Throughout this entire media project, I have come across a variety of new technologies, which have made the project easier, more manageable and efficiently completed.
One online site used consistently throughout the project is the online programme 'Blogger.' This is the site that we have been using to show all of our research, planning, construction work and evaluations, as we have simply updated our progress through blogs. This is an efficient way of storing and keeping a record of our work, as it is unlikely to be lost once it is saved, unlike paper work that we could have used. It is also an easy way of displayed evidence for our research, such as the youtube videos of TV adverts I used to analyse and gain my initial ideas. I could not have shown this as easily on paper. Also, I found Blogger to be a good way of managing my work, as I could see at what point I was at and could easily identify what I still needed to do. All my work was in one place, too, and so it was easy to refer back to research and planning ideas during my construction process, as I knew where to look and it was easy to find.
I also used other online sites to help with my project, particularly during the research and planning stage. One of these sites was 'YouTube,' which I used a lot to research different types of TV advert to analyse. I found the sport brand channels on YouTube, such as 'Adidas' and 'Nike' particularly useful, as these immediately took me to the types of advert I was interested in analysing, and gave me some good ideas. As well as using YouTube for researching, I was also able to use it to upload my evaluation videos, and my main advertisements, in order to be able to embed them onto my blog. This use of convergence between the two sites was useful, as it meant I could get my work onto two sites, so it was well backed up, and it was done with ease. Youtube was also useful, as it gives an 'annotations' option, allowing me to add annotations to my final construction in the evaluation stage. Another site I used throughout my research was a site called 'Thinkbox.' This is a website which looks at case studies and research done on TV audiences, and even features TV advert research. I used some of these results in my research stage, as it gave me a better insight into my own target audience - young people. It was easy to screenshot graphs from this website and then reference the website on my blog, meaning I could use the research with ease, too. Another site I used was 'Freesound.org,' which provided me with many sounds, such as runners footsteps, which I was able to use to accompany the speech in my radio advert. It was easy to use, as I simply had to search the sound I wanted and a variety would come up that I could choose between. I could then download the sounds for free and use them how I pleased. This was easy, as I didn't need to seek permission and meant I had more freedom with my choice. Finally, as part of the evaluation stage of my coursework, I used the sites 'Prezi' and 'Slideshare.net.' Both sites, in different ways, allowed me to create and share presentations of my evaluation. This was an adequate and easy way of providing a multimedia source as part of my evaluation, as it was easy to embed the creations, so they were functioning as part of my blog. As well as this, the 'Prezi' was easy to use in terms of adding text and images to my presentations, allowing me to be fully detailed and produce a detailed evaluation.
Another programme I used to help with my research into target audience was 'Microsoft Excel.' Using this, I was able to construct pie graphs to display my questionnaire results. This was a good programme to use, as it meant I could easily transform my data into an easily readable graph, and then analyse it easily. This programme also allowed me to enter titles onto my graphs, so I could easily identify which results belonged to which question. Having all the graphs in one programme, saved on the computer, also meant it was easy to manage and refer back too when I needed too.
During both the planning and construction stages, I used the software 'Final Cut' to edit. During planning, I used this programme to construct my animatic storyboard. This, however, was a very basic use of the programme, as I simply inserted all my scanned in, drawn shots and put them together into a basic sequence, using no effects what so ever. With the actual footage, for my two main TV adverts and the sponsorship sequence, however, I had to adopt a more complex technique, to create a professional final piece. With my running advertisement, I learnt a lot about how to edit to music, as I used markers (created using the space bar) to mark out where I wanted to edit each piece of footage too, so it fitted with the music playing. I was also able to create text, which would appear over the top of my footage while it was in motion. This created a professional look, as this was an idea I wished to create after seeing adverts that used a similar idea in my research stage. Not only this, I was also able to insert my logo to appear over the footage, which looked even better. This programme was easy to use and manageable, as you could insert all your footage onto the pallet and pick between each piece as you went. It was also easy to cut pieces of footage up and just use selected pieces to fit in certain places.
Another pieces of software I used during this project was 'Audacity.' This was a programme I briefly used to put together sounds for my radio advert. It was good for shortening the length and lowering the volume of sounds I found on the website 'Freesound.org,' before I moved them into Final Cut to edit together with the spoken aspect of the radio advert. I decided to use Final Cut rather than Audacity to edit the entire radio script, as I felt more confident in using it and felt this would create a much better result overall. Another piece of software we used to help with sound was 'Garageband.' This was the programme we used to cut and edit our chosen song for the non-diegetic sound in our adverts. It was useful, as it allowed us to create layers, and cut apart the song so that we could access different parts and different times, and play them at different volumes and times. It was an easy way of being able to shorten the song and create the perfect song for the lengths of our adverts, as well as creating a good tone for each one.
In the construction stage of my project, I used three pieces of hardware that were particularly useful. I used a Nikon DSLR to film my footage, and the recording studio microphone to record my radio advert. The recording camera was an advanced camera, which allowed us to perform certain techniques, such as focus pulls. It also was extremely clear and good quality, meaning our resulting products were of a good and more professional quality. It was also a small piece of hardware, that was easy to transport and use. The microphone and recording studio equipment was also straight forward and easy to use, as I simply had to set up my actor in front of the microphone and allow him to read the script a number of times into the microphone, before choosing a recorded version I liked best to use. The mic used was in a professional studio, meaning the problem of background noise and echoing was eliminated - my voice over was clear and in its simplest form with no need for editing further. I could add effects to it straight away. My final useful piece of hardware was the Mac's. These were an efficient way of being able to access documents and the blogs online, as well as all the above sites and software used, as they were free to access within college and easy to manipulate and use. Another particularly useful aspect of the Mac's within college, was the ability to connect between servers and transfer footage between mine and Steve's accounts. By selecting 'command K,' Steve and I could connect between our two Mac account and transfer certain aspects of our construction work to one another - such as the studio recorded footage, which was originally just on my account. Being able to access each others work like this meant we could share ideas, help one another, and were constantly aware of what stage we both were in the construction stage.
The videos below show our adverts with annotations to describe how technology helped us in the construction process:
The video below is a screen recording of some of the key sites we have used during our coursework, with annotations to explain their use:
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