Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4- How did you use media technologies in construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Firstly I thought that it was a good idea to gather all the technologies I used in my portfolio and present it on http://www.glogstar.com/:



We have used the Adobe softwares greatly throughout the whole of our project. Without the use of these softwares it would have seriously hindered our work and would not have given it the proffesional edge. We have never used these softwares before our project, apart from photoshop which we used in our foundation portfolio at AS. However although using these technologies were not easy, we intended to explore into them and become knowledgeable before using them. We did this through http://www.youtube.com/ we accessed many great tutorials online that took us through the process of using final cut step by step.

By clicking on the grab shot of the tutorial below, it will directly take you to the youtube videos we watched to do with final cut pro.

Final cut was the first time my group members and I have ever used an editing software and there were many different tools we had to get used to. This was essential otherwise we would not have been able to add post production effects (what we really wanted to do).

Using the cameras

However, before all of this we need to actually use a video camera to film... On our first day of filming in Camden we used a Canon HD e03od camera. We particularly liked this camera due to its stunning HD lens however had lots of different functions that we had to get used to before hand. Due to the fact we filmed with a HD camera this meant we had to use memory cards to record the footage instead of using tapes. This did have SOME benefits, like the fact we could re watch what we just filmed compared to a tape. However, we found it very challenging due to the size of the footage. We had to use a total of 6 Memory cards on day one! Which happened to take a lot of time away as we constantly changed it. However, this allowed us to upload our footage using a memory card reader, this was very easy and simple to do because all you had to do was find your movie clips and import them into final cut..

Simple? Additionally, the major problem we faced with this is when we placed it into final cut, due to the size of the footage every time we edited the movie clip we had to render it.. which took a very long time.

Here is a quick photo animation of the technologies used and mentioned above: This was created in Picasion.com which allowed moving photos on our blogs.

This did take a lot of time away from us and become increasingly difficult to work with, especially with such fast pace editing. We then had a group talk and thought we needed to be more effiecent with time management, therefore we decided to use a video camera instead. Though, we used the camera for our digipak and some parts of our music video which was very beneficial to us.

Independant research/construction of evaluations:
When it came to research and evaluation stages I didn't want to simply type everything because this looks a bit boring and I wanted to make it look a bit pretty...

(My own research)
Throughout my research I believe I have used different technologies to present my findings. I particuarly enjoyed working with http://www.prezzi.com/ an poster/presentation software which allows you to post pictures, videos and texts onto a poster online. I very much liked this when researching because it was a fun way of displaying what I had found and also allows others to view whilst on my blog.

Furthermore, throughout my blog I have used voice animators which I have found particularly enjoyable and useful http://www.voki.com/ and http://www.goanimate.com/ I believe this allows interaction and a chance for personal opinion.

When it came to my evaluations, I was aware that there were four questions therefore thought that it was the perfect opportunity to display media techologies. In evaluation 1, I wanted to present my answer using final cut. I recorded myself using a voice note under the format of AMR which I uploaded into MPEG streamclip and transfered into final cut. This allowed me to answer my question whilst showing on scream my evidence.

I also wanted to present my feedback in a different way, which was anonymous. I think this was a good idea because it meant that people could be honest. I presented this on Wallwisher.com which allowed my peers to add notes to the board. I do believe this was very effective because it shows all the opinions across the media feedback.

Throughout my coursework you will see lots of different short documentaries that I have created on my own using final cut pro. Due to using this technology in the construction stages, I become quite knowledgeable of the software at the end of the process therefore thought that it was a good idea to present my evaluations in this way. However, it did have its limitations to it. As you can see on my blog I have done short documentaries for evaluation 1,2,3 and 4. This was very time consuming however believe it is engaging.

I initially recorded myself on my iPhone and emailed the voice record to my computer, then I was able to import this into final cut where I would place it in audio section. After I did this I had to show images of the construction process and compare it to existing media (evaluation 1). However the only limitation of this way of presenting my work is the fact it was very time consuming because I had to render it totally when I finished which took approximately 20 minutes..

Spider Diagrams/Drop down menus

In the research process, we spent a lot of time conducting our work using spider diagrams. This was a good way of researching within a group because we were able to all place our opinions on one sheet. However we found a website which allowed us to present this using technology, this was www.bubblr.com which was used within our target audience research as shown by the grab shot below.

Adobe Photoshop

Digipak- My responsibility. Here I have made a short documentary using photoshop and Final cut to explain to you how I used photoshop in the digipak and more importantly why I did.

Vicky however was responsible for making the magazine advert and other digipak therefore I have not incorporated this into the below documentary.

Here is screen shot of 5 minutes that was recorded on Jing. It captures my screen when showing exactly how I used photoshop to create the digipak.

Vicky and Emily's responsibily-

Final cut pro

Explanation to how we used Final cut pro

To create our main product, our music video. We used final cut pro for our editing Rough cut and final cut.

Below is a short video constructed by Vicky on Jing. This caputures a short section of how the editing took place and how she did it. Firstly we had to import the clips and audio into final cut. Once all shots were imported this allowed us to place them onto the timeline and start the editing process.

We had to make sure we locked this tab so the audio did not move.
Once the first two shots were placed into the timeline, we added a cross dissolve effect in which was found under effects. This was one effect that is particularly prominent in our music video. Furthermore, our music video had many overlays therefore Vicky thought it was a good idea to display this on Jing.

As you can see we adjusted the black line below and this allowed us to change the opacity- allowing two shots on screen at the same time. We found out how to do this on Youtube.com tutorials.

Blogger

It would be surprising if we did not mention Blogger and how we used it in our media portfolio. Blogger has been used to present our work, through AS to A2. It has allowed us to use media technologies and exhibit this through a different way to just writing on a piece of paper. With the use of the HTML coding we have been able to showcase our videos, audios, brainstorms and slideshows. We were able to get these codes through multiple websites we found on google.com.Without blogger it would have seriously limited our use of media technology as we would not have been able to showcased our work using different methods.

Conclusion- limitations and strengths of using technologies:

Overall I believe I have used many different media technologies to present my work. This has been used during the research process, consturction of my portfolio and the final evaluation stages. Using blogger to present my portfolio has opened up the opportunity to use a wide rang of technologies that are avaliable at the click of the mouse. As shown above, it has made my portfolio look proffesional and allows interaction with the person viewing the blog.

However, using these diverse technologies has also come with limitations and drawbacks. For me, probably the only bad thing would be that sometimes the embedded HTML codes would not work on my blog therefore would not be displayed. In these cases, I had to result to screen grabbing the image and placing it as a hyperlink. Furthermore, many of the technologies I have used have been very complicated this has mean't that I have had to do research before using them to ensure I knew what I was doing.

However I have thoroughly enjoyed using different media technologies and will definitely help me in the future.