Evaluation question 4

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

Using lots of different media technologies when creating my research and planning was very helpful as different means of presentation were much more free and expansive. For instance, using slideshare to present my media equipment powerpoint is a lot more interactive and user-friendly than a link to a page with the powerpoint on it. This not only makes the blog look a lot nicer and cleaner, but allows the user to stay on the page with an easy experience where they can simply flick through the information and read it as they go.

A lot of the outlets used were also a lot more creator-friendly than simply pasting it into blogger. Another site I used whilst creating my research and planning part of the project was Text2Mindmap which helped get my ideas down on the page a lot faster and more efficiently than a simply text document. A mindmap instantly sorts and categorizes the information you put in which makes the process a lot quicker than manually typing up the difference sections and putting the details under it. The site is also colour-coded so myself and users can see which information belongs to which subheading with absolute ease. The entire system just allows for more creative freedom where I could get my ideas down quickly in a way that is easy for the audience to understand as well as myself when creating it and coming back to it later in the project.

I have also used piktogram to display one of my evaluation questions which was extremely helpful as it allowed me to structure my different points in a sophisticated way. I was able to do this with titles that explain the section as well as a picture to accompany the information. This makes reading the response lot easier and less messy than just posting it as text on the blog.

To film my product I used lots of different equipment and technology. The camera I used was a Nikon DSLR D3200. I used this camera as it was very easy to work with and it allowed me to produce high quality shots in high resolution. They have extensive features that give a huge range of different shots. As an example, the user can change the FPS, the video quality, the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. This allows for lots of different effects that wouldn't be possible on a normal video camera.
Along with the D3200 I also used multiple lenses which increased the quality of the shots tremendously. I used a prime lens which allowed me to get very nice shots with pull focuses on the character and the background behind him as well as a regular zoom lens which generally increased the versatility of the camera.
To stabilize the D3200 I used a camera stabilizer which allowed me to capture very nice steady shots as opposed to shaking the camera with my hands, and when I wanted still shots I used a regular 3-legged tripod which was obviously very helpful in the woods where it was hard to get steady shots.


I used a blue morph suit in order to get very unique effects in the video. I used the blue suit to move around things in the scene which would later be chroma keyed out revealing the background, giving the impression of the monkey seemingly moving by itself. This is quite an abstract piece of equipment to use but it meant I could get really unique and weird effects.


To edit the video I used two different programmes. Firstly, I used Final Cut Pro to put my clips into decide on how to structure the video with music, text and the order of the clips. Final cut was very good for this as it's a very simple interface and it's easy to work with so simply adding these clips and viewing them afterwards to see if it worked was a fast process.
After using Final cut I also used Sony Vegas Pro 10, which has lots more advanced filters and effects that added to the overall feel of my final product. I'm far more advanced in using Sony Vegas so creating my final product in this programme was the best decision for my product. Specifically, sony vegas allowed me to stabilize my clips, add colour corrections in a sophisticated way and add film grain which could be animated to add to the "olden" feel in the black and white clips.