How did you use media technologies in construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
In this post I will identify and explain the media technologies that our group have used throughout the different stages of the A2 media course. I will go in to detail of how we used each technology and the reasons why we chose to use the technologies that we did.
Software Used
Also, Blogger allows us to insert pictures, videos, and links to help support our work. This is very useful as these elements break up continuous chunks of text and also support the work that you are studying.
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| Here our animatic video on youtube. |
We also used Youtube to upload our videos, such as animatic's, first drafts's and our final cut film draft. This has been very advantageous for our group as when we have had to present these videoes to the rest of our class we have done so through Youtube.
YouTube has demonstrated to be even more helpful in the construction and evaluation sections of the course. Particularly the construction section, because when we was constructing our film poster and film reviews we was using software's such as Photoshop (film poster) and QuarkXPress (film review). None of the members in our group had ever used QuarkXPress before, so when we was stuck on the software when trying to achieve something, we would search how to do it on YouTube which most of the time illustrated to us what we had to do.
YouTube has been a vital software throughout the A2 course as it has helped me with work that I was unsure on hugely.
Photoshop is a software that most of us in our group had very little experience with. Being as we didn't have the need to use it for the AS course, using it this year was a first time for myself and for the rest of the members in my group. We had to use this software to create our film poster, as we were advised by our teacher that this was the most appropriate and effective software to use to create our product.
Before we began creating our product, we had to watch tutorials on how to create a war themed poster for training on Photoshop. Once I watched the 2 tutorials, I felt comfortable with using Photoshop as I knew were all the tools were and which tool had what effect. Photoshop was a good software to use to create our film poster as you are able to experiment with a range of different styles, effects and filters. Moreover, once we had finished creating our final film poster, we had feedback informing us that our product actually looked like a real film poster. As a group we was delighted with this feedback, we all agreed that Photoshop was the perfect software to use to achieve our desired poster.
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Facebook has also played an important role for our group throughout this course. As a group we have used Facebook a great deal to discuss between each other who's responsible for completing what posts. The A2 course also requires a lot of planning for the filming and editing stages, we used Facebook to discuss what days we were available to shoot for the film and also to stay behind after school to edit our film. The main advantage about this software apart from it being very simple to use, is that its free of charge. So we were able to create a group chat for the members of our group so everyone could see what someone said. Facebook has most definitely helped our group stay organised throughout the course as it has been our groups key for communication.
Our group have used SurveyMonkey a number of times throughout this year to gain the publics feedback on each of our products, from our animatic to our final cut version of Life of Hermit. Our group chose to use SurveyMonkey to collect feedback as it is extremely easy to use and also one of the members in our group had already made an account on the website from collecting feedback for last years products. So we didn't have to waste anytime setting up an account. We chose to use this software because of its simplicity and accessibility as it is free to use. Also SurveyMonkey is perfect for what we wanted to do, create a cheap and simple survey to gain feedback on each of our products.
QuarkXPress is the software that we used to create our film review for Life of Hermit, we had never used this software before so similar to the Photoshop experience, we had to watch tutorials on how to create a film review for a film of our choice. After watching video's and following the instructions given step by step, I still found the software challenging to use. Eventually I did create my own film review for The Godfather and globally it did look like an actual film review. However when looking at specific features such as the alignment between the page boarder and in between columns there was issues. I personally found my experience with the software difficult to use, but other members in my group found it easy and simple to use. When in the process of creating our film review for Life of Hermit, we paid close attention to detail for every element of the review as we wanted to achieve the highest possible marks for our product. Once we had finally completed out film review, as a group we were fully satisfied with the outcome as the feedback we received was mainly all positive. The majority of people who gave us feedback said that our product did look exactly like a real film review, so this software was great for what we needed to create!
As a group we chose to use Screencast to gather feedback from our media class when presenting our animatic, short film cuts, film posters and film reviews to our class and teacher. We thought that this would be the best way to collect feedback as we could have the Screencast running in the background whilst we were displaying our products and receiving feedback. By using Screencast we knew that we wouldn't miss anyone's feedback as it would all be collected on the video, this wouldn't have been the case if we would have chose to handwrite or type up the feedback. As we could have missed someone's suggestion due to not writing or typing fast enough or remembering what they said. Screencast is a free and easy and effective software to use and is perfect for what we wanted to do.
We used Final Cut Pro last year for the construction of putting all the shots together to create our opening 5 minutes of a film . This year we used Final Cut Pro X which is the new and updated version, the new version is similar to the version we used last year however it does include some beneficial new features. For example, the new version of Final Cut has allocated keys to perform certain things such as command C which copy's a selection of clips. Also on the old version you had to edit the sound for your products on a different software, this isn't the case with this version as you and edit shot and sound together. On top of this, Final Cut Pro X has extremely good safety regarding keeping work safe. As this software automatically saves work so you don't have to worry about losing important files. Being as we all used Final Cut last year we all were comfortable with how to use the new version after experimenting around with it. Its the ideal software to use to construct a short film as you can edit the film exactly how you want it to be with ease.
