Evaluation
Q4 - How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?
Photoshop
To create our poster, we used Photoshop to make our poster look professional. We also used Photoshop to create our horror magazine cover. At the beginning of the year I was able to gain some practice using Photoshop however, I learnt very basic skills. Over the A2 course I was able to build my knowledge through independent research online through YouTube tutorials. Through these tutorials I learnt how to layer images, rasterize them, import text and adjust brightness, colour contrast, and much more. These tools helped me to create my first draft of the magazine cover and this therefore gave me an idea on how I would like the final product to look.
•Photoshop has allowed me to create an semi-professional magazine cover. However there was a disadvantage to using Photoshop, I was only able to access it from school, as I did not have it home, meaning I had to work on the school macs when there were free.
Blogger
•The main technology I used throughout the whole A2 course was Blogger. It allowed me to create a blog where I can upload my work and it was all in one place for my teachers to view.The main advantage and usefulness I gained from Blogger was to observe other peoples work and my groups so I knew what I needed to upload as well as compare my work so it was at an excellent standard.
YouTube
•YouTube is another main technology I have used throughout the two year course. I have used YouTube for research, planning and evaluation. Youtube has allowed me to upload videos for feedback and using the embedded code provided onto my blog so that the reader can watch/access the video easily.
•YouTube was used mostly for research during my course and allowed me to watch horror trailers I could analyse and most significantly watch tutorials on using new software programmes I have never used before or needed improvement on. This allowed us to come up with new ideas and creating our semi-professional package.
DSLR
•The DLSR allowed us to film in dark places by changing the ISO, making the shot less grainy in the dark.
•During my first year of the course I used a digital camcorder which was very basic. In my second year I upgraded to a DSLR camera. As a group we chose to use the DSLR because of the quality. We were able to adjust the focus manually to allow us to give certain effects with a shot. Eg – pull focus to make it look like the victim is becoming unconscious.
Emaze
•Emaze allowed me to create fun, creative presentations. Emaze gave me a choice of themes, that I was able to relate to my work as well as upload from PowerPoint. Emaze was easy to navigate and understand and allowed me to create professional, imaginative presentations.
Prezi
•I used Prezi quite a lot during the course as I felt it was easy to use and navigate as well as be the most creative. Prezi was useful because it is an online software therefore I was able to use it at home or anywhere I would like. I even downloaded the app onto my iPad so I could use it on the go. Prezi allowed me to expand on my points without having to much information on one slide making it less boring for the reader.
Apple Macs
•The Macs also gave us the chance to store important folders and have the group access them anytime when needed.
•Apple Macs were essential to my product making throughout the course. They provided me and my group with software to enable us to create our whole package; magazine cover, poster and trailer. The Apple Macs allowed us to use Adobe Premier Pro, Photoshop which we used to create the package.
Lighting
In our trailer we used LED lighting which helped us massively when filming. In my thriller opening sequence I paid little to no attention to lighting. I always counted on natural light to provide me with “good” lighting but that was not always the case. This made the shots of the opening dark and I had to adjust when editing; this made the shots look a bit artificial.
However from gaining this experience it made me want to have suitable lighting for camera shots. When the LED light was unavailable, we used iPhone flashlights it wasn’t as effective as the LED because the light was more bright and harsh however it was good for the use of showing facial expressions in close up camera shots.
SurveyMonkey
•SurveyMonkey was our main source for obtaining feedback from audiences about our products. An advantage of Survey Monkey was that it was online and this allowed us to reach a wider target audience; from this we were able to gain more replies and the more replies we received the more chance it gave us to improve.
