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4.How do you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Looking back, this year the technology was a lot more complex and challenging. The range of technologies used also increased compared to last year, as I had to find ways to analyse my ideas and tasks on various platforms, showing off my technological skills.

Even though the level of analysis this year was a lot more detailed and academic, I found the stage of the research and planning the simplest as this year the coursework was based on Wix.com which is a website that allows people to design their own version of their websites. At first, I was not familiar with web designing as I have never done this before but I believe that because our generation is so used to editing and designing online programs such as social media pages, we naturally get used to making new pages online and designing them to our like. Already knowing how to add things like text, personalized backgrounds, images and icons to online pages are all skills that I already acquired, therefore doing my web designing on Wix was not as challenging as I thought and I was in my comfort zone. However, I did struggle with the layout of the page as it had to be edited manually. This led to a few complications when previewing my Wix page as some of the text and images were out of the frame. Fortunately, it did not take me too long to learn that there is a setting called “align” that makes sure everything is in its place when the audience views the website live from the internet, but other than that I got on really well and made the most out of this easy form of technology.

YouTube and Survey Monkey were also important in the research stage of my coursework because they helped me learn about the genre better and its forms and conventions and what the audience expects. Looking at real media texts on YouTube allowed me to analyse real music videos that inspired me for my own music video and ancillary tasks. Especially, looking at Grime music videos helped me pay close attention to the mise en scene. Survey Monkey on the other hand was a really useful and a clever way to ask our target audience (teenagers ages 16-18) questions that would help us with our research. We made an online questionnaire that were sent through WhatsApp to a few people to fill out and included questions about some conventions of Grime and what the audience expects and wants to see in our music video.

In terms of coordinating and communicating, technology was important because my group and I and the casting had to communicate online a lot. We were mainly texting on the phone or on WhatsApp or calling each other which was quite challenging at times because reach to Dieonte (our actor) he would not respond or he would respond too late, which led to our filming schedule to be delayed even more. This was a disadvantage because I think communicating in real life would have been more effective than using technology because face to face, there would be no lack of communication or any obstacles stopping us from talking.

During the construction of my media products, technology was much needed due to all the editing and filming, which are basics in Media A level. First of all one of the biggest technology improvements this years was the cameras and tripods. Fortunately, we got to use DSLRs, which are really high quality cameras with adjustable zoom and manual focus. This allowed us to have a crispier image quality that looks way more professional and appealing to the audience, especially during our photography and filming sessions. However, this meant that I had to be more careful while holding the camera to film because every little movement is visible to the eye of the audience due to the high quality. Shaky clips were also a problem because even the tiniest movement would ruin the whole clip, which led me to film certain scenes quite a few times. The adjustable zoom lense and manual focus were a total advantage while filming because it enabled

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me to do different techniques such as “pool focus” or to zoom into something I wanted the audience to focus on. In fact, I included two pool focus scenes; one during the actress starring at the actor drug dealing before meeting him and another while the actor is in front of the mirror getting ready for his interview. This technique allows the audience to focus on two things slowly as the focus goes from one object to another. This was all new to me because I did not use a DLSR during my Foundation Portfolio, which meant I only had the basic skills in this form of technology which consisted of being able to film with a steady hand and only do different shots and angles. Tripods allowed me to film and photograph things in a more professional way. They have helped with how steady the shots were and doing a lot of establishing shots such as the slow up and down panning of the estate blocks or the time lapse of Shadwell Basin. Looking back at the music video I feel that I should have added a few low angle shots of the artists lip syncing because it was found a lot on my research. However I still have a range of shots that are good enough such as the extreme close up of some props such as the application form, phones and watch.

Microediting played a big part during the construction stage because I had to pay attention to every little detail in the music video and ancillary tasks. I did not realise how challenging Photoshop is until this year, as there were a lot more steps that had to be followed in order for my magazine advert to look clean and professional. I in fact had to research YouTube Photoshop tutorials in order to learn how to edit pictures. This was really useful because I learnt many techniques such as duplicating pictures and flipping them to make it look like it has a mirrored effect or airbrushing the person’s face to cancel any blemishes and imperfections. Final Cut Pro was another vital form of technology I used to edit my music video. Microediting was again really important because as supposed to last year, in our Advanced Portfolio we have to match the video to the music and music videos can be tricky, especially the song we chose as it is quite fast paced. Lip syncing clips are an example of how micro editing is vital because the lips of the actor have to match the exact lyrics at the right time. This was challenging for me as I struggled to sometimes perfectly match Alby Kay’s lips to the words in the song and had to cut back quite a few times to get it right. Speed changing is another example of how precise I had to be while editing. This is because it had to be done manually in percentages and getting the right percentage was difficult as the speed had to match the peace of the music.

Motion is the form of technology that I used to create the titles in the music video. This was the easiest task I achieved in my Advanced portfolio because nothing changed since last year. My group and I decided to keep it simple and chose a clean, thin and plain font that was big enough to fit the middle of the screen. The “fade in fade out” movement was also simple and I did not find any difficulties.

The evaluation stage was tough because the use of different technologies was a must as I had to answer four questions in four different ways. I used PowerPoint, Final Cut, Prezi and Powtoon. These were all used in my evaluation last year but the reason I found this stage tough is because of the amount of analysis and details included in each answer. I feel that Powtoon was the hardest to use because it is animated, therefore texts, pictures and icons all move and I had to keep track with them and put each in order and adjust their length so that the audience can read and see all the information without the clip changing into the next.