Evaluation Question 2 part 2

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

The physical technology that was used in the process of filming and editing were as follows:

HDV Camera:

 The HDV camera was helpful in creating our short film for a number of reasons. The first being that this camera allowed the footage to be recorded for much long that an ordinary camera and also gave a clearer image when played back onto the Mac computers. The limitations of this technology was that because it was new technology we were using different settings such as HDV and DV were hard to find and change, following on from this it hindered our ability to film. We filmed in the wrong format therefore meaning we had to re-film the entire piece again. Another set back to using these camera's was that it records onto a Tape rather that onto an SD card. This meant that we were then required to digitise the footage on a tape deck; this became a much longer process than simply downloading the video files from an SD card but in turn allowed for better footage.

HD Camera:

For filming my audience feedback and taking behind the scenes photo's of the short film, a handheld HD camera was used. This equipment was used as it was a very simple and effective way of recording vital information. In addition to this it enabled me to utilise a very fast way of uploading and installing footage for feedback as it all came directly from an SD card rather than having to digitilise footage such as it was on the HDV camera, furthermore this camera was also lightweight and easy to use in comparison with the HDV camera as the tripod did not encumber me as much. The only flaw with this technology is that the sound and image quality is not up to the same standard as a HDV but for its purpose of use in this circumstance it worked perfectly.

Halogen Lights:

The Halogen lights that we used were effective uses of technology. The lights gave us the power to create different forms of shadowing and lighting effects for atmosphere in the film. Using the reflectors different angles of light were able to present themselves on screen and show characters in different forms and allowed us to play around with the notions of 'good and evil' and contrast them with 'light and dark' as the main antagonist was always shown brightly lit. In addition to the lights being useful they also held us back at points with its limitations. For instance the lights become incredibly hot and overheat after a matter of minutes, making it hard for the actors to act and also to assemble and disassemble them afterwards as they become blazing hot.

Computers Used:

When it came to creating and editing our three ancillary texts (short film, magazine article and poster) I used to different types of computers. For the main film I used a Mac computer which was by far one of the easiest ways to edit the product. The use of effects was incredibly easy use and the whole product was easy to manage on it. The only thing that let the Mac down was human error as it was the first time that I had ever used one and so I started off at a slower pace than what I would have done if I had been using a PC.

When it came to editing footage for audience feedback, poster creation and the article creation the technology used was a PC. The reason behind this was that for things such as editing feedback it was very quick and simple to use as I could download the clips directly from an SD card rather than having to digitise the footage, furthermore when it came to the usage of Photoshop and InDesign they were easy to access and user friendly and helped me develop and further my skills with these software program. The only fault with the PC was that there was never enough memory on the computer to actually export and save the final products that I had designed, instead the use of external memory devices had to be used to save and export the products, taking more time to do so and being a frustrating inconvenience when I had finished products waiting to upload.

How Blogger helped in my use of exhibition

The website Blogger was a highly useful tool in the creation of both my blog and all research. In using this technology I was able to create and meet different criteria specified by the lecturer by creating different posts that consisted of ancillary texts, short essays answering questions using the insert video tool and image tool to embed different media onto the blog and overall create an effect coursework project.