The document discusses how the student used various media technologies throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of their coursework. These included Celtx for scriptwriting and planning, Photoshop for image editing, Blogger for documenting progress, iMovie for video editing, Garage Band for audio editing, SlideShare and Prezi for presentation purposes, and Adobe After Effects for animations and visual effects. Examples are given of how each technology was used to benefit different aspects of the work.

1. Evaluation Question 4: Media Technologies - How did you use
Media technologies in the construction, research, planning
and evaluation stages?
Throughout the coursework, I have used a range of media
technologies which have helped me greatly in the construction,
research, planning and evaluation stages of my coursework. Each
of these technologies have different functions, which as a result
has helped me with many different aspects of the coursework.
Here is a list of those media technologies and what they have
helped me with, with examples provided….

2. Celtx is a advanced program designed for filmmakers to use to design and write
screenplays, it is very popular due to the various features it has and its
professionalism. In regards to my work, Celtx has helped me greatly in the
planning stages of my work as, unlike with previous work I done last year writing
scripts in which I done very hastily on a peace of paper, Celtx allowed me to draw
up a storyboard on it, and then convert that into a actual script in which it allowed
you to work with attention to detail. Furthermore, through Celtx I was even able to
write up characters background which not only made things much easier for our
actors when it came to filming, it also allowed me to think about ways in which I
could develop characters background story’s in order to further emphasize the
emotional hook of our film. Moreover, we were also able to organize a filming
schedule on Celtx which meant we worked proficiently and to a good standard as
we had everything organized for a certain day in advance, and also meant we were
good at keeping deadlines.

3. Here’s a example of how I used
Celtx…..
As you can see, this media technology was very advanced and allowed us a group to
organize our work which made things much easier, also the fact it had features like ‘day
headings, locations, characters names in red and props in purple, meant that it was
much easier to write up and to actually read for our actors, which therefore not only
benefitted us in the planning stage, but also helped us greatly when it came to filming

4. Photoshop
Photoshop was a program that I had already used previously and so was very easy for
me to use, however I still feel that I was able to develop my skills even more.
Photoshop, a software that specializes in picture editing/ manipulation, was very
helpful when it came to the creative side of my coursework. This is because
Photoshop allowed me to do things like manipulate layers and images, by changing
the brightness on certain images, changing color and gradient levels, and also
adding borders and images in order to give my ancillary texts, like my horror
magazine, movie poster and credits a much more professional look.

5. Here’s a example of how I used
Photoshop….
The first two images shows examples of the creative process of actually creating the logo for our
production company, and some of the features I use in order to create such a deranged and chilling look
for the logo which links to the genre, thus highlighting how this media technology was very beneficial in
the creative process. Also, the two bottom images shows the finished versions of ‘The Examined’ poster
and magazine cover, which were both made using Photoshop; In which the extensive features that
Photoshop posses proved to be very beneficial to me.

6. Blogger
Throughout the creation process, I have used blogger, as I saw
it as a perfect platform to showcase my work, and highlight
the gradual progress of our product. In a way, blogger has
acted as my online diary, in which I have made sure to
frequently update, with any new developments that have
occurred regarding my work. Also, blogger has helped me
store information about the research and planning process
I have been through, which has made it easier to look back
on that process and implement my ideas from there into
my final product (trailer). I was already quite aware of how
to use blogger, due to using it for my coursework last year
and also due to the fact I already own my own blog on the
website. Because of that I had no problems using it.

7. Here’s a example of how I used
blogger….
As you can see, this media technology has helped me with all stages of my work as I have
been able to use it to store and evaluate each stage of my work which has benefitted me
greatly. Blogger is also another form of way to get feedback on your posts, which can be
very beneficial in helping you see what you’re doing right, and what you’re doing wrong.

8. iMovie
I had previously used a editing software (final
cut), and although iMovie isn't as
sophisticated as final cut, I still believe it was a
very good quality and professional program
which was very easy to use, but at the same
time very advanced. iMovie allowed us to cut
our footage, slow down the speed of shots of
make them faster, add text to enhance the
story, and also allowed us to string our story
along nicely.

9. Here’s a example of iMovie….
As you can see, iMovie allows me to store all my footage recorded in the bottom
section of the program, which then allows me to view all clips and decide which ones
are the best shpts to go into the trailer. As well as this, as you can it also has various
features; like the use of adding text, music, images which I used frequently during the
editing process. As well as this, because we had feedback telling us our trailer wasn’t
good, through iMovie we were able to save our project and start a new one and then
see which one looked better which was very beneficial in allowing us to evaluate and
compare our own work. All in all, iMovie proved to be a very valuable asset for us.

10. Garage Band
Garage Band, very similar to what Photoshop
does with pictures, allowed us to edit any
sound or music we used in our trailer by
manipulating the sound in many different
ways in which Garage Band allowed us to do.
We were able to do things like, rerecord any
sound that may have been bad in quality,
manipulate voices by making them deeper &
creating a echo, and also allowed us to cut
down the length of our sound clips.

11. Here’s a example of how we used
Garage Band…
The setup of Garage Band was very similar to iMovie, in that I was able to put all my music clips at the
bottom end of the program, and the was able to select certain bits from the music to edit at the top. The
side bare of the program featured many editing features, which I uses to manipulate the sound of my
music clips; whether that was editing the pitch of someone’s voice, or amplifying the sound of the music.
Because of this, I enjoyed using Garage Band a lot and found it very beneficial.

