Question 4; How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the completion of our media products,
we have used a range of technologies to produce
both our main task and ancillaries.
Many of the technologies were hardware based
such as the cameras or the computer,
however many were software based programs such as
final cut and photo shop.

Construction


During the construction process we used a cannon video camera to collect the footage used in our main task. We were trained to use these cameras before we went out to collect our footage however still decided to play it safe and use the automatic modes for the majority of the shots. we assumed this would be easier as a lot of our shots were captured at night or in a club and found that trying to adjust focus and contrast in situations such as these was rather difficult. The model of the video camera is Cannon's MD255. The camera unfortunately was not HD however still performed very well.

In terms of software, we used final cut to produce our main tasks. We found a lot of the facilities on this program very helpful such as color correction and ability to split screen. We were running the software through an intel core 2 duo imac. The software technology was very helpful as using the timeline made it easy to organise our footage and also edit when it came to that stage. After recording the audio for our directors commentary, we chose to edit the audio in final cut as opposed to software such as garage band or logic as we would be later adding the video to the commentary.

During the filming of the main task, we used the green screen and also lighting equipment. Our initial idea was to green screen our male protagonist running on the record player to show him trying to counter act the drugs and alcohol and break free from that aspect of his life. However, this was difficult to achieve as gaining footage of a lively object that is permanently moving is hard to later cut and edit.

We have created an account on blogger.com to keep people up to date on our progress. It contains images, videos and pieces of text that we have created to help us to keep on top of each segment of the production. Some of what our blog was carried out at home, however, much of it we did together as a group at college.

Research and Planning 

During the research and planning stage we used a lot of software such as google images to get inspiration from existing artists and also sites such as youtube to try and gain ideas that we could incorporate into our own video. To produce the tales and charts, we used excel and to produce the questionnaires we used a word processor that was available on the mac's at college.

We found youtube especially helpful as we used the embed feature regularly to take the videos which inspired us to put on the blog. We also found it's extensive variety of video's very helpful in terms of always finding what we needed. 

During the planning stage, we were trained on how to use certain softwares such as final cut and photoshop to try and make life easier when it came to working with the real footage and images we would be using in our final project. 

Evaluation

The evaluation stage was an entirely individual task apart from question one which was the directors commentary. 

In order to create question two and three, I have used power point. I am running power point off my own computer at home which is an imac using osx10, however I have found a version of Microsoft office which can be used on mac. 

I found it difficult to use the internet program pressie. I did attempt to use it, however, their were numerous log in problems and also I returned to my work after leaving it overnight under the impression that it had saved to discover that it hadn't. In the end, I ended up using power point for both of the questions. I have used different background for each question to make them easier to differentiate between. 

To upload each power point, I have used scribd which is an internet based site which allows people to upload presentations and word documents to the internet. the website was given to us by our teacher, however, along with pressie, it has presented small problems. 

To conclude, a lot of technology has gone into this project, ranging from computer hardware and software, green screening, lighting systems and camera's both stills and video. 

by rich.