Question 1 A revision
Digital Technology-hardware, software and online
Pros + cons
How our skills developed
¡ Consider how you have presented your
work; have you used blogs?
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AS
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A2
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For AS I used the website Wix which allows you to create your own
website. I liked the format because it didn’t look like a normal blog – it
looked like a professional website. You have a wide range of templates to use
for your own website depending on your needs and I decided to use a portfolio
template as I felt that it would display my work well. The website has a main
page where you’re introduced to its purpose and then the viewer can toggle
between my preliminary task and main task brief; on these separate pages
there are links so the viewer can see each stage of my progress. I felt that
using Wix allowed me to organise and present my work in a really creative way
that was appealing to look at.
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For A2 my group decided to use Blogger instead of Wix or Weebly due
to the sheer amount of work that was needed and we felt that we couldn’t
organise it in a way that was neat and presentable with Wix. Blogger is like
a typical blog: you can create posts that are displayed in chronological
order and the viewer just needs to scroll down to see previous posts. They
also have the option of choosing what post to look at on the menu on the left
hand side. It’s not as creative as Wix but it was more practical.
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¡ How has the internet supported your
skills development?
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AS
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A2
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Using the internet has supported my skills development because I’ve been
able to look up any problems that I’ve had with the website I used to present
my work, along with any problems I had with photoshop or Adobe premier pro on
YouTube or on Google. Also, using the internet for my blog has supported my
skills development as the more I used it, the better I got.
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Using the internet has supported my skills development because I’ve
been able to look up any problems that I’ve had with the website I used to
present my work, along with any problems I had with Photoshop, Adobe premier
pro or Logic Pro on YouTube or on Google. Also, using the internet for my
blog has supported my skills development as the more I used it, the better I
got – especially at sorting out any little problems. I also learnt from AS
and developed my skills that I learnt further.
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¡ Consider the pro’s and con’s of the
digital technology you have used
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Digital technology
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AS
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A2
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Blogs/websites
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The website/ blog I used for AS was a lot more complicated than the
one I used for A2 because it involved me partially constructing and building
it from a template offered by the website; I had to create pages and then
link these pages together so it was easy for the viewer to navigate through.
Also, the website kept on crashing so I could lose a lot of my work. I could
easily change the font – its size and colour. The website also looked very
professional and nice which I really liked.
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We used Blogger for our entire coursework as it was where we embedded
and uploaded our tasks from our research to our planning. We could have used
other blogs like weebly or wix, but due to the sheer amount of work that was
needed from us we felt that using Wix, despite its uses, would be really hard
and confusing to use for AS, so in a sense we went ‘backward’ as we went for
a simplistic website/blog instead of a more creative one like Blogger as we
could personalise and present our Blog creatively, personally and easily
while also producing a good standard of work.
for A2
It was easier to use than Wix and it didn’t crash unless we were on a
bad computer or had bad internet connection so we didn’t lose our work like
we did with Wix. We were still able to be fairly creative: we could change
the background; adjust the width of the posts and chose the size, colour and
type of font we wanted to use for the posts, the website name and headings.
However, we couldn’t drag and drop pictures, text or videos on the page like
we could for Wix and produced a simplistic blog. It was still easy to
navigate and read through but it wasn’t as creative as Wix where you could
arrange photos into an animation that would move when you scrolled your mouse
over it. Also, if we didn’t upload or complete the tasks in chronological
order then we had to constantly adjust the posts date so it would appear in
chronological order. It also allowed us to regularly post about our research
& planning, progress and we used it to display our final piece.
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Slideshare
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I used slideshare to annotate my screen shots of how I made my
product. I could easily upload my PowerPoint from my computer onto the
website and then onto my blog. One disadvantage of using slideshare was that
it had a certain limit to what it would upload so I had to split some of my
presentations in half which was time consuming and I didn’t think that it
looked nice on the website.
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Due to the previous problem I had with slideshare, we used Google
Docs to upload the slideshows of how we produced our final products. We chose
this because it was quick and easy to use and, unlike Prezi, didn’t cause our
computers to go as slow and we didn’t have to cut our presentations in half.
