James' A2 Media Blog

Friday, 14 February 2014

Final Products

Website Homepage:

http://jamesmcevoy22.wix.com/splitlives

Question 4

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

Technologies have been essential in creating my media product and I have learned how to use and implement a vast number of different softwares, hardwares and online tools. Above is an image that I made on photoshop which shows the main digital equipment that I have used during constructing my media product.

Premier Pro has been one of the most important tools that I have made use of whilst creating my trailer. I had used premier pro last year when I created a film opening so the software wasn't completely foreign to me. I believe that my skills have vastly improved since last year and with the help of the internet as well as other people who have had more experience with editing in premier pro. I have created some tutorials which I have kept my blog updated with and have learned new tools that I didn't make use of last year. For instance, I learned how to add special effects, in one shot I used image control to make the footage black and white as well as changed the speed/duration to slow the footage down.

Photoshop has been another one of the big technologies that I have made use of this year. Before I started my coursework I had never used photoshop before and many times have had little to no idea how to use it but during constructing my media product I have honed my skills of using photoshop as it was pretty essential throughout my media package. I had to construct my film poster in photoshop but also created other things such as the ending card for my film trailer and the background for my website which I created in photoshop and then exported into another program to be used.

No one warns you how problematic website design is so I used an online tool called Wix in order to create my website which was supposed to make it easy but was still a nightmare to use. You couldn't import a font so I had to type my film title in photoshop with a transparent background and then import it that way. The software however did help me to create my website and without it I wouldn't have been able to create it as easily.

The HD cameras used were effective in capturing a much higher quality of footage that wasn't grainy. However, indoor scenes proved to effect the image quality and gave the footage a 'yellow' glow from artificial lighting which was a problem which I have to correct the colour of the footage in Premier Pro.

I used Prezi and Powtoon to help keep my media blog updated during the stages of contruction of my media products. Embedding these presentations as well as youtube videos during my research and planning stage helped keep my blog media rich. My college also got a full licence for animoto this year so I was able to make use of creating animated videos without time limits this year, again keeping my blog media rich. Youtube was key in uploading the different cuts of my trailer onto my blog as it was much simpler and spent less time to upload it to my blog instead of blogger itself. I made use of social networking sites such as Facebook in order to contact the cast for my trailer and to arrange times to film. Blogger was also important in helping me to create and maintain a production log through-out constructing my media product.

Question 3

Question 3: What have you learned from audience feedback?

17th September

Our Blogs were peer assessed by the other people in our class. We rotated so that every person gave feedback for each blog. Two stars and one wish were given so we received positive feedback as well as criticism or possible amendments that could be made. One of the points that came up often was that I could make my blog more media rich with the use of other forms of media. I really took this on board and started to create prezies and powtoons and embedding them into my blog. Also time management was suggested which I did incorporate more into my blog.

17th October

My first draft of my movie poster was peer assessed and the feedback that I received really helped me to make improvements to my poster and get it to the stage that I was happy with. One of the things that was suggested was that I change the font of the title so that I could brand my film. I did this and used the new title font on my other media products to create a brand for my film. I really liked the idea of the banner at the bottom and despite some people suggesting that it was unconventional I kept it and on my finished product I am really please with it. The image was also altered to blur in more to the back ground so that it wasn't so obvious that it was cut out. This was the first time that I had really used photoshop so it was a chance to learn how to use it and to improve my skills using the technology. Later after feedback that I received from my ancillary tasks being assessed, I decided to in crease the use of the cracked glass effect so that it spread out throughout the page. I also added certain conventions such as institutional logos so that my product looked more real.

14th November

The feedback that I received for my website led me to adding in a background to my website which was made up of the cracked glass that I have used throughout my media products. I also found ways to add in colour and conventions such as institutional logos. Upon assessed feedback, I revised the bottom panel as well as the 'premier' line.

12th December

After completing the first draft of my film trailer I screened it to people who I believed would fall into my target audience so that they could give me some feedback about it. Audience feedback made it easier for me to improve my trailer and my other products to help better appeal to the audience they were intended for. I made a number of changes thanks to the things that people suggested and I believe that by getting this feedback I was able to see what I could improve even though some of the
In the end I was much happier with my trailer.