TECHNOLOGYS EVALUATION

Evaluation.


This is my third project into my first year of viscom, and I can easily say it was the most difficult so far as I do struggle immensely with computers and software. We were asked to produce a website and or DVD to express to an audience my five loves or hates of a technology.
I began this brief by brainstorming technologies that I am fond of not so fond of and finally came up with four loves, these being, the phone, the international phone card, the glass, and the pen, and also one hate, this being the microwave. I initially liked these ideas because I thought that they weren’t the conventional technologies that other people may be choosing for this brief in my group and also because they have become actual necessities in my life.
After the initial brainstorming I had to then come up with ideas on how I wanted to present these loves and hates but in a way that were visually exciting for the audience to watch and to do this I knew I had to explore a range of techniques such as animation, moving image and still image.
My first technology that I produced was for the international phone card and as a regular caller to Turkey, this has most definitely become one of my loves of technology and I chose to express this to the audience through stop frame animation. The basic idea is simple, a photocopy of me with words coming out of my mouth which is too giving the impression as if I am talking on the phone about my love for the phone card. Although I did initially like the idea, I do believe that it could have been a lot better, what with me too having previously done a few stop frame animations that were more successful than this, I believe that this could gone a step up, so I therefore decided to produce another stop frame animation for another technology, this being the phone. I chose the phone, as it is almost a vital piece of technology, a way for contacting family and friends in general, but also more so important now because I am now living away from home. I also chose this because I wouldn’t be able to use the phone card without the phone.
This animation I believe is a lot more visually exciting and, is actually a better animation, from everything to the actual story, to the composition, it just looked more successful then the other and was overall I was very pleased with this. Although the only criticism I would give it, is that it is a little too short. So from this I have learnt that to make a successful animation it does need to have a good story, composition is important and also needs to have a good time length.
I am much more fond of still image such as illustration and typography compared to moving image such as video and animation, so I definitely knew that I wanted to incorporate this into my technologies. So I chose to illustrate a storyboard of the glass. I chose this technology first of all because I thought that it was an unusual technology, and it is a necessity. I went with the idea of us all needing different types of glasses for different types of drinks and produced a storyboard. When finished I was very pleased, a simple yet effective idea that was getting the point across of my love for the glass to the audience. Although I did want to maybe experiment with turning still image into moving image so I therefore decided to change the storyboard into a very simple final cut animation. We did start this brief off with having lessons in the final cut software so I had an idea of what I was doing but still struggled, even though this was a very simple animation that I did produce. After I had produced the animation, I was pleased due to the fact that I think that the music just gave it something a little more, and I did realise too that it would be more appropriate for a viewer watching a DVD or viewing a website, as it would be more visually exciting for them compared to just a plain image.

When coming to deciding a technology that I hated, I knew I wanted to choose the microwave due to its unreliability. The way I decided to present this hate for the microwave was by a short simple video that just played. It was very simple and I felt that I didn’t need to do anything to the video due to the audio on the video. I do believe that is most probably the weakest of all of the technologies that I produced, just because it is a simple video playing, and possibly the audience may not realise that I have tried to express my hate for the microwave through the audio of the video.
Lastly I produced a page of typography for the pen. Not only do I think that this is the most visually exciting due to the different styles and fonts, but I enjoyed making this more than any of the other technologies. It is also ironic to me that I believe the most visually exciting piece is the only still image. This could be due to the fact that I am very fond of typography, but I just believe that it shows a skilful piece of work that has had a lot of time and effort spent on it. From this I then realised that if in fact I had spent the same time and effort from my pen piece on my other technologies then they could in fact of been much more exciting and successful pieces.
I found the hardest work was to come though with producing the web site. Due to the fact that I sometimes struggle with more familiar software such as Photoshop, I most definitely found Dream weaver a challenge, the biggest of the year so far, so very simple tasks that I wanted to accomplish for my website, was an immense struggle. I do find myself getting very impatient with software so do sometimes find myself giving up, and I know this is my weakness. Even though I wasn’t too disappointed with the finished product, I wasn’t too pleased either, and feel that if I did push myself a little bit harder I would have had a more exciting website. I feel that I could have improved the presentation and layout most definitely in my site, as this is what has left it looking a little boring.
When using computer software in the future I now know that I will need to be more patient and just play around with the software to achieve the results and look that I want. All in all, I believe that yes my website is very basic, but still does the job.
I lastly produced the DVD on I DVD and found this a lot easier to produce then the website. Again it is a simple website, although I am going to submit my website as my final. Both the website and the DVD can be viewed by different types of audiences and they are viewing the same work, due to four of my technologys are moving image so therefore the DVD is good for this but so too is the website, although the website is more interactive.