However, it isn’t that creative, but we didn’t use them to be creative – we
used them as a way of displaying our journey to our final product. Alsdo, the
viewer has to click on a link, rather than have it embedded onto the blog so
they could miss it when they look through our blog. It hasn’t aided to the
construction of our main task either because it was used post production, but
it has aided us to create a PowerPoint that can easily be viewed online.
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Flickr
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I didn’t use Flickr
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I didn’t use Flickr
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Facebook questionnaires
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I didn’t use Facebook to answer surveys; instead I sent emails with
links attached to what I wanted my target audience to chose and the
questionnaire I used for my target audience. There were some limitations with
this as only a certain number of people could answer and people may just
ignore the email all together so I couldn’t get a good result. However, I did
also post the link onto Twitter which did attract more attention, but still
not much. Using online surveys along
with emails and social networking sites like Twitter helped me to create my
product as it allowed me to reach a wider range of people in my target
audience, which was extremely beneficial as that was who I made my magazine
and if they didn’t like something then it wouldn’t sell in the real world.
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Twitter - We used Twitter in both our audience research and then again
for our planning; we used it to get people to answer the survey and then we
used it to ask RocNation if we could use ‘We Found Love’ so it’s been very
beneficial. It was also really easy to use and communicate with others.
However, due to the 180 character limit we had to sometimes cut the tweet in
half and send out two. Additionally, it isn’t very creative, but we were able
to get quicker results by using it so the benefits outweigh the costs.
Facebook - We used Facebook in a similar way to Twitter as we used it
to gain our target audience feedback on our final product. It was extremely
beneficial in this sense as we got feedback really quickly.
Fluid Surveys -We used FluidSurveys for our audience research as it
is a quick and easy way of targeting our audience as teenagers are used to
using the internet, therefore it was more likely that they would answer an
online survey than one on paper. One advantage of FluidSurveys was that you
could change the type of question easily, which would impact the result as
some questions had only one choice while others were multiple choice. You
could also easily change the order of the questions by simply dragging and
dropping them into whichever order you wanted. Unfortunately, the website
isn’t creative, but we didn’t want to use it for creative purposes.
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Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback)
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I didn’t use film/ YouTube for my audience questionnaires and
feedback in my AS. I think that it would have been a good idea to; however,
as it would clearly show the viewer of my website who my specific target
audience were, thus meaning that I could cater it more specifically to them.
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We used a film for our audience feedback on our questionnaire on what
should be in a music video. It was really useful as we actively chose people
that fit into our target audience (not some random people who could easily
take on online survey) and found out exactly what they wanted. It was also
more creative than the survey and the other methods of gaining audience
feedback from AS because we could edit, we had a range of locations, a range
of shots etc that looked more visually appealing and thus understandable. It really
aided our construction of our task as we could fully understand what our
target audience wanted, along with experimenting with lighting, camera angles
and editing which we could use towards our music video.
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Vlogs
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I used a vlog for my fourth question “What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of constructing this product?” where I held up
images of the software’s that I used to the camera and then I spoke about it.
The video was very monotonous as there was only one camera angle, no editing
and it only focused on me. My second video was a bit more interesting as I
actually held the camera and moved it from my face when I was speaking and
then to the screen to give some examples, however, once again there was no
editing. An advantage of using vlogs
was that the viewer didn’t have to look at an essay that wasn’t creative;
instead they could see who had made the product, thus making it more
personal. However, it was more time consuming than one would expect – the
video may take 10-20 minutes but then i had to edit it and layer music into
the background. I then had to wait for it to save to my computer and then
wait for it to upload onto YouTube. If the video was too long I would only
find out after a long period of waiting so I would have to cut the video
down. The video didn’t aid to the construction of my task as I did it after I
finished my product and I had to produce a magazine front cover, contents
page and article, not a video.
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We used vlogs for part of our analysis of digipacks, costumes and
audience opinion on music videos. The video on our audience was a lot more
creative than the videos I did for my AS blog and the videos I did for our
analysis as we really paid attention to how we would cut and edit it to make
it more interesting. It also still conveyed the information we needed. I was
hard to construct the vlogs on the digipacks and costumes creatively due to
the amount of detail that we needed, so the end result was a bit monotonous
and similar to the vlogs I did for my AS, which suggests that I didn’t fully
develop my skills in this aspect. Also, if the video was too long I would
only find out after a long period of waiting so I would have to cut the video
down (or sometimes into two separate videos) and then re- upload it. Overall
I think it aided to the construction of our main task as these were ‘test
runs’ where would could experiment with cuts and music which would be useful
for our own video.
