How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. How did you use media
technologies in the
construction and
research, planning and
evaluation stages?
By Kvarne Bukowski

2. I used many different types of media technology when in the
constructing, researching, planning and evaluation stages of my
project. Technology gave me the creative knowledge of creating
imaginative pieces within the media field. I learnt how to use editing
software through the development of my project due to the fact that
I watched numerous of tutorial videos looking at people teaching
how to use the software for people who are beginners.

3.  By using different types of technologies it has allowed me to gain a
more enhanced knowledge into different areas of media's and
software's. I used a various of software and hardware within my
project, as well are numerous of different programme's such as
YouTube, Slide-share, Blogger and Microsoft Office. For my
research for my movie trailer I used various of websites on the
internet to allow me to gain a further understanding in film trailers
within the horror genre. I used YouTube to do a lot of my research
by looking at different types of film trailers, this allowed me to
analysis trailers similar to that of what I intend to make from film
trailers of the horror genre such as Annabelle and Saw which gave
me the knowledge of the common conventions of films from his
particular genre.

4.  I also used the website Blogger the most during the research and
planning stages of my project, due to the fact that it is the place
where my media research and planning would be stored organised
all in one place. Blogger was useful as it could allow you to use
HTML codes to embed videos of slideshows as well as easily
allowing me to upload images to show pictures of what I have
created or what I draw inspiration from. I also used slide share
within the planning stages of my project due to the fact that it allows
you to create power point presentations then to easily embed them
into a presentation.

5.  Within the construction stages of my project where I was creating
my main task and my ancillary task. I used different software's and
programme's to help me to create them for example, when creating
my main task of a film trailer I had to use video editing software to
ensure my trailer was effective. We decided in comparison to last
year Adobe Premier Elements would not be the best choice to edit
on footage this year due to the fact that when we did that last year it
lead to some complications and less quality within our film. So we
then decided it would be best to use the Apple Mac computers that
were provided by our school which contained the editing software of
Final Cut Express, in which we then decided it would best to use
editing software such as Sony Vegas Pro due to the fact that it was
a lot simpler and we could access the software from home.

6.  Before editing we had to use an appropriate video recording
camera in which to film our trailer, we used a camera called the
Nikon D3100 in which was placed on a tripod, which allowed us to
film in high definition, which is a common convention of films from
the horror genre. Due to the video camera could also take still
pictures as well as recording, we use the camera to take certain
pictures when in the developmental stages of our project so we
could upload them on Blogger and explain why we chose certain
locations.

7.  For the construction of our ancillary task of a film poster and a
magazine cover we decided it would be best to editing and create
the images on an appropriate editing based software. We decided
to edit them on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, these programmes
were very effective to use on our ancillary task as they could allow
us to be create and have no boundaries in creating
and incorporating aspects from our film trailer into a movie poster
and film magazine cover.

8.  When in the evaluation stages of my project, it was vital that I used
the correct programmes to finalise and make my evaluation and
research and planning presentable for the audience. I used Blogger
a lot during my evaluation stages of my project due to the fact that it
is quick and easily accessible for me during my project as I could
access it on the Mac's, computer, my IPod Touch and My Samsung
Galaxy. It was quick and easily and allow me to track my progress
and log in quickly to store all of my work or post pieces of work in
which I started but saved it as a draft, this feature was very useful
as it allowed me to work in my own time and not the piece of
technology. I could work on questions from the evaluation on
Blogger, then save it and leave it as a draft but then come back and
work on it in my own time, then I would use other sites such as
YouTube, Slide Share and Prezi to then upload my evaluation on to
then through using the HTML codes to embed the video.

9.  I also used the social media site of Twitter in my evaluation stages
of my project due to the fact that I needed to keep my audience
updated on the development of my film trailer and therefore needed
to Tweet about it. Also when the film was done I needed to Tweet a
link of the YouTube video of our finished trailer and post it onto
Twitter, which automatically embed the video, so I can then gain
feedback from the video in which my target audience can say
whether they want to improve or to change and then we can go and
change it to suit the preferences of our intended target audience.

10.  I encountered some difficulties when using technology in my project
due to the fact that we used a lot of technology in which we did not
use last year as this year the more complex technology came more
available as we got first preferences as we were in year 13.
 On the first time we used the camera there were some functions in
which I did not know how to use which created problems for us in
the long run. For example the 'live view switch' created problems as
every 30 seconds we had to press the switch as the camera timed
out, we were unaware why this happened and it was very time
consuming to keep pressing it. We had complications with the Nikon
camera due to the complexity of the camera and due to the fact that
I had not had any experience with the camera ever I was unaware
of the features of the camera, due to this many of the shots were
not good enough, as the auto focus setting was not on, which made
all of our shots blurry and we had to go out and film again, which let
to many complications. However, after looking at tutorials and
asking teachers for help we acquired a deeper knowledge on how
to use the camera.

11.  Also, at first we were advised by our teachers that it would be wise
if we edited using the schools editing software on the Apple Macs
such as Final Cut Express which had a few complications when
using. Due to the fact that this software was only available on 4
Apple Macs in our school there was a high demand for the
computers with other media students and other digital based
subject students wanting to use the computer to use led to many
complications for us as we found it very difficult to use the
computers as they were very limited. Due to the fact that we was
editing a video based project it would have taken a long time in
which needed a lot of time to spend on it, therefore we would have
needed to dedicate an appropriate amount on it.

12.  Also, due to the fact that none of my group had ever used Final Cut
Express the software was very difficult for us to learn in such a short
amount of time as we had no experience in it, therefore it slowed
down our process. Therefore, it would make more sense if we were
to use an editing software that we had experience in. We
considered to use the software we used last; Adobe Premier
Elements, however due to the fact that this software was very slow
and not as advanced as other software as it took a very long time to
render we decided to choose a better option for an editing software.
Some of us had the editing software of Sony Vegas Pro at home,
due to this together we edited and contributed ideas and concepts
to each other, this made it much more easy to edit and therefore we
overcame our editing software dilemma.

13.  Through using technology I believe we created very good
media products. I believed I developed my technical skills as
last year I do not believe I could create a media piece this
creative and complex. I am proud of some of the shots we
created when filming using the camera Nikon D3100, there
was one shot we used were we used the flashlight feature
and then turned the lights off to create a shadow, of the doll
which made it look like it was walking on its own. We used
the automatic focusing feature from the camera to help us
and it was very dark making it difficult to capture images.

14.  If I was to change anything to my media products I probably would
improve some of the sound of the trailer using editing skills,
however there was not enough time to do this, I believe some of the
quality sound could be improved, so if I had enough time I would
improve these in an attempt to boost my grade.