Being as we have been using Imacs, Safari has been the web browser which we have been using to research things for on the web. We have used this software to allow us to use other softwares such as YouTube, SurveyMonker, and Blogger. Safari has been a very useful due to its speed, easy to use and reliability.
Hardwares Used
The image above is of the digital DSLR camera, this is the camera which we used to shoot our films footage on. This is the first year which we have used this type of camera, as for last years filming we used a Sony HD camcorder. The digital DSLR camera has many advantages over the Sony HD camcorder, firstly with the DSLR camera you have the choice of two modes; manual and automatic. If you use the manual mode as we did to film in, then you are in control of adjusting the focus, brightness, apex and zoom distance to your desired level. The DSLR camera also seems to capture footage clearer in comparison to the Sony HD camera.
Furthermore, another advantage with the DSLR camera is that you can choose which lens you want to use. There are a number of lens that are available for you to use depending on the shot which you wish to capture. The small size of the camera is also beneficial as it is much easy to carry around in comparison to the Sony Hd.
Despite all of the DSLR's advantages, it does also carry some disadvantages. My point being the battery life of the camera, as once you have used the camera for more than one hour the battery begins to run out. This is an issue as if when you are filming the battery runs out then you will lose the shot and have to put a new battery in which can effect the positioning of the camera being as it has come off the tripod. Plus being as the camera is rather small, the camera screen is small also which makes it difficult to navigate around on when attempting to achieve something.
Another hardware that we have used daily throughout the course has been the Imac. Being as we have done all of our coursework throughout the year online using Blogger, every time we were using this site we was using the Imac's. As if we had to search something up during the research and planning stages of the course we would do so on this computer, as they are extremely fast. Also we did all of the editing for our film using Final Cut Pro which you can only use if you have a Apple computer. This reflects how significant this hardware has been throughout the course as otherwise attempting to edit our footage using a different software would have been much more challenging.
Additionally due to the size of the Mac screen you have an extremely clear picture which allows you to see your film productions much better due to the clearness. As well as this, another perk which the Imac has is its multi window option. This allows you to have more than one website open at a time so you can work faster.
We used a white screen when taking photographs that we was going to edit so the subject of the image is different from the background. We used the white screen when we had to take photos of the one of the masks for our poster for our short film. The white screen increases the quality of the image as it helps the camera focus firmly on the subject that is being photographed. This hardware also makes the editing process run smoother due to the fact that it is easy to add a separate selected background.
The picture above is of a Tracking dolly, we used this piece of equipment during the construction stage when shooting the footage for our film. The tracks alongside the wheeled tripod allowed us to achieve tracking and zoom shots for Life of Hermit. The dolly makes the quality of the shot look more effective due to the smoothness of the shot. The tracking dolly is easy to set up and to use, it also enables you to shoot different types of shot. Although it has many advantages, transporting the dolly tracks around can be challenging due to the size and weight of the bag which they come with.
This is a sound recording kit, this device allows you to record what an actor is saying and then transfer the clip onto a software to be edited. We used this device when constructing our film, as we needed to record the main character for the voice narration of the film. The sound recording kit helped make his speech very clear as it blocked out lots of background noise pollution. This make the quality of the recording better as we could here his tone and emotion more, plus as the kit is so small it is easy to carry around.
The reflector reflects the light in the room onto any object or character you want and solves any shadow issues. We used this product in the cinema scene of our film to reflect the light onto the characters faces in the audience to make it look as if they were actual watching a film on screen. The reflector is also very easy to assemble, use and put away.
Our group have used SurveyMonkey a number of times throughout this year to gain the publics feedback on each of our products, from our animatic to our final cut version of Life of Hermit. Our group chose to use SurveyMonkey to collect feedback as it is extremely easy to use and also one of the members in our group had already made an account on the website from collecting feedback for last years products. So we didn't have to waste anytime setting up an account. We chose to use this software because of its simplicity and accessibility as it is free to use. Also SurveyMonkey is perfect for what we wanted to do, create a cheap and simple survey to gain feedback on each of our products.
