Josh and Dom - Digital Techniques

Final Cut Express - Movie editing software for Macs

• Thriller projects - (used for editing)

• 'Random Firl' Music Video (used for editing)

Pros: Power editing software allowed us to effectively piece together our narrative.

Cons: Limited compatibility with certain video files, very lengthy process for rendering.

Garage Band - Music creation software

• Children's Opening 'Dreamer' (used for making the ambient background music)

• Children's Opening 'Real Ninjas' (used for making the action background music)

Pros: Easy to use, very compatible with other software.

Cons: Limited soundbank makes it harder for unique soundtracks.

Logic - Professional music creation software

• Thriller Opening 'Fool's Move' (needed more professional tools to craft a more unique sound, also used for recording the script)

• 'Random Firl' Music Video (used to extend the original track to fit our video footage)

Pros: Very powerful and with a huge soundbank.

Cons: Requires a wide knowledge of the software to use effectively.

Adobe Flash CS5 Professional - Animation software

• Thriller Opening 'Final Deadline' (used for the ident)

• Music Video 'Random Firl' (All of the animation was created with it)

Pros: Allows users to create beautiful animations that look advanced.

Cons: Can be very complicated, requires a lot of practice.

Color - Specialist colour correction software

• Thriller opening 'Fool's Move' (used for intense colour correction not available in Final Cut Express, allowed us to get a much more specific colour and feel)

• Music Video 'Random Firl' (used on the live footage  to correct the exposure and vibrance)

Photoshop CS4 - Professional photo editing software

• Music Video 'Random Firl' (used to create the digipack elements, including the poster and CD cover)

• Thriller Opening 'Final Deadline' (used to creat the overlays for the dream scenes, such as the faded black border) 

DV and HD Cameras - Used for Filming

• Children's Opening 'Real Ninjas' (Used DV quality cameras for filming)

• Music Video 'Random Firl' (Used HD quality cameras for filming)

Microphone - Used for recording speech

• Thriller Opening 'Fool's Move' (Used for recording the voice-over that plays throughout the product)

• Thiller Opening 'Final Deadline' (Used for recording the answering machine messege left on Stephen's phone)

Green Screen - Used for adding backgrounds and special effects

• Music Video 'Random Firl' (used for creating the background for the video evaluation)

James, Andrew use of digital technologies

Digital technologies used:

1. Photoshop: Advert, CD cover for music video
2. Final Cut: Editing music video/thriller
3. Garageband: Sound effect for music video/ soundtrack for childrens film
4. Camera- Filming all work
5. Blog- Portfolio of all work
6. Powerpoint: Evaluation of thriller/childrens film
7. Youtube- Storing videos we made, and research into other groups
8. PS3, Xbox360, Xbox, Playstation 2 - Institutions + audiences research

Pro's + Con's:

1. Pro's: Could edit pictures easily, make poster/ CD cover easily, was useful for creating titles for films. Con's: None of the group knew how to use it.
2. Pro's: Could edit video easily. Con's: Easier to use than photoshop but still slightly difficult. Restricted to Macs at college.
3. Pro's: Could create almost a full soundtrack, could add sounds to our video(s). Con's: limited sounds.
4. Pro's: Used to film project, HD camera used for music video. Con's: limited availability for use.
5. Pro's: Used to store all of our blog-based work. Con's: different passwords for different films made.
6. Pro's: Relatively easy to use. Con's: Unavailable to certain people. 
7. Pro's: used to store videos. Con's: needed account to store them.
8. Pro's: Got a practical sense of audience reaction. Con's: Limited feedback gained.

Digital Technologies

The digital technologies that we have used in our media products over the past two years are, final cut, garageband, photoshop, the internet - youtube, blogger, google etc.
One of the technologies that we used was garageband, we used this for our thriller film to create a backing track for the opening. An advantage of using garageband to do this is that there is a good range of sounds to use and it is easy to use with lots of tools to make it sound good. A disadvantage of garageband is that the sounds can be quite restrictive - as although there is a large range of sounds there are not that many that were suitable for our thriller and those that were all sounded similar meaning we couldnt be as creative with the soundtrack.

Another technology we used was photoshop, we used this to create our digi-paks and posters for our music video. We used photoshop to change the brightness, cut parts of the photos add text and change the effects of the photo. An advantage of photoshop is that for the poster we wanted to include text to give information about the "cd single" for example the name of the artist, release date and where to buy it and photoshop allowed us to do this. A disadvantage of photoshop is that it can be quite hard to use and get used to - some of the effects took us a while to do and it can take quite a long time to get the finish you want.

We used the internet in the research and planning sections for each of our media products. We used google to find out the codes and conventions of music videos, thrillers and childrens films, to research about different genres etc. We used youtube to look at other videos from previous years and real music videos/thriller openings.

James and Ryan: Digital Technology.

Garage Band:

Example one: In our thriller piece, we used sound effects and different drones to make up the background music to play through the opening credits.

Example two: In our children's film, we used loops to make up all the music for the scene.

Pros: It's easy to use, with a wide variety of different loops, instruments and samples to put together to form music for our piece.

Cons: it can become very repetitive and doesn't use much originality when it comes to the music.

Photoshop:

Example one: In our thriller piece, we used photoshop to put together the ident before incorporating i into our piece.

Example two: We also used photoshop to make the digipack and advert for our music video.

Pros: There are a lot of different tools you can use which gives more opportunities for creativity and a wider range of things you can do to customize what you're working with.

Cons: For a novice, it has a very steep learning curve, and is hard to access if you don't have previous experience.

Final Cut:

Example one: We used this program to edit all of our videos, including a small blooper reel we created.

Example two: We used this to add animation and effects to our ident, to make it more complex and showy offy. 

Pros: It's good for neatening up the video and general editing. Also it means that we don't have to video the entire thing in one take.

Cons: Again, steep learning curve, as photoshop.

Cameras:

Example one: In all of our videos, we used a video camera to capture all of the footage we used.

Example two: We used a digital camera to capture images of places we could use for certain scenes.

Pros: Good quality image and video outcome.

Cons: Limited availability and limited as to how long we could use them and where we could go with them.

Internet:

Example one: We used it to research codes and conventions.

example two: We also used it to gather information and such while thinking of ideas for our opening sequences. 

Pros: James Amey. He's a pro at the interwebz. Many, many pages to access with relevant information.

Cons: Most of 4chan. Some things are hard to find, and things could fail to load.

Blogger:

Example one: This post right here.

Example two: Planning our dates, shoot, etc and we used it over the course of all our videos to record our progress.

Pros: Its very easily accessible. 

Cons: It's fairly boring.