QUESTION 4 - HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION/RESEARCH/PLANNING/EVALUATION STAGES?
Over the years, technology has developed dramatically, allowing people to carry out tasks that would be have considered difficult, with ease. For the creation of our final products, we relied on various forms of media technology to construct our work. For this task, we will be detailing the various forms of technology that we had, how we used them and evaluating their effectiveness for the task. The three sections of this page will be the technologies used for planning and research, the construction and an overall evaluation of how effectively we used various forms of media technology.
Planning and Research
WeeblyWeebly is a web-hosting service, it features a drag and drop website builder.
Weebly can be viewed using desktop and mobile devices, they also have Android and iOS apps. The app allows users to edit their page remotely
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Firstly, we were told to utilize Weebly for the creation of our group web page. Here we would upload our work. Weebly allows its users to create websites and blogs of decent quality, without having knowledge of html. All tools are placed using a drag-and-drop system, which makes for easy positioning of elements on the page.
Overall, I believe that Weebly served its purpose well, despite the occasional hiccups that Weebly has (mostly with elements shifting position.) We has previous experience with using W'ebly, as we used it for our media ep.+course throughout the previous academic year, therefore, we were familiar with the interface.
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Camera
The main camera that was used for our tasks was a Canon 550D, we also used a Canon 600 and a Canon 7D. While we had used cameras in the previous year, we did learn some skills related to how we would use the camera when taking our shots. The learning process happened during the ‘Camera work’ task in the production stage, and was carried out by Shai.
The knowledge that we had gained last year helped us to shoot photos effectively. As well as our session during the Test Shots’ task.
The camera equipment was only utilised by Shai and Cheryl, and not Tomiwa and Marvin, so not all of us have gained experience with using the cameras. In our trailer, we attempted to use some of the camera techniques that we had learned throughout the course, but we missed on some also. So we cannot say that we used camera to its extent.
iMac/OSX
Our college media department mostly facilitates 27-inch iMacs. These proved extremely useful. The operating system however did require a slight learning curve, as most of the group use Windows as their home operating system. iMacs are commonly used as devices for media assembly, due to the fact that they are AIO (all-in-one) systems, with very capable hardware.
An issue that one of our group members had using iMacs was the incompatibility with some of their hardware, they used an external hard drive to store the work, but it wouldn’t function using an OSX device. With the iMacs, we mainly used Photoshop and Premiere only. |
While we would say that the iMacs were effective and useful, because we did not use any OSX exclusive software for the creation of our final products, it can be argued that everything we had done on the iMacs, could have also been accomplished on a PC, and without the required learning curve that most of us needed.
In terms of practicality, the Macs were very useful, as some of the macs we had access to had colour coded keyboards, which showed the keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro, but this was a software that we did not use for the creation of our products, so we cannot judge its usefulness.
Macs also have built in SD card readers, which were useful for when we had to transfer footage from recording devices.
In terms of practicality, the Macs were very useful, as some of the macs we had access to had colour coded keyboards, which showed the keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro, but this was a software that we did not use for the creation of our products, so we cannot judge its usefulness.
Macs also have built in SD card readers, which were useful for when we had to transfer footage from recording devices.
PC/Windows
Windows is an operating system developed by Microsoft. The version that all of us used was Windows 10
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For some of our work, mainly the trailer, one of our members used his PC to edit work; this eliminated the requirement to familiarize himself with the software. He uses three Dell U2515H monitors, which have displays with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, an identical resolution to the late-2013 iMacs that we were using. This meant that no screen space was lost, however, since they had three displays to work from, their resolution was 7680 x 1440, giving them 3x the space to work with.
The PC that was used has a dedicated graphics-processing unit, which in combination with Adobe’s functionality aided the rendering of the video drastically, in terms of speed. The iMacs also have a dedicated graphics-processing unit, but a significantly weaker, mobile version (the PCs Nvidia GTX 970 vs the iMacs GT 755M) However, the difference was negligible.
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Because most of us use Windows at home, there was no learning curve required when using the operating system; the only learning curve would have been from the software being used. Had the PC being used been an average home PC, the ease of using software such as Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere would have been considerably different.
WhatsApp is an app used on mobile devices, it allows free communication using Wi-Fi or mobile data.
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To communicate with the group, we used WhatsApp, an app which is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows devices. The app allows us to upload images, video and sound clips, as well has text chat. Since this app was our primary method of communicate, it was essential for keeping each other informed on upcoming events in relation to the media tasks.
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Prezi
Prezi is a cloud based, online presentation creation tool launched in 2009.
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We used Prezi in order to create our presentation for our film concepts in the ‘Treatment and Concepts’ stage, this was useful as it can be used to create better designed presentations compared to software such as Powerpoint. Provided the user has an internet enabled mobile device, and a flash enabled browser, the user can edit their presentation using their mobile, and have it ready to present, which is another advantage that Prezi has over offline presentation software.
