Evaluation Activity 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For the production of our product, we were required to use and familiarize ourselves with a wide range of technology, to present our work at a high standard. I myself, am used to using similar types of technology in my everyday lifestyle i.e. for school work, however have not been exposed to some technology used for the production before. I found that doing so has made me more able and confident to use these programmes, and I have learnt a new skill I can apply to other aspects of my life.These programmes were vital for the completion of our coursework, as we had to display use of technology to a high standard, to improve the quality of our work.
Below are all the technologies utilized in order to complete our coursework:

 
Blogger:
Blogspot.com, is the site we had to use to create our personal and group blog accounts, where our work would be presented. We had to learn how to use the site, apply themes to the background to correspond with the genre of our film, add the logo, learn how to make posts, polls and label posts, and we also learned alot about blogs themselves, and how versatile they can be, and easy to present work rather than having to hand write everything. Furthermore, before doing media studies, I had never used blogger before, however I was aware of the purpose of a blog, which is why it was easier for me to adapt and learn how to use it. This software was the most crucial element to our coursework as it was the site which displayed and saves our work/posts for us, and we had to make sure we were maintaining the presentation of the blog to a high standard.

Preliminary task/production filming: 

 To film the production and preliminary task, we had the opportunity to use a professional camera, which was interesting because I have never used a camera like this before, and I have never used a tripod with my camera either, so it was interesting to see how films are actually shot, and seeing camera angles being created practically, rather than analyzing them off a page. I found that keeping the 180 degree rule intact was practiced whilst filming the preliminary, and we also applied it to the main production. During filming the actual opening sequence, the cameraman had to use a range of camera angles to ease the editing process, and get some good shots to make a good film. Using the camera for the preliminary task made it easier for us to film the main film, as we were already experienced with using it previously from the prelim.


  

YouTube:

 YouTube is a site I am familiar with, however I had never myself created an account, uploaded a video or annotated a video on it before. This was a new experience for me, using the website in such a way, uploading videos onto our channel, and annotating the final video for the evaluation section of our coursework. I have only ever searched for and viewed videos on the site, so exploring the website further has let me gain more insight into the website itself. Furthermore, We used YouTube to upload our videos, to self-distribute our video globally, as anyone anywhere is allowed to watch our video, thus allowing a larger audience to tune in and watch our opening sequence. We also thought using YouTube would be a good way to gain feedback, as you can 'like/dislike' the video, give it ratings, and leave comments, we thought this would be good for constant feedback, and to see how well our audience is receiving the product, and judging by how many views we get, we can determine how many people have watched the film.We also used YouTube so that we are able to embed the videos onto our blogs, using the html code provided by the site, to embed it in a post and post the video onto the blog, which would allow the video to be viewed with ease, as opposed to just posting the link.


Macbook & Mac desktop:

 I have never used apple software on a computer or laptop before, and was always reluctant to try myself as I am very used to the windows software, so this first seemed challenging for me. However, using it frequently helped me get used to the software, and I now know how to use it to a good standard, which has also allowed me to learn a lot from this experience. The laptop was used for documented work, blog maintenance, blog posts and other planning tasks, however the desktop was used to transfer the filming to the computer, and to then edit it, add sound, and upload onto YouTube. All of this was a new experience for me, as I have never had to edit, look for sound, or upload to YouTube before, so this was a learning curve for me.





Final Cut Pro & Sound Cut Pro:

 Final Cut Pro is a program used to edit footage, and is an apple software, I have never used such a program before, as i have never needed to edit any filming. I had gained some knowledge about how editing works during the preliminary task, which helped me to build this understanding when applying it to the actual video. I found the software very confusing, however using it and observing the editor helped me understand how films are pieced together, and how much work really does go into film making as a whole. The program also allowed us to burn dvd's which was helpful. Overall, our film would not look as effective if it was not edited, which is why editing is crucial towards the final outcome of the film.

Sound Cut Pro was used to look for audio sounds to add to the production whilst editing, on this software, you can search for sound clips, and download them for your film. I found this relatively easy to use, using my knowledge of final cut pro, and found searching for audio effects was not as difficult. Furthermore, the program allowed us to have easy access to sound effects, and had a huge range of them, giving us a variety to choose from, which was good, so that we could choose the correct sound. Without this program, it would have been difficult to transfer audio files to the editing software.

Soundcloud:

 Soundcloud helped us to transfer audio clips to the blog, as we were able to embed it, and enhanced the presentation of our blog as a whole. I have never used soundcloud before either, so it was interesting to see what the purpose of it is, and how it operates. It enabled us to post our diagetic and non-diagetic sounds onto our blog, to give previews of the sounds we intend to include in our final production. The software was quick and easy to use, and downloaded the files relatively fast, so the individual sounds can be heard on our blog clearly and efficiently.

Scribd:                                         
Scribd is a document converting publishing site, which allows you to upload and present microsoft word files neatly and professionally, which was good for our blog as we were able to use microsoft word, and still sustain good presentation for our work, as well as the ease of uploading the document onto the blog. This helped a lot for the completion of our coursework, as it was time-saving and the ease of use made uploading documents very easy, and also makes the document very easy to view.

Slideshare:

 Slideshare helped me to transfer my powerpoint presentations into a slideshow, that can be embedded. This was extremely helpful as I did not expect there to be a site which can carry out these things. I found it very simple to use, and easy to transfer and embed onto the blog. It helped me transform my meeting minutes presentation and still images slideshow into a more efficient viewing experience. I found the way in which the slideshow was presented on the blog was excellent and I was happy with using the software and the results.

Bubbl.us:

 Bubbl.us was used to transfer our brainstormed ideas onto a computerised format, which was both exceptionally simple and efficient to use, as it also allows you to embed it onto your blog. I found using it really helped enhance the presentation on my blog, as it is a creative website. It clearly shows a mindmap of our ideas, and is easy for someone to read and understand, and also view as it is easily embedded onto the blog. This helped us get our initial thoughts and ideas across for our production.