Evaluation Question: Technology

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I used iMovie to collate the images I got from Google images to help describe how I used technology, as well as what I have learnt from it.
This is the recording of my evaluation of each component of the technology I used- before, during and after my film production:


Transcript:

I used a wide range of technologies, during the process I took in creating my production and I have learnt so much about technologies from the process of constructing my film’s opening sequence.

My first contact was with the Mac computers, which I had previous knowledge on and contact with, so the task of turning on the Mac was relatively simple and navigation on this devise became easier as I used it more. Macs are really expensive so I was aware that with this expense comes great technology and a multitude of amazing software-I was not disappointed! Through the Mac I was able to access a wide range of technologies and sync them together.

 Next, I used Safari and Google Chrome, which are modified versions of internet explorer, and through these software’s a wide range of other technological opportunities arose.

Blogger would be a great example. I had to make a Google account to make blogger, but due to me previously having an account with them the blogger making process was not as tedious for me as it was for others. At first I was a bit apprehensive about using blogger and found it quite annoying, borderline exasperating and I continually complained about having to use it because for some odd reason it kept deleting all my work, it even changed the arrangements of my sentences and the colours I had changed some of them into. Despite these throwbacks I persevered on and tried to learn how to use the devise appropriately and effectively.

I guess I found it so hard because I did not even know how to use a blog, or even how they work- I thought that it was because I am a social recluse, who apparently does not come in contact with a wide range of technologies.
So I researched what a blog entailed and found out that a blog... according to imsglobal...

“A blog is sometimes referred to as an online personal journal.  It is a site designated for an individual to write about his/her daily experiences, to illicit thoughts and often allowing readers to offer their comments.  The term is a shortened form of “weblog”.  Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding content to an existing blog is referred to as "blogging".  Individual articles on a blog are referred to as “blog posts”, “posts”, or “entries”, and the person who created the blog post is often called a “blogger.”

After I learnt this, it turned out that I began to enjoy using this devise-maybe that’s over exaggerating it a bit, since it still continued to do the things that frustrated me so much.

 However, I found that blogger was a really useful tool in helping me keep my work organised, neat and aesthetically pleasing (I made my blog really vibrant and unique by making it as colourful as possible). All these factors placed together made me really enjoy using blogger and I started appreciating its creation. Blogger helped me to embed videos, take pictures as well as upload pictures from multiple devices such as the Internet and my Phone (because I had downloaded the blogger app, which I later uninstalled because it showed my work in html and as a result difficult to read).

I used my phone to upload a picture unto Blogger, which I had taken from a screenshot on Whatsapp - a free messaging app on my phone- the picture provided evidence of me sending my target audience the link to my survey, which I had created through Survey Monkey. I also used my phone to contact my group members to find out their exact location and where I should meet them, after I arrived from getting the props I needed for our filming.

Survey Monkey is a free (although to get the upgrade “Pro Sign up” a fee is required) web survey development cloud company, that was founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley. Survey Monkey helped me to present my survey to my target audience in a professional and convenient way. It saved me having to print off lots of paper, because I could use the link to my survey, provided by the device, to send my survey to my targeted audience.

During the times that I was having trouble with blogger I used the Word Document to back up all my work so that if it tried to delete any of my work again I had it backed up on my Windows desktop computer at home and could easily replace the deleted work with little to no hassle. Also Word had “spellchecker” and suggestions of sentence fragmentations, which were really useful, because it reduced the amount of grammatical errors that could be formed when writing on a piece of paper.

 Furthermore I used PowerPoint to create my Poster Analysis of the movie “She’s the Man” (and many other documents), then I transferred my work from PowerPoint to Scribd.

To upload my PowerPoint work to Scribd I had to create a username and password. I thought Scribd was really useful because it enabled me embed my documents onto my blog, in order for me to present them in a more unique and visually creative way. It helped make my blogs look a lot more interesting and visually creative, which I really liked. I also transferred some of my word documents to Scribd. I did this because blogger could not show my chosen pictures accurately on the pages, but when I used Scribd it maintained my images and words and did not cause them to become disarrayed. 

Google’s search engine was a brilliant instrument in the creation of all my production aspects especially for my research and planning. It was a great resource that enabled me to access a variety of information and images with ease (I found images that depicted my characters traits through this search engine). However, it could be annoying because it sometimes provided irrelevant and at times unrelated search findings.

I also used my school email and later my Hotmail account to send my documents to myself (because my school email account had very limited storage and prevented me from sending anymore emails).

The emails enabled me to use my documents both at home and at school when I needed to, or if I wanted to make improvements to them at certain times. My Hotmail account was also later used to send Conor’s and I’s soundtrack, so that it could be downloaded and added to our production.

I also used a camera to take pictures, as we were having our production team meeting and during the demonstrating of the 180 degree rule. The camera was a really useful tool because it helped me show the examiner images of us working together as a group and as a class.

