During the development of our media products, we had to use a variety of different media technologies for us to achieve the desired styled of our project. For instance, we made great use of videos cameras and other image capturing devices such as SLR cameras, even making use of audio recorders. Notably, the most obvious use of media technology for us was the editing software that we used on various computer systems so that we could edit and tweak footage, or images in general to be the best that they can be.
When creating our Soap Poster we had to use, as previously mentioned a variety of technologies to create our product, and edit it to a high quality. The editing software we used in this case was Serif Page Plus 10, which we have had passed experience in using due to our previous media coursework that we did last year. The software itself we have always found to very reliable and simplistic to use, but still gives us a very effective look for all of our products. The Poster itself was relatively simplistic to create as it essentially consists of an image and a set of annotative language that satellites it such as the masthead, puffs etc. Although we chose to originally use Serif Page Plus and then Picasa 3 to edit images for the Listings Magazine, we chose to be very simplistic initially by using Windows Paint which at the time gave us the required tools we needed such as Crop and along with the ability to use a filler which wasn't available in neither Picasa 3 or Serif Page Plus for that matter. The Soap Poster required simply two images and then a series of logos and other forms of texts to be placed in locations on a portrait page to create what we felt to be an effective Poster. Of course, the actual development process of this is far more intricate. We once again returned to Serif for the helpful tool.
The Listings Magazine presented itself as being more of a challenge for us to complete and perfect primarily because of how basic the presentation of it is. This might sound like an odd claim, but the ability for us to produce something that is in essence very low quality, was difficult. We used Serif Page Plus 10 an extensive amount as we are very familiar with the software, having used it previously in order to create other products. The software itself allows us to create very authentic artefacts that we couldn't have created effectively using any other software. Notably, there are a number of features available to use such as the image cut-out studio which we used a numerous amount of times in the editing of images for the Listings Magazine and for the Poster. There a number of tools that we found very helpful overall in Serif Page Plus to assist in the creation of the Listings Magazine such as the ability to create the perfect layout for a Listings Magazine that we could freely edit and tweak in order to perfect it so that it would be seen as professional, and something attractive to our chosen audience. We made great use of the internet as our primary research tool as we firmly believed that this would be the most effective and rapid way to gain information on a template for our product without wasting potential construction time. The internet gave us the ability to search numerous websites that hosted images of Listings Magazine and we eventually worked out codes and conventions that are typically found within them. The internet as a construction tool also proved to be very helpful and allowed to store imagery and files online for easy transportation to and from our blog. Serif Page Plus' cutout studio was indeed an effective tool but after further research and exploration we found Google's Picasa 3 to house a better piece of software that allowed us to cut and edit images in a more precise manner which in turn would enable us to create a more accurate and for that matter, attractive looking artefact that would fulfil our prime intention of attracting a theoretical audience.
One of the most challenging aspects for us was to use media technologies effectively in regards to our Soap Trailer as we faced numerous problems which required us to work outside the box so to speak in order to achieve a high quality product. For instance, we made use of a video camera for most stages of our filming as we needed a way to caputre digitial video in a simplistic and yet effective manner. Take for example a phone which can be used to caputure video in a similar way to that of a video camera. Originally we felt that we may well be able to use an iPhone or Blackberry initially as it would allow us to have freedom of transport and the ability to record high definition video which in turn will make our Soap trailer look more attractive. However, the major issue tht we came accross was the fact that a tripod of course could not be connected to the phones and therefore there was a lack a stability during the filming which we soon picked up upon. As such we chose to stick with a digital camera sacrificing the quality in place of actual camera stability which we felt was certainly more important as even a high definition video can look poor if the camera is at odd angles. We chose to use various forms of editing software to edit our Soap trailer as each program had it's pros and cons that would benefit the trailer. For instance, Windows Movie Maker was very effective in allowing us to create a general layout and timeline in a simple way which we both could use. Meanwhile, Video FX was perfect for allowing us to actually edit the footage and increase lighting and tamper to an extent with different colour configurations and hue levels. Video FX as a program would've allowed us to edit the layout and timeline in a similar way to Windows Movie Maker but the core problem we had was the fact that Video FX is designed to be a more professional program and while some elements are simple to use and comprehend there are parts which aren't.
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