Evaluation Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this process?

Heres is a video of me talking about all the technologies I have used during the coursework process: 

Here is a quick summary of all the technologies I have used and why they were so useful:

1. Blogger: Right from the very start of the coursework process we have been blogging on every stage we have been through. Its not just a guide telling everyone what stages we are on because we can also see other peoples blogs. This is great because our media teacher set up alot of other blogs that was full of information guiding us to create the best work we could possibly do. Click here to see a good example of this. We could also look at other media students blogs to se which stage they are on, how they have done things differently to us. We could
actually watch their film or generally look at their posts
and give them feedback

2. YouTube: We used YouTube to upload all of our footage and used the annotations tool to explain some points. This was extremely helpful because YouTube is used by millions of people and if we could get just a few people to see it then it would be extremely useful. Also IGS has a YouTube channel and all of our rough cuts were put on there and other schools that we are closely linked could see our films. Click here to see the IGS YouTube channel

3. Facebook: We mainly used Facebook for audience feedback. We all have hundreds of friends on Facebook and most of them are in our media class or the other media class. Also the vast majority of the people on Facebook were in our core target audience so it was even better to get their opinion and not just ours. I beleive that the feedback we got off everyone
has helped make our film alot better. Click here for an example
of audience feedback from Facebook.

4. IMDB: We used IMDB for looking up films we could deconstruct whilst also looking at the films director, year of release, budget, UK and US Box Office. This gave us a great indication which horror films were succesful and which ones weren't. This helped us alot as we could deconstruct the best films from within our genre and use the best techniques which made them all so good.

5. Scribd: This is very useful for things such as stroyboards, production schedule, treatment and casting and creativity just to name a few. Scribd was especially useful when we had to write or draw things using pen and pencil on peices of paper but it aslo needed to be put on our blogs. Once we had finished what we need to do on paper we used the Scanner to scan it in and then we were able to uplaod whatever we wanted to Scribd. It was also helpful when we had created things on a Word document and we had to put it onto a blog post.All we had to do was upload it to Scribd and then embed it into a post. Click here to see example of use using Scribd to upload our Treatment

6. Cameras: We used the school cameras alot during the coursework process for many different reasons. Obviously we mainly used the cameras for our filming our coursework but we also used it for behind the scenes. As you can see below we have a video of Asa (our cinematographer) using a camera and tripod. Other ways we used the cameras include filming our company idents that went before our actual opening and some audience feedback from our media class which are also our core target audience which was very useful.

7. Macs: We used most of our time on the Macs using for several different reasons. We used it for blogging, IMDB research, editing, making company idents, making a soundtrack just to name a few. This was a huge new experience for me as I have always used a normal PC or a laptop so it took a while to get used to but when I did it was great to use and it had alot of benefits.

8. IMovie: This was another new experience for me but we gradually got used to using it before we started our final coursework peice. For example we filmed a microdrama, a mise-en-scene task, swede film and our prelim task so I knew how to use it when we started filming for the coursework opening. I have learnt alot from using IMovie for example I have learnt how to use transitions, how to put titles onto a clip, how to use the crop tool, how to use the add sound affects etc. I feel very confident using this software know so it has been great learning a new skill. This picture shows how we imported our company idents, soundtrack and other recorded sounds into our production. This is another vital peice of technology that i have learnt along with everything else. I did realise that the file does have to be in the correct file format before you can import it. Even though we didn't use this way to import all footage we filmed it was vital we imported everything we had shot onto the IMac so we could edit it and make our product as good as it could possibly be

9. LiveType: I personally was the one who took reponsibility for the company idents. Again this was a new peice of software but i found it quite easy to use. We thought of the two ideas as a group but then I tried to replicate them as best as I could. I learnt how to add effects to the text and how to add a background video to name a few. Just like our rough cuts we got audience feedback on these idents on Facebook. Click here to see some audience feedback on our first company ident. I learnt LiveType is alot like IMovie. All you have to do is add sound affects to the canvas and you can edit the timing by using the timeline. The media browser alows you to view the font before selecting it so you know if you like it. The wideframe preview allows you to do the same thing but with all the effects on the canvas whilst it is all playing so you can also edit the timing of fonts coming on to the screen etc. Once we had finished the idents we just saved them and imported them into IMovie  

10. Garageband: Although I believe we left it abit late to experiment enough with this software i thought we did a great job. This was also another application that I have learnt how to use and with the help of a tutorial from our teacher or group managed to make a soundtrack that fitted in with every aspect of the opening. It was the icing on the cake doing the soundtrack because it made our 2 minute coursework opening complete. Garageband was abit tricky to work as some of the effects were hard to get to work together. The hardest part of making the soundtrack though is making sure that everything is in time and making the most of the peaks in tension. Also when we had finished everything  it was easy to transfer it onto IMovie as we just saved it and imported it