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

I have used various new media technologies throughout the whole process of my coursework. Below I will state each one and explain how I used it and for what purpose.

Scribd.com

• This is a document upload site which enables you to upload word documents and embed them onto sites such as this one.
• It's quite easy to use all you have to do is create an account on Scribd then just choose upload and select the document you want to upload.
• I've used this on my blog to break up text and make it more appealing on the eye.
• I have also used it for a genre research table that I have done as tables cannot be done on normal posts on Blogger.
• http://lornasa2bloggy.blogspot.com/2009/11/genre-research.html here's an example of the use of Scribd on my blog.
• Being able to use a new media technology on my blog like Scribd means it allows me to produce a blog that i much more appealing on the eye.

Podcasts

• We chose to try using this concept of a Podcast to speak about what we'd done so far in the week and the plans for the week ahead.
• We saw it as something a bit different to put on the blog compared to us just writing notes, it would be a more interesting way of communicating to viewers of our blog.
• This enabled us to be more interactive with our blog.
• Here is our first Podcast: http://lornasa2bloggy.blogspot.com/2009/11/podcast-51109.html

Facebook

• We used Facebook to get our audience feedback.
• We uploaded our final cut teaser trailer onto the networking site and asked for comments from our 'Friends.'
• It was an affective concept to use as there is a wide audience.
• By using this networking site it meant we had a variety of feedback from different people from different backgrounds and also saved us time as if we couldn't have used Facebook we would of had to ask people personally to give us feedback.

Blogger

• I've used Blogger to keep an account of my process in my coursework and to keep a record of research as well.
• This is an easier way to process my coursework as it is all done in one place which can be accessed on any computer.
• You can also upload videos and have a much more interactive way of presenting your coursework.
• Using a blog to present my coursework rather than simply writing it up means that it is more appealing and interesting to viewers and it's also easier to keep a constant live log of everything I have done.

IMDB

• IMDB is a movie database website which has all sorts of details on a variety of films.
• There are details such as budgets, box office figures, actors etc...
• This website has been very helpful during the process of producing my coursework.
• The most helpful details I have got from the website are the budget and box office takings for films similar to mine such as Pride and Prejudice and Becoming Jane, I have used these figures in my intertextual research.
• If I didn't have access to these sort of details I would struggle to understand the genre that I have worked in (period drama) and therefore find it a struggle to produce my final piece with a detailed understanding in terms of my target audience.

Photoshop ELEMENTS 2.0

• I have used Photoshop to produce my teaser poster, magazine front cover, improved magazine front cover and film poster.
• We took pictures while we were shooting our footage then used them to make our ancillary texts.
• There are allot of different tools on Photoshop that make it possible to create a professional looking poster/magazine cover.
• This is the film poster: http://www.g324lornakennedy.blogspot.com/2009/12/ancillary-text-film-poster.html
• This is the teaser poster:http://www.g324lornakennedy.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaser-poster.html
• This is the magazine front cover:http://www.g324lornakennedy.blogspot.com/2009/12/ancillary-text-magazine-front-cover.html
• This is the improved magazine front cover: http://www.g324lornakennedy.blogspot.com/2010/04/final-improved-magazine-front-cover.html
• For the magazine front cover we used the magnetic lasso tool. This allowed us to cut the main image of the main female protagonist from the background. Then we brought the image forward so that the image was over the title of the magazine. We did this as this is how the film magazine Empire presents the front cover.
• For the improved magazine front cover we also used the magnetic lasso tool so that the head of the main protagonist was over the magazine's name. This was done by 'cutting' the main protagonists head from the main image then placing it over the text slightly.
• We also changed the bottom banner to a different colour to fit in with the main image colours and we also changed the opacity to 85% to make it less harsh on the eye.

