Evaluation Question 4

How did you use new media technology in the construction, research, planning and evaluation pages?

 

Throughout the production of our A2 media project, we utilised a range of media technology during the research, planning and also the evaluation stage as you can see from the mind maps above. These technologies consisted of software, hardware and also various media equipment. One of the most essential hardware which we used constantly was the Nikon D3100. This hardware was borrowed from the media department rather than using a Fuji T500 which I owed. It had a rate of 30 frames per second at 1080 which very useful because it allowed us to film in high definition which was important as we wanted to quality of our movie trailer to be off the highest quality.

However, the camera only had a standard camera lens of 15 to 55mm which wasn’t long enough for some of the scenes we wanted to film. For the sniper scene where we intended to use a long shot, we used Nikon DSR which also came with a 55 to 300mm VR camera lens. This really benefited us because it meant that we could film longer distances with this camera. These cameras all contained an 8 GB SanDisk Micro SD card which allowed us to export footage on to our IMAC computer and also Compaq laptop. Furthermore, we used a Jessop tripod which could be extended in order to help us film at higher angles.

 

We were fortunate enough to have 2 GoPro cameras, a Go Pro HD Hero and a Go Pro HD Hero 2. These Go Pro cameras were used for some fast pace shots where we used POV shots. The Go Pro camera lens was extremely wide and with 170 degree angle of view, this allowed us to film close up shots and whilst still obtaining high definition.  We also tested the GoPro before we started filming our movie trailer and we used a no fish eye effect when filming the test footage. We also used various GoPro equipment such as a chest mount harness and also a head strap. This helped us to attach the GoPro camera to Callum’s head and chest, making it easier to film.

For the news report scene, we were able to borrow a green screen sheet from the media department which we used to cover the background of the class using cell tape and then edited the footage using Adobe Premiere pro in order to make the footage look like a real new report scene.

Most of the project was planned, edited and constructed using an Apple IMac which was very useful because it came equip with different software such as QuickTime. We used this software to record the screen, showing what we were doing. The main two editing software which we used for the editing of our movie trailer was IMovie and Premiere Pro. However, we mainly used Premiere Pro because we knew that we could also access this software on Callum’s Samsung RB520 Laptop which also used for editing for our movie trailer. We used Premiere Pro to put the clips together and render it. This was simply because it was a high quality piece of software which was better than other alternative editing software such as Windows Movie Maker and IMovie.

However, all of the special effects which were used in our movie trailer were edited using software called Aftereffects. This software allowed us to add many impressive effects into our trailer such as the Sub surface effect, eye effect and the sniper effect. We learnt how to add these effects into our movie trailer using a website called Video co-pilot where we watched different tutorials to learn how to add the effects into our movie trailer.

 

To showcase all of our coursework we used a website called Wix. This was an interactive website which allowed the users to create a website of their choice and using many interactive ways and technologies. We believed that this was a better alternative than Blogger because blogger had limited template designs which we could use. In addition, we also used Wix to create a website for our movie trailer. This was easier to use and also less time consuming than using Dreamweaver which we found quite complicate and complex. Using Wix to create our website was very effective it allowed us to add some interactive features into our website such as Shopping cart.

Photoshop was software which was available to us on the Apple IMac. Photoshop was extremely helpful because it helped us to create one of the logos of our move trailer. Furthermore, Photoshop also had various tools such as the Path tool which helped us to make the ancillary task images look more professional and suited to the genre of the movie trailer. Without the use of Photoshop, we wouldn’t have been able to reach such high standards in our project as we would have had use Fireworks which would have decreased the quality of our final products.

 

Prezi – Presentation applications such as Prezi and Slideshare were used present some of the research and planning documents such as our pitch and my evaluation question. These were good technologies which helped me to present my work coherently and adequately.

During our research, we watched a lot of movie trailers on YouTube which gave us some inspiration of what type of movie trailer we were going to create. In addition, it was impossible to add videos into Wix unless it was a YouTube video therefore we had to use YouTube to upload our videos and add them to wix.

 

Sound cloud was simply used to add voice notes and podcasts into my website. Finally, we also used imessage which was a communication app where we created a group chat and used to communicate with each other about our project.

I used Survey Monkey to create a survey which would help us to define and get a better understanding of who our target audience were.

Facebook and twitter were also used to interact with our target audience, promote our products and also receive some feedback from our peers which would use to improve our movie trailer and ancillary tasks.                                                                                  

Sound cloud was simply used to add voice notes and podcasts into my website. Finally, we also used imessage which was a communication app where we created a group chat and used to communicate with each other about our project.