How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning, and evaluation stages?
Media is known for being
very technologically centered and it was obvious from the beginning that a wide
array of different technologies would be needed to create, research, plan, and
evaluate our music videos and ancillary texts. I have tried to use as many
different technologies throughout my work, to create variation and to
experiment with how different pieces of technology could help me to achieve
what I wanted with my video and ancillary texts. Below, I have stated each
piece of technology I have used in this project.
Websites
Blogger was a vital part of
my project, enabling me to keep all of my work organized, and in one central
spot. I have used blogger as a main hub for all of my work throughout the
research, planning, construction, and evaluation stages of my project, and with
Blogger’s labelling system, it means that I can see any of the work I have
done, incredibly quickly. The posting system is also very useful, as it lets me
post my thoughts and ideas, alongside my work, as I go along.
YouTube, the most popular
video sharing website in the world, has also been a very useful tool for my
project. Using it, I have been able to upload all of the videos I have created
for my project, including the final music video, and all of the drafts before
it. I have then been able to embed my YouTube videos onto my blog to keep them
all in the same place as the rest of my work. The commenting system on YouTube
has also been a lot of help, letting people view my video and drafts, and then
comment their views and ideas straight onto the video, letting me get what
people think at real time.
Animoto is a quick, and easy
to use video creation website. On it you can easily put together quick,
presentation style videos, using pictures, text, and music. It is slightly
restrictive, as it follows several set themes, and has little room for any real
editing, but as a quick presentation creator, it has been a lot of use. I have
used Animoto for my pitch video, and for the final evaluation question three.
I have also used social
networking site, Twitter, in my project. I created an ‘official’ twitter page
for my fictional band to give them some character, and to create more realism.
On it, my band can make announcements and talk directly to their fans. It is
also a good way for me to get feedback on my work from people who follow my own
twitter account.
Facebook, another social
networking website, has been used primarily for feedback purposes. On it, I
have posted my final video to allow my friends to watch it and feedback their
views on it, to me.
Yahoo Mail has been my main
email site for this project, allowing me to send my work home from the school
PCs if I need to work on it anymore.
Research & Planning
Google/Google Images (www.google.co.uk)
Google was the primary
search engine I used during the research and planning stage of my project. It
allowed me to access millions of websites and billions of pictures across the
internet, which gave me a grand scope to take my research from.
Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830
I used my android phone, the
Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830, several times in the process of creating my video.
All of my location test shots were taken with the phone’s 5 megapixel camera. I
also used it to take photos for the band’s twitter page. Another thing I used
the phone for was to arrange the filming days with everybody, using its calling
and texting features.
Microsoft Word 2010
The definite choice for word
processing software, I used Microsoft Word 2010 for any writing I needed to do
for my blog. It allowed me to plan out what I had to do, create bulletproof
lists of what a certain piece should include, write these very evaluation
questions, etc. It is an extremely useful piece of software, and I think most
of the work I now do would be lost without it.
Windows Movie Maker
I used this limited, but
simple piece of video editing software early on in my project to put together a
short animatic. Although troublesome to use, this software did the job
reasonably well, though I know it was definitely below par for my final pieces.
Production
Panasonic HD Camera
The camera I choose to film
with for this project was a Panasonic HD Camera. It was versatile and handheld,
allowing me to take it through the woody locations without any difficulty. It
was also extremely easy to use and set up, which gave me the option of
spontaneous ideas and filming certain ideas as they arrived. The HD capabilities
meant that the video quality would be high as well.
SanDisk 8 GB SD Card
I saved all of my film
footage onto a SanDisk 8 GB SD Card. I felt that I wouldn’t need over 8 GB of
memory for my filming, so didn’t see any reason to pay more for a card with
greater memory. The SD reader on my laptop allowed me to easily transfer all of
my footage straight from the SD card to my editing software.
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Despite being a slightly
older version of Photoshop, this is the version I used on my laptop to create
my digipack, advert, and to draw all of the artwork that was used in my
digipack. It enabled me to easily put together the layouts for all of my
ancillary work, and in addition with the touchscreen laptop, it made drawing
the artwork surprisingly easy.
Post Production
HP TouchSmart tx2
This is the laptop/tablet I
used for the majority of my project. It features a touchscreen which can be
swivelled around and place down like a tablet if it is to be used purely as a
tablet. It can also be operated as a normal laptop however, featuring the usual
keyboard and screen set up if desired. I found the touchscreen extremely useful
when it came to drawing the art for my digipack. The ability to use the built
in pen to draw straight onto the screen was perfect for what I needed to do.
College PCs and College Apple Macs
I used the college PCs and
Apple Macs throughout my project to upload different pieces onto my blog, or to
add new blog posts.
AVS Video Editor Trial Edition
I tried out the free trial
edition of AVS Video Editor for the first draft of my music video. I found that
although easy to use, this piece of software did not provide the quality of
video that I required for my final piece.
Serif MoviePlus X5
For the editing of my final
music video, after trying out several different pieces of software, I settled
on the less-widely known Serif MoviePlus X5. I found this software very easy to
pick up and use, whilst still giving me all the features I needed, one of the
most important being the ability to lower the brightness and saturation of the
clips I was using. It was also extremely easy to export my video from the
software to a DVD and onto YouTube, which was a bonus.
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