Evaluation Question Q6 Technologies

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I've learnt about many different technologies and also learnt more about technologies that I previously know. I've learnt how to use Final Cut to successfully edit a product to a certain person's taste such as a young person would want a fast paced edit to keep them entertained whereas an older person may like it slower. Throughout the production of our vodcasts, blogs and coursework we have been using technologies to get these done. We have used new software as well as ones previously used. We use many technologies when working on our media coursework, technology is used in basically everything we do in media, from film making to blogging!

Blogger: Blogger allowed me to update my audience on what I had been doing previously and what I was doing and going to do in the future by posting blogs. It allowed me to gain feedback and also keep a notice of what I needed to do in the future. From the start I was only using blogger to post my experiences so far, then I learnt how to use link lists. I used these to make sure my podcast and analysis of films weren't missed by being pushed lower down. I also used link lists to advertise the Top 5 Current Horror Films according to The Guardian newspaper which updated weekly, this redirected you to the website once you clicked the link. As well as that I was able to activate a poll on a topic that I may of needed help on or what I found interesting.

Adobe After Effects: I have used this before, so it wasn't that hard to use. This software allows you to edit videos in many possible ways, it is more advanced editing software which allows you to allow add effects, include advanced text animations and visual effects. I used this software mainly to create the text which we included in our Trailer and also Final Film. I used effects such a Twitch and Time-lapsing which was accompanied with sound. The software is very complicated to use however I have been using it for years therefore it was easy for me to use. However for anyone new using it will struggle unless they have used similar programs like Final Cut Express or Adobe Premiere. I used this mainly to create both my idents as LiveType was not functional enough. It works similar to Final Cut Express using Frame by Frame keying to have effects.

Final Cut Pro: We used final cut pro to edit all of our footage including vodcasts, micro drama and any other videos we have made. We also used it partly when making our idents and it’s a quick and successful way of editing footage and putting music together. It is very easy to use and has lots of options, effects and useful transitions to improve any footage. It was very useful when creating vodcasts and adding writing and titles on screen. It is a good programme for people to use as it is simple and easy to use, however if wanting to use more complex tools then i would choose an alternate software such as Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas.

YouTube: YouTube turned out to be a great resource for not only uploading and gaining feedback of the audience, I used YouTube to find out about different films that had been previously released or that are soon going to be released via trailers. I also found out more information about programs by looking up tutorials on Final Cut. YouTube allowed me to give myself feedback and not get repetitive feedback by adding annotations; this is what made me use it instead of using another file sharing website such as Vimeo. We also use YouTube for many other things; this includes reviewing past coursework, and also watches each other’s work. Or get information on films. On YouTube we can take screenshots which means we can put the pictures on our blog to make reference to other slasher films. YouTube lets us embed videos and from YouTube which allows us to embed them to our blog.

iMovie: iMovie was the first real editing product that I had ever used. It was very simple to use and didn't take long to get used to as there were only transitions, sound effects and general editing software located on the program, it was very effective for us using it first time as we were just practicing our shots (very helpful and quick to use when editing our preliminary task or first versions of our rough cuts). We also used iMovie to upload our footage to even when we later used final cut, from there we could just drag and drop it into Final Cut and it would be ready for us to edit. I learnt the basics to editing using this program and although simple to use at first I could produce something of higher quality on it now than I could of done 5 months ago.







Sony Vegas: Sony Vegas is very similar to existing programmes like Final Cut Pro however is the alternate windows version. I have found that it is more complex and offers a wider range of tools to use which are easier and simpler to use. However it is personal opinion, because I have been using it for years. With Sony Vegas we put together our trailer, final film and also several podcasts. IT was very useful for me as I can use it anywhere I take my laptop with me so editing on the go is very easy. It offers the ability to cut, edit and trim whilst giving the ability to add effects, transitions and custom plugins.





Scribd: Scribd is a very useful tool, it helped a lot when trying to upload power points and word documents as Blogger itself didn't have tools to do that, what we'd need was to create an account and simply upload the file, from there we were able to copy the embed code and paste it in. Our group used this to upload and download word documents and sheets for our work.



LiveType: This is the software on Mac that we used to create the Parts of our idents. I found it quite simple to use as I have used similar software on Windows. However, I couldn't achieve all the effects I wanted on my ident so I had to use software to create the rest of my Idents.







Cameras: We use a full HD 1080p video camera for all our footage, and we used them for our first few podcasts. They are quite straight forward to use however it takes practice. The footage can be uploaded straight from the memory card into final cut pro. This makes it very quick to get footage imported and edited.



IMDB: We use the website IMDb to look up information about films we are researching and to help look at information about budget, actors, distributers and production companies. It has a lot of information that is relevant to us making important decisions about our productions.

digitalisation is becoming increasingly more popular. Making films has become a lot much easier, having the option to create a low budget films with handheld cameras as well as a high quality film.