Evaluation Question 4

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

evaluation stages?

By Jack Ward

Computer

• Throughout the whole project including both ancillary texts, the computer has been the main part to creating a successful documentary, radio ad and print ad. I have had a very good knowledge of computers since primary school where I learnt the basics of how to use them. Throughout the project I felt very confident using a computer to help me with the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages. I have used the computer to the best of my ability in this project, and I think that has reflected in the outcome of my product.

Internet

• The internet is most powerful source of information in the world. It has helped me and my group immensely: helping us find facts, figures and statistics. This helped us plan our product and ancillary texts properly by giving us the correct information we needed to make a professional documentary, print ad and radio ad. I found the internet very easy to use because I have used the internet a countless amount of times of a daily basis.

Blogger

• Blogger is a way in which we present our work, including the construction and research, planning and evaluating. I first used blogger in 2011 and ever since I have found it very straight forward and easy to use. It is a very accessible website which lets you present your work through many different ways, including embedding other websites such as Prezi, Glogster and YouTube. Without blogger, I would have struggled to collectively keep all of my work.

• Here is a link to a YouTube video, with facts about Blogger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPhFc6GqVdU

Prezi

• Prezi is an online interactive slideshow website. It has been very usefull with my work this year. It has helped me present my work in very creative ways and made my work much more attractive. I found prezi easy to use, as I have been using it for over a year and a half.

• Here is a link to a YouTube video about Prezi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q

Glogster

• Glogster is an online virtual poster maker. It is a way of making work look attractive and let people interact with your work. Although I have only recently started using Glogster, I believe it has been very helpful to me and helped me develop my work into a better standard.

• Here is a YouTube video about Glogster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvC47fUANLk

YouTube

• YouTube has helped me massively in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of my work. It has helped me find certain information for my work, locate archived footage, and help me get audience feedback. I have used YouTube for many years and have always found a very easy and accessible website which is always helpful.

Adobe Premier

• Adobe premier is the program which we use to edit our documentary and also our radio advert. This program has been the most difficult software to use and I still think my talents could improve on it. However, it is a very good program with many features on it which have helped me and my group develop our product massively. Without this software, we would have made a product no where near to the standard that we have achieved. Although it helped us greatly in the construction and research stages, it was less useful in the planning and evaluation stages. The main tool used on Premier was the ‘razor tool’. This is because in effort to fine edit the documentary, we had to cut down bits of the video very finely, having to zoom into seconds and mille-seconds to precisely edit our documentary. We also had to use the media browser a lot to import the correct media to our timeline, so that we could add it to our documentary.

Adobe Photoshop

• I became very familiar with Adobe Photoshop in 2011 and since then, my skills have been developing which has helped me create a print ad to a professional standard. I still think that my skills can be developed greater, however, I do think that I can confidently use the software. It helped my very much so in the construction and research stages of my ancillary task, creating my print advert. I think that without this software it would have been near impossible to make a print ad to the standard I have. The main tools I used when using Photoshop was the ‘magic wand tool’ and the ‘cropping tool’. This is because, to make the sort image that we wanted to make it a better standard, we had to completely change some images.

Adobe Audition

• Adobe Audition was used to get the correct sound levels for the radio advert. It was very useful for the construction and research stages of my work and The quality of my radio advert wouldn’t be as good as it is without it. Although it was a very useful software, I didn’t spend very much time on it as I would have liked to and my skills on the program are basic. If I were to do my project again, I would first practice using adobe audition, so that I could produce an even better radio advert.

Ice Radio

• Ice radio is the radio station based in Weatherhead High School. It Is where me and my group recorded the voice over and radio advert for our documentary and ancillary texts. This was very helpful in the construction and research stages, because it gave us a good quality recording to go with our work, making the quality of the work over all, very good. It was very straight forward equipment which was very easy to use.

SLR Camera

• The SLR cameras, provided by the school are very useful and are of a very high standard. They gave our work a very professional feel and pushed it to the standard that we hoped to achieve. I have used SLR cameras before and I have always enjoyed using them. The cameras helped us with the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of our work. We used it to take photographs for cut aways, and to take photographs of us filming interviews for evidence in the planning and evaluation stages. I think that we used the SLR cameras to the best of our abilities and without them the standards of the products would have slipped.

HD Video Camera

• To film our documentary we used HD video cameras, which were also provided by the school. The cameras were very easy to use and gave a brilliant quality. If we were to use standard video camera for our documentaries, the standard of the work would have been considerably different. Primarily, the cameras helped us with the construction and research stages of our work, however, the cameras did help us with the planning and evaluation stages of the work too. I found the camera very easy to use and very pleasurable to use also. I strongly believe that the high quality of these cameras pushed our documentaries into a professional standard.