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

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.