A word document with my answer for the 4th question on the media A2 coursework evaluation.

1. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
The first media technology I used this year in the creation of my A2 media portfolio was a
piece of software named 'Adobe Photoshop'. I was already quite competent in photoshop
because of the magazine I created during my AS year at college, although I managed to
develop these skills further because I had created a piece of media for the 'indie' music
genre last year and was now taking on the electronic dance music genre. It was very
interesting seeing the different types of affects you have to use to create the EDM 'style' lots
of glowing filters were added to layers and the iconography was more of a challenge
because I had to use a few shaping tools to create my character.
Adobe Premier is the name of the video editing software I have used to create my final main
product. I had previously had experience with this media technology and so after having
used it for about half an hour had managed to remember the basic ways of editing footage
and most of the uses of tools. Through using this software again I have been able to develop
my video editing skills further such as when I had a problem with overlapping two clips and
then used the opacity filter on the overlying clip in its effects panel, this was very effective
when completed. One problem I had with the software was how overwhelming the library of
transitions were and how when I would try to find quite a simple transition such as a fade I
might be there for quite a while. It would be nice to have a search function when looking for
the effects and transitions.
I also had to develop my skills of using digital SLR cameras because I was now using them
to record video footage as well as capturing images. This did not present many issues and I
now confidently know how to use digital SLR cameras for both photography and filming. The
one difference I found is that you use a camera tripod a lot more for filming because you
constantly need to get steady shots that are otherwise unattainable. The tripods also allow
you to capture slow panning shots of a setting which are particularly effective if you are
trying to create an establishing shot in a small area and cannot easily capture an extreme
long shot.
I also used a new website this year in helping me to create an online survey for my market
research. 'Survey Monkey' is a web based company that through technological convergence
allow you to create an online survey and then distribute it either via email or with a link to
many different people and then collect and analyse the results all through the same website.
I found this to be very helpful and was a great success for me. One of the limitations
surrounding this though was the fact that with a free account you were only allowed to ask
10 questions per survey.
Similar to last year I have chose blogger to present my portfolio of work and again found it to
be very easy to use. It works well because it presents a nice clean way to view all of your
work with just a few different pages. This is the way I have distributed my coursework. I have
also once again used slideshare in conjunction with blogger any time I have wanted to
present a powerpoint or word document that otherwise I would not have been able to.