Media Studies evaluation question 4

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

2. Research and planning
For the research and planning stages I used a
vast amount of programs in order to showcase
the things that I had researched about thrillers
and teaser trailers. Most of the programs that I
used were designed to present information in
some way, chiefly the two programs I used the
most were Prezi and Emaze: two presentation
creators.

3. Prezi
Prezi is a unique presentation
software as it does not use the
traditional “slides” used by
powerpoint, it uses “bubbles” to
present information. To move to the
next bubble, the program animates
the view moving to the bubble in a
visually interesting way. The
program can also be embedded into
blogger so that it can be viewed
externally. There are also a number
of different styles for a more
appropriate presentation or to make
it look more visually pleasing.

4. Emaze
Emaze is more akin to the
traditional powerpoint
presentation as it uses slides to
present information, however
the kew difference is that it is
much higher resolution and
quality and has a larger amount
of unique animations and styles
in order to fit the style of any
subject out there. Emaze can
also be outfitted with a number
of styles, can be embedded and
allows you to upload your own
powerpoint presentations to be
“emazified”.

5. Slideshare and Scribd
While these are not a specific
creation tools, they allow the
user to upload their own
powerpoints and word
documents and then share
them online or embed them
in blogger or other programs.
The files are untouched and
therefore stay the same,
slideshare and scribd allow
edits but only minor text
edits.

6. Production
In this section I shall be talking about the pieces
of software and hardware that I used in the
creation of the teaser itself and the ancillary
tasks. The main things I used for filming and
taking photos were obviously the camera, but
for image and video editing I used Adobe
Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Indesign.

7. Equipment.
For the filming aspect I only had one
camera and limited access to other
equipment such as tripods and lights.
The camera that I used was a samsung
camera, a little bit outdated but still
takes high quality video and sound. The
fact that I had limited access to newer
and better equipment means that I was
forced to think creatively on how I
would actually film the piece, the fact
that I did not have a tripod the first day
of filming meant that my cameraman
had to use steady hand techniques in
order to keep the camera steady. I also
used the same camera to take the
images in the ancillary tasks.

8. Software
The main software that I used for the
post production was Premiere Pro and
Adobe After Effects, the latter being
used to create the titles and visual
effects. Premiere Pro is a powerful
editing software that I had used before
on multiple occasions meaning I am
quite proficient with it and I was able to
quickly edit the footage into the teaser.
After effects was used to create the
visual effects used on the titles and the
muzzle flash used at the end. I had
never used After Effects before but I
think that I was quite effective, the
muzzle flash being quite impressive for
a beginner, even though it is little more
than an animation sped up and overlaid
on the video.

9. Software cont.
For the ancillary tasks I used
photo editing software like
Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.
I had worked with Photoshop in
the past so I had a lot of prior
experience there, however I
had never even touched
InDesign, but I think that overall
I learned some valuable things
about the program through the
work, like the fact that it isn’t
for drastically changing images,
it is more for arranging images.

10. Conclusion
In conclusion I think that I used a large variety of
technologies in all stages of the production, and I
have learnt a variety of new skills in new programs
such as After Effects and InDesign. In terms of
research and planning, I used programs that I had
used last year as they had proven themselves to be
very useful. I improved my skills in Premiere Pro
and Photoshop which, but the added ability from
After Effects and InDesign now means that I have
increased skill level in four different editing
programs.