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 Jack Suddaby
2. I used many different technologies and
programs to express my range of ability and to
create a wider portfolio of different
technologies; it also allowed me to portray my
research and planning through different visual
mediums.
3. Youtube
To actually convert the file from Final Cut, I needed to export it:
I went to 'File' and
then 'Export' and
finally I selected
'Using Quicktime
Conversion' . As if I
exported it as a
'Quicktime Movie' it
wouldn't work on
Youtube because of
the
formatting, Once I
clicked that I used a
sheet as a guideline
to exporting it
correctly to
Youtube:
4. Youtube
As I selected
certain sections
of the on screen
'Options' I
simply used this
sheet and it
worked
perfectly. The
video then
exported to
wherever I
wanted it to
go, and I went
on the website
'Youtube".
5. Youtube
I used this website to upload any video that I made, it's
incredibly simplistic to use.
At the top of the website there is a simple 'Upload" button, for
which you click to give you this screen:
6. Youtube
It then came up with this screen, you click 'Select files to upload'
and then choose the video file you need to upload:
This screen then
allowed me to
edit the 'Title'
choose the
'Description' and
add 'Tags' (which
are used as key
words when
people type them
in to the Youtube
Once completed, I could then use this video and upload it to search bar)
my blog. This is as simple as the steps that came before it, all I
needed to do was to: go on the video, select 'Share', then
choose 'Embed‘.
7. Youtube
This is what it looks like.
Once I have copied (cmd -
c) the 'Embed' I then went
over to my blogger:
Created a new blog post and
copied the 'Embed" to the
'HTML' section. Once that was
complete the video would be
uploaded, and it became
possible to view all my
videos.
8. Evaluation of Youtube
I used Youtube to help me with my research, for example: I uploaded my first
draft, and people were able to watch it on their own computers at home and give
me feedback as to how and what I need to do to change it to become my final
product. I also used it to help research into trailers and intertitles. I uploaded
videos that helped me evaluate what would be the ideal intertitle for my final
product. I also used it for an animated storyboard, which gave me a structure to
work on for when I finished my final video. Youtube also helped me find idents. I
actually created my own ident which features at the beginning of my trailer. This
came from looking and evaluating different idents all found from Youtube.
Youtube also helped to portray my Target Research into Font's, as I filmed my
target audience selecting their favourite font, the video was an effective way of
collating the research I have done. Considerably the most important factor of
Youtube was to look at other trailers for which I could quickly compare theirs to
mine and use Youtube to base my initial ideas from several different horror
trailers; each trailer that I researched into on my blogger features a clip from
Youtube of their trailer, which gives my blog an easy reference point when
looking at my work to professionals.
9. Slideshare
• This has been one of the most useful online websites
of my coursework, not only to upload my own power
points, but also to help in extensive research in
simplistic and bullet pointed facts about trailers. It
enabled me to give information in a different format
which made it far more simplistic and easy to read. It
also didn't clog up my blog, with lots of long
paragraphs (kind of like this one, ironic) . Slideshare
also made it possible to quickly show editing stages i.e
my magazine, through step by step production. (This
may sound a bit like a cooking programme, I hope you
like masterchef)
10. Slideshare
Here is the website. All you have to do is select
'Upload' which is the orange button at the top.
11. Slideshare
Once selected:
This will appear
(left) because I have
the simple package
I select the orange
'Upload'
Once I select this option you
choose the Powerpoint you want
and convert. You then add the
'Title', 'Category' and a
description if you wanted to. (I
didn't want to).
12. Slideshare
Once that’s all done it's
ready to be uploaded
onto my blog.
Here is what it looks like once finished uploading onto
Slideshare. I can look through my final Powerpoint before
copying the embed to my blogger. This is useful as if I
have made any mistakes at this point, it isn’t too late to
correct them, and upload the corrected one. I then copied
and pasted the Embed code onto my blogger, just the
same as Youtube.
13. Evaluation of Slideshare
I have mainly used Slideshare when I have
wanted to contract a lot of information into a
shorter, easier reference. It has enabled me to
collate lots of different pictures and information
and have it held together with a tidy
Powerpoint, it also makes everything look far
more professional, opposed to long, weary
essay formats.
14. Prezi
This is a website I used a couple of times. It's
effectively an online spider diagram. Much like
Slideshare and Youtube it's incredibly simplistic to
use. However although it's simplistic I most
certainly found it the very frustrating. The
website expects you to know what to do with all
the icons. I did not know what to do with any of
the icons, it took me some time to get my head
around the arrows and 'paths' for which the Prezi
‘timeline’ would follow, however I got there in
the end.
15. Prezi
Here is a print screen of
the website in the 'editing
stage'. Prezi is handy
because you can upload
Youtube videos to show
the audience during the
Prezi timeline. You simply
click 'Media' and then
Youtube, you then need
the URL of the video, and
you will have to video in
your Prezi.
16. Prezi
This also took me a bit of time to figure
out, and what confused me more was just to
move the video around and to resize, as it was
hard to correspond to the pathway with the
video in the correct time.
17. Evaluation of Prezi
In evaluation of Prezi, although it isn't my
ideal online website, it still looks smarter than
long paragraphs and is more convenient for
the audience to actually evaluate how I have
researched into different products, not to
mention it’s pro media style.
