Research & Planning

Research & PlanningBy Daniel Jackson

HARDWARE

APPLE MAC COMPUTERThroughout the research & planning phase of our coursework I used an Apple MAC computer. I chose to use this because its a very good quality computer which is easy to use and works at a fast speed. Advantages to using the Apple Mac also include the range of applications and software you can use/download. The software on the Apple Mac is of the best quality and I knew this would allow me to be able to produce my work to the highest standard. However a disadvantage of this is that I do not have an Apple Mac at home, so therefore I would be unable to complete the work at home. However I managed to get around this by coming into college on my free periods or in my spare time in order to complete the work on the Apple Mac. I believe that the quality of the work I have produced is to a high standard because I have used the Apple Mac and think it was a good choice of hardware to use.

SONY N50In our research and planning, we used a SONY N50 to conduct camera tests and decide on which camera would be most efficient for our final product. We completed two camera tests as youve already seen in the blog, testing the quality of the camera on a tripod, the zoom ect. The advantage of using this is that is a high quality camera, we were able to get some good shots whilst testing this camera. The video camera was at high quality and with this we managed to create test videos that I was then able to put on my blog. We however chose to film with the Panasonic camera as we believe that was a higher quality and would work better with our filming.

PANASONIC HC-V250We also used a Panasonic HC-V250 in our research and planning to conduct camera shots. I believe that this camera was of better quality than the SONY, the test shots we produced looked better and as a group we believed that this camera would work better and make our final product look more effective than the other.

TRIPODIn our research and planning we used a tripod to test out both of the possible cameras that we planned to use. The tripod kept both of the cameras steady and at bay so that we could test both cameras to their full ability. This was an advantage to us because it helped us know for a fact what camera would work at its best ability.

SCANNERI used a scanner in my research and planning to scan in any flat plans that I had created or that the group had created or any written plans that we had as a group into my blog. This way I was able to put in any work that I had completed on paper. The advantage of this was that not all work that I completed had to be done on a machine, and even when I didnt have a machine around me I was still able to complete little bits for my blog and just scan them in the next time I had access to a machine.

CANON DIGITAL CAMERAI used a Canon digital camera in my research and planning, I used this to take stills for the blog and get examples of what types of pictures would go best with our chosen genre. The digital camera was also tested when the video cameras were to see if using this camera was a sensible idea and a better idea than using a different camera. The advantage to this camera is the high quality.

SOFTWARE

PHOTOSHOPPhotoshop played a huge part in my research and planning stage of my coursework. As I hadnt had much experience with photoshop before, I thought that focusing a lot of my time messing around with photoshop and getting used to it would benefit me and the rest of the group when producing the final product. I helped out in making the prelim digipak, doing this allowed me to gain valuable knowledge about the different ways to use photoshop, how to merge photos, how to edit out backgrounds, how to use layers and how to edit the tones of the photos. The advantages to using photoshop for our research and planning are obviously that it is a highly valued and high quality programme that has allowed us as a group to produce better quality work than other editing programmes would have.

FINAL CUT EXPRESSIn our research and planning we used final cut express. Final cut express is a video editing programme that allows you to edit and create videos from scratch. Final cut express is a very high valued editing system and is used by many professional video editers. I have experience with final cut from my AS coursework, so I found it easy and knew all of the different ways and techniques needed to use the system. We used this to make prelim videos and tester videos. We also used final cut to produce our own mini music video when Jake Wynne visited the college. Final cut was an essential part of our whole project, so having past experience was important and as every member of our group has past experience with the system.

GRABGrab was a very helpful tool when completing my research and planning. Grab allowed me to screenshot necessary posts from websites or pictures to include in my blog. The advantage to using grab is that I can use screenshots from other websites or digipaks and explain that they are how we would make our final products resemble them, it made our work a lot neater and look more put together.

ONLINE TOOLS USED

BLOGGERUsing blogger for my research and planning allowed me to put all of my posts together and be able to document everything that I have done for my research and planning in one place. The advantage to blogger is the obvious that it is online, work will always be there and cant exactly be lost, it has allowed me to document everything including even the littlest of posts and allowed me to be able to access my work anyway. I could access or complete work from blogger on any machine, which meant that whether I was at home or in college I would still be able to complete any missing work.

GOOGLEGoogle was beneficial in my research and planning because it allowed us as a group to find different band websites and different digipaks that we were able to use as templates for our own final products. Using google helped us find a wider range of bands thats styles we could mimic in order for them to fit into the indie rock genre.

PREZIUsing prezi for my research and planning on documents like my textual analysis was beneficial as it allowed me to do an online powerpoint and put my work together into a better order. It also helped me show that I can use a range of online technologies and can easily work online documents.