Google is the most commonly used search engine due to its ability to easily find relevant information from a variety of websites using only a few search terms. Wikipedia is also widely used as a convenient source for confirming facts and dates. Blogger was used to host the coursework portfolio, with PowerPoint being used to make the blog more visually interesting. Various technologies like cameras, YouTube, and SlideShare were used at different stages of the work for tasks like video production, hosting files, and embedding media. Both advantages and disadvantages were encountered with the different technologies.

3. Google is used by near enough everyone to
search for everything, which can lead you
to find more information on sites such as
blogs and Wikis. Using few key words, the
most relevant searches appear, which
include links to other, most relevant sites. Its
like one world-wide index page to the
internet. I've never come across any issues
in regards to using Google, its really helpful
and I doubt i’ll switch to other sites, as it is
most convenient.

4.  Wikipedia is seen as the go-to place
by anyone for information regarding
almost anything, even if its obscure.
We used Wikipedia for confirming
dates and facts found about artists
we searched for. (convenient for
double checking!) We did this to
see which record label Tegan and
Sara were listed under and it was
Sony Music, which we then used
this information to find their
address to send the copyright
permission letter!

5.  Blogger was used for hosting our
coursework portfolio.
PowerPoint - for making work
look more interesting on the
blog, splitting up walls of text
and to add more of an
interactive interface to the
portfolio. It was interesting to
use, as the only other blog site I
am used too is Tumblr and
blogger has more of a technical
feel to it, so its good to learn
how to use another site which
will be useful in future

6.  Camera- To take WIP stills and the photo-shoot. We
shot Jess on a green screen on two separate
occasions, one for work in progress shots (as seen
below) while we filmed so we have evidence of this
work to put in weekly updates and to do the actual
photo shoot of Jess where we later used the images
on the ancillary tasks.

7. Powerpoint - for making work look more
interesting on the blog, splitting up walls
of text and to add more of an
interactive interface to the portfolio. It
gives a more interesting layout too, as
you can alter text positioning and make
it look much more interesting than just
editing a blog post or using word. Slide
transitions are also a great feature,
though I don't use them as they are
irritating to use at times, and sorting out
slide animations takes a while, and isn’t
really needed.

8.  I used YouTube to find
the inspirational videos and to use the
embed codes to use on our blogs. The
site hosts and embeds video, so its so
useful for when our media product was
made, and we needed to host and
upload it, same for our directors
commentary. The only problem I faced
with YouTube was with uploading my
videos took too long, and they
repeatedly failed, but in the long term,
YouTube is the easiest to used, so I kept
on trying.

9.  We used Slideshare (like now) to host
PowerPoint's so that they are viewable
on our Blogger site. This gives a nicer
interface and more use of technology. I
also found no issues with it and felt it was
easy to use, with a minimalistic user face
so uploading and embedding can be
done easily. It was also easy to log
on/register, with the use of the
facebook connect application!

10.  Through this section of planning, an issue
I came across was the reliability of
sources used; but this was only the case
of Wikipedia, but following citations at
the bottom, it quickly resolved that issue
to more reliable websites (e.g. Official
homepages)
Also; magazines are based on only
opinions, though those subjective
interpretations of things are useful in our
work.

11.  The main piece of
technology we used
throughout our work was
Final Cut Pro, as if we used
the same program as last
year, Imovie, the skills shown
would have not been
enough, as you need a
more complex program to
do more interesting things
that we used in out video
more professionally, e.g
Chroma keying.

12.  We did all the work on a
mac, which I found
difficult, but there was no
way around this. I am
normally used to working
on PC’s so the lack of
right click and adjusting to
Command controls was
irritating, but macs are
well known for their uses in
graphic designs. But I
really did not like using
them and will avoid using
them in future if possible.

13.  To use Final Cut pro to its full potential, we
used the college's HD camera for our
filming. This got the most crisp images and
easy to work with shots to use with editing,
green screens and image manipulation.
However; a downside we faced to all this
was that due to the HD footage and
editing, the video's rendering took a very
long time, sometimes even a whole lesson,
which was very inconvenient, though worth
the hassle.

14.  The camera was very easy to
work with, using the manual
or automatic focus, and it
was interesting to use white
balance, where as last year,
it wasn't that much of an
issue in my work, as working
outside its not completely
necessary. Lighting was also
fun to use as we could try
new things, with the camera
angles also, so we could
create different feels to shots
and manipulating was an
interesting use of
technology.

15.  In the Ancillary tasks, the main technologies used
were Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. I also used
my graphics tablet; The Wacom bamboo pen and
touch.

16.  I used a site called Dafont, which allows
free to download fonts for any needed
style or theme. We used this for our
ancillary tasks in the logo of the album
cover, the inner texts and the back
cover.

17.  With these programs I drew
images of Jessica, edited them,
used photo manipulation and
removed the backgrounds from
the photos from the photo-shoot.
In Design came into use to make
the inner panels, though I didn't
use them personally, as I am more
used to Photoshop and could do
the same on there. On
Photoshop, I used the colour
replace tool lots, and used
different layers manipulating
textures and opacity to create
my 'space' theme. These
programs were used as they are
very high standard editing
programs and can give the best
possible results of photo editing,
to make the work look much
more professional.

18.  Powerpoint, Youtube and
Blogger where the main
things used here in
the evaluation, blogger
to host all the evaluation,
Youtube for having video
embed codes to show
other videos
as comparison in the
'how does our media
product conform/break
conventions' part.

19.  Powerpoint was used for making work
look more interesting on the blog,
splitting up walls of text of our evaluation
and to add more of an interactive
interface to the portfolio. Also, using
different media types for our product
allows for easier information processing,
as its not all boring to look at.

20.  I was going to use Prezi in my work,
however through previous encounters
with this program, I always found issues
with it, such as in a computing lesson, my
work didn't save correctly, so I lost an
entire teams work. It also lags on my
computers so I’d normally prefer to use
something I am more comfortable with
working on. I also thought Prezi was very
hard to use, because its very confusing;
but I did consider it!

21.  For the evaluation, we also did a directors
commentary, which we recorded the same
as the footage, on a HD camera and
edited on Final Cut.
This helped the interaction between
audience and our product through the use
of another form of interface. An issue I
found from this was that it was far too time
consuming for just one task, as Final Cut
was only on the college Macs. Rendering
also made things irritating and having to
wait for the footage (HD) to convert to a
usable file on FCP. I should have used a
standard definition camera to film my
footage, it would have resolved time issues.