Throughout the process of creating a film opening, the student learned to use several technologies. In the planning stage, the student learned to use Prezi, Slideshare, and Blogger to plan and share work. During construction, the student learned to use a video camera, boom mic, and Movie Studio Platinum for editing. Photoshop was used to create titles and logos. In the evaluation stage, the student further explored Prezi, Word, PowerPoint, Slideshare, Blogger and also learned to use Emaze and YouTube's uploading features to evaluate the project.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 6
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

2. Throughout the process of creating our film opening there were three different
stages in which we used a lot of different technologies. The different stages were:
• planning and research
• construction
• evaluation
This presentation will discuss the different technologies used in each stage of the
film opening process and what I have leant about each technology used.
INTRODUCTION

3. PLANNING AND RESEARCH
In the planning and research stage of the film opening a lot of software technology
was used. We were introduced to three new websites to do and upload our work on.
These were Blogger, Prezi and Slideshare. These three softwares were extremely
important throughout the whole process of constructing the film opening, not just the
planning and research stage. However, it was during this stage that we were
introduced to the three websites.
Prezi is a website that we used to create presentations of our work. It is very easy to
use and understand but on the rare occasion it loses connection and you have to wait
a few minutes to regain connection. When you first login to Prezi the screen in Fig.1.
appears on screen. To create a Prezi you simply click the “create a new Prezi” button.
Once you’ve clicked this button a new tab opens as shown in Fig.2. This page allows
you to choose the design of your Prezi, its very easy to understand and similar to
Microsoft PowerPoint. When you’re happy with your choice you simply click “use
template”. Fig.3. shows what appears after choosing your template. This is your Prezi
PowerPoint. You type your information in areas where it says “click to add text” and
you click the circle in the top left to add new sections to the Prezi. It’s very easy to use
as it tells you how to add text and is very self-explanatory. If you happen to get stuck
there is a help button which leads to very simple instructions.
Prior to creating the film opening I had never used Prezi and it was a totally new
software to me. I learnt everything you need to know to create a fully functioning Prezi
and it took very little time to understand Prezi due to its simplicity.
Fig.1. Prezi
homepage
Fig.3. Prezi
PowerPoint
Fig.2. Choose
template

4. Slideshare was used to upload work done on Word or PowerPoint so we
could retrieve an embed code to upload the document onto Blogger. After
typing in your LinkedIn login details on the screen shown in Fig.4. you then
have to get a code from your emails as seen in Fig.5. This was difficult to
retrieve in school as yahoo mail doesn’t work on the school accounts.
However, when using Slideshare at home it was very easy to use as it was
very easy to get onto yahoo mail. Once signed into Slideshare the homepage
appears like in Fig.6. Uploading a document is very simple as all that is
required is pressing the “upload” button then opening the Word or
PowerPoint document from your documents.
Slideshare was another software I had never come across prior to creating
our film openings. Similarly to Prezi, I had to learn how to use the website
but it took little time because it’s a very easy website to understand. The
only slightly difficult part about Slideshare was login in on our school
system with a LinkedIn account and not being able to get onto yahoo mail to
retrieve a verification code. Apart from that it’s a very simple software to
understand and use. Finding the embed code to copy onto blogger was
another simple thing to do as it tells you where the embed code is.
Fig.4. LinkedIn login
Fig.6. Homepage
Fig.5. Sign-in
verification

5. Blogger was the most important bit of software used during the whole
process of creating the film opening. All work done was uploaded onto
blogger for the teacher to access. Fig.7. shows the screen that appears after
logging into blogger. To create a new post you simply click the “new post”
button then the screen shown in Fig.8. appears. The page looks like a Word
document and you type your information straight onto the blank page like
you do in Word. To embed a Slideshare or Prezi into the blogger you click
the HTML button and paste the embed code in. All the buttons on blogger
are self-explanatory as most are labelled or have a title when you hover
your curser over the button.
Like the two previously mentioned softwares, blogger was new to me. This
was another thing I understood how to use immediately due to its
straightforwardness although I had to learn everything about the software.
After my teacher explained and demonstrated how to I didn’t need anymore
help using it. Blogger also allows people to comment on any work that has
been posted so my teacher could mark the work and give us feedback so I
could receive the best grade possible in my work.
Fig.7. Blogger
homepage
Fig.8. Blogger
homepage