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Xtranormal
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I only used Xtranormal for my sixth evaluation question. I chose it
because I could create a little The
Apprentice style drama and I had a wide range of characters and scenes to
choose from. I liked it because I could change the voices of the characters.
I chose to have a British man and woman to follow The Apprentice them. Unfortunately my character choice was
limited due to the amount of points I had, thus restricting my creativity
slightly. However, despite this I did still like the choice of scenarios and
I really liked the sketch/ doodle like characters for my video as I thought
that it was a really nice concept because it reminded me of doodles that you
would create when you’re bored in class, which is something everyone can
relate to. One disadvantage was the voices – they were very still and
computer-like. There were also unnecessary pauses which I couldn’t prevent,
even when I tried to change the commas in the text etc. Although, it didn’t
take too long to do and I didn’t have to download any software as it was on
the internet. It didn’t aid to the construction of my music magazine as I did
it after I finished, but it was a useful and creative way of presenting my
evaluation.
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We didn’t use Xtranormal that much for our coursework; we only used
it for our question about how we were going to apply theory. We chose it for
this reason as you can easily type up what you want to say and then your
chosen characters will act it out. You can also chose the camera angles,
scenes, the types of characters, their voices and background music, which was
very useful as it allowed us to be extremely creative. It was also extremely
easy to use; we could easily drag and drop what camera angles we wanted into
the text boxes, along with easily being able to change their facial
expressions. I think that it was useful in conveying the information that we
needed for that particular question creatively and in an interesting way. I
also think that it looks a lot more interesting than the one I did for AS due
to the different characters, setting and music and I think that it shows my
development because of this. However, like the one I did for AS there were
unnecessary pauses and awkward camera angles that I couldn’t change, despite
being used to the software, which was disappointing. I think that it was
useful in constructing our main task as we
could experiment with camera angles and sound etc, however it was an
animation and our video wasn’t, so there was only so far that this
experimentation could help.
Xtranormal is a website where you can
create your own cartoon video by typing in what you want to say and then the
characters will say it. We've used t his in most areas of our coursework; for
our evaluation of audience research which we made creative as we set it as a
talk show where the presenter asked the star about the results.We used it again
for our planning of genre conventions and we used a similar interview format
but this time it reflected the R'n'B genre as we used stereotypical 'gangsta'
characters in an alleyway. We thought that it was good at conveying our
research creatively as we could simply copy and paste what we wrote in word
into the speech boxes an luckily it didn't have a character limit so we
didn't have to compromise on the quality of our work. There was also a wide
range of characters and scenes to choose from, however, if we wanted some
scenes we would have had to pay for them, but as there lots that were free we
felt that we didn't have to use these. However, one disadvantage of using it
was if we wanted to preview the video it would take up to 10 minutes
sometimes to play . Also, due to the fact that the software used automated
voices the words would sometimes come out wrong so we would have to change
the spelling. Nonetheless, it was easy to export and embed onto our blog and
we didn't have you use YouTube to do it so it saved time .Overall it hasn't
had a massive impact on our work as we've only used it a couple of times ,
but this was because most of the other tasks involved pictures as well and we
couldn't put these into the video but despite this we did really like it and
we would have used it more as it allowed us to be extremely creative as we
could chose the camera angles, facial expressions of the characters and
background music and in someways helped us prepare with the editing of our
own video as we learnt how important each angle was.
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Prezi
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I used Prezi for my evaluation question “Who would the audience be
for your product?” and comparing my preliminary product to my main. It was
complicated to use at first and depending on the computer it could crash
without saving my work, however I was really pleased with the end result – I
could zoom in and out of certain pictures/ words and focus on different
elements and present my work really creatively. I could change the colours of
the presentation; I could change the path (how it ran). It also didn’t take
too long to produce, unlike the other websites and software’s I used for my
evaluation.