12. SlideShare
SlideShare was used, in order to help me present
my work in a which wasn’t heavily text based and
so was much easier to use and presented my
work in a much more professional way.
SlideShare was very helpful throughout my
course which can be seen by the fact I have used
it frequently, and especially in my evaluation
questions, where I feel the overall quality of my
responses to the questions asked were improved
due to the fact I was able to do it in a
presentation format.

13. Here’s a example of how I used
SlideShare…
As you can see, with SlideShare I was able to use presentation software Photoshop
and then upload my presentation for this evaluation question on to SlideShare, which
therefore also highlights the fact I have combined and collaborated between two
media technologies. Also as you can see, this has improved the actual quality of my
work as it is much easier to read, and easier on the eye than it would be if it was just
text based. As a result, I feel that this media technology has benefitted me greatly

14. Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects, was one of the new programs
introduced to me when we were creating our trailer. Its
purpose is to create animations and visual effects to
images, videos or text. For our trailer, we used After
Effects when creating the text for our title, in which we
created the animation of the title appearing on screen
letter by letter. This was very beneficial as we had
learnt, through our analysis of horror trailers, that the
text of the title is often manipulated to fit in with the
genre/ theme of the movie/ trailer. I believe that After
Effects gave us the perfect platform to do this.

15. Here’s a example of how we used
Adobe After Effects…
As you can see, After Effects allows me to keep a timeline of the actual animation in the bottom
section of the program; with the extensive us of tools the program posses to help manipulate
images and add animations to it, I was able to this quite easily after looking at a brief video tutorial
on YouTube which gave me the basic skills necessary to use the programme to full effect. The image
on the right is the finished product of ‘The Examined’ title which features in our trailer. We added a
animation to is that makes the text gradually appear on screen one by one as we felt it linked well to
the horror genre. In general, this media technology allowed us to be much more creative with the
representation of text and images in our trailer.

16. Prezi
Similarly to SlideShare, Prezi was a digital technology that
I used throughout each stages of my coursework in
order to present the research and planning stages, as
well as helping to answer my evaluation questions. The
ability to zoom in and out on images and create
pathways, makes Prezi a really innovative and dynamic
website which I feel has enhanced the quality of work
as a result, Although, I was only introduced to Prezi
recently, I feel that if you keep on using it you will
eventually understand all its features, features that
have benefitted me greatly in the presentation of my
work.

17. Here’s a example of how I used Prezi…
As you can see, on Prezi you’re presented with a much larger landscape to show your work which
is very easy on the eye. Because there is such a big landscape, when I was presenting two
different topics on one presentation, I was able to create different sections for them and place
them on completely different ends of the background which, due to the combination of using
pathways, gave my presentations a much more dynamic look that is perhaps missing from my
SlideShare presentations, and also made it easier to read which highlights how much I’ve
benefitted from this media technology.

18. YouTube
YouTube, a website notorious for its video-sharing abilities, was very
helpful in the research and evaluation stages of my coursework,
This is because YouTube, allowed me to search up videos that can
give me more research on a certain subject, E.G. The BFI film ratings
system which gave me more information on how the BFI go about
rating certain films. This as a result, helped me and my group on
what rating to give our own film, and what we should look to
include and not include in order to fit within that specific rating.
YouTube, also helped with out audience feedback in the evaluation
stages, as we were able to get our target audience to like/ dislike
our trailer, as well as providing us with statistics on how much
people have watched our trailer, and their age/ gender and country
they come from. This as a result, helped us see if we were attracting
our target audience, and also helped us see what secondary
audience we were attracting.

19. Here’s a example of how I used
YouTube…
This Media Technology as you can see, was very beneficial in helping our trailer not
only provide easy access for our target audience to see., but also made it available to a
wider audience as well which helped us seen the wide scale of specific audiences that
were interested in our trailer/ film. This made it much easier for me to answer
evaluation question 3, as I had a wide range of feedback from many different people
due to YouTube.

20. FaceBook
FaceBook was very beneficial to us throughout all stages of our
coursework. With FaceBook, we were abkle to use the Film’s Cool
place as a platform for creating the emotional hook/ themes of our
trailer, throuigh discussions on FaceBook and also industry
professionals (who also gave us feedback on our magazine covers,
movie posters and trailers via FaceBook). As well as this, because
FaceBook is used by a sizable number of adolescents, we used the
website in order to gain feedback from our target audience and to
set up a Examined FaceBook page to help with our marketing
strategy. Because of this, we gained a lot of feedback from our
chosen target audience on the things were doing right, and the
things we should improve on. This was very beneficial as coming
from our target audience, this was the type of feedback we needed
in order to make our trailer fit within their needs and wants.

21. Here’s a example of how I used
FaceBook…
FaceBook, as you can see, allowed me to
gain feedback similarly to YouTube.
However, with FaceBook the feedback
received was mostly from people whop
were a part of our primary target
audience, and so allowed us to address
the concerns of those who we were trying
to make the trailer appeal to, to a very
good and proficient standard. This also
meant evaluation question 3 was done
much better, because we now had
feedback from industry professionals, our
secondary audience and also our own
target audience.

22. In Conclusion….
If I think about what it would’ve been like if I didn’t
have access to these media technologies, it
makes me see how much I have benefitted from
the use of them. Without them, my research and
planning of my coursework would be very
limited, which as a result would effect all the
other stages of my work greatly. However, by
using media technologies I have been able to not
only express and show my work in really dynamic
ways, I have also been able to create my products
using professional programmes which has
enhanced the quality of my finals products.