1. How did you use new technologies in the construction,
research, planning and evaluation stages?
2. Developing my skills and knowledge throughout the course of my foundation portfolio to
my Advanced portfolio has been extremely difficult but also time worthy – throughout
the year I have learned various skills and uses of the internet and different forms of
applications. There have also been different types of equipment in which I haven’t
worked with before that I am incredibly confident now to use and experiment with this is
due to the help of YouTube tutorials in which I took a good initiative to learn from in my
independent research tasks. From my foundation portfolio to my advanced portfolio,
there are clear improvements in my creativity, my knowledge and my work ethic. As I
have been more experimental and independent this year when researching extra things
on my own to help my production and creations. There were many different applications
that I worked with this year such as ‘Quick time player’ that helped me explore
recording the Mac screen that I worked on. ‘Final cut pro x’ was also extremely layered
to work with as there were many different tools, materials etc to work with and learn
how they work.
This screenshot is an
example of me working
with different tools to
create and explore
with my production.
3. There were different stages of learning and processing whilst planning my
production – There were a different use of formats between the Research and
planning stage compared to the construction stage.
Research and Planning
Blogger – To post my
findings on.
YouTube (Tutorials) – To
independently learn
different ways how to
present my productions and
how to use equipment.
Photoshop – When creating
my product I practiced with
different fonts and logos for
the cover of the product to
gain more professionalism.
Construction
Camera (With light) – To film
and photograph drafts and
final products.
Tripod – To change the angle
of the shot
Green screen – To change the
background of my recordings.
Final cut pro x – To develop
my work.
Quick Time Player – To record
my screen and work.
Evaluation
Blogger – To post my
findings and ideas on.
Powerpoint – Write
my evaluations on.
Slide Share – To
embed the power
points onto my
blogger.
Youtube – To upload
the final pieces of my
work.
4. The camera was not the only piece of equipment in which I used to
film my production, I also attached a battery powered light above
the camera and positioned the camera on top of the tripod. By
having the light on the camera it allowed me to gain an image of
professionalism across my actresses/actors as it captured the
correct angles and shadows of their faces that worked well when
editing on final cut pro x. There is an arm located on the tripod
that I learned to use quite well when experimenting with the
panning shot, although I had to experiment over five times to make
it perfect and a smooth transportation of the camera I finally got
the hand of it and used it within my TV sponsorship . From last
years portfolio, from only using the camera to capture photographs
I think my development with the camera has improved excellently
as I now have used it to film and record for my production. I also
experimented with different coloured sheets that went in front of
the light this allowed me to have a different coloured glow across
my filming and photographs.
5. Final Cut Pro x was the main format of which I edited
my production and sequences on. I learned many
different skills and techniques whilst using this
application – from applying layers, using keying and
effects. When filming my actresses/actors standing
against the green screen I was able to use different
layers by applying keying onto the production, I then
would situate a colour block layer below the filming
then scale it to size. By doing this I was able to
extend my ideas and explore different colours,
backgrounds or even glitter wallpapers. Final Cut
Pro x had different effects that I also played around
with to increase my knowledge, such as masking of
which I used in my Advert 2 – this allows all colour to
disappear from the recording apart from the area
that you have masked. This was difficult to begin
with but I experimented and applied to my work
throughout. As well as keying the green screen, in
the screenshot on the right there is ‘sample’ and
‘edges’ through YouTube I was able to learn and
detect how to use this effectively to make the
picture seem clearer without blurry edges.
6. When trying to plan and research for my TV sponsorship, I
had to think of ‘The voice’ in whom I am sponsoring and
thinking of the voice makes me think of the acts behind
stage getting prepared to go on and sing. I think this works
well with them being focused solely on the mouth and this
works well and in link with my lipstick advert. Using Quick
Time Player, I was able to grab and screen record a
backstage GIF of which I was able to record and include on
the sequence and behind the actress/actor. Like
mentioned in the final cut pro slide, I had to use the effect
of keying to present the GIF behind the actress.
From a green screen to
keying to placing a GIF
behind it - I was able to
create a sequence for my
TV sponsorship.
7. Though photo shop, I was able to create and
experiment when producing a cover for my lipstick –
I thought to make this when first planning to create
my lipstick as I would have been filming my
actresses/actors with the lipstick in frame and
wanted the advert to look professional with my own
lipstick cover on show. When designing this I had to
cut out a picture of hands and a rose, and thought to
change the colour of the flower for each lipstick
shade.
8. From foundation portfolio to my advanced portfolio, I
have been working sufficiently on Blogger. Updating
my posts each time I have worked online and
researched or planned more. Blogger has ways of
posting photos, videos and links to YouTube videos.
However when producing my production and
sequences I uploaded them to YouTube first then
embedded them to the HTML of my blogger. I
uploaded my posts and photographs to blogger.
As well as posting my evaluation, planning or even
research on Blogger – I also have been using another
format online called Prezi, it is somewhat similar to
PowerPoint however you can use templates with
already attached animations and effects for your
typing. I used Prezi to write my evaluation question 3
on.
9. Using PowerPoint to answer my Evaluation questions
has been simple and effective – I also used this
technique last year alongside my foundation portfolio,
as it allowed me as many slides and time as I wanted to
describe and put detail on the writing that I used and
created for my production. The fact I am able to make
my work public with PowerPoint allows it to be easier to
reference back to in any piece of future work.
From PowerPoint to blogger, there is a step between
and that’s slide share – when learning to use slide share
I had to understand the tools on how to embed my
PowerPoints onto my blog from last year – this
developed increasingly this year when using it to post
on my advanced portfolio as it was simpler to use and
more familiar when processing my work onto it.
10. Discovering help on YouTube allowed me to
experiment a lot more on all of the applications
aforementioned this is because I was able to follow
tutorials and understand them independently. I
watched tutorials on green screens, masking, final cut
pro speed, even how to screen record and this is
where I found how to use quick time player.
The green screen played a big role in my production, as
I used it in every sequence created this was because I
wanted a more imaginative and experimental way to
create a background for my recording. Despite the
condition of the green screen, I was able to work with
what I had. I positioned the two lights around the
green screen so it lit up the area I was planning to
used, this made it simple to edit on final cut pro once I
had filmed sufficiently.
11. Experimenting with the different formats has improved in my routine for my advanced
portfolio, as it wasn’t so vast in my foundation portfolio. This year I have increased the
amount of editing, and analysing independently that I have done. The only difficulties
of which I had to over come was my virgin use of Final Cut Pro at the start however as I
learned how to use and explore on it, I was able to work solo without the help of a
teacher and get on with the production making. I explored the different difficulties I had
and learned how to overcome them effectively for the working of my recordings. I also
had to make sure the lights was fully charged when filming against the green screen and
this was the only other difficulty as I needed them fully charged to have the full effect.
This screenshot shows the different titles
and subtitles of my planning, research
and productions. It shows what I had to
explore and increase the quality of when
working on the Mac computers as when
working on the computers I would work
on watching YouTube tutorials etc to help
me improve my posts.
