Group roles

My roles - I created my own poster
               - I wrote the script for our film 'Run'.

Me and Joe designed and edited the layout of our group double page spread.
Natasha typed the magazine review onto our group double page spread.

Question 4

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

Throughout the A2 course we have completed our coursework via blogs on www.blogger.com, throughout the course of the academic year we have done various posts about different aspects in the build up to our completion of the course and mainly our short film and ancillary tasks (magazine review/double page spread/poster). Upon starting the A2 academic year we had all had previous experience with blogger within the AS segment of the 2 year course. I find Blogger an easy and accessible way to recording all completed work.

This year we had to up our game, as I opted to change groups whom I previously was with for the AS part, in my new group we soon realised that plainly ‘blogging’ our work was not going to be good enough to achieve the highest possible grades, so instead within this A2 year we had to incorporate much more media forms to present our posts so that we would be able to access the top bands/marks. Last year I certainly felt that I did not use enough forms of media to show of my work and so this year I took my media knowledge to a new level as I found various websites which would come in handy to blog my posts as well as achieving the best grades available.

The majority of work this year was obviously completed via the school computers and at my home laptop, I am in my opinion very comfortable with using all forms of PC as I use them a lot in my spare time. I find the use and navigation of PC’s a lot easier with the help of features such as Windows 8 as I can easily switch between tasks at the same time via the click of a button. And of course on any computer I have been able to access various programmes and other media technologies upon completion of my media coursework this year, to name a few and ones that I will talk about further include:

·        Adobe Photoshop

·        Adobe premiere pro

·        Pintrest

·        Slideshare

·        Prezi

·        Sound cloud

·        YouTube

Adobe Photoshop

I had previous experience with this form of Adobe software during my last GCSE year where we had to create a detergent advert, similar to that with this year we were asked to create a poster for our short film. So individualy we created our own film posters and let our minds free, I chose to just make a plain poster for the film itself whereas other group members looked to make a teaser poster for example, both having similar features of course but the effects of the posters would be totally different.

Adobe Premiere pro
Similar to Adobe Photoshop, I had previous experience with this software within my GCSE years as well as the AS course, this software allows you to piece together segments of filming to make eventually a final film. I think personally I am fairly competent with editing via this way because of my help in the previous years, I also looked on the internet to try and find various techniques that I could incorporate into the final film, in the end Natasha managed to create an incredible opening credits.

Pintrest
As mentioned previously, in order to achieve the highest grades possible I had to use a wide range of media to present my blog work, one programme in which the entire class found was that of 'Pintrest'. This website allows people to 'pin' your notes and pictures on a virtual board for all to see, this is a great visual way to show off your work in my opinion.

Slideshare
I have come across Slideshare in the past as I researched into various topics people would create Slideshare in which people can see whenever possible. I did not realise that you could sign up and create your own however, and so with some posts  I chose to present my posts via Slideshare. This allows people to easily navigate around my ideas that I want to show.

Prezi
I used 'Prezi' a lot last year so this time round I have used it less frequently, although I enjoy the navigation and use of this very much. I find 'Prezi' incredibly easy to manage as I am at full grips with the use of 'Prezi'. 

Sound cloud
Prior to needing sound cloud to transfer my Skype call with Dudi Appleton onto the blog I was luckily enough that I was already a member of Sound Cloud as I have an iPhone and have in the past required to transfer sound clips to my computer via the use of this software/app.

YouTube
YouTube is a massive corporation, showing just about any video to the world wide web. I have a YouTube account so much like Sound Cloud I have had past experience with working with YouTube. I had to use YouTube during the A2 course at various points such as embedding videos onto my blog.

To conclude I say that this academic year I have used much more of a wide range of media. More so than last year for certain.

Question 3

| Start your own Photo Books | Create custom Christmas Cards

Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For this second evaluation question I have taken into account how well my final product and ancillary tasks have worked together, and instead of writing an essay I chose to produce a miniature speech whereby I talk about the combination of my final film, my poster and the double page spread. Below the soundcloud clip are posters in which I talk about during my 5 minute talk.

Follow Jack Cotton's board Question 2 on Pinterest.

                                      

 

Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?

Final film

 

Here is the final film 'Run'. We hope you enjoy.

Post 37 - Double page spread