Evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 4

• 1.
  How did youuse media technologies in the construction, research, planning, and evaluation stages?
• 2.
  Technologies I used: BelowI have listed all of the different technologies I used throughout the wholeA2 course: - Blogger (consistent) - iPhone 6S/7 (filming) - Final Cut Pro X (editing) - MacBook Pro (consistent) - YouTube (research) - Tripod (filming) - Vimeo (distribution) - Emaze (planning) - Prezi (planning) - Photoshop (ancillary) - Wix (evaluation) - SoundCloud (planning) - SurveyMonkey (research) - SlideShare (planning) - Royalty Free. Net (research)
• 3.
  Consistent technologies: Throughout mywork, there have been some technologies that I have used in all of the phases (construction, research, planning, and evaluation).These include Blogger, Prezi, Emaze, and SlideShare. Blogger was the main website I used to display all of my work, and this was the same last year meaning I was already very familiar with how it worked. Because of this, I was able to use it with more confidence and freedom this year due to the knowledge I had gained from the previous year. An example of this is the way I used labels on my blog to separate the content of each post. Prezi, Emaze, and SlideShare are all presentation software’s that I used throughout in many different ways.They were all used throughout the research and planning phases to help display the ideas I had about my production and the research I had done on things such as my target audience.They were all very useful because I could embed them onto my blog which also helped to make it more interactive to users as a whole. I also used them frequently when displaying my ideas to my class as they work very well to present ideas alongside me explaining what each slide on the presentation meant. As you can see now, I have also used them in equal ways on my evaluation website to help make it just as interactive for users as my blog.
• 4.
  Specific technologies: Throughout mywork, I found there were some technologies that served a specific purpose and therefore could only really be used during certain phases. For example, SurveyMonkey was used primarily during my research phase to receive primary data about products similar to mine. I then used it again post production to receive some general feedback on my short film and the two ancillary tasks. It was a very useful website for me and allowed me to receive a range of feedback and research. I used social media such asTwitter to post the survey’s I created, meaning people I knew would fill it out which was useful as they are of a similar age to me which relates to my target audience, but also meant that people I didn’t know could fill it out giving me more of a range with my results. Another piece of technology I found was suited to one purpose was the websiteVimeo. I used it in the final stages of my short film to share what I had made, and Final Cut Pro X was the editing software I used which also had that one purpose to put all of my clips together. I also used Photoshop to create both of my ancillary tasks. I had never properly used this, and so it was something new for me and it took time to understand fully. It could have been easier to use a more basic piece of software, but I felt that mastering Photoshop would help me in the long term as well as making the ancillary tasks better. Photoshop allowed me to edit my poster in great depth to achieve all of the different colours and contrasts that I wanted.
• 5.
  Hardware used: iPhone: It wasconvenient that I got a new iPhone (7) as I started the course. I did some research and found that it has a 12 megapixel camera, which I compared against some of the cameras available to me at school. I found that my iPhone was either better or just as good to use, and therefore made the decision to use it for filming, and well as taking pictures for my ancillary tasks. It was very easy for me to use and upload to my MacBook due to the understanding I already had.The quality of the camera is very good which helps to make it more appealing, and I generally had no issues. Tripod: I don’t own a tripod of my own, and so I borrowed one from the school to use for my filming. I encountered a problem early on when realising that my phone would not fit because the tripod was made for camera’s. However, this was sorted very quickly as I found an attachable piece of equipment online that would allow me to fix my phone to the tripod. I had used a tripod in my previous year of A – Level media and therefore had some good experience with it. It helped me to film with a steady camera and keep a consistent composition of each shot. MacBook: I used my own MacBook for most of my posts as well as editing my piece.This made everything a lot easier for me as I am fully aware of how to work it and have a very strong understanding of each component.
• 6.
  Final Cut ProX, Photoshop: This slide talks about my decision to use Final Cut Pro X, and Photoshop: In my previous year of A – Level media, I had used iMovie to edit my opening title sequence. However, this year I took a step forward and decided to use Final Cut Pro X. I looked at the features of these two editing software’s and found that Final Cut had a much wider variety and allowed me to do a lot more with my short film this year. I downloaded it onto my MacBook to use for editing. It did take me a while to have a full understanding of this software and I had to use many different online tutorials to completely understand how to use it, which was time consuming. However, it proved worth it when it came to the editing phase and I knew how to navigate my way around the program. Using Final Cut helped to make the quality of my film better by adding more modern features for my target audience (younger generation). It was also very easy to make changes as I went along, and I always had the option to go back and change something if my feedback informed me of any problems. As I mentioned before, Photoshop was new for me and I used similar online tutorials that helped me understand Final Cut. Again, this was time consuming but also proved worth it as it helped my ancillary tasks (specifically my poster) achieve a high quality and make them appear even more realistic.