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| This was my attempt to create a film review from scratch. |
QuarkXPress is the software that we used to create our film review for Life of Hermit, we had never used this software before so similar to the Photoshop experience, we had to watch tutorials on how to create a film review for a film of our choice. After watching video's and following the instructions given step by step, I still found the software challenging to use. Eventually I did create my own film review for The Godfather and globally it did look like an actual film review. However when looking at specific features such as the alignment between the page boarder and in between columns there was issues. I personally found my experience with the software difficult to use, but other members in my group found it easy and simple to use. When in the process of creating our film review for Life of Hermit, we paid close attention to detail for every element of the review as we wanted to achieve the highest possible marks for our product. Once we had finally completed out film review, as a group we were fully satisfied with the outcome as the feedback we received was mainly all positive. The majority of people who gave us feedback said that our product did look exactly like a real film review, so this software was great for what we needed to create!
We used Final Cut Pro last year for the construction of putting all the shots together to create our opening 5 minutes of a film . This year we used Final Cut Pro X which is the new and updated version, the new version is similar to the version we used last year however it does include some beneficial new features. For example, the new version of Final Cut has allocated keys to perform certain things such as command C which copy's a selection of clips. Also on the old version you had to edit the sound for your products on a different software, this isn't the case with this version as you and edit shot and sound together. On top of this, Final Cut Pro X has extremely good safety regarding keeping work safe. As this software automatically saves work so you don't have to worry about losing important files. Being as we all used Final Cut last year we all were comfortable with how to use the new version after experimenting around with it. Its the ideal software to use to construct a short film as you can edit the film exactly how you want it to be with ease.
Being as we have been using Imacs, Safari has been the web browser which we have been using to research things for on the web. We have used this software to allow us to use other softwares such as YouTube, SurveyMonker, and Blogger. Safari has been a very useful due to its speed, easy to use and reliability.
Hardwares Used
The image above is of the digital DSLR camera, this is the camera which we used to shoot our films footage on. This is the first year which we have used this type of camera, as for last years filming we used a Sony HD camcorder. The digital DSLR camera has many advantages over the Sony HD camcorder, firstly with the DSLR camera you have the choice of two modes; manual and automatic. If you use the manual mode as we did to film in, then you are in control of adjusting the focus, brightness, apex and zoom distance to your desired level. The DSLR camera also seems to capture footage clearer in comparison to the Sony HD camera.
Furthermore, another advantage with the DSLR camera is that you can choose which lens you want to use. There are a number of lens that are available for you to use depending on the shot which you wish to capture. The small size of the camera is also beneficial as it is much easy to carry around in comparison to the Sony Hd.
Despite all of the DSLR's advantages, it does also carry some disadvantages. My point being the battery life of the camera, as once you have used the camera for more than one hour the battery begins to run out. This is an issue as if when you are filming the battery runs out then you will lose the shot and have to put a new battery in which can effect the positioning of the camera being as it has come off the tripod. Plus being as the camera is rather small, the camera screen is small also which makes it difficult to navigate around on when attempting to achieve something.
Another hardware that we have used daily throughout the course has been the Imac. Being as we have done all of our coursework throughout the year online using Blogger, every time we were using this site we was using the Imac's. As if we had to search something up during the research and planning stages of the course we would do so on this computer, as they are extremely fast. Also we did all of the editing for our film using Final Cut Pro which you can only use if you have a Apple computer. This reflects how significant this hardware has been throughout the course as otherwise attempting to edit our footage using a different software would have been much more challenging.
Additionally due to the size of the Mac screen you have an extremely clear picture which allows you to see your film productions much better due to the clearness. As well as this, another perk which the Imac has is its multi window option. This allows you to have more than one website open at a time so you can work faster.
We used a white screen when taking photographs that we was going to edit so the subject of the image is different from the background. We used the white screen when we had to take photos of the one of the masks for our poster for our short film. The white screen increases the quality of the image as it helps the camera focus firmly on the subject that is being photographed. This hardware also makes the editing process run smoother due to the fact that it is easy to add a separate selected background.
We used the lighting kit to adjust the lighting for our shots. The lighting kit gives you a clearer shot as it makes the actors more visible due to the brightness. The lighting kit helped give our shots more clarity which resulted the shots looking more professional. What's more, the lighting kit allows you to be in control of the shadowing in the shot, this can help emphasise moods and characters emotions.
This is a sound recording kit, this device allows you to record what an actor is saying and then transfer the clip onto a software to be edited. We used this device when constructing our film, as we needed to record the main character for the voice narration of the film. The sound recording kit helped make his speech very clear as it blocked out lots of background noise pollution. This make the quality of the recording better as we could here his tone and emotion more, plus as the kit is so small it is easy to carry around.
During the construction stage of the course, we used the crane to achieve a crane shot for the final shot of our film. Cranes are useful pieces of kit as you can achieve Ariel shots with them due to the height that they can reach when up in the air. They are commonly used for establishing shots as we used it for this type of shot in our final scene. Although the crane can help you achieve more of an interesting and effective shot, being as the crane is so big, it is hard to transport around when in pieces in the bag because of its weight. It can also be difficult to assemble.