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We've used Prezi a lot throughout our
coursework, such as our research, planning and evaluation as it's a creative
way of conveying information easily because we just needed to write the tasks
in Microsoft Powerpoint and then import the finished Powerpoint onto Prezi.
We really liked using it because of this and secondly because it had a wide
range of templates so our Prezi's could look different in terms of background
as well as style. Unofrtunately, sometimes it wouldn't upload our Powerpoint
presentations so we would have to copy and paste each slide onto Prezi which
was very time consuming. Also, we had to make a couple of accounts as you can
only have a certain number of presentations and we didn't want to delete
previous work, so making a new account was the only option. Overall, Prezi
has had a massive impact on our coursework as we have used it a lot simply
because it is so s imple and effective and it has allowed us to be a lot more
creative as there are different types of Prezi's, where some are 3D and
others are 2D and you can choose different backgrounds, fonts and colour
schemes. The fact that we used it a lot as well demonstrates how my skills
developed and I also learnt new things like how to include YouTube videos.
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Post it note film/stop frame animations
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Didn’t use
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We created a post it note film for our storyboard and it was really
useful in displaying our thoughts and ideas for our music video. It was
really easy to produce as we just had to draw out our shots and then take
photos of the paper and then cut and edit the images in the order that we
wanted and it looked different to other storyboards that were simple
drawings, which I liked. One disadvantage was that it was time consuming to
edit and then to upload onto YouTube, but as we only had to do it once we
didn’t mind. It aided the construction of our product as we could clearly see
what we wanted in our video and we could chop and change things easily if we
didn’t like something. I think the fact that I used a post-it note film in my
A2 coursework shows how my skills have developed from AS, as I hadn’t done it
much before but as I learnt how to edit videos through audience research and
digipack analysis I applied what I learnt to the video.
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Glogster
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I used Glogster for my fifth question “how did you attract/ address
your audience?” Like Prezi it presented my work well and in a really nice
way; I could chose the background, fonts, what images I wanted and even
videos if I wished. It was also really easy to use and navigate around due to
the tabs on the website and you could easily drag and drop text boxes or
images to wherever you wanted them on the page. A disadvantage was that it
could go quite slow sometimes due to internet connection so it was hard to
use then. Also, if you clicked on the image on the website it would take a
while for the glog to load – especially with bad internet connection.
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Glogster in an online scrapbook
which we used for our research of digipacks, magazine adverts, record labels
and our moodboard for planning. It allowed us to be creative as we could put
a mixture of text and images on one format where we had lots of resources and
backgrounds so it would be visually appealing. Another advantage of using
Glogster was that it was easy to use due to the obvious tabs and labels on
the website. As we were really happy with it we couldn't really find any
disadvantages apart from when we uploaded a number of them onto one post as
it appeared white, but when you previewed it the glog would show up, so this
must have been a computer malfunction. Overall, using Glogster has impacted
our work as it's a platform where we could display the high quality of work
needed while also being interesting and creative, which is why we've used it
a lot. I felt like our skills developed a lot from AS as we used Glogster a
lot more as we gained confidence in the software and as our skills developed.
It didn’t really help us in the production of our task as we had to make a
video, however it was a useful and creative way of displaying our research,
planning and evaluation, which was easy to refer back to when needed.
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Hardware
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Digital stills cameras
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Fujifilm bridge camera
I used my camera to take photos of my costume choices and for the
images in my magazine. I really liked the end effect – especially after
editing and I was surprised at the quality as it was only a bridge camera. I
didn’t really experiment with lighting or camera angles – I just pointed and
captured what my model did, while making sure that it followed magazine
conventions. I also only did the one shoot, which could have been risky –
especially if the images came out badly. The advantages of using my own
camera was that I was used to the functions so I could easily take a picture
that I was happy with
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Nikon D80
We used our college’s camera to take the pictures for our advert and
digipack. One of the advantages of using the camera was that we got high
quality pictures that we were really happy with, thus allowing us to be
creative with our final product as we had enough photos to choose from. It
was also really easy to use so we didn’t waste time either. There weren’t any
disadvantages to using the camera as we were really happy with them, however
if we weren’t we would have had to book using the camera for another time
which could have taken up to a week. Overall, using the camera has impacted
our work greatly as without it we wouldn’t have been able to produce our
final outcome. I think my skills with a camera have developed as I really
paid attention to small details like the lighting and how the model should
pose, rather than like before where I didn’t think about it. By actively
choosing what shots I wanted I felt that it greatly impacted our work and
thus made it professional because of this.
