The student used a variety of software and technologies at different stages of their coursework project. They used Word for planning and research, PowerPoint for analysis, Prezi and InDesign for creative presentation, Photoshop for image editing, Premier Pro for video editing, YouTube for inspiration and sound resources, Audacity for audio editing, a laptop and camera for work at home and on location, and an external hard drive to transfer files between devices. While most software worked well, Prezi sometimes crashed without saving and device batteries occasionally ran out.

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

2. While creating my coursework I used a variety of
software's, both internet browser and fixed
computer, to present my work and create my
final pieces of work including: film trailer, film
poster and front cover magazine. In this essay I
shall show how I used each one and what the
strength and limitations where of each one.

3. Word
Before I started my coursework I was very familiar with word, I was
familiar with its user interface and the way It presented the text in a clear
and easy editable way. I chose word over other text writing software's due
to its accessibility ( it was available In nearly all computers), its rare crash
statics ( word very rarely crashes, even with high amounts of text) and its
easy of use to edit mistakes and to easily move text around without
something become corrupt or disappearing.
I used word mostly for my planning and research task, it gave me ease it
getting my ideas and analysis down quickly without fiddling around with
getting the correct text box or correct size of text which I might of
struggled with in other software's like publisher.
Although word was not very creative it was easy to use and to add to
without problem. I often used word to write up my ideas and to get my
ideas down before then copy and pasting my work into a more creative
software such as Prezi.

4. PowerPoint & SlideShare
As with word, I was very familiar with PowerPoint before I started my coursework and
was therefore very confident with using it. I knew how to get the program to do what I
wanted without looking it up on YouTube and therefore the pieces of work that I used
PowerPoint for where quicker and easier to create, I feel that this means those
documents will be higher quality as I could concentrate more on the quality of
information rather than the creative side of the coursework, however, both of these
aspects are very important in my coursework so my coursework may have been
improved if I spent more time having a draft in PowerPoint and then insert the draft
into a creative document such as Extranormal.
The biggest use for PowerPoint was my analysis of my other products. I could easily
input a picture of the product ( or a link for the videos) and then easily annotate
around them using the arrows that the software's allows you to use. However, this
was a fairly un creative way to show my analysis.
I used a program called “Slide share” which enabled me to upload my presentation
and then embed the link into my blog which means you can easily access my
PowerPoints through the blog.

5. Prezi
Prezi was a software I learnt to use in my AS coursework and therefore was fairly familiar with
it, however, over the course of my A2 portfolio I learnt new skills which could be used to
present my work in a better way.
Prezi is a browser software which is similar to PowerPoint, however, allows the user to have a
more creative and 3D effect to the presentation. The software allows you to move between
boxes, circles and squares over a background of your choice. This can means the reader has a
ease of use and a smooth transition between points when getting the information. Prezi also
was easy to embed into my blog which would mean it could be accessed easily.
Although Prezi was a interesting software to use, it did have its problems. When using the
software it would often crash and then not save. This was mean that I would often find my self
re-doing work that I had previously done but lost in the software crashing. This was hugely
frustrating and made me think twice when using the software.
The software was also often hard to use and hard to get to where I wanted to be. It was
troublesome when trying to select a box or text and would not be able to differentiate between
the two. The links to videos and pictures would also often become corrupt and therefore
unable to be used, this would mean I would have to re-upload them to the Prezi.

6. InDesign
The software InDesign was completely knew to me and therefore I had to spend
some time on Google and YouTube to learn how to use it. After I had learnt to skills I
found it enjoyable and reliable to use. I had no problem after understood the
software and used it to its full advantage. I used it for my magazine front cover and
for my film poster, both of which needed extreme detail in the design and colour.
The features of InDesign that where most useful to me was the line boxes which
meant I could make a symmetrical and defined magazine where all the text and
pictures where placed correctly and smoothly. I also thought the range of colours
was incredible and enabled me to get the exact correct shade in my products.
Although InDesign was mostly great, it did have some weaknesses such as pictures
sometimes becoming corrupt, however, this only happened twice and was easily
fixable as I had saved the pictures in a easy place to re-input them into the
document.
InDesign was easy to upload to my blog, I simply saved it as a JPEG and uploaded it
onto the blog.

7. Premier Pro
Premier pro was also a new software for me and I again spent time on YouTube and Google
learning how to use it. However, I had very little experience with using any video editing
software so spent a good day learning how to use the software to it maximum potential, I
wrote notes on my notepad about how to do key things so that if I forgot I could turn to it
to quickly remind myself.
Premier pro was a challenging software and I had to engage heavily with the software to
use it correctly and to not make any mistakes. I often found myself with a memory blank
about how to do simple things, however, I soon got the hang of it and can now use it with
confidence.
Premier pro allowed my to use a range of transitions and editing techniques to make my
trailer look as professional as possible. For example I often used the ‘fade black’ transition
to make my trailer look dark and mysterious, this also made it follow the conventions of
professional horror film trailers and enabled me to create a final convincing and powerful
product.

8. Photoshop
From my AS coursework I had learnt how to use Photoshop. I was confident with
this software and it was hugely helpful when editing picture for my film poster
and magazine front cover. I could easily cut and change the composition of
imaging using this software which meant I could get the most out of a picture.
Photoshop was reliable and was great as saving the file to a range of formats
which meant it was no trouble when uploading a picture to PowerPoint, Prezi or
an adobe software which often have specific formats to be able to upload
pictures.
Photoshop was useful also to change picture slightly, for example to turn a picture
to black and white was a easy job and was often used for my products which
needed to give off a horror film vibe.

9. YouTube & YouTube Converter
YouTube was great for inspiration and to gather clips for
analysis, I could easily embed the link onto my documents or
blog without problem. YouTube was also used as a sound
resources, I found a perfect found track for my trailer and used
YouTube converter which pulled the sound out of the video and
saved it in my documents as a MP3 file, this meant it was easy to
upload in audacity for small editing choices.

10. Audacity
I had had experience with audacity, I knew how to use it to its
full potential. Audacity itself it a easy and plain software which
has limited features, however, it did the job of cutting and
slowing down my track to the speed I wanted it to be. This
meant I could reach the full potential of my sound in my trailer
to create the best environment for the audience to watch the
visual side of the trailer.

11. Laptop
My laptop was used to work at home. Although it did
not have as much software on it as the college
computers, I simply downloaded trial versions often
software to use at home. I also mostly used my laptop
for creating word files to get down information which I
could then put onto a more creative software in
college.

12. Camera
My camera was used to take pictures for my print products and
to film my trailer. This was my camera and therefore I was
familiar with the functions and could use it easily on the day of
filming. I also was confident in its ability to capture high quality
pictures.
Although the camera was good practically it would often run out
of battery, this meant that valuable time(weather circumstances)
was wasted due to the camera having to charge.

13. Hard-drive
My hard-drive was very useful for moving my
documents from college to laptop. The hard
drive has a large memory of a terabyte and
therefore I had no problem with memory space.