6. In the research and planning stage of our film opening production process we used
different technologies to research generic conventions, film opening conventions and
everything about our chosen genre. We used the UK Film Council slideshow, that was
saved into the student share documents of our school system, to research the popularity
of our chosen genre. We also discovered our target audience through this information.
Box Office Mojo and IMDb were two websites we used to discover information regarding
the popularity of films and how much money they make. The websites also allowed us to
work out whether the film is mainstream or niche so we can get a greater understand of
the popularity of our chosen genre. This allowed us to decided whether our film should be
mainstream or niche and whether it would make a lot of money.
YouTube was used to watch other AS Media film openings so we could gather inspiration
and find out what our target audience liked to watch. We also discovered different shots
that looked good in our genre and found out what makes the film opening realistic.
All the websites used in the planning and research stage were not new softwares so I
knew how to used them. For this reason they were easy to use.

7. CONSTRUCTION
During the construction stage of the film opening process I had to learn how to use a video camera and a
boom mic to record the footage needed for our film opening. Having used the camera in the preliminary
task, I knew what I was doing as all I had to do was turn the camera on and press record. However, there
are many settings on the camera we didn’t explore like infrared mode and changing the depth of field.
This was because no one in the group knew how to change these modes, but nor did we want to change
them because we were happy with using a simple shot with the basic mode set on the camera. The boom
mic was a hardware I had never used prior to filming our opening. One member of our group had used it
before so explained how to turn it on, this being all that was required to use the mic. Both the camera
and the mic were easy to use and only required you holding them or leaving them stood on the tripod
after them being turned on. Neither of the items were temperamental and they worked very well and were
simple to use.
For the construction of the product we used Movie Studio Platinum to edit our film opening. This was
another technology used in the preliminary task so I was aware with how to use it but I hadn’t explored
the software in detail so there was a lot I learnt during the film opening process. Adding a filter, cropping
the framing of a shot, adding externally made music, slowing down a clip and adding Photoshop text are
some of the things I learnt how to do in Movie Studio Platinum. These things were very easy to do once
explained to me by my teacher. The one thing I found difficult was matching the contrast and brightness
of two different shots. When filming we took an establishing shot of the woodland then took a closer shot
of the same area of the woods. The establishing shot made the grass seem darker than in the following
shot so I had to try and edit the second shot to make the colours match. My teacher taught me how to
edit the contrast and brightness of the shot but I still found it difficult to match the shot exactly so I
required my teacher help to find a way to make them match.

8. Photoshop was another software used during the construction of our film opening. We
used Photoshop to create our studio logo, AJA Productions, and to create the titles
featuring in our film opening.
Our studio logo was very simple to create as it only consists of text, no pictures. All I
needed to do was add text, which was done by simply clicking the text tool, then
change the colour of the text, by clicking the text colour box. I then changed the
background colour by using the paint bucket tool. I was familiar with using Photoshop
due to using it in other subjects so creating the studio logo was a quick and easy
process.
Creating the titles was another simple process. When creating the film title, Riverside,
we used a similar process to when creating the studio logo. The only difference was
with the title text I changed some of the layer style setting to create a title that fitted
our genre. I didn’t know how to do this but someone in my group showed me that they
could be changed so I learnt this and changed some of the settings to get our final
product.

9. EVALUATION
After completing the planning and research then the construction of the film opening, I
then had to evaluate my work. Prezi, Word, PowerPoint, Slideshare and Blogger were some
softwares I used in the evaluation stage as well as in the two previously mentioned stages.
This meant I gained even further knowledge of each website so I could use them easily and
efficiently. In the evaluation stage I had to answer seven different evaluation questions. To
further my knowledge on different softwares I used new ones to answer the questions.
Emaze was a new software I discovered and learnt to use for the evaluation stage of the
process. Emaze was a software I found took longer to get used to because of my total
unfamiliarity with it. When choosing a template to use I found them all quite confusing so I
chose to use a blank Emaze. I then discovered that Emaze is quite similar to PowerPoint
but was more temperamental. Sometimes when typing Emaze wouldn’t register what I was
typing so I had to log out and finish the presentation the next day. Apart from this it was
quite simple to understand once I got to the blank template.
YouTube was used to upload the film opening, the target audience interviews and our
groups pitch so we could add the videos as evidence in some evaluation questions and
take screenshots from the film opening as evidence. Prior to this I had never uploaded a
video to YouTube so this was something I learnt.