I also used a video camera to create my preliminary task; even though I had not had a large amount of experience using video cameras I knew the video camera we had to use were not the best. However we used it regardless and the gritty appearance that the camera showed was used to our advantage in the “violent” scenes.

I used wordle to create a mixture of words and present them in an appealing and artistic format.

On a number of occasions I used YouTube to upload videos that I had previously created on iMovie that enabled me to interact with the examiner and visually express to them our ideas, setbacks and plans.  I also used it to access a number of films that I analysed and many of which inspired the creation of my final production, for example the films “Provoked” and “The Burning Bed” which gave me insight on the best way to represent a sensitive issue as domestic violence. YouTube provided me with a wealth of films and title sequences (such as “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), however it could be really distracting, especially when YouTube provided recommended videos based on videos they assume you will be interested in.

 I also uploaded our footage into iMovie where we separated the useful ones from the ones we wanted to neglect. This was useful fore when we transferred the useful footage to Final Cut Express, because we knew that the clips we had chosen where the useable ones and so we made a ‘rough cut’ with them. iMovie and Final Cut showed me the synergy ability within technology and the capability for them to work together to create a great end result(when used properly). In addition, iMovie was the technology I used to record the videos I later uploaded into YouTube, I found it very useful because it was easy to use and navigate around, as well as easy to share and import videos from a variety of sources; for example import from Final Cut my completed Film Production- which I analysed by comparing the codes and conventions and similarities with other films within the same genre as our film. iMovie was  also the device I used to record those that gave me constructive criticism and useful suggestions for the improvement of my production.

Garage Band is the software application that I used to format the soundtrack for my production, and it required a lot of patience and time to use this device. This was because Conor and I wanted our Production’s non-diegetic music, to be as synchronous to our images as possible.

We used Final Cut Express to put our chosen footage clips together, in order to create a rough cut of our overall production. We included a lot of jump cuts -for example whilst Sarah washed her hands we used jump cuts of her face and the blood and during the shots of the happy scenes. This was a highly effective decision because it helped create tension and further represent the angst of Sarah as she washed off the blood. Final Cut enabled us to use transitions (we mainly used Additive Dissolve) as well as multiple effects. I also used the voice over application within Final Cut to record the voice of the person I used as Sarah’s voice over, this made editing the voice over quicker and easier than recording on another device and then exporting to Final Cut Express, the variety made available by Final Cut was really great and many of its tools were useful to us.

LiveType was the software program developed by Apple inc. that we used to create our animated title sequence for our film.   We used drop shadows, glow, edited the opacity on the writing and added effects (on our production company logo “101 Productions”), as a result of using this device, our title sequence looked a lot more professional than using the fonts and font effects made available through Final Cut Express- this is because title sequence creations are what LiveType specialise in.

Slideshare is a Web 2.0 slide hosting service (similar to Scribd). I used it with David Gauntlett (the media theorist) in mind. In 2007 he formed a theory on Web 2.0, that it involves the media consumers to look and contribute to the Internet. Slideshare truly did enable me to contribute to the Internet and to upload my PowerPoint Presentation, and because it is a public service, it could be seen as me ‘contributing’ to the internet (although I was weary that people could possibly plagiarise my work, but if I wanted to make my work private, then I would have to pay)

Prezi is an online technology/ presentation tool that helped me to organise and share my character profile onto my blog, and the best thing about this tool was that it’s free and was also made my presentations of my characters a lot more interesting and enable the viewer of my prezi to interact with the visual information I provided.  Furthermore, I made my prezi presentation even more interesting by incorporating Adele’s music “Someone like you” which has a positive correlation between the lyric’s title and my version of my typical target audiences.

Previous to doing media, I had virtually no clue on many of the technologies I had started using and had not personally experienced or come across some of them at all.

My production has enabled me to branch out and diversify in terms of using a wide range of technologies and seeing the effectiveness and uniqueness of each device and how they can collaborate to create (if used accurately and with professionalism) amazing productions. I also had no idea that in my daily life I used and consumed so many technological devices, made available through the internet- which was a vital tool in the creation my media text.

So, I have learnt a lot about technology, and the important role it plays in the media, especially in terms of the creation of films; technology helped make the production process easier, although at times it could be tedious and annoying when it did not conform to my desires but I really appreciate the effect of technology on my work, because it made it look more professional and aesthetically pleasing than if I had written it all out for example.

Most of the technological tools I used were free and because of this my work has to be public- so the public can share my work. If I wanted the best services then I would have had to purchase the device, which can be really expensive-although they state that they are doing deals for the consumer. If I purchased all the free tools I used to create my media product, my finalised production would most likely be a lot more professional but the downside would be that it would require a lot of capital, which I currently do not have access to. From the production of my media product I have learnt that access to the best type of technology is really expensive and that big budget production can use these wide variety of technologies and a lot more, so that is one of the main reason why their final production is really good, professional, interesting and realistic.

Technology helped to keep my work safe as I rarely lost any work; if my work had been handwritten then it is likely that a number of it would be lost, rough or messy- with the wide range of technology devices available lost, rough and messy work was at a minimum.