Evaluation: Question 4

Prezi & Blogger

Adobe InDesign

These have allowed me to document my work in a multi-modal fashion, and using blogger meant that people all over the world could see my work, so it was easily accessed.

Prezi is an fun twist on a PowerPoint, jumping from point to point. I have used it to document my evaluation as it is much more interesting to look at than a paragraph of writing, or a Microsoft Office PowerPoint.

I have used Blogger to put together the entirety of my work, it allowed me to add new media features to my work, including videos, pictures, and hyperlinks

It also allowed me to create different posts, which meant that my work was easier to access and was kept neat and organized.

Search Engines

Adobe Photoshop

I have used search engines such as YouTube and Google to find information on RomComs, watch RomCom trailers, and look at RomCom posters.

It was very difficult to find a film magazine with a RomCom featured on its front cover, however, I used other film magazine covers to inspire my work.

Without search engines (or the internet) the content of my work would be extremely different. Writing my blog, or this Prezi (as I am currently doing) would not happen and I would have to spend money buying magazines, watching TV, hoping for a RomCom trailer to appear, then filming it and so on. Overall it would be much more difficult to do my coursework without the use of search engines to help me research and plan.

This allowed me to piece together my magazine and poster, using images from Photoshop and layering things such as credits and titles over the top.

I was already familiar with InDesign as I used it at AS, so I was able to quickly create my auxiliary tasks to a professional standard.

InDesign allowed me to create much better finished products than something like Microsoft Publisher would have enabled me to do, as it has much more detailed tools, and allowed me to create layers, meaning that the organization of the pieces was much easier.

I have used this to edit and manipulate the images used in my auxiliary tasks.

I am very familiar with this software, so I was confident when using Photoshop to edit my images.

I increased brightness to create a happy atmosphere, removed blemishes to create 'perfect' stars, and changed the background to suit my purposes.

Without Photoshop the end result would have been very different, as the quality of the finished picture would not have been as good, and wouldn't have suited the RomCom genre as well as it did.

Evaluation: Question 4

Nikon DLSR Camera

Sony PMW-200 Camera

This is also the school's camera. Having never used one of these cameras before, it took quite a bit of practice until I was used to both the size and the controls.

Like the DLSR camera, this camera is really high quality, and is used by professionals.

I used a range of shots to create my trailer, and, this being my first time filming, I had to learn how to do them all. The main shots I used were; medium close-ups (which I used for speech and reverse shots), and long shots (mainly for walking).

Using this camera has meant that my film is really high quality, adding to the professionalism of the trailer and giving me experience with an industry standard camera.

This is one of the school's cameras which I have been using for the past two years.

The quality is excellent, with the camera being a DLSR, which allowed me to take a professional standard of still picture.

I used the camera mostly indoors, for the auxiliary tasks, and other uses such as recording my hand-drawn work and location shooting.

Most shots were medium close ups and full-body shots, which are widely used in RomCom posters and film magazines. I already had some skill using the camera, which allowed me to take professional quality pictures.

Technologies I have used:

Nikon DLSR Camera

Sony PMW-200 Camera

Boom Mike

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Prezi

Blogger

Search Engines

Media Composer

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

Microphones

I used mics in the construction of my trailer to record sound. The two main microphones were the boom mic (which was higher quality, attached via a lead to the big camera, and could be put closer to the subject on film in order to pick up sound more easily), and the inbuilt camera (of average quality, and picked up sound automatically).

It didn't take much to get used to the mics, and I was really impressed with the quality of sound.

As well as using mics to record live sound, I used one to record the voice over, which I put over the trailer along with the music.

I had to be careful that the distance was right between the sound and the mic, otherwise the recording would be too quiet or would be muffled from being too close to the mic.

Media Composer

I used Media Composer to edit my trailer.

This was my first time using it, so, as it is very complex, it took me a while to get used to it, but once I did I was able to edit my clips and put them together to create my trailer.

Media Composer also allowed me to edit my sound, and, like InDesign, worked in layers, so it was easy to add on the voice-over and music to my live recording.

This software allowed me to add effects, such as filters, to the film, meaning that I could make different parts of the trailer have different looks, for example, a grey filter when looking at the angel on Earth, and a white filter when in Heaven.

I think this software has allowed me to create my trailer to a higher standard, and has allowed me to edit it in ways that other editors like Movie Maker never could.