Final Cut Express, Photoshop, InDesign, LiveType, Logic Pro, YouTube, Blogger, Slideshare, Facebook, Screenflow and Safari are various software programs and websites that the author used to create their media coursework, including editing video clips, designing magazines and posters, creating titles and soundtracks, sharing work, and getting feedback. These digital tools allowed the author to non-linearly edit video, add visual effects, incorporate text and images, make music, and present their work to a wide online audience.

1. Final Cut Express
Final cut played what was probably the biggest part in my
coursework this year. Final Cut is a non-linear editing programme
which can be used to cut, paste, stretch and lots of other things to
video or audio clips within the software. Film used to be recorded
onto a 35mm film reel, which you literally had to cut and stick
together. Final Cut does exactly the same thing, if you think of a
region in Final Cut as a piece of film reel, you would have to cut it,
and move it somewhere else. The only difference is that in this
digital software, there is the use of undoing something. Something
that I had to do a lot in my editing!

2. Photoshop
Photoshop was also quite an important programme used for my
ancillary products, although not used to quite the extent as the
programme on the next slide. Photoshop, as suggested in the name of
it, is a photo editing software. It allows you to change colours of the
whole picture, or just certain areas, it allows you to cut objects out of a
picture. For instance cutting a person out and making them appear in
front of the mast head of a magazine, but still behind everything else.
Photoshop was used in my coursework to add an effect on the image
of my magazine to give the ‘pitch black eyes’ effect on the featured
characters. It was also used very effectively in my poster to turn the
puddle of water next to the camera into a puddle of blood, that
actually looked like liquid blood, as opposed to a splurge of red paint
on the floor.

3. InDesign
...And here is the programme I mentioned on the last slide. InDesign is
basically used straight after Photoshop. InDesign is generally used to add
text and such to a picture to make it into a magazine or a poster.
InDesign does have photo editing capabilities, but generally Photoshop
is easier for that, as it has a wider range of functions.
The main thing that makes InDesign and Photoshop the better choice
compared to print is this: it is much MUCH faster than printing every
time you want to see what a page looks like. On these programmes
you can move things around and get a print preview before actually
printing and using up our valuable trees.

4. LiveType
LiveType is a piece of software generally suited to making inter-titles for
films. That’s what I used it for anyway.
LiveType is very simple to use. You type what you want in the box,
choose an effect, change the length/timing of your effect to your
desired degree, export as a Quicktime movie format.
I did use Quicktime, which is a video playing software, but I won’t give it
its own slide because I only used it about once or twice.
LiveType has a massive library of effects for all different types of genres
of film. Some of the effects make the letters jump off the screen in
some really frantic ways, whereas others just make them subtly move
or fade in/out. This is again a very good piece of digital software, and
although you can make inter-titles in Final Cut, LiveType could do it
more professionally and has a larger array of effects.

5. Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a professional standard music making/mixing/mastering etc.
programme. I used this to make my soundtrack. Most people would use
a programme called Garage Band to make theirs, (it does the same
job, but is much simpler and comes default on a Mac) or Soundtrack
Pro, which comes in the package with Logic (an industry standard
soundtrack making programme), but due to my skills in other subjects, I
was able to use this programme much more easily. I also did a
presentation for all of the other media students to teach them the
basics of how to use this programme.
To make a soundtrack you could also just drag music samples straight
into Final Cut and edit them from there, but because I knew exactly
what kind of music and sound effects I wanted, I decided to create
them myself in Logic. Logic, like Garage Band and Soundtrack Pro, has a
huge loops library, so if you find it difficult to make your own music,
there are presets there for you.

6. YouTube
Now, that covers all of the programmes I used to make my actual material, the
last 5 slides will cover some websites and applications I used to receive some
feedback and create presentations.
Firstly, YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing website used throughout the
world. You create an account (which I already had), then you can simply
upload it and either make it private, or public for the whole world to be able
to find with the keywords that you choose. I used this website a lot to upload
rough cuts and eventually final drafts of my teaser trailer to get feedback
through comments and the ‘thumbs up or thumbs down’ system. This enabled
me to show my teaser trailer to a much wider range of audience, as opposed
to just showing it to people I knew or could take the video to. YouTube is
simple to use and you can embed videos from the website to show
somewhere else, like I have done many times on my accompanying blog.
YouTube also has an annotation system built in, so that once your videos have
uploaded, you can add any annotations that you please at the times desired.