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Lighting
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I didn’t really pay that much attention to lighting for my AS,
however due to the quality of my camera I knew that I needed plenty of light
so I made sure I chose light locations like the hallway and a lightly
coloured wall with rather than outside in the dark as the flash from my
camera would reflect off the light surfaces and improve the quality of the
picture. For my second photo shoot I chose to have darker lighting conditions
as I was taking photos in a bedroom and I wanted to give the photos a more personal
and warmer feel, however, the flash on my camera didn’t convey this as much
as I wanted it to.
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I feel like we really paid attention to the lighting for the video as
we really wanted it to reflect an R’n’B/ dance song video so we knew that
neon lighting was important, but we also knew that the quality of the shots
that we took wouldn’t be as good, so we made sure that we focused on the mini
bar and the neon lights in the limo rather than just on people’s faces
because of this. Also, when we shot scenes in front of the brick wall we made
sure that we would do it on a sunny/ bright day to get the best quality
possible. We also wanted to make sure that the alleyway wasn’t too cramp or
dark because of this. For filming in the woods and the leafy alleyway, we
felt that as long as it wasn’t evening we would still have good lighting due
to the fact that we would be outside, but luckily it was a bright day which
was really fitting for the theme of love in the video. I also really liked
how the light reflected off of the lake as it gave that scene a magical feel.
Finally, as we were filming inside a dance room for the dance scene we were
able to have really good lighting due to the bright lights and the mirror.
However due to the bad camera quality for our first dance shoot, the lighting
wasn’t as good, thus reflecting the overall quality, so we changed another
dance room which had much better lighting and this problem was resolved.
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Mini DV cameras
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Cannon Digital ixus 70
We used this camera for our filming as the quality was better than
the college’s. However, when we uploaded the video onto YouTube the quality
wasn’t as good as the preview on the Mac, but this could be because of the
quality of internet. Another advantage of using the camera was that it was easy
to use and then preview our work so we could easily re-film scenes if we
needed to. It was also small and compact so we could easily transport it.
Finally, it was easy to upload the footage onto the laptop. Overall, using
the camera has impacted our work as we used it for our final product and it
has allowed us to be creative because of this.
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Tripods
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PC
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I only used an Acer laptop for my AS coursework and the college
computers; both of which used windows 7 so I was confident with how to work
them. I was also able to download a trial version of Photoshop and InDesign
so I could easily do my production at home and in college which I think
really impacted my work as I wasn’t limited to a certain amount of hours to
work on my product. Also, using the computers – especially software like
Photoshop and InDesign – allowed my computer skills to develop throughout AS
so I was even more confident and sure of what I had to do. Due to the fact
that I could use the software I needed both at home and in college really
helped and was benefitial and I saw it as a big advantage. However, one
disadvantage was that to use the font I wanted on the college computer I
would have to type up what I wanted
into the text bar, save it as an image and then import it onto my product,
which I found to be extremely time consuming and is why I chose to download a
trial in the first place. Also, another problem was that once I opened up my
product on the college computer the text would change or wouldn’t appear at
all which was frustrating as it meant that I could only work on some aspects
at home and others at college. Overall using computers aided the construction
of my task as without it I wouldn’t have been able to construct it.
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Macbook Pro
We used Shara’s Macbook Pro to edit our video as it was easier to use
than premier pro on the schools computer. Shara also used it to complete all
of her designated tasks as it was her home laptop. Using it allowed her to be
creative as she could easily access websites such as Prezi and Glogster for
our coursework. However, sometimes due to the internet or computer
malfunction it was harder to complete the tasks. Overall, using the laptop
has impacted our work as it’s what we produced our final video on, thus
allowing us to be more creative.
