Research for A Level Media Studies Advanced Portfolio

1. SOFTWARE

2. INTRODUCTION
■ Computer software, or simply software, is a generic term that refers to a collection of
data or computer instructions that tell the computer how to work, in contrast to the
physical hardware from which the system is built, that actually performs the work.
■ As a media studies student, knowledge of how to operate multiple software such as
Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom etc. is essential to the nature of our work which
includes tons of presentations, creating and editing magazine covers, videos, and
whatnot.
■ Nature of the world of technology constantly involves adaptation and evolution which
is why in order to get the most out of your work, it is simply not enough to employ the
generic MicrosoftWord or PowerPoint, one needs to widen their horizons.

3. Prezi vs PowerPoint –Which is Better?
■ PowerPoint has been the father of presentations for decades. It’s familiar, easy to use
and the go-to medium for most people. PowerPoint is user-friendly so it’s easy to play
around with various slide components such as images, icons, visuals, text, shapes,
effects, transitions, and animations.And if that’s not enough, you have an endless
resource of free Microsoft PowerPoint templates right at your fingertips. Beyond the
high-quality built-in templates from the software itself, there are many portals that
offer templates for all sorts of presentation needs as well.
■ The downside to PowerPoint, however, is also its strength. Since it’s been around for
quite a while, people will find your presentations predictable.

4. ■ Prezi is a more orthodox presentation software company founded in 2009. It’s a newer, more
dynamic, visual aid alternative. If PowerPoint has its foundation from slides, Prezi
presentations take root from an unlimited, totally blank canvass.Carving out its own niche in
presentation technology, the newer, non-linear Prezi uses a dynamic, flash-based map layout
for presenting your ideas.
■ What’s great about Prezi is you don’t need to pack your gears and gadgets anywhere you go.
Since everything is done online, you only need a Prezi login to show off your deck.This makes
it easy for you to move anywhere geographically when presenting, as well as to create online
seminars for a remote audience.
■ Because you’re working on an endless blank canvass, Prezi is perfect for dynamic storytelling,
where you want your ideas to flow into each other.This gives you an equally endless
possibility for creativity, which your audience will definitely appreciate as a breath of fresh air
in meetings, seminars, conferences, and many other events.
■ Furthermore, audio narration and music import is easy, which is suitable for today’s times
when technology makes it easy to view online classes and conferences.

5. SlideShare
■ SlideShare is a hosting service for professional content including presentations,
infographics, documents, and videos. Users can upload files privately or publicly in
PowerPoint,Word, PDF, or OpenDocument format. Content can then be viewed on the
site itself, on hand held devices or embedded on other sites. Launched on October 4,
2006, the website is considered to be similar toYouTube, but for slideshows.
■ Although the website is primarily a slide hosting service, it also supports documents,
PDFs, videos and webinars.[6] SlideShare also provides users the ability to rate,
comment on, and share the uploaded content.

6. What Do All of the Adobe Programs Do?
■ Adobe InDesign: It does page layouts. It allows you to produce and preview
documents for magazines, both in print and online across mobile and desktop
platforms. It offers more precision with typography than Photoshop, but less in
the graphics department. InDesign is made for publishing. Ideally, projects
rendered are newspapers, posters, and other marketing material.The way
InDesign works allow content producers to quickly piece together the layouts for
multipage magazines and documents. InDesign operates seamlessly with the
rest of the Adobe suite, to enhance creative ability.The latest version
incorporates interactive HTML within documents to allow web publishing.
■ Adobe Photoshop: is the go-to image editing and manipulation software used
by almost everyone in the industry. Photoshop excels in working with raster
(bitmap) graphics and is capable of producing highly detailed compositions.
While originally intended to be a photo manipulation program, Photoshop has
been taken up by digital painters and design professionals in both the classroom
and workplace.

