A2 media evalutaion question 4

1. William Jones

2.  In the research stages, I utilised a very wide
variety of technologies for different stages of
the process.
 These technologies are ranged in uses from
the collection of data, to the final
presentation of it on my digital blog.

3.  For my research, I consulted a number of
internet resources.
 Youtube was used to watch trailers which I
could then pause and analyse shot by shot.
Later in production I could also use it to
watch and source useful videos for the
practical aspect of it.Things like the FilmRiot:
QuickTips episode on understanding and
using the 180 degree rule.

4.  Google Images was also used to help me find
images of posters and magazine covers that I
could then analyse. Having all the images in
one place next to each other allowed me to
easily pick out images that had convention in
common or - in some cases – challenge
conventions entirely.This means that I could
plan out the structure of the document
around the images I had picked.

5.  Google Images was also used to help me find
images of posters and magazine covers that I
could then analyse. Having all the images in
one place next to each other allowed me to
easily pick out images that had convention in
common or - in some cases – challenge
conventions entirely.This means that I could
plan out the structure of the document
around the images I had picked.

6.  The presentation of my findings made use of
a variety of digital technologies
 Blogger was used as a host platform for all
my pieces.This led to some issues as it is not
very user friendly, but the ability to embed
clips and pictures became invaluable as I
moved on to the analysis sections. Especially
later on when planning my practical as I could
make a document and come back top it and
add points as and when they occur to me.

7.  Slideshare was used to upload Power Point
presentations and embed them into my blog.
This bought about its own set of problems
when I found out afterwards that videos
embedded into the presentation couldn’t be
played when uploaded to Slideshare.Which
meant that I needed to go back and embed
the videos into the blog page underneath the
embedded Powerpoint.

8.  Vimeo was used for uploading videos and
embedding them into my blog.This was
chosen over other sites likeYoutube asVimeo
retains greater image quality, making it a
fairer representation of our final piece.
 Soundcloud was used to upload audio files to
and then embed into my blog.This was done
in an effort to make my blog more
technologically diverse, incorporating other
forms of media in my blog.

9.  Prezi was used to create a presentation used
in my pitch. Prezi is nice as it’s a visual break
from a Powerpoint presentation plus videos
and pictures can be embedded into it with
relative ease. Having said that, it being a
feree web source is it not particularly user
friendly and is very time consuming to use.
Therefore I preferred to use Powerpoint for
the majority of other presentations.

10.  Sharing services like Dropbox and Google
Drive were used to help me keep all my files
organised. As these are both web based
services I could be working at school, upload
the file to Google Drive to download when I
got home and continue working on.This was
very helpful as it meant I could still be
working on my blog during the half term and
other school breaks, and not just be confined
to school time.

11.  In the construction of my final pieces I used a
lot of different media technologies, each with
their own specific purpose.
 For example when approaching the ancillary
tasks, the technologies used were much
different to the ones used in creating the
trailer.
Construction

12.  For the ancillaries, all work was done inside
Photoshop.The work required included from using
the inbuilt raw image processor to import the
images taken and adjust the colour values to match
what we wanted, for example I made the image of
Daniel very bright and orange as he is supposed to
be surrounded by fire. Removing areas of the
picture using the quick select and eraser tools.
Adding titles and mastheads like in the case of the
magazine front cover.
Construction Cont.

13.  For the Magazine front cover there was one effect I
needed to go outside of Photoshop for and that was
to create the fire effect in the background. For this I
used a 3D design software called 3DS Max and a
plugin for it called FumeFX.This is aVisual effects
oriented software used for simulating highly
realistic fire effects. I took a 3D model of a bonfire
into 3DS Max and simulated fire coming out of it
using the plugin.Then once back in Photoshop it
was easy to add Daniel into the flames and add
glows and colour work to make it all blend together.
Construction Cont.

14.  All other work for the ancillaries was done
inside Photoshop. All the titles were made
inside Photoshop using fonts downloaded at
dafont.com to specifically get the look we
wanted.We used Photoshop for the
combination of different images we had
taken, changing the colours of the image to
match the mock ups closer.
Construction Cont.

15.  The tasks we were set in years 12 and 13 required different
technologies to be used, but there was some overlap.This
will see how/if I have improved since year 12.
 My skills in Photoshop haveVASTLY improved since
embarking on my preliminary task at the beginning of year
12. My knowledge of the softwares and tools has improved
from using It over an extended period of time. I can now do
the same things I could last year at 4 times the speed
because im used to the operations required for it. Over the
summer I did a fair bit of research into Photoshop to give
myself a basic knowledge of what I could and couldn’t
achieve with the software.This was helpful when planning as
I knew the limits of what I could and couldn’t physically do.

16.  In year 13 I was required to use a video camera
instead of a stills camera, which bought about a lot
of changes, however as I have been making short
films for the last 4 years as a hobby, I am very
familiar with both the hardware and software
necessary for creating of a film.This meant that I
believe my main project in year 13 has come out
better than the main product in year 12.
Year 12 vsYear 13 Cont.

17.  In the making of my post production evaluation, I
again used blogger to present my work. Slideshare
to present Powerpoint presentations, and
Soundcloud to host audio recordings. I would be
filming my audience feedback (probably using a
dslr) and that would need to be uploaded to Vimeo
and later embedded in blogger for presentation. I
feel like this is quite a well varied use of media
technologies, although I could have used public
survey sites like surveymonkey for further audience
feedback.