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

evaluation stages?

Research

Google has played a big part in my research as I have been able to research certain information that I needed about soap opera trailers and magazines and I was able to get images from Google for my images of magazine covers and posters so that I was able to analyse for my research into similar products.

Youtube also was a useful technology for my to have as it allowed me to view trailers of other existing soap opera’s and I was able to put them on my blog instantly instead of other methods of accessing this information which would have taken a lot long to do

The internet has played a major part in the planning as it has allowed me to access websites in order for me to gather my information and research. Without the internet gathering my research would have been a lot more time consuming and I wouldn't have been able to gather the information so easily

In order to gather information from the target audience I used websites such as Survey Monkey which was again a lot easier and quicker method for me to gain research on the target audience instantly. In using this website I was able to ask a range of questions using different methods of answering in order to gain more audience feedback. This was very helpful to my research as it helped me gain knowledge in what the target audience expected from the individual products

In order for people to answer the questionnaires I used facebook for an example of a social networking site in order to get responses. As it was also a quicker method of gaining responses as well as using the blogger as people would be able to access the questionnaire from my wall.

Planning

Throughout my planning the technologies that I used in order to create my drafts of the products and the equipment used to create the planning for my main tasks were programs such as Microsoft Publisher to create my drafts for my magazine and posters, also I used paint in order to create some of shapes and edit some of the fonts that I had planned to use.

In order to take photos of possible locations and props that we were planning to use I used a digital camera in order to show this on my blog

For planning of the script and storyboard I used Scribd as I thought it would be a effective way to show each document showing that I was able to use this program as well be able to show it on my blog.

Youtube was also useful as I was able to find examples of music that we could of used on our trailer quickly and could embed them onto my blogger to show the planning of music that we wanted to use for our trailer.

ConstructionIn order to film the trailer we used a Panasonic video camera that we propped up on a tripod. The video camera was effective to use as it was of a good quality and had a lot of storage so that we could film a lot of shots. The camera made it able for us to do a wide variety of shots however when it came to moving the camera we found it to be quite stiff so our panning movements didn't run as smoothly as we wanted them to

After filming the scenes for the trailer, so we wouldn't lose any of the filming as the memory was limited we uploaded our scenes on the MacBook. On the MacBook we used the Imovie program to put all the scenes together edit the scenes and create it into our product.

The Imovie program allowed us to edit our scenes and put them together into one movie effectively. On the program we were able to edit our scenes that we filmed by taking pieces out that we didn't think worked and being able to create continuity in the trailer. It also allowed to edit sound as we featured a soundtrack in ours but also wanted to be able to hear the bits of dialogue that we had. So in uising this we were able to change the volume so it was possible to here the characters as well. Another use of editing that we used was the transitions that we added which were useful in order to create a flow between each scene. Finally, we were able to create ending credits for the trailer so that we could show the brand identity of the product which is the logo and giving additional information using the different possible word transitions which made it better visually.

In order to get photos for my ancillary tasks I used a digital camera, this made it possible for me to get good quality images so that I could then choose out of the photos I took and edit them so that I could then use them for my poster and magazine cover

As I haven't used Photoshop that much before I wasn’t really confident in using it. I attempted to use the program, but didn't feel confident enough to use it. So as well as using this program I also used Paint.

After gathering the images I needed for my magazine cover and poster I then create my ancillary tasks on Microsoft Publisher. In using this program I was able to create the lettering and fonts and use a background and ultimately create a layout for the ancillary products.

Evaluation

I used PowerPoint in order to present some of my evaluation. This was useful to use as it allowed me to arrange my information effectively as well as using images.

After creating these presentations I used Slideshare and Scribd this allowed me to show my presentation more effectively and allowed me to show that I can different programs in order to make my presentation more effective.

I used survey monkey as a part of gaining audience feedback from my target audience for the trailer and ancillary task. This is screenshot showing part of my questionnaire that I used in order to gain my feedback from my target audience as I would be able to put it onto my blog and people would be able to answer the questionnaire more effectively and it would be less time consuming

I used Soundcloud to upload and record audience feedback in order to gain another method of audience feedback for my evaluation. This was useful as you were able to demonstrate another method of feedback first hand.

To present my coursework I uploaded my work onto blogger. Ying blogger was useful as it allowed me to present my work in what way I liked using templates and settings that I wanted to use to present my work. It also allowed me to upload documents onto my posts in order for me to show other parts of my coursework that I have created from other than the blog. It also allowed me to embed videos from YouTube in order to show the similar products that I had to analyse for my research, videos showing music examples that we wanted to use in our planning and showing our own work on the blogger from the videos that we uploaded to YouTube. When wanting to use other formats to present my work such as Scribd and Slideshare, blogger also allowed me to embed those formats so I could demonstrate that I could use other formats in my coursework.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The weaknesses of using the blogger is that in laying out your work on your blogs it doesn’t allow sometimes to arrange the work on the blog how you want to. For example when adding images it doesn't allow you to place them where you want to and it takes a while to get the images in the right order and sometimes changes when adding text which doesn't help when I want to present the images with text in a certain way

Strengths of using the blogger is that you are able to organise your blog how you want using a variety of templates and designs that you want which allows you to present your work how you want and you want it to be presented.

Another strength of the blogger is that it has gadgets on the settings in order for use your blogger effectively in presenting your posts for example the labelling. I found that this was a very useful gadget as I was able to separate my work into sections of research, planning, construction and evaluation and it was easy to access certain areas of my coursework instead of going through all the posts