A2 Media Evaluation Question 4 (final)
- 1. How did I use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? CHRIS SEVIER
- 2. The Internet - Research We used the internet a lot when doing our research during the research and planning stage. We would use the software ‘Safari’ on the Macs, and use websites such as Google, allowed us to easily search for articles and web pages which would be helpful to us. This was especially useful when doing our genre research on heist films when we found useful articles talking about the history if the genre. We would use programs such Internet Explorer or Google Chrome if not near an Apple Mac. Another site frequently used by us was YouTube. This was used for research as we could easily view other teaser trailers, and then work out what things are conventional for the format, and later for our genre. For example, YouTube was helpful when trying to find out if company idents were conventional in teaser trailers. To access the internet, and all of the other applications, software and websites during this stage, we used the Apple Macs in lessons, and I used my laptop at home.
- 3. Mahara & OneDrive – Research & Planning We used the website ‘Mahara’ to document all of our progress, especially all of our research and planning. We could embed pictures, videos and presentations on there, making it ideal for putting all our work into one place. I used the website ‘OneDrive’ by Microsoft to save photos onto the cloud which I could then embed onto my journal without actually saving offline. However, the embed function from OneDrive on Mahara stopped working halfway through research and planning meaning I had to manually upload each image again from a computer straight onto Mahara.
- 4. Microsoft Office – Research and Planning Microsoft Office was also used in our research and planning. PowerPoint was very useful when analyse teaser trailers, being able to screenshot key scenes and put them on separate slides, and then type commentary on the same slide. The website SlideShare was also useful to upload presentations from PowerPoint, which could then be embedded onto Mahara. Word was also helpful in creating documents. For example I made a poster analysis and I found Word the best program to use because I could include arrows pointing towards different features of the poster. I also found programs on Office 365 such as outlook and OneDrive useful for sending files and research to other group members.
- 5. Prezi – Research and Planning Prezi was used on occasion, for making presentations. It was most notably used when making a presentation for genre research for Heist films. The website made visually appealing presentations, in a good layout. However, frustratingly, I could not find out a way to embed it onto my journal in the same way SlideShare does. This made SlideShare the first choice for the rest of Research and Planning.
- 6. iPhone My phone was helpful during all stages of production. It was useful as a camera, taking test shots which would be used to build Poster and Magazine Cover designs. As a camera it also took pictures on filming day which would be used in my journal to document what we did on that day. As a communication device it also helped to organise with the rest of the group about what we needed to do, and if we needed to meet outside of lessons.
- 7. Filming To film our teaser trailer, and to photograph the images for our Poster and Magazine Cover, we used a Canon 80D DSLR. This was my first time of any of us using a DSLR, so it took some time for us to get used to it. The camera offered very high quality image, with features such as the autofocus being useful for our filming. We also attempted to manual focus the shots on occasion, to challenge ourselves, and also focus the shot in the way we desired. The camera was perfect for the project, as was easy to use once we had grasped understanding of it, and also had lots of different modes and features we could experiment with if we wanted.
- 8. Test Shots - Adobe Illustrator When designing the Poster and Magazine Cover using test shots, I used the program adobe Illustrator. Having no previous experience with the program, I had to watch tutorials on YouTube and read instructions to familiarise myself with it. I learned the importance of layers, making it easier to keep different aspects of the design separate and easier to change them when needed. Another advantage to using this software was that you could edit an image on photoshop and the changes would appear on the design on illustrator. It helped to keep designs and images separate and organised.
- 9. Adobe Photoshop Photoshop was used during our test shots for our poster and magazine cover. I used it to remove the backgrounds on the photos, using tools such as the magic eraser, so the test shot images just contained the character. This allowed me to import the image onto illustrator and put a different background on it.
- 10. Adobe Photoshop However when making our Poster and Magazine cover using our actual final images, the group decided to not use illustrator altogether and simply use Photoshop. This was because half of the group were very experienced with the program, and were confident that as a team the products would come out better if we just used the one program instead of both. So we used Photoshop to set all the layers of the magazine cover and poster, just like illustrator had done when doing our test shot designs. While this worked well, it was hard to locate the original images of the characters with the background removed if they were needed. It meant everything had to be done on one file making it harder to collaborate on.
- 11. Final Cut Pro X To edit our teaser trailer we used the program Final Cut Pro X on the Apple Macs The program was easy to use, but also being professional enough to be able to do everything we wanted it to do, and realise the vision we had when originally conceptualising the teaser as a group.
- 12. Final Cut Pro X What was especially useful in the timeline was that you could easily separate the audio from clips, and move them onto other clips, making the teaser flow better. This is where all the clips we imported were, and we could easily favourite sections of the clips so we would know which would be the best takes to use. On this window we could see in real time how what we were editing looked like in practise. Lots of effects were available here, and while we used these sparingly, to make ours as realistic feeling as possible, we used the blur effect at a point in our teaser which was effective
- 13. Final Cut Pro X On this tab, we could choose a range of pre installed sound effects. These proved useful in enhancing moments in our teaser, for example during scenes of hacking we used the keyboard typing sound effect. There were a range of different types of titles. This was useful for us. We could change the font, animation, colour and much more. We could also change how it came onto screen so we made ours expand from the middle in this particular title. There were a range of transitions available here, which could be used between clips. We mainly used the wipe transition to maintain consistency. On this tool you could change your cursor. This enabled you to do different things. Eg one cursor would enable you to move clips around, while another be used to cut sections of clips by clicking on them.
- 14. GarageBand GarageBand was used by us to create the soundtrack for our teaser trailer. The program was easy to use, allowing us to create music that sounded semi professional that fit the tone of the teaser. We made our own drum pattern, but used the pre installed loops, which when built together sounded professional and allowed us to build the sound we wanted to. For example we had melodic guitar chords, which we played with different other sounds to have the ‘heist’ feeling to the soundtrack. The ease of use saved time allowing more attention to be put on building the other aspects to the teaser and the other products
- 15. Feedback - YouTube Finally we used YouTube to upload our final edit of our teaser trailer This could be easily done through Final Cut. We just had to sign into our YouTube account. But YouTube played another very important role. It allowed people to comment on the video with our teaser on, giving their feedback on it. It was an easy way for people to share their thoughts on our work.