, easy photo sharing and editing website. It enables us to upload pictures and create a slideshow to share with the world.

I used Photobucket in the pre-production and production stage of our film. I uploaded pictures of the location of our film as well as recent pictures and props. The website is easy, quick and interactive. Once I uploaded the pictures, I put them in a slideshow to make it presentable and professional . I converted it into an embedded code to put onto our group blog after for everyone to see.

Throughout the years I have used a USB stick to save all my documents on and back them up in case I lost any of it. Travelling and keeping a USB with all my work on it enabled me to finish any unfinished work at home or the library, this meant that I wouldn’t have to come back to it at school to finish it, therefore it’s less time consuming and effective.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word was an integral software throughout my coursework. Most of my research and planning for our film production was done on word document which we converted in to PDF format and uploaded it onto our blogs via Scribd and ISSUU . Part of my evaluation for my coursework was done using this software. The software is very valuable when creating documents, for example, when I create a document, it shows me grammatical and spelling errors using green and red lines, this allows me to correct my mistakes before I upload them onto Blogger. The software became most useful to me during the construction of my ancillary tasks. I used Microsoft Word to help me write my review and correct any grammatical and spelling errors in the text.

Microsoft PowerPoint is another vital software that I used during the pre-production of our film production. The software is another way of showing what we have researched and planned for the film in a less complicated way. It is most useful when readers do not want to read lots of paragraphs of text e.g. word documents and prefer a breakdown of it in a simpler version on PowerPoint. Although it is not a lot (details wise) the software presents our ideas into a high, neat and professional standard.

Google Drive is very similar to Scribd and ISSUU, they all convert documents into HTML codes so that they can be embedded onto our blogs. The only difference is the software lets you store up to 15GB of our things for free (Similar to a USB). I used Google Drive to upload my templates of my ancillary tasks and first drafts of our script. The only Problem I encountered using this is when people tried to view the documents it is automatically uploaded as private, consequently sending me back to edit the privacy of the post every time I wanted to share a post.

HDV Filming Camera

During the Production Stage of our film, we used a HDV film camera to film our A2 comedy (short film). We signed a call sheet every time we needed to book the camera for health and safety reasons as well as proof of who has the equipment in case of damage or loss. The HDV Camera was a crucial technology for the construction of our film as everything we needed capturing was with that tool. We encountered many problems with the camera during filming due to a faulty camera and tape, missing microphone and camera lighting settings. It was stressful re-filming certain scenes however in the end we ensured that everything we captured on footage was kept to a high standard. The camera we used had many functions to it such a zoom and focus which were vital movements in our production. The resolution of the camera was very high making our film look clean and proficient.

Prezi is a presentation software and storytelling tool for presenting ideas on a virtual canvas. It enables people to create documents and present them in an interactive way for the audience, so that they are entertained but yet kept up to a professional standard. I used Prezi only a couple of times to present my lengthy presentations , this is because the lively animations made my work more engaging and colourful unlike Slideshare which only shows a slideshow of each page, lacking creativity.

Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones have been used at all stages our A2 coursework. The importance of communicating with members in my group was reinforced by using mobile phones. It allowed us to contact each other for work related and social things anytime during the day via calls and messaging. Mobile phones have also allowed us to contact other groups in our media class for help or enquiries as well as contacting our actors to see when they’re available to film or not.