What have you learnt about technologies

from the process of constructing the

product?

Jacob Widmann-Oliver

Internet Technologies

My first meeting with internet technology on this course was Wordpress. I have used this site to

create a personal blog on which I have published all my work throughout the course. The site has

enabled my group and my teacher to gain access at any time. This has been particularly important to

the process as it meant I could receive feedback from my teachers/peers at any time of the day

without meeting with them personally. This was my first experience using a blog and I found its

features very easy to learn. Wordpress is a user friendly site and I have found it to be a crucial

element contributing to my success on this course.

Prezi is a web based presentation applocation which I have used on several blog posts throughout the

course. Prezi uses a single canvas as opposed to the traditional slides you would expect to see on a

powerpoint. Prezi enabled me to present my work in a different and unique way adding to the

personalised and interesting style of my Wordpress blog.

Slideshare is a similar application to Prezi. It allows you to publish documents, PDFs and slide

presentations which could then be posted to my blog. This creates a nice and tidy presentation for

usual posts and I feel it has added to the professional feel of my blog.

Internet Technologies Continued

YouTube is a video sharing site many of us are familiar with. I have used YouTube to carry out

research on the majority of the theory based Media such as camera shots and editing techniques.

YouTube has also been used to post my preliminary task and my final opening sequence, which could

then be embedded onto my blog. Posting my final sequence on YouTube opened up an opportunity to

receive feedback through comments or the like/dislike button from a potentially global audience. Our

logos for our production company Legendary Pictures and our distribution company Film 4. We had

easy access to these clips as they had been posted on YouTube. This saved us a lot of hassle as we

did not have to acquire them ourselves.

Whilst searching for soundtracks to use for our opening sequence we discovered a website called

Soundcloud. From Soundcloud we found and decided on a score for our opening sequence which

had been created by a music artist and posted online for free to download. We did not need to use

any conversion technology as the file was made in the MP3 format already.

Camera and TripodFor our sequence we used a Sony HX200v DSLR camera. The camera has a fold out screen with

plenty of on board creative tools and numerous video features such as sweep panorama which we

found incredibly useful when filming in areas we did not have the space to place a tripod. The camera

being HD standard meant that we could produce an opening sequence which was pleasing to the eye.

We did encounter problems using this when transferring shots from the camera to the computer for

editing. We often have issues when we could not load the file meaning we lost key pieces of footage

which then needed re filming.

The availability of a tripod enabled us to record a shot without anybody holding the camera. It meant

during times when my partner was unavailable to help with the filming process I could begin filming

and then participate within the scene. The tripod also was very lightweight and easy to set up, making

the use of this very frequent in our group. It further impacted the smoothness of the panning motion

creating some really nice shots for our sequence.

Action Camera

As well as the previous camera mentioned, we also had access to a GoPro action camera. They are

compact, lightweight, rugged, and are wearable or mountable. The cameras capture video in HD

through a wide-angle lens. This was a great piece of technology to use and used with the right

accessories such as the waterproof casing it gave us some very unique shots which can be seen

below.

The problem with this camera however was the fact it was of a different file type to those filmed on the

DSLR. This made the editing process much harder and longer for us but once it was converted to the

right file the shots we were able to use was worth the extra effort.

The editing software we decided to use was Sony Vegas. Sony Vegas seemed the most feasible

option as it was the only available editing software at school and my partner Josh was familiar with it. I

found it difficult to grasp the concept at first but after some practice I became confident using the

software and found it quite easy to use. We used the software to piece together our footage and add

filter and sound effects.

Before I was aware of Sony Vegas the only previous software I had used was Windows Movie Maker.

If we were not introduced to this I would have no option but to use Windows Movie Maker and

therefore have been limited to what I could create. Through using a professional editing software such

as Sony Vegas I have learnt that there are many ways of manipulating footage to enhance its

appearance and how simple it can be to turn a basic piece of footage into something that is

aesthetically pleasing for the audience.

Editing Technology