Evaluation task 4

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

To create our trailer and all the other things that were part of our project such as the TV listing, website and the blog, we had to use various programs and technologies to edit and to create.

Some of the programs and technologies that we used are;

•   The picture below is from the iMovie clip trimmer tool, this tool allows you to control the beginning and the end of the clip.

• The picture below is from the iMovie precision tool which allows you to work with transitioning. It will allow you to work with two or more clips. It will also allow you to work with transition which means when two clips meet. With this tool you could extend an audio track and you can make a longer or shorter transition period. We used this tool when we added the black background with the text, we also made sure that the audience saw the text so that they see what it says on it, in our trailer the text had information on when the soap opera will be shown on TV and on what channel so we made the transition period longer than the usual to get the point across when the soap will be shown. 

• In the picture below you can see the crop tool being used in the iMovie program, the crop tool allows you to cut out a certain part of the picture so it helps the audience to focus on one particular thing. As we filmed a soap opera trailer it was important that we made sure that the audience knew what to focus on the characters since it’s a brand new soap and the audience don’t know the characters.

• In the picture below you can see the volume tool being used in the iMovie program, the volume tool allows you to control the volume of certain parts of a clip, for example if a character is too load or isn't loud enough you could change that with the volume tool. In our production we had to use this tool because the volume of one of our clips was low and it was out of contrast from the other clips therefore we had to use the volume tool to make it balanced so that the trailer sounded in tune. 

• We also used an online program such as Picmonkey.com, Picmonkey allowed us to edit pictures and to create collages. The edited pictures and the collages were used for our research process to analyse camera shots and they were also part of the evaluation process where we were meant to describe why we used certain shots, these pictures where uploaded to our blogs which were created using Google Blogger. 

• Prezi is a program where you can create presentations. We used this tool to help us with our research. As you can see in the picture below we were able to use Prezi and its tools to analyse a TV listing magazine cover. Prezi also allowed us to share our power points and to upload them onto our blogs. 

•      YouTube was used to upload our trailer and other clips onto our website and for the easier access to our productions. It was easier to access our productions because we didn’t have to make an individual CD copy for everyone in the group and also we were able to access them from wherever we wanted. YouTube users also gave us feedback and we used to improve certain parts of our productions. 

•       Weebly was used to create our website; we used a template from Weebly to create the website this made it easier and quicker to add pictures and text to the website. The website was part of our coursework. 

•   Here is a picture of Mario developing our website using the Apple Macs and the Weebly online program. 

•       Google Blogger was used as part of our research, planning and evaluation. All of the work we done was posted onto our blogs because it was easier to keep a track of what we have done and what we have to do. 

•   In the pictures below you see us filming different scenes from our trailer using the same equipment such as the camera and tripod. The camera was essential because it provided a 1080p resolution which meant that our trailer would be filmed in HD quality which meant the audience will see it in good quality. The tripod was also essential because it meant that our trailer looked authentic because there wasn't any shaking, that would have changed the genre, it would have meant that our production was a drama and not a soap opera. 

We used various media technologies and products in the construction research, planning and evaluation process of our media project. We used materialistic things and virtual such as online programs. These things added up to create our website, TV listings cover and the trailer.