Acer Laptop
Similarly, Julie used her Acer laptop to complete the tasks at home
which allowed her to access creative websites as well. Being able to use a
laptop at home meant that she was able to more work rather than just at
school and while we were editing the video and producing the digipack and
analysis she was able to write up how we made each product as we went along,
thus saving time as we didn’t leave it to last minute. Additionally, by using
two laptops we could easily share the work load, thus significantly impacting
our work as it would have taken us longer to produce otherwise
Overall I think my computer skills have improved since AS as I
couldn’t use a Macbook before, or its video making software. This is also
going to be very beneficial for the future as I know that I will be able to
cross between computers. Also, an advantage of using two different computers
was that we could easily send each other our work, so we could constantly
review and improve it if needs be. However, if one of us had a problem with
our computers we couldn’t converse as much which severely impacted our work
as we didn’t see what the other person was saying.
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Mini DV tape
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Adobe
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Software
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AS
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A2
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Adobe Photoshop.
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The image manipulation program allowed me to manipulate graphics
necessary for the magazine. E.g. crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand),
Lassos – to select my model and the copy her into my magazine front cover as
this is what magazines do. I also used the clone stamp tool to get rid of
parts of the background that I didn’t need like the door and skirting boards.
Using Photoshop was extremely useful in these aspects as I couldn’t achieve
the same results with the windows editor. However I did find it extremely
confusing and hard to use, but that was probably because I wasn’t used to it;
the more I used the clone and marquee tool, the better I got though. Overall
it was useful for the construction of my product as it allowed me to produce
it to a standard that I was happy with, however aI think that I could have
used it more.
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When we edited the photos from our first photo shoot we used the
magnetic select tool to select the mortar in the wall so we could colour it
red. We also used the paint brush tool to colour the model’s lips in pink.
For the second photo shoot we were a bit more experimental – we used the
blemish tool to remove dark circles and blemishes and it was easier to use
and had a greater result than the retouch tool on windows gallery as if you
did it too much there would be random lines, however this was not the case
for Photoshop. We also put a sepia filter on the image. We then used the
paint brush tool, but instead of a conventional brush we had a leaf brush
where we made it look like leaves were coming out from her lips. We also cut
the picture into three parts and changed the layers colour to black and
white. This was a lot more
experimental than what I did for AS as I was fully experimenting with the
tools on photoshop and the more I did it, the less confusing it got. Overall
I found Photoshop extremely useful as it allowed to be fully creative without
any limits like the Windows Live Gallery Editor and it helped us to produce a
variety of images. However, sometimes we couldn’t save the image as it was
too big And it sometimes even crashed on our college computers. Also, because
it was only on our college computers it meant that we were limited to doing
it at college instead of a mixture of home and college.
We used photoshop to edit our photos in the ancillary task and
it allowed us to be really creative as we could adjust not only to quality of
the picture but also add effects like the leaves and crop it into panels for
our advert and dogipak. To do this we clicked on the brush tool and then
clicked on the leaf option (below). We could easily change the colour by
clicking on the swash/colour box each time we used the tool. so overall it's
had a massive impact on our work as we wouldn't have been able to do any of
our work creatively without it. However, it did have some disadvantages as
sometimes it would freeze while opening and closing, causing us to loose time
and sometimes our work if it crashed whilst saving. Also, because we were not
familiar with it at first we couldn't understand why it wouldn't let us do
things, like paint on features and other similar things, but as we used it
more we learned how to use it properly as well as knowing how to do more
things on it like airbrushing, thus allowing us to be more creative.
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Adobe InDesign CS5.
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The print construction software allowed you to create a realistic
product through layout/font/logo/colour manipulation etc. I used a variety of
tools, such as the square tool to create a flash. Along with the text tool to
decide where I wanted my text and what I wanted to type. I could then change the
colour and the size easily if I wished. I also added images and logos to make
it look more authentic. One really useful tool was the pen tool that allowed
me to create an outline over my images on my double page spread so the text
wouldn’t go over my image and thus be unreadable. I found the tool really
useful as it made my double page spread look authentic as it was something I
saw in the magazines I researched. I really found my skills in InDesign
developed as I experimented and watched tutorials on aspects I didn’t
understand and taught myself.
