Question 6 of Media Studies G321 Evaluation

1. Q6: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
THE TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT?

2. Digital Cameras
◦ One of the most important technologies we used to construct our opening sequence is the
digital cameras from Canon that we used to film our opening sequence. These cameras enabled
us to shoot our film in high-definition quality which overall made our film clearer and brighter
for the audience, keeping their interest in our film.
◦ These cameras were also easy to use which meant that we were more time-efficient and were
able to work to our time schedule.
◦ What I learnt from using these cameras is how to frame characters within a shot, which angles to
use for particular parts of our film and what different camera shots represent. This allowed us as
a group to understand the affects that different shots and angles have on the audience and
made sure that we were always enabling the audience to connect with our film and identify with
our characters.

3. Apple iMac computers
◦ One of the biggest changes for me was going from a normal HP
laptop/computer (what I usually use) to an Apple iMac as these are
very different from ordinary computers. Although I had used macs
a few tines before, I was still relatively unfamiliar with them and did
not know or understand how to use all of its software such as
Safari and even the different commands of macs including ‘copy
and paste’ and ‘screenshots’. However, as I used them more and
more they became much easier to use.
o Once I became used to these computers, I used them for a wide range of things including blog writing,
research and editing. Macs have specific software programmes which are designed to make creative
activities easier, for example we used Final Cut Pro X to edit our film which is part of the Apple iMac’s
software. By having these programmes already downloaded onto the computers it made them easier and
quicker to use, allowing us to edit our film as soon as we had uploaded it to the programme.

4. Final Cut Pro X
◦ When it came to editing our film we used Final Cut Pro X which is an upgrade from the
original Final Cut Pro programme. I had never used this programme before and I was
only familiar with Windows Movie Maker which is a much more simplistic and limited
editing software programme than Final Cut Pro X.
◦ Although it was quite complex and advanced at first, it became easier and easier to use.
◦ This programme allowed us to trim our various cuts down to the slightest point, enabling
us to really make effective use of continuity editing as it meant that the different shots of
our film all flowed well alongside each other.
o As well as this, by using Final Cut Pro X we were able to incorporate sound successfully into our film as we were able to have both a
score and a voiceover playing at the same time and both of them were very clear for the audience to hear. This programme also
allowed us to edit our footage to the beat of our score, which enabled us to use one of the conventions of general filmmaking and
editing. This can be seen at the beginning of our film when the music drops and the scene opens with Maya walking down a corridor.
o Final Cut Pro X also gave us a wide range of fonts for titles and titling effects that we could use, allowing us to do what we wanted with
our titles. We chose to have a rather simplistic font with a slightly messy touch to it that almost looked like splattered paint as the titles
of other films within the sports/drama film genre are often simple but have a stylish touch to them to make them more individual and
unique. So we decided to use our titles in the same way to make our film more realistic as a sports/drama film.

5. Blogger
◦ In order to document my research, planning, construction and evaluation about my group’s film
project I had to write different blogs and for this I used a website called blogger.com.
◦ I had done some blog writing before this but I had never used this particular site to write a blog so it
was all pretty new to me. However, I quickly got used to the way how the site works and it became
very easy for me to use.
◦ Through the use of Blogger, I was able to do a variation of things including upload images,
presentations, videos and audio recordings to my blog posts to make them more insightful and
interesting. What this included was learning how to upload files from different websites including
YouTube and SoundCloud as well as search engines such as Google.
◦ For my evaluation blog I had to upload different presentations and audio recordings to my posts
which I had not actually done before. This involved me researching way in which HTML codes work
and how to embed different formats of these presentations and audios into my posts. Once I had
learnt how to do this it became very easy and quick.

6. YouTube
◦ During this project I frequently used YouTube for a variety of things, such as downloading videos
from the site onto my blog posts, research and uploading videos onto.
◦ In terms of research, I used YouTube to watch and study different opening sequences and titling
sequences. This allowed me to gain an insight into how to make a successful opening sequence with
effective titles specific to our film. On this site I could also watch the opening sequences of films
within our chosen genre, allowing me to do more specific research based around our film.
◦ Once I completed this research I would then use the examples that I had looked at and upload them
onto by blog, enabling people to read about my research and also watch the clips from where I had
found this information.
◦ I also used the site to upload videos onto as occasionally when I wanted to upload a video onto my
blog, the file was too large. However, with YouTube I was able to upload any videos and then upload
these videos onto my blog which meant that they were accessible in my blog posts. This was what I
had to do for my blog post about our test shoot as some of the videos from this were too large but
once they were on YouTube, I could then upload them correctly onto my post.

7. SoundCloud
◦ For my evaluation blog, I decided to answer the first question
through the use of an audio recording. This was done through
the website soundcloud.com which is an online audio
distribution platform which allows you to upload recordings
and tracks to its site for other people to listen to.
◦ I had never used, or even heard of, this site before so it was a
little tricky at first. Once I had figured out how to record
myself, however, it became easier and once I had finished
recording I was able to upload the audio to my blog.
o To begin with I did not know how to do this but after researching it, I learnt that you had to embed the file within
the blog post using the HTML code. When I did this is was very simple and easy to do.

8. Prezi, Slideshare and Moovly
◦ Prezi, Slideshare and Moovly were creative forms of technology that I used to complete the
evaluation of my project. I had never used either before so they were another two new
experiences for me.
◦ Prezi was very easy to sign up to as all you had to do was give your name and email address
and create a password and you then had an account. Creating a presentation on this site, on
the other hand, was a little bit more difficult as the templates and layouts of the different
presentations were quit complex to understand and use at first. However, they did provide a
tutorial of how to create a presentation and after I had gone through this it was much more
simple to use.
◦ Slideshare was very easy and simple to use as all you had to do was create a powerpoint
such as this and then upload it onto the website. Once it has been uploaded onto slideshare
I was then able to embed it onto my blog.
◦ Moovly is a slightly different creative form of technology which I used to answer question
four of my evaluation. Moovly is a website which allows you to create animated videos for
free. Our group did create one of thee animated before to describe the synopsis of our film,
however my personal contribution to this was relatively minimal and I had not used Moovly
on my own before. So when it came to creating one of these videos I did find it slightly
tricky at first as there are lots of different options and settings. However, when you first
create a video this site, like Prezi, also offers you a tutorial to show you how things work.
After this, I had learnt how to upload pictures to my video, how to insert text and how to
add sound as well and it quickly became easy to use.

9. Gmail
◦ One of the digital technologies that I have frequently used throughout our project is Gmail
which is Google’s email platform.
◦ I did already have a Gmail account but I often used it in ways that I hadn’t before for our project.
For example, I learnt how to attach images, audio files and videos to emails which I used to send
things to other members of my group. This also meant that we could send large files to each
other, such as videos and sound clips, to upload onto our blog which was easy to do.
◦ As well as this, I also learnt how to attach documents to emails which is a slightly longer process
than attaching a smaller file like a picture. However, it was just as simple nd easy to do once I
had learnt how to, it just took a little longer because the file was larger. This then meant that our
group members could send different documents to each other, such as the script for our film.