7. ■ Adobe After Affects: It is used for adding visual effects to videos or
animations.After Affects can also be used to create animations of both
text and complex characters.Other things like adding clips into a clip or
overlaying green-screens come with ease.A quick run throughYouTube
will show kids using After Affects how to add lightning strikes, glowing
eyes, and lightsabers to their videos.
■ Adobe Audition: Audition is the sound room. Useful for editing audio,
it can be used to edit and mix sounds, or fine-tune and re-master
soundtracks. Historically, it was often used by radio stations for cutting
and adding sound effects.
■ Adobe SpeedGrade: It is for color grading images.At first glance, this
doesn’t sound like much. But, correctly applied color can add depth,
emotion, and character to a picture and videos.
■ Adobe Spark: Adobe Spark is an integrated suite of storytelling
applications for the mobile and web developed by Adobe Systems. It
comprises three separate design apps: Spark Page, Spark Post, and
SparkVideo.These three design apps allow users to easily create and
design visual content that can be used for businesses, education, social
media marketers, and so much more

8. Adobe Premiere Pro vs. Apple Final Cut
Pro X

9. ■ One of the biggest strengths of Final Cut X is the way it handles 4K video files.You can
seamlessly edit and play back 4K files in their native resolution on a wide range of the
latest MacBook Pros, mainly due to the background rendering the NLE offers.
■ Another advantage of Final Cut X is the ability to edit and custom motion titles inside
the platform with ease thus eliminating the necessity to use separate third-party
applications or other graphics editors.
■ The way you can preview the imported media in FinalCut Pro X is another huge
advantage over other editing platforms. For instance, you can even upload your edit
directly toYouTube or other social platforms without having to render the entire edit
beforehand whatsoever as the process happens in the background while you’re
editing.

10. ■ Premiere Pro CC 2017, on the other hand, is cross-platform compatible as it’s available
on both Windows and MacOS platform.The Adobe’s premium video editor also offers
advanced color grading panel, that can hardly compete with the modest functionality
Final Cut Pro X provides in that regard.
■ The seamless integration of Premiere Pro CC with other Adobe creative applications is
also extremely powerful and useful feature that Final Cut Pro X lacks.
■ When it comes to editing, Premiere Pro CC also offers neat file management system
which makes it much easier for you and your collaborators to work with bigger
projects and load tons of media and other project assets.

11. CANVA
Canva is a graphic-design tool website, founded in 2012. It uses a drag-
and-drop format and provides access to over a million photographs,
graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals.
The tools can be used for both web and print media design and graphics

12. SURVEY MONKEY
SurveyMonkey is an online survey development cloud-based software as a service company,
founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley. SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, as well as a
suite of paid back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and
data representation tools. In addition to providing free and paid plans for individual users,
SurveyMonkey offers more large-scale enterprise options for companies interested in data analysis,
brand management, and consumer-focused marketing.
SurveyMonkey provides data collection, data analysis, brand management, and consumer
marketing for Facebook,VirginAmerica, Salesforce.com, Samsung, and Kraft Foods, among others.

13. Bubbl.us
■ Brainstorming made simple. Bubbl.us is an easy-to-use,
online brainstorming software.With Bubbl.us you can
create colorful mind maps and share them with others.
8/23/2018
Filmora
 Filmora is an all-in-one home video editor that has powerful
functionality and a fully stacked feature set. Filmora is a solid
app that gives you the features and styles that have been
previously only available to professional film makers that have
a certain level of experience and the expensive applications to
match.
MovaviVideo Suite
 MovaviVideo Editor is a powerful yet easy-to-use video
processing program forWindows. Cut and join video clips
with zero quality loss, apply stylish video effects and
filters, add music, titles, and much more!

14. SOURCES
■ https://www.4kshooters.net/2016/12/13/final-cut-pro-x-vs-adobe-premiere-cc-2017-
which-is-the-best-video-editor-for-your-needs/
■ https://www.groovypost.com/reviews/adobe-programs-explained/
■ https://www.free-power-point-templates.com/articles/prezi-vs-powerpoint-better/
■ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page