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InDesign was used to produce our magazine advert and digipak
and thus allowed us to be really creative as we could easily change our font
and colour, along with how our advert and digipak looked. For example, when
we wanted spaces inbetween our words in the advert we clicked on the space
too (bottom right) and we could easily increase or decrease the width between
the space. As for changing the colour, all we had to do was highlight the
font we wanted to change, go to colour and select the one we wanted.
Unfortunaltely, there wasn't much selection, but we could easily make a new
colour and use that instead. Overall the software had a big impact on our
work as without it we wouldn't have been able to produce our final outcomes.
At first it was hard to use as we hadn't used the software since our AS
coursework, but as time grew we began to understand how to use it thus
allowing us to be more creative. Another disadvantage was that it took a
while to load on the computer and sometimes it would crash causing us to
waste time.
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Windows Live Photo Gallery
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I used this to edit my photos as I felt more comfortable using it
than Photoshop. I used a variety of tools: the retouch tool to get rid of
dark circles and blemishes; red eye to get rid of red eye; I adjusted the exposure,
contrast and colour as well to give the photos a bit of colour to make them
look more professional and eye-catching
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I used the same tools again for our first photo shoot but I didn’t
get the desired effect. Apart from this one photo shoot I didn’t use Windows
Live Photo Gallery Editor as I used Photoshop more; I think the fact that I
used it less shows my development in skills in Photoshop because of this.
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IMovie
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Didn’t use
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We
were also able to change the colour of some of the shots, such as the brick
wall ones where we increases the contrast so the colour was bolder and thus
suitable for the genre. Overall we really liked using IMovie as it was simple
and and effective; it didn't take a while for our work to save, which is what
other students using PremierPro said had happened with them. It was also
really easy to use - we could easily cut shots and even zoom in further to some
shots if we wished, thus allowing us to be really creative and impacting our
product as it make it look more professional and reflective of the genre.
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Windows Movie Maker
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I used movie maker to edit and produce the videos for my evaluation.
I felt that my video for my first analysis question was really create and different
to what I had done before as I had increased the speed as well as included
images on the screen. However I felt that my other videos, such as the one “What
have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?” where I held up images of the software’s that I used to the camera
and then I spoke about it. The video was very monotonous as there was only
one camera angle, no editing and it only focused on me. My second video was a
bit more interesting as I actually held the camera and moved it from my face
when I was speaking and then to the screen to give some examples, however,
once again there was no editing. It was also very time consuming – especially
to save and upload onto YouTube. Using Windows mmovie Maker hasn’t aided my
final production as I didn’t need to use it, however it was a creative way of
conveying information.
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When
Julie had to make videos for the tasks, such as the digipack and costume
videos she had to use Windows Movie Maker as it was part of the Acer Laptop.
Using it allowed her to be creative as she could easily edit the videos and
it didn’t take that long to complete.She could also put various transitional
effects on, such as the cinema effect which she used for the costume videos
and she could easily layer text over the video. However, saving the completed
videos in the correct format took a while. Then uploading the video onto
YouTube took a while as well as we could have been doing other tasks. Because
of this it hasn’t greatly impacted our work, but using it has allowed us to
be more creative. I also think that we have become more creative and the
audience research video is an example of this
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Logic Pro 9
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is
audio editing software which was used to edit and record our cover for the
production task. We personally didn’t use it as we didn’t have the software
or equipment, but luckily we knew someone who had previously recorded and
edited bands before. The advantages of using the software were that it was
quick and easy to change and edit aspects we didn’t like as well as placing
different effects such as doubling up the voice for the chorus to make it
sound more authentic. It also didn’t take that long to record either which
was really good as we were able to spend more time filming. One potential
disadvantage was that because we didn’t know how to use it we weren’t able to
edit it to exactly how we wanted so we had to work and communicate well with
the producer, but if we didn’t then the quality may not have been as good.
Overall the software has impacted our work as we’ve used it in the final
video and it has allowed our work to be more creative and personal because of
this. I think that using Logoc Pro 9 has massively impacted our work because
it made our work a lot more personal and thus cerative. Also we were able to
experience what it was like to record an amature song.
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