Evaluation Question 4

How each of the technologies were used

Throughout A2 I was able to plan, produce, finalise and then analyse three professional-looking media products. These products included; a horror film trailer which was put together using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6; a coordinating horror film poster and a coordinating film magazine cover put together using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Although Adobe was the core software I used over A2, I have developed an ability to use many other media technologies in the process, all which have contributed to my finished products.

I used Blogger – a popular and free blog publishing site by Google. Here I posted all my finished work; including my finalised media products, my analysis and all of my pre/planning work. Prior to adding my finished horror trailer to my blog I posted it to YouTube. YouTube allows internet users to upload, share and stream videos.

In creation of my horror trailer we started with three main components: a video camera, a camera tripod and an Apple Mac. Following recording footage for our trailer through the use of the video camera and in turn the camera tripod; we then uploaded our footage to the Apple Mac where we used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to turn core footage into a horror trailer.

We did not only use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 however. Adobe After Effects CS6 was used in order to create special effects for our trailer such as title screens and on-screen dialogue. We also used GarageBand which allowed us to add music and sound effects to our trailer.

As already mentioned, we used Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create a horror poster and film magazine cover. In addition, dafont.com is a free online font portfolio. I used this to select fonts to use for both my horror poster and film magazine cover.

In order to make my work on Blogger more presentable there are five different online publishing components I used. Prezi allows me to present my work in an interactive way and I used it frequently in planning and research tasks. Flickr, slideshare, Issuu and Flipsnack were also used frequently in planning and research tasks. These allowed me to present my work in a less interactive way than Prezi, however in a more presentable way than the text boxes and presentation components available on Blogger.

How the technologies have developed my creative skills and knowledge

The technologies I have used have allowed me to produce some high quality work; evidence that with a low budget good quality media products can still be produced. I have developed my creative skills throughout the course, as well as my knowledge and understanding of Web 2.0 software.

Throughout AS I used Adobe Photoshop as the key component for the majority of my course. This gave me a head start this year, in that I knew the Adobe interface very well and found it easy to use Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects also.

I have learnt new and inventive ways of presenting my work on the internet through the use of sites such as Prezi, Flipsnack and Issuu. Blogger has allowed me to bring it all together - something that I was unaware I was able to achieve to such high standard before.

I now feel that I am comfortable, and aware of how to use a great range of software and tools available to me thanks to the introduction of Web 2.0.