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

2. Construction When constructing my short film I used media technologies such as a camcorder to film the footage and the iMacs and iMovie to edit my final product. This programme allowed me to incorporate transitions, diegetic and nondiegetic sounds into my final product with ease. I also Garageband, another programme on the iMacs to compose the music for my short film. The iMovie programme also allowed me to record a voiceover which was to be used in my short film also. I also used piknik to edit my pictures for my final ancillary tasks.

3. Research stages I used the internet as my main technology source when conducting research for my media products; these being my short film, the film poster and the magazine film review. I used websites such as Wikipedia and searched for other information on Google to help me find the information I needed to know about short films and the conventions that are used throughout other short films, but also film posters and film reviews. The CBBC Newsround website was a good place for me to find a simple template for a film review and this helped me to conduct my research into planning and constructing my final film review.

4. Planning stages I used the internet for a lot of this as well and visited websites such as Youtube and Vimeo to look at previously made and produced short films which I could use as inspiration when choosing and planning for my final short film. I also used Microsoft packages such as Word and Publisher to plan the layout of my final ancillary products. When these were not available I used Pages, a package on the iMacs.

5. Each of the media technologies that I used in each process of completing my A2 Media Studies Coursework was a great help to me and I feel that by using them I was able to create a better overall piece. I feel that using Youtube and Vimeo gave me the needed inspiration to create an effective final short film. I especially gathered this inspiration from Memories, a short film found on Youtube. Furthermore I feel that the technologies available for me to use when constructing my short film were the best I could have hoped for, however given the opportunity I would have preferred to either use an updated version of iMovie or to try out a different editing software. This point I feel is also valid when it comes to the camcorders that were available, the final product could have looked a lot more professional if some of the zoomed in scenes weren’t pixalated.