We could have easily created the film concept presentation using software such as PowerPoint, however, we feel that the use of Prezi allowed our presentation to be more visually engaging compared to PowerPoint. Certain edits had to be made minutes before the presentation, this would not have been doable had we used an offline presentation creation software.
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Google is an american multinational technology company. They specialise in internet based services and products.
Google Search is the world’s most used search engine. It also hosts a large number of other services, such as YouTube, Google Docs and Google Drive – all of which were used to some degree for our project.
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Google’s image search allowed us to find existing products of the horror genre, which was crucial to the analysis stages of our work. In regards to the poster and magazine, it was a useful tool to use when comparing ours for any missing elements.
It is also notable that Google was our primary search engine for looking for websites which would host elements require for our products. |
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an internet encyclopedia, which allows its users to read and edit most of its articles.
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Wikipedia was mainly used in the concepts and treatment task, as it provided information about various franchises or films that would have been relevant to the planning of our film concept. The information that we required would have mainly been the plot of the product we were viewing, or information about the characters featured throughout the products.
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YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website which was founded in 2005.
YouTube, owned by Google is the world’s largest video-sharing website. We used this to upload our animatic, video logs and trailer, mostly because Weebly supports the easy embedding of YouTube video. We mostly however used YouTube for the viewing of video tutorials on using software, or costume design.
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YouTube features a comment section, as well as a like/dislike counter. These come in handy if the user seeks to ask questions to the uploader or verify the legitimacy of the video.
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Social Networks
We used a variety of social networking platforms to conduct our audience research. This included WhatsApp, Facebook and Snapchat. We also used Quick Surveys to ask audiences across these platforms. Because our magazine and posters are supposed to be aimed at adult audiences, we asked staff, students, friends and family, who were within the 15+ age group.
After gathering our results, we posted them onto our website, and adjusted our plans according to the results presented to us. Most of the results conformed to what we had originally planned to do. We feel that we asked an appropriate number of people, and asked enough questions, as we were able to effectively use the social network platforms to ask our questions and alter our final products.
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Dafont/1001 Fonts
Dafont & 1001 Fonts are both font sharing websites which hosts a variety of font types created and shared by its users.
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These are text font sharing websites which allow users to view and download custom fonts made by other users. These were essential for the development of our final products as they gave us a more refined and appropriate selection of fonts to choose from, compared to what comes pre-installed to Windows and OX devices.
Because creators often tag their fonts according to genre type, it is easy to find fonts, which are appropriate to use for the horror genre. Without these sources, it would have been extremely difficult to find a font for our poster and magazine drafts, which would have been deemed appropriate for use in our trailer. Therefore, we believe that the sources served their purpose very well.
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Freesound/Freesfx
Freesound and FreeSFX are both sound clip sharing websites. Like the font websites, these websites consist of users who create and share sound clips.
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These websites allow the uploading of sound files, mainly in .ogg, .mp3 or .wmv format, for users to download for free. Because we were provided with a large selection of sound files, this wasn’t our primary source for our sound, but they did act successfully as a secondary source for sound files.
A helpful function is the ability to preview sound, prior to downloading it, this saves the user time and adds convenience – they can be sorted by star ratings, allowing the user to quickly identify what is considered ‘good’ sound.
These sources were very useful for carrying out the sound design and during the post production stages. |
Construction
Adobe Creative Cloud (After Effects/Photoshop/Premiere Pro)
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is a software developed by Adobe, its main purpose is for photo editing and it supports Windows and OSX devices. The creation of the digital drafts, logo, mood boards and our final poster and magazine were done using Photoshop.
Photoshop is a software what we all had gained familiarity with, since it was essential for the completion of our foundation portfolio, therefore, unlike the other software required for the construction of our final products, we all understood what we would need to do towards our product |
Quick creation of the digital drafts required the use of the colour labeling functions, this helped us to easily keep note on where certain elements were among the list of layers, allowing us to quickly copy, drag and drop layers which would remain similar through designs.
The mood boards mostly involved the importing and placement of images, the opacity tool was used frequently, in order to reduce the obviousness of layers that were placed on top of each other. This was done by clicking on the layer to be edited, and adjusting the percentage of opacity required
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Adobe programs have exceptional multi-monitor support, so working multiple displays made this task much easier, as it allowed for the quick copying and pasting of similar layers throughout the tasks, while allowing the user to compare styling quickly and effectively.
For After Effects and Premiere, it was helpful for being able to view menus at the same time, reducing the irritability of constantly locating windows and menus. The Insanity logo consisted of using the shape and text tools, in order for the logo to be easily placeable on other creations, the logo had to be saved in .png format, and this made the white parts, outside of the actual logo transparent. The PNG format also allows the image to be altered, dimension wise, much easier compared to other formats such as JPEG and TIF.