18. Photoshop
Photoshop is an image editing software developed and
manufactured by Adobe Systems Inc. Photoshop is
considered one of the leaders in photo editing
software. The software allows users to manipulate,
crop, resize, and correct colour on digital photos.
It was a massive contribution to my final portfolio as it
enabled me to expand what my camera and ‘make up’
skills weren’t capable off. Photoshop allowed me to
create a far more spooky atmosphere amongst both
my poster and magazine cover.
19. Photoshop
This is a quick example of how I used
Photoshop to change images and
manipulate them to how I want them to
look. An example would be my poster:
20. Photoshop
Two Originals
Editing Process
First Draft Final Piece after feedback
21. Photoshop
Final Piece after feedback
Two Originals
You can clearly see the change as the first two pictures are
completely different to the final piece, Photoshop has
enabled me to edit these two images to create shadows
and dramatic effect.
22. Photoshop
• Here is another example of using Photoshop
through my magazine cover:
Original image in Editing stage
Photoshop Final Piece
23. Photoshop
• As you can see, much like the poster, I have
been able to mutate the original models head
and make it look far more scary than the
original
I also edited in the
‘Little White Lies’ logo
through Photoshop, by
layering it on top if the
background image
24. Photoshop/Facebook
I also put the magazine cover
onto facebook. I have
removed the identity of the
people commenting, and
some of the comments ( you
can use your own
imagination for them, if you
like).
As you can see the general
feedback is good, most
people are ‘scared’ from the
magazine cover. People also
commented about a small
white dot under the nose, for
which my peer suggested a
Photoshop technique to
remove it, and so I did.
25. Facebook
• Facebook is a good secondary research tool as, it
is a time effect way of getting lots of people to
view and comment on your work. Because my
main target audience is for teenagers, facebook
directs easy, fast attention to my product strait to
the TA’s eye’s. However because the people that
view it are ‘my friends’ (most of them
anyway), they are likely to be critical of my
work, as they don’t want to offend me. However I
can say certain people did comment, that I don’t
have a great amount of contact with anymore
which can say something about the poster.
26. flickr
This was the first time I have used the
online site ‘flickr’. This is a very popular
photo site and was a place were I could
freely put up my magazine cover and
wait for comments to help improve my
final piece. Because it is an open
website, it means the cover isn't just
being subjected to my
friends, hopefully resulting in a more
trustworthy final result. It was
extremely simple to use, and much like
blogger, all I had to do was to make an
account which I could do through my
Youtube account and then just upload
the image and wait. It turned out to be
a successful bit of developed research
as it pushed my final product forward.
27. Photoshop
• Overall Photoshop has been a massive help in
editing my final ancillary pieces. To look at the
specifics of how I edited my ancillary products
go to my Magazine Post and my Poster post
(they both show the steps I took to edit my
images).
28. Evaluation of Photoshop
• The best way to look at what Photoshop has
done for my coursework, is to actually
evaluate what my final pieces would look like,
without Photoshop. In reality, it looks bleak.
Photoshop has enabled me to push my final
pieces further and actually expand my grade
boundaries by creating a far more effective
poster and magazine, than what I could
originally accomplish without the aid of
Photoshop.
29. Complications whilst using Photoshop
• The main complication was that I couldn’t
work out how to edit and do certain things
such as change the colour on a Mac
computer, because I did most of my work at
home (on a PC) the change from my own
version of Photoshop (which is shown through
my print screens) and the sixth form’s
Macs, mean shortcuts that I was familiar with
on the PC changed when I used the Mac.
30. Complications whilst using Photoshop
• I also still struggled to work out how to do
certain effects whilst editing, for example how
to use the ‘drop shadow’ to create that effect
for my poster. This is were I used the research
side through Youtube, this enabled me to have
tutorials such as this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vcqPuTH
Vm8
31. Complications whilst using Photoshop
Although I had to teach myself
certain aspects of the editing
stage through Youtube, friends
also told me how to rub
certain parts out, for instance
the surrounding of the final
poster:
32. Things to improve
This is the part of my Photoshop editing that I
am most critical about as I believe the black
outline doesn’t look as professional as it
should do. If I were to do this again, it would
be corrected by creating a smoother ring
around the black line, instead of the sudden
change from instant black to white. The stairs
would also be highlighted more, to give a
clearer idea of what the shadow is on.
Everything else I am moderately pleased
with, but the issues that I have stated are
something that have been made clear
through my own observation and several
others and would be something I would like
to correct if I ever did anything like this again.
33. Final cut pro/express
• I have predominantly explained how I edited
major sections within my trailer on an earlier
blogg post. I think the major things I have
learnt have been simplistic shortcuts, for
example if I wanted to view the whole of my
editing process I just held down ‘z’ instead of
scrolling out, shortcuts like that really helped
my time management.
34. Final Cut
This was one of the
most major editing
milestones I had to
complete as I needed
to work out how to
add a tint, as well as
a shaky effect, which
I simply managed to
do through trial and
error. I suppose a
time effective way
could have been to
use a Youtube
video, however I did
manage to find tint
etc pretty quick so it
wasn’t to time
restraining.
35. Final Cut
Audio was also a massive
issue and was something I
knew I had to get right. I
used Soundtrack pro to
create my draft
ident, however I didn’t like
using the software, and
managed to find all the
sound effects I needed from
royalty free websites and
music of Youtube that was
copyright free. I then simply
edited the audio via Final
Cut, by using fades and
pitches, which is all under
‘Effects’.