The document summarizes the technologies used at various stages of a media production project. During research, planning, and evaluation, technologies like WordPress, SlideShare, Scribd, digital cameras, iMovie, Google, YouTube, and social media were utilized. Adobe After Effects, cameras, microphones, and VideoCopilot were key technologies in the production stage. While some technologies posed initial challenges, experience from the prior year's project and tutorials helped the students become proficient in all the technologies by the evaluation stage.
2. Technologies
0 From the beginning of the year we used a range of
technologies, throughout the stages of Research,
Planning, Production and Evaluation.
0 We did this as we were more confident with using
technologies due to our progression from last year
meaning we were more confident.
0 This allowed us more freedom when we chose our
production genre and style.
3. Apple Macs
0 We used Apple Macs throughout our three stages as
this was our main PC that we used universally. This
was useful as Macs have a lot of Memory and RAM
meaning it cut down processing speeds when using
large software such as editing or photo manipulation
software. These were very easy to use for us as it
wasn’t our first time using them. We had experience
from last year.
4. Research and Planning
0 The technologies we used during
research were:
0 Word press – We used this as a blog
for our audience to see our posts.
We used this during research to
post trailer analysis as well as
character analysis, storyboards,
scripts etc. This was also useful in
obtaining feedback from our
audience from our surveys. This
was therefore very beneficial. We
did not struggle with this website
as we had plenty of experience
from last year.
5. 0 Slideshare- We used Slideshare in our Research to post
our Audience Feedback onto our blog. This was useful
as this meant our audience could see the results as we
had arranged them on a powerpoint presentation. This
was more useful to upload on slideshare as we could
embed it onto our blog rather than having to send the
powerpoint file for people to see. This was again very
easy for us to use as we had experience of using this
website before.
6. 0 Scribd- We used Scribd to upload scripts and shotlists on
to our blog. This was useful as it meant we could embed it
onto a post on our blog rather than having to upload a
Word Document which our audience would have to
download. Therefore, it was much more convenient. We
had some minor struggles using this product at first, but as
it was very similar to Slideshare we were easily able to
navigate the website.
7. 0 Digital Cameras – We used HD camcorders during
research every time we attained audience feedback
for one of our drafts. This was important as we
needed to know what improvements our target
audience wanted. With the use of digital cameras, it
was much easier to capture as it was portable and
easy to transfer the clips off the device. We had no
struggles with this technology as we had experience
from last year.
8. 0 iMovie – This was used after we had captured the
audience feedback or research videos, to edit all the
clips into one whole video. This was useful as we
could easily link all the clips together to piece a video.
This was not a struggle as we had experience of this
last year when we were editing for our AS production.
9. 0 Google – We used Google as our primary search
engine whenever we were searching for sites or
images as it was very convenient. This meant we
could easily search for movie websites or images. This
was useful as we were able to find websites as we
didn’t know the URL. This helped us during our
research particularly for ancillary research of
websites.
10. 0 Youtube – We used Youtube during our research to
find videos of all the similar products of our genre
such as trailers to analyse. This was useful as we were
easily able to search and analyse the conventions of a
trailer. As it is also a web2.0 website it was also useful
when we were uploading research videos such as
audience feedback to share in our blog. We had no
difficulties what so ever with this website as we knew
how to use it very well.
11. 0 Social Networking sites – We used Facebook and
Twitter to communicate within our audience as well
as ask them for feedback on any polls we had posted
or what they thought of our products. This was very
important as these sites were something our target
audience used on a daily basis so it was more
convenient for them also. We found these websites
very easy to use as we had known how to navigate
these pages through personal use.
12. 0 We used Social Networking
Sites to establish our
communication with our
audience as we held polls
for soundtrack research
through facebook. This
meant our audience could
vote through our page and
we could gather up the
information of what they
liked.
0 We also used Social
networking sites to link
trailer similar to our genre
so our audience would
know what type of movie
we were looking to make.
13. Production
0 We used a range of technologies during our production
stage. These were:
0 Adobe After Effects – We used this as our main editing
software as iMovie was too basic for the editing we had in
mind such as the special effects. We also used After effects
to record sound for voiceovers. We had not used this
product beforehand so we did have difficulties navigating
and finding everything at first. But we soon got used to the
software and used the technology to its full potential.
14. 0 At the start our production we were totally aware if
we were going to achieve an authentic action/sci-fi
movie with special effects we were going to have to
use expert video editing software to do it. We used
After Effects it as it was easily accessible as it was
already installed on the school mac’s and our editor
had purchased it sometime ago.
15. 0 We first of all found it hard as it was really complex
compared to easier software like Imovie, but with a
lot of tutorials for example on videcopilot.net , we
were able to learn base fundamentals to progress and
be able to comfortably use After Effects. The london
missile scene near the end of the trailer was a specific
example of a tutorial used, by learning how to make it
we were able to manipulate it into our trailer with our
theme.
16. 0 Cameras – We used cameras to record footage for our
movie trailer as well as take pictures for our anciallary
task. This was very useful as recorded in HD. It was
also portable and compact meaning we didn’t have to
carry huge pieces of equipment when we went to
shoot in different locations. Also it was very easy to
transfer the video clips from the camera onto the
Macs. This was a very easy piece of technology for us
to use as we already had experience on it beforehand.
