1. Question 4 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

2. Introduction Bell (2005) suggests "As new technology becomes increasingly embedded in everyday niches, it is common for youth to interact with dozens of digital devices throughout a typical day, and many spend hour-upon-hour learning about and manipulating computer devices such as laptop computers, handheld computers, game consoles, cell phones, pagers and radio audio players “ http :// wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Youth_Culture_and_New_Technologies In this modern world we are brought up around these technologies therefore taking them for granted , and not realizing how much they shape our everyday lives. On the slides to come are the technologies I used, how I used them and whether they were or weren’t useful.

3. Technologies used Computer - This is the main piece of technology I have used. It has allowed me to access the internet and the websites I need, and access the programs I need. Without this piece of I wouldn’t be able to do my media coursework. This was a crucial and very important piece of technology I used, however I found that sometimes it can be very unreliable therefore meaning work had to be repeated for example if it crashed. To prevent this I saved regularly and backed up my work on discs and memory sticks. Blogger - This is the website I use to post everything to do with my coursework. It is a great way of laying out my work although sometimes I feel it’s capability of being flexible is restricted. For example if I arrange my post how I want it when editing, once I actually post it and look back at it on the blog it isn’t how I laid it out. Therefore images are scattered where I don’t want them to be, making my presentation feel limited. Although I do like it because it enables me to embed clips and PowerPoint’s, helping me communicate effectively. It also enables my teacher to comment on specific parts of my coursework which is helpful. I think it also contributed to storing initial ideas I had and therefore as well as arranging my work helped me arrange my thoughts making it very useful.

4. Technologies used You tube - I’ve used you tube to search for existing children’s TV dramas. This was helpful because it was instant access to the beginning of children’s TV dramas. It also meant I could embed them into my blog making it more interesting. You tube enables anybody to put videos onto the internet therefore once completing my work I uploaded it onto YouTube this meant I could embed it into my blog. And if my target audience had of been for people my age I could have posted it onto Facebook for feedback. This was a really useful website as it made my blog more interesting and enabled me to share my work through media 2.0. Google - I used Google images mainly in my research to search for existing magazine covers and DVD covers. This helped me see what was conventional of children Magazines and also helped me recognise existing house styles. It also contributed to making my blog look more interesting and helped me communicate effectively within my blog.

5. Technologies used SLR cameras -still images and stop motion animation- This camera allowed me to take more professional looking photos as it produces a high quality image. Within my final product this was the piece of technology I used most to actually get the raw images to then further mould using video premier pro and Photoshop. If the quality of the initial images had of been insufficient then I believe my final media product would have definitely suffered. I used the stop motion animation setting on these cameras to add movement to my production as I chose to use no video, without this setting it would have been incredibly hard to capture every little movement and probably wouldn’t have been possible. Lights - I used a full lighting set to try and decrease the shadow in my photos so that it would be easier to edit in Photoshop, therefore less time consuming overall. The lighting also made my photos look more professional. I think I could of coped without this piece of equipment, but it did enhance my overall product.

6. Technologies used Scanner - The scanner which copies a drawn image onto the computer was another crucial piece of equipment. This contributed to allowing me to pull off the style I was after (illustrational) It also meant that i could design my own logo and drawings making my overall style more original. Therefore this piece of technology was very useful. Photoshop CS2 –This was an extremely useful piece of equipment if I had of used a programme such as paint it wouldn’t of given such a professional finish. I used the lasso tool to cut out my pictures which was time consuming but gave a good result. I also used Photoshop to fill in my scanned in drawings so that they were more interesting to look at and were more cartoony, targeting my audience better. I also only used this programme to create my DVD and magazine cover, therefore making it the most useful piece of technology I used within my print work.

7. Technologies used Adobe Premier Pro 2.0 – This was a very useful computer program because it uses a timeline an therefore helped me piece together my whole sequence. Without this their would have been no title sequence. After getting the hang of how the key frames worked I found it really simple to use. My practices in technology week also really helped the development of my skills. The chroma key tool on this program was useful so that I could have my images with no background, then use the transition effects such as dissolve and paint splatter to make the background more interesting for my target audience. File Formats – By changing file formats to jpeg it meant I could move them from programme to programme easier. To get my DVD cover and magazine onto blogger I had to change it from Photoshop format to jpeg so it was downloadable. I also had to change my video file format so that it would upload on you tube, this meant that you couldn’t edit it using video premier pro after converting it therefore I kept it saved as two file formats just in case I wanted to edit it again.

8. Technologies used Slideshare & PowerPoint – Slideshares a website which you upload your PowerPoint presentations onto and it means you can put them on your blog. This has been very useful to me because I rather lay my work out in a PowerPoint presentation as I feel I can communicate more effectively this way and it’s visually interesting for the viewer. I feel a crucial piece of technology I could have used in my particular production would have been a green screen. This would have meant I could have had my main protagonists moving around more, maybe playing with a football, adding much more action to the title sequence. This is because it would have been less time consuming to take the background out therefore I could have used more images, or I could have just used the Chroma key on video premier pro meaning no editing of the background would have had to be done. I feel this did limit me, but I tried my best to create what I imagined. Technology which could have enhanced my production