Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Durning the process of making my product I have used several different types of technology, both hardware and software.

Hardware:

Firstly I used my phone (a Samsung Galaxy SII) to record my video on. This was a very simple process, all I had to do was open my camera app and change the sliding button from the camera icon to the video camera icon and film. I then uploaded these videos onto Skydrive to download onto the iMac which I use in my Media room. I decided to use my phone after some technical difficulties with my video camera which I had intended to use originally.

I also had to learn how to use the iMacs as I have always been used to Windows (either 7 or 8.1), this meant I had a whole new operating system to contend with (OSX 10.8.4) as well as all the new software which I would be using.

We are using the Macs as opposed to Windows computers so that we have access to professional editing software like Final Cut and GarageBand. These are the two key pieces of software that I needed to create a high quality final product.

Software: 

The first piece of new software I used is of course Blogger, a free blogging platform from Google that allows you to upload images, text and videos as well as embed SlideShare and Prezi presentations. This means that I can share my posts online with the examiners and my teachers easily and quickly.

Blogger:

This is my blogger dashboard showing my two media blogs. To compose a new blog entry I click the rectangle orange button with the paintbrush icon on it.

Once I've done this it will bring up the screen to the left. In the top text box you can place your title for the blog entry, while underneath you can place text, images, hyperlinks and videos.

Once you've done adding your content you can either save a draft by just clicking "Save", or you can publish it thee and then by clicking the "publish" button.

If you need to edit the date that the entry is published on just click the "schedule" link on the right hand side to set the new time and date.





GarageBand: 
To make the soundtrack for my video I used Apple software GarageBand because it allows me to use copyright-free sound loops which mean I can put together my own original soundtrack without having to borrow anything from anybody else which could cause trouble.

As well as this, BarageBand is simple and effective meaning anybody can use it (although a little bit of musical knowledge does come in useful).

This is the first screen that shows up when you open up GarageBand. On this I want to start a new project so I clicked onto "Loops".

I then set the tempo and key from the drop down menus.

Once I clicked "create" on the previous screen, I'm taken to this page. On the right of the program you can see the different categories of loop, to find a suitable track click on the ones that interest you to narrow down your search. The filtered results are placed bellow.

The dark are on the middle is the timeline where you can drag on your loops and edit them (trim, re-size etc)

On this screen I've dragged across the tracks that I like and re positioned them on the timeline to create a tune.

Now that I'm happy with how my track sounds, I am going to change the volume levels to balance it out a little bit more. To do this I go to the top left of my screen and click the small grey button with an upside down triangle. This brings up track volume.

I can then click on the blue line underneath the tracks to change the volume of each one. The higher the little blue line, the louder it plays.

Now I'm happy with the volume levels I'm ready to save my project, to do this I select "File" > "Save as".

You can then rename the track and save it in whichever format you wish.












Final Cut Express: 
Finally I used Final Cut Express to edit together my sound and video files. I used this software because it has a large amount of special effects to put onto my video, varying transitions, hundreds of fonts for my titles and the ability to save my video in pretty much any format I want, in HD. It's an incredibly versatile tool that is reasonably user friendly meaning it didn't take long to get used to and meant I could put the video together professionally.

This is the first screen you see when you open up Final Cut, it shows the timeline, canvas, viewer and browser. All of which are empty, so to start editing you need to add some clips to the browser.

To add clips go onto File> Import> Files and it will bring up this screen. You can browse through your documents until you find the correct audio, photos or video. When you've found them, click "Choose".

Your selected clips will then appear in the browser. For the sake of demonstration I have just selected my preliminary video clip.

Now that I have imported my clip, I need to edit it, but to do this I have to drag and drop it onto the timeline. However once it's placed it will need rendering. You can tell if a clip needs rendering because it has a red line above it.

To render the clip, click on it to select it and press command and R, or go to the top menu and select Sequence>Render selection> both. This means that both audio and video will be prepared and ready for you to edit up. This should only take a few seconds.

Here you can see the video rendering and the distance through it is.

Adding text to your clips is easy as well. Click the small icon indicated in the image. This will bring up a drop down menu, scroll down to the bottom of it to select text, then choose whichever style you prefer.









Once this is done, click on the second to left tab in the viewer and it should display this window. From here you can change fonts, font sizes and kerning.












Once you're finished editing the text you can drag and drop it onto you timeline to either overlay the video, or create a whole new scene.

Putting effects onto the video is just as simple, simply select the effects tab on the top bar and select the one you wish to place onto the clip. To edit the effect just do the same as for text in the viewer.