17. 0 Microphones – We used microphones during
production for voiceovers which were used in the
movie trailer. This allowed us to record our sound in
clear quality. It was also small and didn’t take up a lot
of space. We did not have any difficulties using a
microphone as we had already used it before so we
knew what to do.
18. 0 VideoCoPilot – This was a website we found from google
when were researching. This website had tutorials for
special effects on Adobe After effects which allowed us to
find the effect we were looking for and learn it easily and
create it. This was very useful as it had a handful of effects
we wanted for our movies such as the interior of a space
shuttle etc. We had not used this site last year so it took us
some time to navigate but as it was very similar to Youtube
we quickly got the hang of things.
19. 0 Photoshop – We used this software for our ancillary
task of poster. This was a image manipulation
software which allowed us to edit our images. We
used this software over others on the market such as
Paint because this was more advanced and had the
technology we were looking for. We already had
experience of this software through personal use so
overall we found it easy to use. However, we did run
into some hiccups but we were able to solve them
very quickly.
20. 0 Wix – We used Wix for our ancillary task of a website. We
had researched into this website through Google and saw a
lot of potential so we decided to use it. This was beneficial
as we knew this was very helpful for making a website. We
struggled with the website at first as we didn’t know how
to navigate or design the pages. It had a steep learning
curve as a lot of features were hidden under menus but
after tinkering with the software we were soon able to
design the website we wanted with links to everything
from our social networking sites as well as our embedded
video and poster.
21. 0 Dafont – We researched Dafont from the use of google
as we were looking for fonts to put into our movie,
poster and website. Dafont was very useful as a lot of
fonts were downloadable from the website. It also had
a search bar and categories so it was easier for us to
navigate. We used Dafont to download our font
“NeuroPol” from the website and used it for all three
of our products. We had no struggles whatsoever with
this website as we already knew how to use it through
personal use.
22. 0 YouTube – We used YouTube for our production as a way to
distribute our video. It also allowed quick trimming of the
video once uploaded onto the site. We used it as it is the
most popular site for video sharing so it was also more
convenient for our audience who used the site on a very
frequent basis. We uploaded our main movie trailer
through this website. We already had plenty of experience
of this website through our personal use as well as from
the Research stage. Therefore, we did not have any
troubles using this website.
23. Evaluation
0 These were the technologies we used during our
evaluation:
0 Cameras – We used Cameras during our evaluation as
we recorded ourselves for some questions. This
meant it was easy for us to record as the camera was
portable and record in good quality. This was again a
very easy task as we could easily use this technology
through our experience from production as well as
research and planning.
24. 0 Microphones – We used microphones to record our
voices for our evaluation. We used this for one of our
questions as we recorded a podcast. The microphones
we used were useful as it captured our voice in clear
quality as well as being able to transfer the clips to the
computer. We had no problems by this stage of using
this technology as we had already used it numerous
times.
25. 0 Sony Vegas – We used Vegas as our main editing
software in our evaluation. We did this as it was basic
and we didn’t need anything fancy for our evaluation.
It was quick and easy to use for our editor. We needed
this software to edit the sound clips and the video
clips into one. Also as it was something which we all
had a lot of experience using through personal use, we
knew we would suffer no setbacks at all.
26. 0 Youtube – We used YouTube, just like the production,
to distribute some questions of our evaluation. We did
this as YouTube has an embed feature meaning we
could embed our video onto other sites. This was very
useful as it meant we could have all our evaluation
answers in one place. We had again no difficulty using
this product as it was very easy to use and we had
plenty of experience.
27. 0 Social Networking sites – We used sites such as
Facebook and Twitter to get screenshots of evidence
for questions in our evaluation. This was very useful
as all our audience feedback was recorded on these
pages. We also mainly recorded feedback for our
website as it was more convenient for our audience.
These sites were easy to use and navigate as we had
used it a lot before.
28. 0 Prezi – We used prezi in our evaluation as we wanted
to branch out with the technology we used in our
evaluation. Prezi allowed us to present our work in a
more interactive way. It allowed us to add voiceover
as well as have smooth transitions through one main
hub. We hadn’t used prezi before so we did have some
difficulties using the website. We found it difficult to
move around the frames but again we soon figured it
out and believe we have used it to its full potential.
29. 0 Wordpress – We used Wordpress in our evaluation for
screenshots as we needed it for reference in our
questions mentioning the target audience. As our
Wordpress was organised well, it was very easy for us
to take samples of what we needed. As we had used
the website for over a year, we also had no difficulties
at all.
30. 0 SlideShare – We are using Slideshare right now in
question 4 as you can see. We used slideshare as it
was easy to upload our PowerPoint onto the website
as well as being able to embed it onto our website. It
was also much more convenient than having to open
up a powerpoint presentation. We had already used
this website before so we found it very easy to use.
31. 0 Wix – We used wix in our evaluation to create a
website mainly for our answers to each question. We
used this software as we already knew what we could
do from the production of our ancillary website. We
could embed Youtube Videos onto our pages as well
as organise it very well. We had no difficulties using
this due to experience.