1. HOW DID I USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
TO HELP WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF
MY PORTFOLIO?

2. PLANNING AND RESEARCH
 www.blogger.com is the website I used to document and record all of my A2 media work
on, from the beginning of the year until now.
 By using this website, it has enabled me to build my knowledge and skills in the important
technique in blogging that is becoming increasingly more popular and is a fundamental
skill in the today’s society because technology is progressing and improving so frequently
and at great speed.
 Amongst others, I have developed my skills in word processing, writing, planning,
keeping to deadlines, keeping track of all my work and providing evidence for all I have
done over the course. I have also developed my interactive skills by using things I have
never used before and incorporating this into my blog to make it more interesting and
appealing to the reader.
 I did create a blog for AS media last year, but I feel I have learnt so much more about
blogger and blogging this time around because I have used it a lot more and expanded
on my knowledge of the website because I have been updating my blog near enough
every day and so I have become more used to and it has allowed me to not only develop
my skills, but also to see how I have progressed over the year due to documenting all of
my work.

3.  The internet has also be a focal point and a substantial and vitally important resource that
I have used in my planning and research.
 By using a variety of websites such as YouTube and VEVO I have been able to watch
current trailers and analyse them in great depth. Also, the use of google and bing has
been extremely helpful in the research of film posters and magazine front covers as
without these search engines I wouldn’t have been able to see what they look like and
the codes and conventions I should follow when creating my own ancillary tasks.
 I have then been able to analyse the data I found through the internet to expand on my
theoretical knowledge of the film industry and the codes and conventions media products
such as film posters and magazine front covers use, develop and even challenge.
 YouTube was also extremely important again in allowing me to upload all of my videos. I
spent hours uploading every scene I had filmed so I could document it onto my blog and I
also uploaded my final trailer on there for everyone to see. I found YouTube really useful
for this because then I could just put videos onto my blog with the click of one button and
I also could get feedback and comments on my trailer through YouTube.

4. CBefore we could even start editing any of our footage, we had to insert all of our videos into the

ONTRUCTION OF TRAILER
programme we were using to put our trailer together. The programme we used was Adobe
Premiere Elements. This was a brand new software that was brought into the school especially
for our year and so the knowledge of the software was minimal, which as media students, I
know I found it quite hard in the beginning to find my way around the software. Me and Andrea
often found ourselves looking in the manual book for help, especially with adding text and
making clips longer or shorter. However, even though this was time consuming, I do believe it
helped us in our depth and knowledge of the software and at the end of the course and when
our trailer was completely finished, I felt I knew my way around the software really well and I
could pretty much do everything without any help from the teachers and the technicians or any
help from the manual book.
 In the end, I am glad we had this software and that we didn’t use Windows Movie Maker to
create our trailer because I think Adobe Premiere Elements is a more professional and
established movie making software that has a wider range of effects and tools you can use to
create a successful and a well put together trailer. Whereas I feel Windows Movie Maker is a lot
more basic and even though you can still create a good trailer through this software, you are
much more restricted to what you can do on this software so overall, even though I found
Adobe Premiere Elements very difficult to begin with, I believe it has helped us to create a
good, professional trailer and it has enabled me to develop my skills and use a programme that
I had never used before, which I think I am now quite good at using and would love to use
again.

5.  Another use of technology came from the use of Adobe After Effects. This was extremely useful in the making of
our production company and ident. In lessons, we planned how we wanted to our ident to look and we wanted to
create an animation with a shooting star shooting across the sky. We attempted to do this in lesson using
Windows Movie Maker, but because our knowledge of the software wasn’t great and we didn’t think we would be
able to achieve what we wanted using this software, one of our friends, Joe, suggested that we could use his
software which was Adobe After Effects that is really good at creating animations. We accepted his offer and so
we went round to his house and he showed us around the software and how to use it. In the end, I was over the
moon about how our ident turned out. It was exactly how I wanted it to look and I think it looks really professional
and like an established ident.
 I think my school should research this programme and look into getting it put onto the school system because it
was really useful in creating my ident and I believe other students next year and years to come will really benefit
from this programme.
 This programme has once again expanded my knowledge of new media software that I had not yet used before.
It was really easy to use and the end product is fantastic, I will definitely use it again.

6.  When actually filming our scenes, there were a lot of new products and technologies we
used. We used brand new HD cameras and brand new tripods to aid us with our filming
so that we could achieve smooth, professional footage. I had never really used a proper
HD camcorder and I had never used a tripod yet I found them both really easy to use and
they really enabled us to create the scenes and the shots we had visualised. I am really
greatful we had these excellent technologies because without them we wouldn’t have
been able to film such professional-looking footage and by the end of the filming process,
my knowledge of the technologies had improved greatly and my knowledge of creating a
variety of different camera shots and angles.

7. SKILLS GAINED FROM OUR
CONSTRUCTION
Filming skills Editing skills Computer skills Other
I had never really filmed When editing, we had I developed my computer Teamwork was a big skill
anything at all before so pretty much no input or skills by having to upload that I developed in this
this was a completely new help from the teachers the filming footage from process as Andrea and I
process for me to get to unless we asked for it. the camera to the had to work together and
grips with. Using the video This allowed us to computer through USB. I she was someone that I
camera gave me great develop our also had to get the had never really spoken to
practice in filming and independence with our footage from the computer before, but now I have
capturing a variety of trailers and we made onto the editing software. really gotten to know her
camera shots and angles decisions pretty much through this process and
which was vital for our between the two of us are great friends now. We
trailer. I also concentrated which vastly improved my had to decide together on
on the lighting, framing independent skills and my the plotline, camera shots
and focussing and use of management and and angles, characters,
zooming in and out. The decision making. music, editing, name of
video camera has helped the film and many more.
me to develop my skills so Luckily, me and Andrea
much further that I could got on really well and had
have imagined. the same vision so there
was no conflicts.
I also learnt how to use a Uploading videos to Patience is definitely a
completely new editing YouTube and then skill I have developed
software that I had never embedding them onto m hugely through this
used before in the form of blog and powerpoint construction. The editing
Adobe Premiere Elements which can developed my software would often
which helped me to computing skills as I have crash and randomly shut
discover and develop never uploaded videos to down and so I had to wait
editing skills that I never YouTube before so this a long time for the
knew I had. was a new skill I software to reboot and the
developed work I had done had
sometimes gone so it was
time consuming waiting
for the software to reload
and then to redo the work
I had lost.

8. FURTHER CONSTRUCTION
 Here are images of other technologies I have used in
the construction of my media products.
 I am currently using powerpoint now for my evaluation
which I am very familiar with and so know how to use
it very well.
 I used paint to crop some images that I had print
screened from my editing programme and YouTube to
embed onto my blogger. I was also very used to paint
as I have used it many times before so I could easily
developed my skills there.
 I used the camera to take the pictures for two ancillary
products: film poster and film magazine.
 I then used photoshop to edit my photos to make them
look more professional. Photoshop was a new
programme for me that I had only really used once or
twice before so I did find it quite difficult to begin with
but after some help from other media students that
had used it before, I managed to get the hang of it and
I feel I have really developed my skills with this
technology.
 After this, I used microsoft publisher to create my two
ancillary products. I was very familiar with publisher
because I have used it many times in my other school
work such as my music magazine in AS media so I
was able to develop my skills quickly.

9.  Overall, this unit has really expanded my skills and
as a whole, I am quite pleased with my package. I
hope I have shown to you all the work I have put
into it over the past few months and have given a
good reflection of the work I have done and the
effort I have put into making my final