The student learned about various technologies through creating a media project. They used Wikipedia for research, Blogger to document their work, YouTube for inspiration and research, Microsoft Word for planning, a digital camera to document the production process, a video camcorder to film footage, SD cards to store footage, a MacBook Pro for editing with iMovie and storing files, Photoshop to create graphics, and various software, hardware, and online tools at different stages of pre-production, production, and post-production. The technologies allowed the project to run smoothly and helped them produce a high quality final product.

1. Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

2. The research, planning, production and post production of our media product relied heavily on technology. We used many different forms of media throughout the process and had a go at using products we were both familiar and un-familiar with. The internet was used for much research, word processing was used for planning and computer software for editing. Not forgetting the electronics for filming and documenting the whole process…

3. Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free, web-based encyclopedia. We were all very familiar with this website and it proved really useful for research purposes. Using Wikipedia we researched many events that had happened within the last two years, to help us choose a film subject. Then, once we knew we wanted to base the film on Elisabeth Fritzl’s story, the website gave us much of our information on the case.

4. Blogger I used the blogging website ‘Blogger’ to create my own blog. I would use this in order to document all my work leading up to my final pieces of work. At first, it was quite difficult to get to grips with the website, as I was unfamiliar with it but I quickly learnt how to use it properly. It was useful to upload text with pictures and videos, to annotate them. Not only could I post my own work, but I could also keep track of the main school blog and the blogs of others. We could also label all of our posts with key words, so that it’s easy to navigate posts in the same category.

5. YouTube was a really helpful website to use for much of our research and planning. We were all really familiar with the website, so knew how to use it and navigate it. We found inspiration on YouTube from music videos such as “Wolfen Children” and were able to embed the videos straight onto our blogs. We also found a Austrian News report on YouTube describing the Fritzl Case. I was able to download it and burn it onto DVD so that we could play it on the television in the ‘cellar’. I was also able to just take the audio from the video, which I matched up to the footage during editing.

6. Microsoft Word This was another program we were all familiar with. We used it frequently to create shot-lists, location lists and shooting schedules. We especially used Word for the research and planning process. We made sure we saved each one as a document in case we had to make any changes to our plans. We could then e-mail these documents to one another to make sure we were all aware of what we had planned. This also helped us to record things to later add to our blogs.

7. Digital Camera This camera proved to be a very useful tool during production. We used it to document all of our production processes during filming. We took pictures of sets, costumes and mise-en-scene. We took it in turns to take pictures depending on who was filming and acting at the time. This was really helpful as I could just insert the SD card from the camera straight into my laptop and immediately e-mail the photographs to the other members of the groups. It proved a vital piece of kit!

8. High Definition Video Camcorder For filming we used a Sanyo VPC-HD2000EBK HD Video Camcorder. We all found it easy to use, especially because of it’s size. We could easily carry it from the different location. Also, its ergonomic design meant that it was comfortable to shoot handheld scenes and the rotating screen made it easy to see shots even if they were really low or high angles. It was light, so we only needed to use a small tripod. We used a tripod for longer, steady shots.

9. SD Card The Camcorder required an SD card to work which was really convenient for us. Although the school had SD cars we could borrow we decided to use our own 8GB card so we could keep all our footage safe and had some extras at hand. It also meant we were guaranteed to have one at hand. It was really handy to use, as we could just insert it into my laptop and review any footage we’d shot straightaway. This was useful because we could make sure the footage looked good enough to use on the computer screen rather than the camera screen as it’s so small. This also meant there was no capturing to be done, therefore we had more time.

10. MacBook Pro We decided to use my personal laptop for editing and storage purposes. This meant that we could edit both in and out of school time. It also meant that our footage was safer. We also backed up all of our footage on Alex’s external hard-drive and on the SD card. Personally I am more familiar with using Apple, so it was a better choice for me. The programs that come with the laptop also proved very useful. We stored photographs on iPhoto, edited on iMovie and kept music in iTunes.

11. Adobe Photoshop Elements Again this was another very useful program for us to use. It allowed us to create our logo and come up with mock-ups of some of our shots. All of us have used Photoshop before, so it didn’t take any time to learn how to use it. Creating our logo using Photoshop

12. Another example of using Photoshop. I made a mock-up image of how one of our shots could be set up. Mostly to set the kind of tone for the film opening. Mock-up image made using Photoshop and free images from the internet The final shot we used at the beginning of our opening!

13. iMovie We decided to use iMovie to edit our film rather than using PremierPro, as this was the program available to us on my laptop. The program was easy to use, and although I’d had a little experience using it before, we picked it up quite quickly. Editing was a very long and pain staking process! Match-on-action shots took a while to look right. We also had to colour match some clips, as they were filmed at different time so the lighting was different. Using an editing program that was on the same machine as all of our footage, music and images meant that time wasn’t spend transferring all these things from one machine to another. Again, this also meant a lot of editing could be done out of school time and footage added to it as we filmed.

14. We had to add effects to the flashbacks so that the audience could differentiate between the past and present-day. Before After We also used transitions between flashbacks. We decided to use the fade to white transition effect as we felt this was the most appropriate ‘flash back’ transition to use.

15. Conclusion Overall I feel that I have learnt a lot of new skills throughout all the processes of producing our film opening. Without the use of all these technologies we would not have been able to produce a Art House film opening of the standard we achieved. The technologies allowed our whole project to run smoothly and we always knew what we needed to do next. Making mock-ups gave us a real idea of how we wanted our film to look when it was finished. The overall look of our film was more professional as we had the equipment to make it look that way. I now feel much more confident using all of these technologies to create an impressive product!