Evaluation Task 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In pairs we took pictures of each other holding the kit that we used, this included the camera, tripod and monopod. Other online and computer programs I have used were screenshotted such as YouTube, Windows Movie Maker, Blogger, Paint, Microsoft PowerPoint and Publisher. I dropped the images onto my blog and annotated it discussing what I learnt about these previously mentioned media technologies.

The tripod was a necessary tool and was very critical to the production of our Soap Opera trailer. Firstly we used the tripod to keep the camera still in order to make the cinematography seem as professional as possible, as an unsteady camera is a sign of amatuer camera work and also may give the notion that we were using the 'jiggly camera' technique, although this was not the desired effect. Secondly the tripod allowed us to achieve cetain shots with extreme precision such as the panning shots where we see the car drive past, these camera movements would have never been as smooth without the tripod therefore an effective part of our filming apparatus. 

The FlipHD camera was clearly the most important tool within the filming process as it allowed us to capture footage/film scenes. This particular camcorder is very light and allows for maximum mobility, this was extremely beneficial to the camera man (cinematographer) when filming in awkward positions or having to film freehand for extensive periods of time reducing the stress placed on their arms/hands. The interface and buttons on the FlipHD was very simple and user friendly thus allowing us to go straight into filming without referring to an instruction manual or tutorial. Lastly the most beneficial part of the FlipHD is the USB feature that allowed us to simply plug the camcorder directly into the PC/Mac and drag the video files over to the computer. Not only was it an easy process but it allowed us to film significantly more and re-shoot particular scenes we were unhappy with, without the hassle of using a firewire which is a much more difficult and time consuming process.

The monopod wasn't used to the extent of the tripod but it allowed to overcome certain obstacles such as height restrictions. For example the extreme longshot within the trailer that reveals the entire street was only possible due to the length of the monopod which reached over the metal barriers of the overpass and capture a clear/unobscured shot.

The following screengrabs include the online and computer programs used within the advanced production:

Windows Movie Maker is one of the few editing softwares I am extremely familiar with, despite not being as advanced as other professional editing softwares such as Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas 9.0 it offers the basic tools necessary for editing. This editing software allowed us to do basic cuts and cropping to put the footage in chronological order in terms of narrative, also add transitions such as fading and effects such as slow motion. In addition the editing software allowed us to change the brightness and contrast in order to compensate for the lack of lighting within the recordings.

Paint was used in order to screengrab/screenshot/printscreen certain things on the computer screen and turn them into pictures by pasting them into Paint and saving the screenshots as a .JPEG, otherwise known as an image.

Publisher was used in order to create the TV listings magazine which was made signficantly easier by this particular software as it is primarily used for creating things of this nature. Therefore Microsoft Publisher allowed me to produce a seemingly realistic TV listings magazine using the tools avaliable such as cropping, filling, layering, etc. All of which contributed to the outcome of my magazine cover.

I used PowerPoint very early on within my production and never seemed to return to it, despite being very good for creating slideshow presentations with headings, subheadings, backgrounds and bullet points. PowerPoint has little to no other uses, hence the lack of slideshows within my blog posts.

YouTube is the most popular online video streaming site in the world, therefore an obvious decision to upload the Soap Opera trailer in order to capitalize on its features and large audience. The annotation feature was used to label particular micro-elements which include mise en scene, lighting, performance, costume, etc, and how they were effective and challenged or conformed to the soap opera conventions. In additon the commenting section allowed us to gain feedback from the public on how to improve the product. Finally the High Definition quality of the FlipHD's was put to good use when the trailer was uploaded in 720p in order to give an extremely clear picture quality.

Firstly, despite the flaws within Blogger.com it is a very useful blogging website which allowed me to update my blog regularly through all three stages of production including pre production, production and post production. However electronically storing data on the internet means you must back up your work constantly in case of an emergency where the site goes down due to server issues or random data corruption. Other problems include the constant crashing of the website resulting in loss of data, frequently when prepraring to 'Publish Post' the website responds with an error. On the otherhand it offered me and my group members the ability to communicate with eachother commenting on one anothers work and also following other members of the groups individual blogs in order to recieve a constant update on one anothers blogging activity.