Evaluation: Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have used a range of new and old technologies throughout each stage of my portfolio. For my research and planning no hardware such as cameras were required, I did however use a very wide range of presentation technologies such as PowerPoint, Prezi, Slide share and Stuplefix which I used to present my research in an effective way. I also used various equipment such as scanners that were available to scan work such as storyboards or any hand written work onto blogger, although this proved to be a much more effective way of putting work onto blogger, I would occasionally also use the SLR cameras to take photographs of my work and upload the image to blogger. Prezi is an online interactive PowerPoint/presentation that allows the user to freely manoeuvre back and forth through the presentation. Stuplefix is an online video creator; I used this also to research the equipment available. Although these proved the most difficult technologies to use I found them to be extremely effective at presenting my work in a unique and interesting way.

After I had finished my research & planning I conducted research into the various technologies that were available for production, such as researching how to videos of Photoshop for my ancillary tasks and research into the different hardware available for filming. Now that I was into the production of my media products, this is where I made full use of the technologies available. First was my two ancillary tasks, here I first used the SLR Camera to take the photographs for my Digipack and magazine advertisements, this was a camera I was very familiar with from AS Level the SLR Camera produce a very nice clear vivid shot and I find them extremely easy to use. I then used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to construct and edit my Digipack front, back and inside as well as my magazine cover and magazine advertisement. I had formerly used Photoshop in my AS Level Portfolio so I had a good grasp of how it worked and what was available from it, I did however still conduct research into the basics to refresh my memory and as you can see researched on YouTube how to videos of more in depth tools of Photoshop, much more than my previous year. The program Quark was also available for me to use but as this was more for the Print brief and for complex magazine layout and double page spreads I didn't feel it was the most suitable program to use. Once my final ancillary tasks were complete I then used an online system to generate a QR code for the magazine cover that will allow smartphone users to scan the code and taken to the music video via YouTube. This was rather simple to do but a very good use of the technologies now available with the increase in smartphone users especially among younger audiences a QR code is very useful for promotion of my product.

For the construction of my Promo video I used the JVC Camera to film the main scenes of my video. I was not familiar with this camera but it was very easy to get to grips with and was very simple to operate, it also featured a built in light and the footage was uploaded to the memory stick which was very simple to insert into the Macs an upload for use. With this camera I occasionally used a tripod for nice stable scenes or any scenes I planned for the camera to pan or track the tripod made sure the shot was sturdy and balanced. For some scenes of my promo video I also used the GoPro Camera which is a very hard wearing camera, often used for the filming of extreme sports it us very useful for hectic and aggressive scenes where cameras such as the SLR and JVC would easily damage. It also comes with an attachment that allows it to be strapped to the head of an actor allowing a very unique shot. The camera quality is quite limited but is still relatively good at around 5MP, a lot of my footage was shot in dark scenes and at night time so with the camera quality I wasn't able to use this camera for many scenes. I also used the Steadicam for certain clips instead of the tripod to gain a steady stable shot where a specific track or pan was not needed. 

With my filming finished, I then moved to editing, where Final Cut and iMovie were available. I had conducted some research into how to use Final cut, I however found iMovie to be more user friendly it also has an automatic save option and a variety of editing techniques. 

In order to upload my video to blogger I first had to upload it to YouTube, I exported my video from iMovie and uploaded it to YouTube via my account where I used the embed code and link to the video on my blog. Many professionals believe Vimeo offers a better upload quality, because of this I also decided to upload by video to Vimeo, even though YouTube allows a wider audience I do also think Vimeo allows a more specialized audience as it is often used by other film makers as well as a better video quality and wider screen.

For my evaluation stage of my portfolio I have used a good variety of presentation options, such as, Slide share and Spideynodes. Slide share was a program I have favored in the past and used many time for my AS Portfolio as well as my A2 research and planning it is extremely user friendly and allows a very good way to present your work. Spideynode is a program I recently stumbled upon when researching some programs I could use to present my work. It is an online presentation maker that allows you to create what are known as node maps, which similar to Prezi guide you through an interactive presentation.

·         Research & Planning

·         Prezi

·         Slide share

·         Microsoft Word

·         Microsoft PowerPoint

·         Stuplefix

·         Production

·         Photoshop

·         Quark, QR Codes

·         JVC Camera

·         Steadicam

·         GoPro Camera

·         Tripod

·         SLR

·         Light box

·         Editing

·         iMovie

·         Final cut

·         Evaluation & Upload

·         Slide share

·         YouTube

·         Spicy nodes

·         Vimeo