7. Blogger
Blogger is something I have been using for the whole of this year, on top of
the whole of my year 12 as well. Blogger is a blogging website that can be
used for many different things. Some people use it to post pictures of
themselves and chat to friends or pen pals. Some people use it as an
advertisement website to showcase their products to a wider audience.
Some people, like me, use it for school work to show their process through
work they have done, but not just for school work like me. Some people
use it to show how they make a magazine they are working on
professionally, to gain more publicity for the magazine.
Blogger doesn’t over complicate things either, making it easy to use right
from day one, without too much learning or searching for help. The fact that
blogger can be used for all of the different reasons mentioned above, and
also for many more reasons, it allows for your work to be presented to
people who may not search for it otherwise, attracting more people.

8. Slideshare
This is a website that I will be uploading this very powerpoint to.
Slideshare is, as suggested in the name again, a slide sharing website. It
basically works the same way as YouTube, but for powerpoints instead.
You make an account, upload your file and people can find it if they
type in the keywords that you can choose. Again, similar to YouTube,
you can then embed your powerpoints or anyone elses powerpoint if
they have allowed embedding, to other websites such as Blogger or
Facebook.
There isn’t much more I can say about this website as it doesn’t have
too many intricate and complicated workings, you literally upload and
then do what you want with it.

9. Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website to keep up with friends, play games
or to simply just be nosey. Nowadays, people of quite a large range of ages
use this website, and use it a lot. Me included. The good thing about this
website is that you can use it professionally and make a page or group
about a band or any other organisation. I made a page for my magazine last
year to try and get some feedback, and it worked very well. So I decided to
do it again this year for my teaser trailer and ancillary products.
After making the page and setting it up how I needed it, all I had to do was
make a post on the website from my account about my coursework, and
within about 10 minutes I had a range of comments on each of my
products, telling me what they liked about it.
This website was one of the most useful resources to receive some
feedback from my audience, and it would have been harder to get as much
feedback in a lump sum like I did through any other website or any other
means.

10. Screenflow
This was an application for Macs that I sadly had to pay for, but it was well worth
the pennies! Screenflow is a screen recording programme, which you can get
free versions of (like an application called IShowU), but this one was much
better and much more professional. The free versions of this type of application
simply just record the screen and show what you are doing on your computer,
however Screenflow allows you to also record what is showing in the iSight
camera on your mac and also record voice or sounds through the in-built
microphone. The one massive thing that puts Screenflow above the rest is that
when you have stopped the recording it opens up a new window where you
can then edit the video and audio that you have just recorded, adding any effects
or text or colours that you may want or need. This therefore allows you to add
in any other external video or audio, like a song, into your screen recording. But
the best thing is it’s all in one single application!
You can then export your video or share it with YouTube or Facebook. I used
this application to show an analysis of some teaser trailers of films, without
having to type it all out and make it boring to read.

11. Safari
Last but not least, I present to you, the internet! The internet has
probably played one of the biggest part in my productions. Through
research, planning and evaluation I have used the internet to search for
professional teaser trailer and to find other analyses of them that more
well-known people have done. I have been able to upload plans of my
products to websites like YouTube or Facebook to obtain peoples ideas
which I could then adapt into my ideas ready for the final products. For
evaluation, I have been able to use websites like Slideshare to upload
evaluations like this one and share them with the world, to then go on
and embed it to Blogger.
Without the internet I wouldn’t have been able to get half as much
feedback, only from those in my class as opposed to the whole world.
This internet is, and will continue to be, a very useful invention for the
media.

12. That concludes my list of websites and applications that aided
my tasks this year. But in terms of technological advancement
itself, it also has its downsides.
Obviously digital technology has its major pros, like the fact that you can show people your products online
without having to print or waste resources. That’s the same for hardware as well. Digital cameras allow for
looking at your filming before you actually use it. Back in the day you had to develop the film, which would
take time, before you can even get an idea of how the filming went.
On all of these software programmes you can undo steps you have made and edit non-destructively. This
helps because if you get what you think it a finished page, but then want to move some things around to
try a different look, you can undo it if you don’t like it. Undo - probably digital technologies best friend. You
can easily search the internet for professional products and other reviews to see what works and what
doesn’t with film and its ancillary products, making it easier to find conventions.
Despite all the amazing hype made for digital technology, there are downsides too. One of the main ones is
that due to all the electrical wiring and coding in hardware and software, a lot of things can go wrong, and
can easily go wrong. Files can become corrupt, you can lose data if you don’t back it up, which could mean
losing a whole weeks or even months worth of work. So a lot more dedication is needed with digital
technology to back everything up frequently. Some people criticise digital technology for being too easy.
They say that you don’t need skills anymore as people are now becoming prosumers. With easy and
universal access to professional-grade software and hardware, anyone can start making films or magazines
or music, so as people who consume media start producing it as well, they become prosumers. This is why
people criticise that digital technology is too easy to use and can sometimes create big disputes.