There is a startling difference between my technological capabilities of this A2 year, and that of my AS year in my Media Studies coursework. These capabilities were this year shown not only through my confidence in using familiar programs, but also in how I managed to use unfamiliar programs/software. Whereas in my AS year, I felt restricted in my technological capabilities - residing to mainly using familiar, simpler programs such as Microsoft Publisher and other Microsoft programs - in this A2 year, I found a new confidence in my capabilities, branching out my skills and using more complex software such as Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 bit), Prezi and Slideshare. As the products produced in this years coursework differed from AS, I had to use different programs as well. I used, in abundance, Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 bit) for the development of my ancillary products - a site of which I had never used before in my personal time or in college work. Using this program allowed a greater range of editing options, of which programs like Publisher can not give. Options such as; Picture brightness, shadowing, highlighting, cropping tools, smooth edges, refined edges, an array of different paint brush stroke styles and colours and so on. Though the program was complex to use, it was extremely helpful during developmental stages of my ancillary products - without it, the quality of my products would not of been quite the same standard.
I used Web 2.0 technology such as YouTube in the planning part of my coursework. In particular, for looking at music videos by similar artists to add genre specifics to our video. It was also very helpful for my creativity post, as I found a very helpful video on which I could base my writing for that blog post. Asides from this, it was also useful for researching theories such as Propp's and Goodwin's. Obviously, I used Facebook during the construction stages of my work. It was especially helpful for the development of my ancillary products as a large sector of Facebook users were of my target audience category. I could gather accurate criticisms on my products - displaying images on a private group wall with specially selected members - to improve my products, whilst all the time knowing that they still appealed to the target audience.
Though I had little difficulty in using various equipment and technology, the Apple IMac's, of which we used in class for editing etc., proved to be an annoyance. Navigating myself around the computer took time, as I am used to Windows, and the mouse was far too sensitive and would often select things I didn't wish to. Even using the internet was made a laborious task. It required having to log in with user name and password every few pages, even if I clicked on the "Remember me" box. Because of this, I decided to use my very own Acer Aspire 5532 to do the majority of blog posts and the ancillary product development. Having had the laptop for over a year now, I was used to It's features and saved a considerable amount of time. It also meant that if I needed to, I could take my laptop into college - which proved highly convenient.
I wanted to avoid using "overused" programs during my coursework, such as Microsoft PowerPoint. To make my blog posts more engaging and visually interesting I used a website called 'Prezi'. This was new to me, but I quickly found it was a great way to add lots of information to a post, without it being boring. It's unique and interesting layout and presentation style made information easily "digestable". What other people particularly enjoyed about this website, as I was not alone in using it, was the way big chunks of information could be separated into smaller chunks with the addition of images, shapes or videos - both YouTube and uploaded. This was one of my favourite programs to use during the coursework, as it was incredibly easy to use, fun, easy to upload onto Blogger, and best of all - free!
For the editing of the video, we used Final Cut Express - a program of which I was familiar with, having used it in last years mock music video. I found that I had greatly improved my capabilities on this program, navigation was simple, identifying icons was easier and I quickly learnt how to use them too. I played a major role in the editing of the main product, one example would be the changes I made involving sound. Unlike last year, I was able to render an independently downloaded soundtrack (Sierra Planes - George Barnett - Itunes) with the video action - captured on a Sony Mini DV, then uploaded onto a seperate file using a firewire cable - mute and lock the sound on the video footage and add a gentle fade effect to the soundtrack at the end of the video. These changes greatly show my improvement in ability using this software, last year I struggled to do any of these things without assistance. This time around, minimal assistance was needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment