The student learned about various technologies through constructing a media project. They used a Mac computer equipped with Final Cut Pro for editing video clips, sounds, and creating company logos. The student became proficient with keyboard shortcuts and file management on the Mac. An iPhone was used to take pictures and notes during filming. A tripod helped achieve smooth shots by learning to use the spirit level. An iPad recorded a clear voiceover that was imported into Final Cut Pro. A video camera captured all footage, and the student learned focusing, zooming, and ensuring recording. Final Cut Pro's timeline was used to assemble clips, sounds, and text. Online resources like YouTube provided inspiration and tutorials, while Google aided research. OneDrive facilitated file

1. Evaluation Task Six
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process
of constructing this product?

2. Mac Computer: this computer was the
rock of our project. We used this for
everything - the importing and editing of
our entire opening sequence on final cut
pro, we used it to create company
idents, put sounds together and carry out
vital research. As a Mac is different from
other computers, I did learn about it and
have to get used to using it. I learnt how
to properly use it's keyboard short cuts,
such as taking screen shots - command,
shift, 4. Also, I quickly picked up its
documents system, to ensure I could
save sounds, pictures and videos easily.
Most importantly, I've had to learn how to
use final cut pro, an editing software, to
complete our opening sequence. Without
this Mac, we would not have been able
to complete our opening sequence.
IPhone 6: Although this was probably the
least used technical product of the project, it
helped us with many different little things. As
well as using it as a prop, we used it to take
pictures of the filming day, writing notes of
things we need to do, and to keep track of
time. I wouldn't say I learnt a lot from this
product as I did know how to use the phone
already; however I learnt that it has many
extra uses to it. These include: reminders,
notes, alarms and safari - which we used to
ensure we kept on track of our filming day.
Tripod: This piece of equipment, although not technical was extremely vital to us in the creation
of our opening sequence. I have used a tripod before in photography, however this one was
slightly different. We used the tripod to get specific shots and angles, ensuring our camera was
balanced at all time. What I learnt about this tripod was how to use the spirit level, this gave us
an indication to whether the camera was balanced properly to help us ensure our shots were
level. We managed to achieve smooth flowing, level shots for our sequence with the help of the
tripod.
IPad: We did not use the IPad during the
filming process, however it was a very
successful piece of equipment to help our
editing. During the end of the editing
process, we used the IPad to record a
voiceover for our sequence. Just by
recording it on the video camera, we then
imported it onto our Mac and edited it into
our sequence. I didn't know it was so
simple to record such clear voice
samples, and really learnt from the IPad
exactly how to record a voice over and
import it onto the Macs.
Video Camera: This along with the Mac
was probably one of the most vital pieces
of equipment in our filming process. It
held all our footage throughout our filming
day, and allowed us to achieve every shot
we wanted. I knew the basics of how to
use the camera, but I did learn a few
things about it such as touching the
screen to focus and use the zoom button
properly. It also took practice to learn and
remember to click to red button to record
it, and then checking it was actually
recording.
Without the camera our opening sequence would have been a
complete failure. It was down to the camera that we were able to
get every shot we wanted over the whole day, and therefore
manage to create our ideal opening sequence.

3. FINAL CUT PRO: This was the most used software
during our post production of our opening sequence. I
learnt a lot from Final Cut Pro, and on this slide I will
discuss that.
Timeline: The timeline of Final Cut Pro was our main canvas from really creating our opening sequence. On the timeline we
pieced our entire sequence together, playing with the format, length and duration of all the clips. Whilst editing in Final Cut, I
learnt so many things - these included learning how to cut clips, layer sound, adding transitions and editing the visual pictures of
the videos. All throughout the post production the timeline was what we constantly referred back to. As you can see from the
image there were various layers on our timeline, these came from once we had actually established the order of the clips and it
was time to add other features to our sequence. For example: the green bubbles on the timeline, are all the sound clips we
added over our video clips, and the purple bubbles create text over the top of the videos. Not only did we use the Final Cut
timeline to edit our clips down, we also used it to really piece together our sequence and add layers to make it like a real opening
sequence. All of these techniques for editing our video took time to learn but once I got the hang of it, the time line was very
simple to work with.
Various features: This boxed corner was what enabled our
group to add different features to our sequence other than
just the video clips. It allowed us to add IMovie sound
effects, transitions, editing lighting of the videos and is
what we used to create our idents with the generators. This
wasn't the most used factor of Final Cut that we used,
however it was extremely helpful when we were adding the
finish touches the our sequence such as titles and little
sounds here and there.
Library: This is where
all our clips are held,
and stayed in our
process of deciding
which ones we wanted
to use. Before we
started to actually piece
the sequence together,
we used the library bay
to decide on favourite
clips. You can see
these were marked with
a green line and this
helped narrow down
our decision process.
Viewer: This editing
section was used to make
small edits to each clip,
which were too specific for
the timeline. For example,
from here we editing the
text that we had put onto
clips, by changing size,
colour and font. We could
also editing the sound of
the original clips from this
bay, by changing the
volume or muting them
entirely. We also used this
to crop the size/ framing of
some clips, which could
make a clip more useful to
us. The viewer really
enabled us to edit the
small details of our clip,
allowing us to perfect it all
as much as possible.

