evaluation question 4
TRANSCRIPT
Evaluation
Question Four
Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Construction Stage
Canon Digital SLR Camera
Our short film was a stop frame animation therefore
we used a Canon digital SLR camera to take the thousands of pictures
needed. The reason that we used this particular camera is because the
quality is extremely high and made our film look
more professional.
Red Head Lights
The use of the red head lights was very important during the production
of our short film as they provided a good light source and ensured that there was no unwanted shadows in
any shot.
iPhoto
Once we had taken all of the photographs needed for our
stop frame animation we uploaded them onto the computer and imported
them into a specific album in iPhoto, this ensured the
safety of our photographs as we were not the only group
using that computer.
iMovie
After importing all of our photographs into iPhoto, we then transferred them into
iMovie so that we could put them in order and alter the
timing between the photographs to make the film
run smoothly.
Final Cut Pro
After the film was made, we transferred it into Final Cut Pro so that we could
add a soundtrack to it with the use of Garage
Band. Using Final Cut Pro also made it easier for us
to convert the finished product into a QuickTime
movie.
Garage Band
Once our short film was completed, we used garage band to
compose a soundtrack that was appropriate for the
film.
Adobe Photoshop CS5
I used Photoshop to edit the photographs
that I used when making my film poster
and double page review. At first I found
it quite difficult but once I got the hang of it, it became a useful
program to use.
Adobe InDesign
I used InDesign when creating my double page
article reviewing my short film and my film
poster. I found it extremely easy to use
and the finished products looked very
professional.
Apple Mac
My group and I often used the Apple Mac
computers when constructing our short
film as they had a lot of useful editing software on them. I find that the Macs
are a lot easier to use than a PC and are a lot
more professional.
Dell PC
We had to use then Dell PCs to complete our work because the Macs only had editing software on them therefore to complete the rest of our work we use the PCs in order to access programs
such as Photoshop and InDesign.
Planning Stage
Google was the main search engine that I used when researching short
films, it enabled me to find the appropriate websites quickly and easily
due to the simple layout.
YouTube
I used YouTube when planning my short film as I viewed a lot of shorts
on this site in order to gain inspiration and learn what works
and what does not work well when producing a stop frame animation. I also uploaded my finished film onto the site as a way of distributing our
finished product.
Blogger
I used my blog on Blogger to upload and post about the things that I was planning to do with regards to our
short film. Everything about our film was planned out first and published on my blog; this was very useful as it
helped us to determine potential issues with the film before filming even started. My blog shows many
examples of media convergence e.g. It incorporates the use of video,
sound and text all in the same blog.
Prezi
Prezi is a presentation site that allowed me to plan out my thoughts and actions
regarding our short film and order it in an organised way that allowed me and the rest
of my group to view and access our plans with ease. I then uploaded each
presentation onto my blog to ensure that all of my planning was in the same place.
Glogster
Glogster was used on my blog when I was planning making a poster for my
short film. It proved useful as it allowed me to see what worked and what did not
work as a film poster.
Evaluation Stage
YouTube
We used YouTube in the evaluation of
our short film. We uploaded our video
to the website in order to gain
feedback from the general public about
our film.
FacebookFacebook is another
website that we found extremely useful when
evaluating our work, we simply uploaded our film in
order to distribute it and awaited feedback. Overall
we gained positive feedback about our stop frame animation. In this
day and age, we communicate greatly via
the internet thanks to web 2.0
Overall I feel that PCs have made our lives so much more easy in the way that distributing our work and projects can be done in various different ways with great ease,
websites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube allow prosumers to share their work and gain feedback from
other prosumers via the use of the internet. We are also able to edit our own work in our own homes with the
use of editing software such as Photoshop and InDesign, all of which would not be doable if not for PCs.
During this course my IT skills have developed in a number of ways, for example, I am now able to use a wide variety of
different computer software like Photoshop, InDesign, iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband and Final Cut Pro. I have also
learned how to produce a stop frame animation and how to correctly use a digital SLR camera.
Some problems that I encountered during this project include not being able to make the camera focus correctly,
after a few photographs I had realised how to use the device properly and I was able to focus the camera. I also has an
issue with editing the film as I found it extremely difficult to use Final Cut Pro, however I overcame this as I eventually
got used to the software.