Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Construction

·         Canon Camera  I used this Cannon camera to take still images with various shots and angles for the opening sequence of our music video, CD cover and poster. And what I learnt from using this instrument was being able to use the manual focus to get sharp images without having to repeatedly take several different images to get one perfect. ·         Panasonic Handheld Camera We used this Panasonic Handheld camera to capture the footage of our music video. And what we learnt from using this instrument was that even though it has a low megapixel of 2.3, we were able to produce a good standard of different shots and angles in comparison to the Canon which has a 12 megapixel camera.  ·         Tripod Using the tripod also helped us with our still images as we did not need to take them by hand and it enabled us to capture focused quality images without them being blurred. ·         Gorilla Pod The gorilla pod is seen as a development of a tripod but a miniature version. This product and the tripod can be seen as media technologies as they are effectively used in schools as part of the equipment and also many amateur film makers use them as they are efficient and reliable.  This was how we got all our shots and angles from the first perspective and by using this instrument I learnt that it is easy to use as it is light in weight and provides more stability rather than holding the camera in your hand or using a steady cam as it is more compact. ·         Adobe Premiere CS4 Being introduced to this software this year has really helped me progress as a media student as I have been able to learn how to use this programme effectively and create quality work. Though our video camera was 2.3 megapixels the use of transitions, filters and editing tools enabled me to enhance the appearance of certain parts of our music video and by using certain tools such as the “razor”, I was able to cut and paste different pieces of footage that I wanted to use or throw away so that throughout the video there was a good display of continuity. The advantages of using this software is knowing the effect of the features and what they can do to make the video look neater or clearer , such as the transitions. In particular the “dissolve” tool enables you to dip from black/white from one scene into the next. And in regards to using this software it enabled me to find more ways to be creative i.e. splitting the screen into three even though that wasn’t an original idea but we as a group wanted to show more versatility within our video and demonstrate our knowledge of Premiere. So by using this programme I’ve increased my knowledge and skill ability within using a new form of media technology and these new skills can be applied to the next project I do. ·         Adobe Photoshop CS4   Using this software I found it easy to craft together the ancillary task as I’m familiar with photoshop from my experience of using it last year. My technical skills have improved as I’ve been able to experiment with different filters to make images and backgrounds look better, for example I came across the “colour pencil” and “water colours” filters which I experimented with and saw what worked well with the selected colour scheme we went for. Using the “magnetic lasso” tool I was able to cut around images and use the “smudge” and “blur” tool to soften the edges to give the image a softer look.   Lasso tool   Blur/Smudge I have learnt how to criticise my own work and readdress the way I display my composition and layout on the page and I’ve done this by creating different layers and reshaping certain images to fit my objective. ·         YouTube   We used this user generated site to upload our video on to it as it’s a mass form of communication and a good way to gain feedback from our audience. It is also easy for people to access and search for videos of different genres and different time periods. People can also leave comments and share the links with their friends to increase the amount of views a video can get and this allows users to become well established within the public eye.