4. This montage shows the variety of online
resources I have used throughout this
project:

5. The most important online applications that I used during
my planning, research and evaluation journey:
YouTube was such a huge part of our opening sequence. As it was our first
time as a group coming up with an idea for a film, then planning it and
deciding what to film etc, YouTube was such a brilliant search engine for
inspiration. We used YouTube to look up other opening sequence to similar
genres to ours, so that we could really understand what sort of impression
they gave off. It was also extremely useful when getting to know what we
needed to include in our opening sequence. I have used YouTube many times
before, however I did learn a few new things about it. I learnt how to embed
videos from YouTube, so that I could use them as examples on my journal. I
also learnt to be specific with my searches to really find what I wanted to look
for. I started to utilise YouTube more for its online tutorials as well. When I
was learning to use Final Cut Pro, there were videos on YouTube teaching me
certain things about the software. When it came to actually having finished
our opening sequence, I’ve learnt a lot on YouTube about uploading your
videos, especially about editing them when they are actually up by adding
annotations and notes on to them. Overall, I believe YouTube has been one
of the most helpful and beneficial pieces of online software that I’ve used
during this coursework, without it I wouldn’t of been able to carry out such
vital research and learn more about videos themselves.Google, the popular search engine, was an absolutely vital element of our project. Like
any learning teenager, whenever we had a query or needed to find out information for
something to do with our sequence, Google was the place to go. Not only did we use
it for vital research, but also to find images and videos for our research and planning. I
am an avid Google user in everyday life, but using it continuously for this project you
do start to learn a thing or two. Somethings it won’t direct you to specific answers you
want straight away, and as we were on a time schedule, it was always useful to just
rephrase your search. One of the things I found it most useful for was its definitions
and explanations for things I didn’t quite understand. It will direct you to pages and
pages of information on your query, giving you usually the most popular and usual
first. Also, as you can see in the picture on the right, by simply typing in Thriller films it
gives you a list to look through, this was extremely helpful and time saving when it
came to research.

6. The most important online applications that I used during
my planning, research and evaluation journey:
One Drive, although wasn’t used for research it was definitely an online
application which helped me through this course. I used One Drive to store all
of my online Word and PowerPoint documents and also all my pictures related
to the media course – as you can see in the image on the left. I did have to
learn how to use it however, but once taught by my Media teacher everything
was very busy to pick up. One Drive was particularly useful for our planning
coursework. By using One Drive to store documents and images, they were
always in an easily accessible place, and from there would were able to use
specific links to imbed any files onto our coursework journals. Lastly, One Drive
was extremely helpful to ensure we could share work with our group. You
could send / share pictures we needed for coursework, or anything else we
knew the others in our team may need.
Prezi is an online presentation site, which I have actually previously used in
secondary school. This site was very useful when it came to planning and
evaluating, as a different way to present it. It’s easy to use, however there are
some things that I had learn as I was using it. I learnt how to embed images and
videos onto the Prezi, and also how to change the design of the specific Prezi
after choosing an original theme design. I love Prezi, and it was definitely one of
the most fun online applications to use. PowerPoint can get a bit repetitive, so
Prezi is a nice way to introduce more design and personality into what you have
researched. It was also very useful when we needed to do presentations to the
class about our work.