Evaluation 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?

I found that completing this production has improved my skills with new media technologies very successfully. We did our blogs on blogger, this is a free service where the public can join too be a member and post blogs on their individual blogs with a separate URL code. Blogger is funded by online ads and was set up in 1999. I really enjoyed working on blogger as it saves your work automatically every minute which is a strength when computers crash so often.You can decide when and what gets published as it gives you the option too save it as a draft; this is useful when you want too complete your work gradually and overtime, with all the different re-shoots within our production i was always logging on and changing blogs so this aspect was very useful. I find the layout easy too work with and too grasp how too upload pictures and video's takes a couple of seconds; out of the new media technologies i feel i got the best out of blogger. This is a big change from old media as you wouldn't of been able too do blogs over the Internet, the advantages of this are that i could open up my blog in a variety of places rather than having too carry my work round with me at all time. I appreciated the tool for spell checking work as its easy too mis-type and make grammar mistakes, Blogger has some of the basics of Microsoft word.

The Internet has been very helpful whilst completing my coursework. I have used many different search engines which have helped me with genre research aswell as ancillary texts.IMDB.com is an online database of information related too films,actor's and television shows.It was launched in 1990 and was acquired by Amazon in 1998. I would say i used IMDB the most out of the possible search engines as its specifically based around media. I used IMDB too look up information about films such as director,cast,release date and box office figures aswell as the budget of the film.All this information i used whilst doing genre research as it helped me find films that i could relate too my production (for example low budget films). Wikipedia was also a useful site too me as it was good at giving background knowledge behind companies and films, there are many links off Wikipedia that you can get which lead you on too a more specific search in the area that your interested in.Instead of going onto the Wikipedia website i typed in my search into google and Wikipedia most often was in the top 3 links.In my searches the Guardian website came up which i was able too read some articles that have helped me with my research such as articles about funding for films etc. The range of articles online wouldn't of been available with old media technologies.

Scribd is a document-sharing website which allows users to post documents of various formats, and embed them into a web page. It currently has more than 50 million monthly users and more than 50,000 documents are uploaded daily.I used Scribd too upload documents such as production logs,storyboards and the letter of consent.We had too scan them into the computer first then individually choose the documents we wanted too download. Scribd made it easy too upload large formats onto blogger and this is the purpose i used it for. I also used Youtube on a regular basis too watch trailers; Youtube really helped me in my research stages of this production.Youtube also lets people comment on video's uploaded therefore i found it interesting too read some peoples comments on film trailers.

Photoshop was extremely helpful too our group. We both find certain tasks on computers challenging but were able too work together as photoshop's layout is simple too produce all our ancillary tasks. In photoshop we used many specific tools too do our editing, some of the more successful tools were the idea that we could select a 'layer' that we wanted too merge into another 'layer'. This is how we had a pair of eyes in the background on our poster. We often used the Laso tool too cut around pieces that we didn't want.We were able too crop the picture into the size that we needed and zoom in and out and move things around.As much as i enjoyed working on phototshop, i found the idea of all the different 'layers' frustrating as once a layer is locked you can make any changes too it. This meant after audience feedback i was unable too change what had been suggested, therefore i had too get audience feedback as i went along.

Imovie 06 is where i did all the construction of my production. We edited our movie in imovie06 which we were comfortable too work with.It enables you too chose what you import from the tape by letting you see where abouts you are and allowing you too fast forward and rewind.Once you have imported your clips you can sort them out into order and drag them across the bottom of your screen where you can watch them play in order. Editing the clips down is really simple too do and that was one of our first procedures after importing the clips.Once we edited them too the time we wanted we then started too add transitions (there was a variety too choose from) and titles (you could choose the speed it came on your screen, how long it stayed on for, the colour and font type); i feel that imovie lets you have lots of choice in your production. Too import the music we had two packages already on the computer and once we had selected our music we pressed' import' and the music ran underneath the clips. This was helpful as you could visually see where the music stopped and started within each clip.We also altered the volume levels of the music throughout the production as different scenes needed a different level of music; if actors were talking it would be lower than when its just a montage of shots.Altering the volume levels also helped the music too blend in too each other and as we were using totally contrasting pieces of music at some points this was vital. We also used the 'extract sound' option for voice overs. We could of gone onto develop our editing in final cut yet it was a much more complex system too work and we needed too use our time efficiently.

We didn't end up using a boom mic, this was a mistake as i think it would of helped during the scenes of the characters in the bar as the exterior sound is quite loud; i would take this into consideration in future projects.Too do the title voice over we placed the speaker next too the camera and extracted the audio from the camera, an alternative for this too get a clearer sound would of been too record it on a portable voice recorder. We had use of a digital camera this year which we could take pictures of props and locations but mostly helped us with taking photos for the magazine and poster, we then uploaded them onto iphoto where we did very basic changes like rotating the image, getting rid of red eye and altering the contrast and brightness before we saved and opened them in photoshop. I have used many print screens within my evaluation and blogging which have helped too explain certain aspects.

Working on Mac computers is a challenge as im use to PC's. However all our editing was done on Macs as they had the best system's too do it on (such as imovie). Some of my blogging was done on PC's at home yet both Macs and PC;s displayed the same blogger page therefore making it easy. I feel that we have used a lot of new media technologies in all stages of our production that have challenged and developed our understanding of them. If i was too do the production again i would change imovie too final cut as their are alot more advantages and special effects too create a high level production.