How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Several programs were used during the construction of our music video, ancillary

tasks and in the research and planning behind each of these tasks. I have

continued to use different technologies when presenting my evaluation.

ResearchOne of the most used websites I used for my initial

research was YouTube as this gives access to basically all music videos, meaning I could easily

look for particular videos. It also gives similar suggestions making it easier for me to find other

music videos which are appropriate

The most obvious website for carrying out research was Google which allowed us to look up digipaks and magazine adverts of different bands/ artists as well as

look up clothing

to the genre we I was researching. A problem with using YouTube for research, however, was that we cannot access it from our own school

users for research or to watch videos on and so had to use the YouTube account or carry out this work at home, which was slightly time

consuming but worked out fine.

Another useful source for research was magazines (both music and celebrity ones) as these meant we could observe clothing and style as well as looking at magazine adverts for our second ancillary task.

etc. Some websites were blocked on my school user account and so I had to carry out some research using Google on the schools YouTube account

or at home.

Making the Music Video

To make our music video, we needed a camcorder for the filming and so borrowed the schools handheld Canon (fs406) video

camera. We found it easy to operate and carry around due to its size, while the fold out screen could be turned at various angles,

therefore making filming, for example at a birds eye view, easy to do and ensure the whole of the character could be seen in the

frame. We also used the zoom control a lot while carrying out the filming to get particular camera movements and shots we had

planned. In addition to this camera, we used a tripod to keep the camera steady when it would have to be held for a long time, for example filming Ellie from across the road after the first flashback

scene.

Editing the FilmTo edit the music video, we used Adobe Premiere Elements which meant we could cut down clips,

add effects and insert transitions to give the music video a professional look and ensure it

met our expectations.

This shows the list of video effects we could use during editing; we used both, inserting cross fade effects between certain clips, while using a black and white colour change effect to separate the

flashback scenes from the present.Before doing this A2 media work, I had not used this programme before and so was unfamiliar with the different features. It therefore took trial and error

to get the clips exactly how we wanted, trying out different effects to see what they did and which fitted our film the best. One of the main problems we experienced with the programme was how the files it made were very large and our school users did not have enough space. However, the IT

technicians increased our disk space meaning we could save the files. We also had a problem where the programme would not open the file but once

again, with the help of the technicians, we overcame this problem.

Constructing Ancillary TasksOne of the main pieces of technology we needed to construct

our ancillary tasks was a professional camera to carry out photo shoots. My dad lent us his which is a Canon eos 7D which produces clear, un-pixelated images. I learnt how to

adjust the aperture, exposure time, sensitivity ISO and flash settings to get the photos we wanted. We alsohad a separate flash which could

be used from different angles along with the camera flash to

prevent shadowing on the model. In addition to the camera and

flash, we used two large lamps to increase the brightness of the

photo shoots, making the model clear to see and overall reduced the amount of editing we had to do to make the photographs look attractive and meet our ancillary

task plans.

To construct our ancillary tasks, following the photo shoots we carried out, we found Adobe Photoshop to be the most useful and

appropriate program. I had previously used it in my AS work and so was familiar with the different features of it, making it easy to use.

Both ancillary tasks were constructed using this software; we could insert and edit the images as

well as adding text, icons and barcodes to the products using 'layers' therefore meaning each part

of the product could be edited/ removed without the rest being effected.

These are some of the tools we used while editing the ancillary tasks photo’s. I have

labelled their main jobs to show why we found them helpful in making a digipak and

magazine advert.The only problem I experienced with Adobe

Photoshop was that it crashed the computer I use every time it was opened, however, as it was group work and so we used Charlotte’s

computer for the ancillary task work.

Presenting and Evaluating My Coursework

Blogger is obviously a very important program in presenting my coursework, however, other programs

and websites have been involved which I believe make my blog both more interesting and more attractive. As I

used blogger with my AS work, I know the different features of the site but did still experienced some problems. For example, inserting pictures could be

frustratingas it moved them around in places I did not want. However, I overcame

these problems by first inserting the different images into Microsoft Publisher as here I could group them together in one large image and

insert it to blogger without worry about the layout being changed.

