1. Media Technologies Used Faye Allen

2. This year I found the coursework a lot more challenging than last years media projects as I am not the most creative person which is why I chose to do a news programme instead of a music video. At the beginning of the project I was very unsure of how to use Premier as I had never made a news programme or any type of video before. However although I found using Premier a challenge at first, as I do ICT at A2 part of our coursework was to make a website and this provided me with the necessary skills in producing our news website. I knew exactly how to use all the features and how to produce a website to a professional quality. Introduction

3. One major issue I had with creating the video in Premier is how we would edit the project at home. The software is very expensive and not something you would go out and buy just to use for one project. However one option that was suggested to us was looking to see whether there was an option on the internet that allowed you to download the software free of charge for a 30day trial. I searched for the free trial software on the internet however it was not compatible with my system so all the editing had to be done at school. Both of us spent a lot of our free periods and stayed after school to edit the software.

4. Editing the software was very time consuming and tedious as we both had never used the software before and we had a huge number of clips to cut together. Both of us became stressed at times when we could not figure out what to do but the other person took over and managed to sort out the problem. Once we had found our way round the software, editing became a breeze which in the end was quite enjoyable.

5. We used Premier for editing and putting the video together as well as converting some movie file types. Part of the brief was to produce a website which we wanted to place videos on to create a brand identity between the three products. However a major technical problem was that we could not upload the videos onto the website software as they were the wrong file type. I tried endless methods to convert the files however in the end I had to ask the technician to help me. He had trouble at first trying to understand why the files were not compatible on the website software but managed to sort the problem. He showed me how to convert one of the video files from .mod to .avi(which was compatible with the website software) and then I changed the file type for all the other videos. He explained that the .mod file was the type of file that is taken straight off the camera but said it was too complicated to explain exactly why the file type was not compatible with the website software. When they were converted to .avithe files could now be used with nearly all other types of software.

6. We used a Panasonic SDR-S26 camera with 70x optical zoom to record our videos and also to take the images. We both had not used this type of camera before however we both had used a different type so getting use to the technology was a quick process. If we had not had access to this camera we would have had to use a camera that we had at home. We had some problems at first trying to get the videos off the camera as the USB port could not be found however we then realised that the camera needed to be switched on for the computer to recognise the devise.

7. We also used a tripod throughout the production of the project which improved the quality of the shoots. As we aimed to create a professional news programme it was essential that we used it. Filming free hand would have made the shots look messy and unprofessional not representing a real media product.

8. The computers we used throughout the website were easy to use and were not specialist ‘media computers’. As I do ICT at A2 I knew how to access any programs that we needed to use and if we had a minor technical difficulties I had good knowledge of how to deal with them. I feel that if we had had to use Mac computers I would have found doing the project a lot more time consuming as I have never used one before. However I feel if we had had access to this technology our final products would have been of better quality due to the excellent features they have.

9. Another form of software that I used was Dreamweaver. This was used to create the website. I found the software easy to use as I had produced most of my ICT coursework using the software. On the software I added images, rollover images, links, interactive forms, videos (once the file type was converted) text and an email link. This software helped me to produce, as I feel a professional news website.

10. Some other programmes that I used were Microsoft PowerPoint and paint to make a few simple changes on some of the images used. I used PowerPoint to produce the weather report, title sequence and backdrop when the presenter is speaking. Again as I had used PowerPoint many times before for my ICT coursework, I was well equipped on how to use the software, such as adding custom animation to the text and to the images where needed. If we had not had access to PowerPoint we would have had to insert individual images into Premier and edit each of the images. This would have been a very time consuming task. On paint I just added in titles on the weather map; ‘Today’ and ‘Tomorrow’ for the roll over image on the website.

11. Also for editing some of the images I added to the website I used the website www.picnik.com. I used the software before to edit images for my ICT and Media last year so I used the software to make the snow collage on the website. If I had not had access to this site I would have had to edit the photos together using Photoshop. As I was not completely confident on using the software I stuck to what I knew and used the online editing site.

12. Last years coursework involved using blogger which was a challenge for me then as it was quite hard to work out how to use all the features. As I gained the necessary skills from last year I was able to post blogs successfully and it was not a time consuming task like last year. Looking at the coursework it has proved to be a challenge however I feel more confident as a media student as I have gained new sets of media and ICT related skills which I can use for life.