1. I used many different forms of technology to try and help me make the films good as it could be. something's were only used in the preparation and planning stages of the film, such as a digital camera and a scanner, where as others were used in the filming and editing process, such as Imovie and a film camera. I have learnt many things along the way, both good and bad, to do with each bit of technology I have used. What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my project?
2. Apple Mac The Apple Macs were the computers we used for this task each lesson. they had all of the relevant programs which were needed for me to create my project. These programs are listed later and include ITunes and garage band. The Macs were quite difficult to use to begin with, but this would be because I have been brought up to use windows, and they have a completely different setup. For example, windows has a start menu, which links to every program on the computer. However, the Macs have a bar at the bottom, but that does not show all the programs. This mean that if I needed something that wasn’t there, I would have to work my way thought he Mac, which is very difficult. Also, the is no ‘Alt’ key, but a ‘command’ key, which is often used instead of the ‘Ctrl’ key. This might sound rather simple, but it can, and will get very confusing after a while.
3. Imovie I used Imovie to edit the actual camera footage and place all of the music and voice over's in the correct place. this program was very useful as it was simple to use, and contained all the transactions, and the special effects i needed. i would spend about half an hour each lesson loading the footage up onto Imovie, then the rest of the lessons editing everything. Unfortunately i do not have Imovie at home, so I could not do any of this work there. Imovie is great, because it is simple and easy to use. The cutting method is straight forward, and there is a wide range of video and audio effects, of which some featured in my project, such as turning the film to black and white, and fade ins and fade outs.
4. Garage Band Garage band is a music program, where people can create and edit sound tracks. it comes with many different instruments all ready loaded, so people can put the score together. I found that garage band was not very good. this is because the instruments sounded similar to a piano, whenever I tried to use a string instrument. This was a large problem as I was trying to get the sound of two violins playing together, but unfortunately they did not sound correct, so they weren't used in the end.
5. Internet The internet is a massive resource, which allows me to collect information which was critical to my project. It also allowed me to create and work on my blog, as well as helping me find the correct copy-right music for the project. The internet also allowed me to watch other films, to give me some inspiration for my project, such as angles to use, suitable music and what the pace of the film should be. The best thing about the internet is the fact that there is so much information out there, and there are many websites, such as Google, which contains most these links at the click of a mouse. The internet also provided me with many how-to’s, when I started to struggle with the programs. These were simple to find, and were easy to follow.
6. iTunes iTunes is the program which stores all of the created and saved music, so it can be uploading into films, or music devices. iTunes is a relatively easy program to navigate, as music files can be organised in name, length, artists name, alums name and many other methods. This means that it is easy to find a single file, when it is mixed in with many others. Files can be created within garage band, and then saved as an iTunes file. This can be difficult because you cant save the file into iTunes directly, and you have to ‘import’ it in, which uses a different method to saving. This once again shows the difference between windows and apple Mac’s.
7. Cameras I used two different cameras for the media project. The most important one was the video camera, which was used to film the project, ready for editing. There are also a couple of times when the camera is used to record sounds which would be put over other parts of the project. The main two problems I had with the camera was the amount of time it took to set up, as there was the tape to go in, tri-pod to set up and other small tweaking to perform. The second problem I had was the fact that it was easy to record over something I had just filmed, which happened several times. To be completely honest, the only chance this would happen would be if I had played back what I was doing before, which I did to make sure what I had was good enough. The second camera I used was used to take the photos of the possible locations for filming, and for my casting shots. This camera was simple to use as it was a point and click camera, and therefore requires no set-up time. The other good thing about this camera was it is easy to view and delete pictures, while they are o the camera still.
8. Scanner I used two different scanners for my project, one was at school the other one was at home. These scanners was only briefly used, for a couple of tasks. The scanners were used to upload my story board onto my blog. I found that the scanner at home was simpler and easier to use than the scanner at school, because there was one button to press, then the whole thing was uploaded to my computer, however, there were problems getting the pictures onto blogger This means that I had to use the one at school, which took longer to upload. This is because to scan a single picture onto the Macs, I had to start uploading it, then choose how much of it I wanted to scan (it didn’t do the whole thing automatically), then finish the upload. Also when I went to first upload them, the scanner wasn’t connected to the Mac.
9. Conclusion In conclusion, I have learnt how to use a range of technologies. I have found that some things were easier to learn about and use than others, such as iTunes is easier to navigate than garage band, I have also learnt just how different Macs are to windows, and how long it takes to adapt to the new layout, style and keyboard. Other changes I have adapted to, is the different programs which are used. For example, on windows I would have used audacity to create the music files, however, I had t use garage band on the Macs. In the end I did use audacity to record and edit the music, then cut it up and rearrange bits which were out, once it was on Imovie.
