Evaluation: Question 4

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

MAIN PRODUCT

EVALUATION

ANCILLARIES

The Media Technologies I used:

MAIN PRODUCT

MAIN PRODUCT: Hardware

CAMERA, LAPTOP & MICROPHONE - CONSTRUCTION

Our primary camera was a canon DSLR 600, this allowed easy continuity in our shots. The high quality and focus of the majority of shots meant we didn't have to re shoot as many times as during AS. We also used one of the schools DSLR's which was of slightly lower quality, however, we wanted some match-oc-action shots which required a second camera. There was a slight difference in the quality of the shots, but this was easily overcome when editing.

Although we didn't have much dialogue in out piece and we relied on non-diegetic sound, we used a rode mic and a small hand held mic to pick up on parts of the dialogue and footsteps that would be muffled in the final cut. Some of the audio on the rode mic had too much background sound so we depended more on the hand held mic, which we connected to an iPhone 6.

In order to edit all of the footage and the sound I used both the schools mac desktop and my own mac book air. They both gave me access to various softwares that I used to edit.

MAIN PRODUCT: SOFTWARE

FINAL CUT PRO X - CONSTRUCTION

The main editing software we used was Final Cut Pro X . During AS I became familiar with the software and found it easy to navigate. This meant editing was a much faster process and this gave me time to explore other more complex effects I could use. For example, I began to develop my use of transitions, stray from my primary use of basic transitions like a cross dissolve or a simple cut.  I also furthered my skills in presenting visual pleasures. My ability to edit and manipulate the saturation, exposure and colour was limited during AS and I used these features either too much or too little. Nonetheless, during A2 I began to understand how to apply these filters to make the shot visually pleasing for the audience, for example, the close ups of Isaac lost there clarity when I added the filter 'Glory' but I was able to redeem this by adjusting the saturation settings.

I also made better use of final cut's sound options. I looked at the sound effects the software provided in more depth and found that most of the effects I needed were there. This meant I could spend more time looking for royalty free music that could be used as a backing track.

MAIN PRODUCT: internet

YOUTUBE,GOOGLE & SHORT OF THE WEEK - RESEARCH

Both Youtube and Google played a large role in our research, which then aided and informed our planning. I used Youtube primarily to research pre-existing media texts, such as, 'The Assessment' by Marcus Johns and 'The Short Life of Death' by Dubin Dubiniec. Both these shorts informed me on the codes and convention of movies about death, which I then applied to my one work.

Google also enable me to research the conventions of teenage tragedies and what sort of audiences are attracted to the specific genre. It also helped with the planning and scheduling because there were many articles on how to make a good short film.

Short of the week was a website I found that had a number of short films that were within a range of different genres. All I had to do was type in 'movies about death' and I had a range to look at and analyse. For example, 'Answers' was a short where the man is in limbo asking questions about his life. I took inspiration from the cinematography and transitions, which then effected how I storyboarded my own work.

MAIN PRODUCT: SOFTWARE

EXCEL, WORD & WORDPRESS - PLANNING & RESEARCH

I used Excel and Word to create questionnaires and piecharts of my questionnaires. I used the questionnaire to find out what my target audience like within the genre and what would attract them to a short film. This allowed to find my  mythical target audience, therefore informing my decisions of narrative, subverting and conforming to conventions and stereotypes and various cinematic pleasures and how I would portray them. The questionnaires gave me both quantitative and qualitative data, Excel was a useful format to store this data in and present in professionally, also meaning they were easy to access and analyse at a later date.

I used Wordpress through the research, planning and construction of my main product. The blog format allowed me to keep track of all the work I was doing and keep a schedule that I could access both at school and at home. I had already used Wordpress as AS and was accustomed to its features and style, so I found it easy to access all of my work from this one format.

MAIN PRODUCT: SOFTWARE

POWTOON & PREZI - PLANNING

When planning for my main product, I wanted to present my work in various different formats. I decided to use both Prezi and Powtoon in addition to final cut, to present my ideas. I have been using Prezi for a while  and found it's an easy way to make an attractive and informative presentation. It is also a public profile, which made it easy for me to distribute my ideas and plans and receive feedback on them.

Powtoon is a new software to me. I discovered it late in my AS level and did not make as much use of it. However, during A2 I made the most of it. I used it to present my ideas for my mythical target audience. I found this is also an interactive and interesting platform to portray my ideas and as stated before, it is also a public profile, allowing for feedback on my ideas.

EVALUATION

EVALUATION: SOFTWARE

POWTOON 

I used Powtoon in my second evaluation question: 'How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?. Powtoon has a fun visual format which is interesting to the audience. I wanted to evaluate my work in an appealing way and develop my skills of using Powtoon in a longer video.

EVALUATION: SOFTWARE

FINAL CUT

I used Final Cut Pro X for my third evaluation question: 'What have you learned from your audience feedback?'. Creating a video enabled me to show other shots from other real media products and say how the audience liked those particular shots, and then how the audience's criticism influenced my own film. Using a video also meant I could apply my own voice over and explain my ideas in more depth.

EVALUATION: SOFTWARE

SLIDES

​I used slides for my fourth evaluation question: 'How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?'. I didn't want to use the same formats as last year, so I found a new way of presenting my work. Slides was a quick and stylish way of showing my work. The software was easy to use and easy to navigate for anyone who hadn't used it before.

EVALUATION: software

PREZI

I used Prezi for my first evaluation question: 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'. I have been using prezi to present my work for a while and am used to the way it works, this made it easy for me to use and produce an evaluation that is easy to follow, whilst also being interactive. Another strength of knowing prezi so well was that it was not time consuming, so I was able to focus on the content rather than the way it looked.

EVALUATION: internet

WORDPRESS

​I used Wordpress to present all of my evaluations in the same place as the rest of my progress during A2. Wordpress is an easy format to use and as the rest of my work was already presented on it, it made sense to use it again.

EVALUATION: internet

GOOGLE & YOUTUBE

Google helped me to find the various softwares I used to present my evaluations. I also used it to access other blogs that had A2 main products on them. Finding these blogs also allowed me to see how others presented their work and how I could have improved my own.

​Youtube helped me with my evaluations because I was able to search for other real media products and evaluations which I could then take inspiration from. I viewed other A2 final pieces and saw what they did that I could have done, this also informed what I wrote in my evaluations. I also used the youtube comments to help with the content of both my final main product and evaluations.