Question 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product

I feel that I have learnt an absolutely tremendous amount about many different technologies in the process of creating this media product. Before I started, I did have a mandatory knowledge of different technologies and how to use them, however it has increased a massive amount in the last few months. 

The first thing I learned how to use was a camera - preceding my media tasks I had never used a proper video camera before and I had very little knowledge about how to even turn one on! I feel that I have learned not only how to be technically sound with a camera, but how to use it the most efficient way possible; everything from saving battery life and positioning to how I could best capture mise-en-scene and how to follow the 180 degree rule. I have also progressed with regards to using different shots in a practical manner (before, I knew them all on paper but had never fully used them all). 

Additionally, I had on no occasion previously used a mac before studying Media. Since doing so, I have learned that there is a multitude of things that one can do on a mac - I have learned how to fully edit a video and how to add transitions and different effects. Specifically, I have gained an extensive insight on how to time different clips and add in transitions and lengthen them to the correct amount of time - beforehand my grasp of editing did not pass beyond Windows Media Player, which is still decent, just not as effective as iMovie. Furthermore, I found that iMovie is helpful when looking to do the following things:

Cutting, adding transitions, using filters, importing sound and footage, using MP3 files, taking files from the internet, freeze frames, reverse or add speed, stabilisation. Add the ones that are relevant and how we did them, title sequences.

• Cutting video clips
• Using filters
• Importing sound and footage
• Using MP3 files
• Taking files from the internet
• Capturing freeze frames
• Adding or subtracting speed from a particular clip
• Adding in stabilisation to wobbly clips

When creating the non-digetic sound for our thriller opening, we required a programme which would allow us to do so; principally we had to make a direct choice of using Audacity of Garage Band. We elected to go with garage band, which taught me personally how I could use synthetic sounds and produce a good amount of appropriate music which could be looped repeatedly and subtly.

To note down all of our ideas and planning using the internet, we as a class were told that we would be utilizing Blogger, the most appropriate and simple blogging website on the internet. I had never been on a blogging website before, but to my surprise it was exceptionally easy. I have learned how to add images from a computer desktop into my work and add captions to it, however everything else was common sense, very simplistic as it is almost identical to Microsoft Word, just a touch less advanced with a fewer amount of features. It was very helpful with respect to keeping all of the planning, organisation and logistics of our media product in one place which we could easily refer to if need be. Blogger has its pros and cons; I feel it can be disadvantageous while being used. It is easy to use, but can be frustrating in terms of inserting pictures and other things; it is like all technology, which can be frustrating at times. However this is only a minor issue when compared with the amount it can do and the amount of work that it stores. 

Another programme that I have got to grips with using is Adobe Fireworks. When creating a logo for our business franchise, it was a decision between using that and Photoshop. This was not a particularly long job and a logo could be somewhat knocked up in a short space of time without looking too tacky - we did not make a long job of it and quickly made a logo in Fireworks - I did have a fundamental idea of what I was doing, but I have been able to remove the white backgrounds from pictures and edit some colours of a picture to make it look for effective. This was the full extent to which we used Fireworks in our project, it was not too complicated at all and was a step up from using Paint which a number of people did. 

The way in which we would make our video viral on the internet was to use YouTube - a very simple video uploading site. I have used this website a multitudinous amount of times so there was nothing new to learn at all - it was very different to the previous material I have uploaded, so I did create a new account specifically for the purpose of the media product, but other than that it was a simple case of doing the ordinary again.

We did have some issues while using these different forms of technology, however we were able to come through them and make the video more positive than we had actually originally planned. One problem we had to overcome was a lack of ideas for a logo when we were originally drawing it out, however we simply decided to look at logos for other popular franchises, and while we didn't copy them, we bounced ideas from them and saw which aspects we could use of them to create a good logo.