Another issue with Blogger was that the website updated so it now has a new look. This was slightly confusing as I was unfamiliar with the new

layout; it also changed the way a post was made, with the school computers not showing the same tools as before but I changed the

settings to use the ‘old blogger interface’ which meant I could continue using Blogger as I had before.

I have also clearly used Microsoft PowerPoint during my evaluation and

presenting parts of my coursework. Making presentations splits up my work into

different pages, making it easy to read and understand. Using Slide Share this could

then be uploaded to my blog.

As mentioned above, I used Microsoft Publisher quite a lot during my coursework as it is suitable for images to be pasted to and then saved as pictures or edited (such as being cropped) before inserting them into

blogger. This saved time as I did not have to lay them out in a certain way on Blogger.

Slide share allows you to insert PowerPoint presentations or Microsoft publisher documents into blogger posts. These make posts more interesting than just writing it straight out. This website could not be accessed on our own school users and so I

had to access the school YouTube account. As I had made the word document or PowerPoint presentation

on my own user I saved these documents on my memory stick before uploading them to Slide Share

on the YouTube account.

This allows you to create animations, which I have done in a few posts. Rather than inserting loads of pictures next to each other, they flick through one after

another like a slide show. For some photo’s, however, I noticed making theminto animations reduced the quality of them, making them more

pixelated. I therefore only used this website for certain photo’s which did not significantly change in quality from becoming animations.

Prezi is a website which allows you to make presentations, inserting both images and

text. I found it useful to present my feedback as it showed my train of thought

and the steps I took

This is a brainstorming website which I have made a couple of mind map's using. It is easy to use as it sets out the mind map

automatically, allowing you to just write out the information you want.

I have carried out part of my evaluation using the 'Glogster' poster making website. I found

it a very creative and interesting way to present my

thoughts as

to make changes more efficiently than could be done in a simple post. I had not used this website before but found it quite easy to understand

by trying out the different features.

text, images and videos can all be used on it. Though I had not used it before, I figured out the different features quite quickly and so

believe it is an appropriate and easy tool to present my evaluation with.

For one of my evaluations, I decided to record myself while showing a slideshow of pictures the audience could relate too. To do so I used my iPhone 4 as it has a ‘Voice Memos’ app. I

wrote what I wanted to say about the way my products link and then recorded it. When attached to my laptop, this then became a

QuickTime file which could be opened with Windows Moviemaker and so I used iTunes to

convert it to an MP3 file before importing it into Windows Moviemaker as this was the only

appropriate program I had at home.

I used Windows Moviemaker but showed it as a timeline. I could then insert the MP3 voice recordings in the audio timeline and pictures/ print screens from our

music video in the pictures section of the timeline which I felt would help explain what I was talking about.

I then exported the film andUploaded it to YouTube on my YouTube account before inserting as a film to Blogger because updating straight to blogger did not work.

This took a long time to upload but I carried out my other evaluations while waiting so I did not waste time.

How I did Evaluation 2

How I did Evaluation 3For the third evaluation, I presented it on Glogster, the poster making

website. However, I also carried out part of it with the rest of my group. As the question asked for audience feedback we wanted to film a group

of people from school and so used the same camera we had for our media film to interview them.

As the media room could not be used we could not use Adobe Premiere which we are familiar with and so had to use Serif Movie Plus x3. It

was similar toPremiere and Windows Movie Maker which I have also used and so we figured out the features quite easily, inserting the different clips to show each of the girls answers to the different questions one after

another. To make it attractive and easy to understand we decided to add a black screen with the question in white. I think this was a good

way to present this evaluation question as it shows that they were their own opinions on our music video, giving honest feedback.

We then exported the film and I uploaded it to Glogster so I could add it to my poster on audience feedback, putting all my audience

feedback together.

We also used Facebook as a media technology to gain feedback. Being a

social-network site it means it can be seen by a large audience, of whom most are in the appropriate age group because they

are our friends. It was an

To put the video on Facebook, I uploaded it to my timeline and tagged Zoe, Sarah and Charlotte so their friends could also see it. This meant people could like and comment on it to tell us what they thought. We then could all use this feedback on

our individual evaluations.

easy way to gain feedback as people can watch it in their homes on their own computers, rather than us having to show them it at

school, when we have free time and computers available.