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Photoshop was definitely an effective tool for the creation of our poster and magazine. As previously mentioned, we used Photoshop for multiple stages of the coursework, which were the mood boards, print design, magazine and poster creation. We were not aware of any reputable alternatives, and even if we were, our experience with using Photoshop for our foundation portfolio, would have made us likely to choose Photoshop as our photo editing software regardless.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Premiere is software developed by Adobe, its primary use is for video editing. It supports Windows and OSX devices
The post-production task consisted almost entirely of using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the footage that was captured during our filming session. We also had to add our own selection of sound to the trailer. Premiere was significantly new software for all of the members in our group. The only person with any kind of experience with Premiere was Tomiwa, since he carried out the animatic task. But even then, the animatic task did not consist of editing moving footage, so we weren’t proficient with adding effects. |
The sequence timeline was an essential way of timing our footage for the trailer construction. The timeline requires the user to drag footage, be it sound, images, video or effects onto the timeline. We ordered our timeline in accordance to how we wanted to narrate the trailer.
The post-production task also consisted of incorporating sound files into our trailer. The sounds used in our trailer were from the Internet, as well as using a large selection of sound that was provided to us. The sounds from the sound design task did not fully aid our editing task, but it did give us an idea of how we would use sound.
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One of the most frequently used features was the exponential fade tool. This tool fades audio tracks, to prevent the sudden peaks and changes in sound
Throughout the trailer, we included lighting and colour effects. Mainly by adding adjustment layers and editing the sliders This was chosen because the entirety of the film as shot in a bright setting. We had to have some type of darkening effect, in order to give the trailer a more horror-like appearance.
Cutting was frequently done when constructing the trailer. We had a lot of excess footage from our shooting stage. As well as to split video, we also used the cutting tool in order to split audio.
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Why Premiere?
We had two main choices in regards to which program we should use for the creation of the trailer. These choices were Premiere and Final Cut pro. We chose premiere over Final Cut, as we felt that is because neither member of our group had access to an OSX computer at home, we would have been restricted to working in our college media department. Adobe is good at keeping their programs uniform, so those who used Photoshop last year, were already somewhat familiar with how the user interface was laid out, the learning curve was only a matter of understand how and where to use features.
Premiere was an extremely effective program as it allowed us to produce a decent trailer from what was amateur shot footage. However, understanding the possibilities when using the program took too much time. We only began to realise the subtle features that we could add to make our trailer better, during the final editing sessions. If we either had more time, or constructed the trailer, after having initial practice, the trailer could have been better, effect wise.
Premiere was an extremely effective program as it allowed us to produce a decent trailer from what was amateur shot footage. However, understanding the possibilities when using the program took too much time. We only began to realise the subtle features that we could add to make our trailer better, during the final editing sessions. If we either had more time, or constructed the trailer, after having initial practice, the trailer could have been better, effect wise.
Adobe After Effects
After Effects is software developed by Adobe, like the other programs, it supports both OSX and Windows devices. The program is used to create visual video effects.
Like Premiere, neither group member had even the slightest experience with using the software for a project. When using this software, we only aimed to create effects that would be deemed simple, since we did not want to using too much time adding effects, especially when our sequence for the trailer was not fully complete. Of the Creative Cloud software we had to use, After Effects was certainly the most challenging to understand, despite viewing a number of YouTube tutorials beforehand. |
The editing task had some parts that required visual effects that couldn’t be created easily using Premiere. None of the members of our group were proficient with using After Effects, and it required a lot of time to create a decent effect. For the introduction that displayed our team logo, as well as the captions., one of our members purchased templates, allowing them to save a lot of time.
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One of our members created a CCTV effect for different parts of our trailer. This consisted of creating multiple layers and overlays to replicate the look of a typical CCTV. They also decreased the frame rate of the footage that would be used for the CCTV, creating a more realistic appearance.
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The evaluation of After Effects is similar to Premiere, where if we had more time, or practice (in the case of After Effects, we would have preferred practice), we could have used After Effects to a greater extent. Although I was not really expecting to have to use After Effects much, the CCTV idea was a last minute thought, so we could give the introduction of the trailer more contexts. We were aware that some effects could be replicated on Premiere. After Effects was effective, since without it, the captions, ending and logo intro would have been plain, and the shots of the protagonists carrying out crimes would have had less context without the effect.
Evaluation
Overall, we used Media technologies to varying extents web tools were used as extensively as possible. And software tools may have been used extensively, but could have been used a lot more extensively, if we had more time and practice. Hardware such as cameras and computer devices were used appropriately, so much so, that we were able to familiarize ourselves with the equipment we had available. If we were to carry out this coursework task again, we are certain that we would be able to do a much better job of our three pieces, and we could experiment with other types of software. Without the aid of current media technologies, this task would have been near impossible for us to carry out by the deadline date. The tools we had access to allowed us to save a lot of time, and prevented us from becoming completely dependant on our teachers