AS Level Media Evaluation - Question 6

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

2. CREATIVITY
 I used serif MoviePlus X5 to edit my opening sequence, I have used this
software before in year 11 when doing my GCSE’s therefore I
understood very well how to use this to edit footage. However, Serif
MoviePlus X5 hasn’t got many options on how to edit as it is very basic
and isn’t that advanced in creativity therefore I should’ve used other
software's such as Adobe as I have had experience using this software
as well and it is very professional and advanced in technology.

3. TECHNICAL SKILLS
 Within the process of creating my opening sequence I have learnt and
have an understanding of the camera shots that should be included
within the opening sequence due to the genre our opening sequence is
based on. I also improved my editing skills as I edited part of the opening
sequence and I had a better understanding on how to use the different
software's.
 One aspect in which I could improve and have a better understanding of
is the sound within the opening sequence as when I was editing I found it
difficult finding the suitable music track and sound effects, trying to make
sure the opening sequence didn’t look/sound like a trailer.

4. WEEBLY
 I began using Weebly in September 2015, at first I didn’t like the idea of
putting all of my work on to my blog however, once I learnt how to use
it effectively and properly I really enjoyed it as I was be able to reflect on
all of the software’s I had used and give my opinions on them. After
learning how to use it properly I began to really like it as it gave me a
variety of templates to choose from and I was able to create my website
to suit me.

5. SOFTWARES USED
DURING
COURSEWORK

6. PREZI
 Prezi is an alternative software for PowerPoint, however Prezi is more creative and allowed me to
make the presentation to suit my purpose. When I first began using Prezi I didn’t like it at all, I
found it confusing and very hard to use however, over time I got used to how the software works
and as I began to use it properly I found it was more effective. You will be able to see I have
grown more confident when using Prezi as my first Prezi was very plain and wasn’t laid out very
clearly however, now I have laid it out very clearly and I have began to add images into it to
make it more informative.

7. EMAZE
 For some of my research and planning I used Emaze to present my work. Emaze is a presentation
software, in my opinion I didn’t like using Emaze as it was very hard to get the hang off and it didn’t
allow me to create my presentation from scratch as I had to choose a template. Emaze didn’t have a
large variety of templates to choose from therefore I found it hard finding a suitable template for what I
was creating a presentation for. Some aspects of Emaze were good such as; the background images
and texts allowed me to create an atmosphere however, due to Emaze’s templates being
unprofessional I struggled to create the correct atmosphere for the purpose of my presentation.

8. POWTOON
 I really disliked using Powtoon at first however, once I began experimenting with all of the
different aspects of the software I got the hang of it and found it very effective. It allowed me
to change the background, font and font size, it also allowed me to include images of my
choice. Once I learnt how to do all of these things I was able to create a presentation to suit
my purpose and I was able to create the right mood and atmosphere to suit what I was
talking about.

9. PIXTON
 Within the planning of my opening sequence I used Pixton to create a digital storyboard, the
reasons for me creating a digital storyboard is because it allowed me to see in better detail what
my opening sequence was going to look like. However, in my opinion I think that Pixton is a bad
website to use to create a digital storyboard on because they don’t have a full range of colours
such as white and black which are two very popular colours which we used for our characters
clothes but for our storyboard we had to change the colours of our characters clothes as the
software didn’t have the colours we needed.

10. SOFTWARES
 By using a variety of different software's allowed me to learn how to
use a variety of software's on the internet instead of sticking to the
simple software's such as Microsoft. Once I had created my
presentations on many different software’s I had to put them onto my
blog therefore I embed the work onto my Weebly page which I didn’t
know how to do before experimenting with all of the software’s I used
such as; Prezi, Pixton, Powtoon, Emaze etc.

11. YOUTUBE & TWITTER
 I have used YouTube previously to listen to music or watch videos on there, however I have
never put my own videos onto it. YouTube allowed me to distribute my production and let the
public see it and leave comments on what they thought of it therefore by doing this I learnt
how to use YouTube properly and be able to distribute my own productions onto there. I also
used Twitter to advertise my production even more as I put the link of it on there, I already
knew how to do this as I have had Twitter for many years therefore I understood how to use it.

12. SKILLS DEVELOPED
 From my Preliminary task to now, my skills have significantly improved due to me gaining more confidence when
experimenting and using different types of software’s in which I use to present my work.
 One advantage of using different types of technologies to present my work is I was able to experiment with many different
software’s in which I hadn’t used be for, this allowed me to see which software’s presented my work nicely and professionally.
Also, using the different software’s made my work different and not so boring as it wasn’t all presented on a word document.
Furthermore, by using these different software’s allowed me to include other aspects in which word documents don’t allow me
to do, this allowed me to develop my work even further as I was able to make it more interesting for the reader as it wasn’t just
paragraphs of writing.
 A disadvantage of using other types of software’s was sometimes the websites crashed which caused me to lose all of the work
I had completed therefore I had to re-do it. This was very time consuming as I had to re-do all work which was lost therefore I
didn’t have as much time to improve my work. Furthermore, for question 7 I am planning on filming my group and I to discuss
the entire process and what we did/didn’t enjoy. I also am planning on doing a video of myself to give my own view on the
entire process. However, by using video may be seen as time consuming due to if any improvements need to be made to my
work as if anything else needs to be added in to my video then I will be forced to re-do the entire video as I’m not able to just
add extra things into it.
 Overall, I believe that my skills have developed as I am now able to use a variety of different software's and hardwares
confidently, and efficiently. This will help me in the future as I will be able to use the software's I enjoyed and were reliable
again which will save my time as I will already know the software's in which I like using rather than having to go through the
whole process of experimenting with other software's again.