Below are some screen shots that show these two processes:

• The images used at the bottom of the magazine front cover all had backgrounds. We therefore erased the backgrounds so that the images wouldn't look out of place on the new background.
• To get the specific layout for the magazine front cover we used the layers pallet to arrange the layers.
• Without using Photoshop the ancillary texts would be nowhere near the quality they are and multiple images wouldn't bee able to be used.

iMovie

• We edited and produced our original teaser trailer on iMovie.
• Its quite simple to use and has a variety of tools such as transitions that can be very effective.
• In one of my previous posts I have gone into more detail of the positives and negatives of iMovie: http://lornasa2bloggy.blogspot.com/2009/12/software_21.html

iDVD

• Using iDVD meant we could produce a professional looking DVD.
• iDVD produces a 'start' page for your DVD so it comes up with he option 'play movie.'
• It just helps to finish off the DVD.

Audio Recorder

• We used this to record our soundtrack and our voice over.
• The recording quality is very good and is easy to use.
• Using this piece of new media technology was better than using a camcorder to recorded audio as it gives a sharper more precise finish.

Camcorder

• We used a Canon digital camcorder MD101 which we recorded onto a DV tape.
• It was easy to use and overall gave good results.
• The camcorder had a zoom, the footage filmed was clear and of good quality.
• However we have encountered one problem with the camcorder. After editing our final improved teaser trailer we realised there was a subtle clicking sound in the background. After testing the non-diegetic soundtrack we could rule out that the clicking noise wasn't from the downloaded soundtrack. We therefore concluded that although we have deleted the sound recordings from the footage the clicking noise was from the camcorder itself. Although the clicking noise is faint it is still a disappointing flaw with the camcorder which has affected the quality of our final teaser trailer.
• I have written further information about the camcorder on a previous post: http://lornasa2bloggy.blogspot.com/2009/12/hardware_21.html

Scanner

• We used a scanner to upload our storyboard.
• Using the scanner meant that we could upload our first storyboard along with the pictures we drew to represent shots
• Here is the storyboard we scan into the computer then uploaded onto the blog: http://lornasa2bloggy.blogspot.com/2009/11/storyboard.html

YouTube

• I used YouTtube to view teaser trailers for different films but especially the genre of period drama.
• I then analysed the trailers for my genre research.
• YouTube is an easy video search engine that is quick and efficient to use.
• If I hadn't of used YouTube I would of had to have searched for teaser trailers which would have taken more time.
• Although one problem was that if I wanted to use YouTube I had to use it at home as it is blocked on the school computers.

Final Cut Express

• We edited and produced the whole improved teaser trailer using Final Cut.
• By using this program rather than iMovie we could edit our final piece more effectively.
• To edit the clips we used the razor blade tool to cut the clip into parts then just deleted the parts that we didn't need.
• Another example of editing using Final Cut Express is that in one of our shots there was a mini bus in the background, by using Final Cut we were able to zoom in on the footage within the program so the mini bus couldn't be seen in the mise-en-scene.
• We were also able to increase the brightness in two shots that were filmed at night which we deemed too dark for the viewer to see the character in the frame, this is something we were unable to do in iMovie.
• Also by using Final Cut Express we were able to incorporate a split screen into the improved final teaser trailer which was something we were unable to do in iMovie.
• This was a complex and time consuming process but I believe it adds something unique and interesting to the trailer.
• There are more details about the different techniques we used in Final Cut on one of my previous posts on Software: http://g324lornakennedy.blogspot.com/2009/12/software.html

Live Type

• With iMovie you can produce your titles within the program where as with Final Cut Express you have to produce them in a separate program called Live Type
• We decided to upload footage that we filmed by accident of the sky and put the titles over it to create a unique way of presenting the titles.
• For the titles introducing the actors we had to upload the footage we wanted the titles on then add the titles on top of the footage, we then had to export the footage from Live Type back to Final Cut Express.

Free Play Music

• For the soundtrack for the improved teaser trailer we downloaded music from a copyright free website.
• This was fairly easy to do as we just downloaded it into iTunes then dragged it across to Final Cut Express.
  
  

Below is a podcast with details about the use of new media in our coursework process.

Below is a video of us demonstrating how to use Blogger and Final Cut Express: