Blogger is a website that allows you to create your own public blog where you can publish posts, containing text, videos, pictures and other creations

from Prezi and Slideshare for example. Anyone can see your blog, and people are allowed to comment and leave feedback on what you have

posted.

Blogger is very useful as I was able to show the journey I had made from the research and planning stage through to the evaluation stage and the

decisions I had made.

I had previously used this technology in AS, so when using it for a second year, I felt I had improved as I knew that it was important to write down

all my ideas to show my though processes throughout. When deciding on an idea for my music, I originally changed it three times, and each time I

wrote a post explaining why. Overall, for A2 I have produced over 60 posts, which are much more thorough and detailed.

Blogger was much more useful in A2 during the research stage, as I was able to post music videos from YouTube that I had analysed and influenced me. YouTube was helpful, as it supplied any video that I needed. Without Blogger this would have been very hard to show these, as I couldn’t have produced a hard copy, unlike in AS I had hard copies of the magazines that I looked at in the research stage.

During the production stage, I was able to post different drafts of my work online, and people were able to leave feedback on my recent work, explaining what they liked and what I could improve. This feature benefitted me and helped me as a student to improve my work for many reasons:

-As I had continuously seen my work, a new pair of eyes could spot mistakes I had made or improvements, which I may have missed.

- Other people may have different ideas to mine, which I could use.

-Positive feedback was helpful, especially from classmates, as they are my target audience, as I would need to know they like the product as I need it to appeal to them.

My teacher left an improvement for me to

include visual elements in my blog post, which I took into

account and tried to post evidence in all of my posts I

publish to help explain my work and the journey.

During the evaluation stage, I was able to evaluate my work using a variety of ways and post them online. Blogger allows me to upload Slideshares, Prezis and videos. Being able to evaluate my work publicly allows people to see where I received inspiration from, and my thoughts on my final product.

People are also allowed to leave their thoughts, which is important as they are the target audience for my work.

Prezi is a website that allows you to create an interactive presentation that enables

you to insert text and pictures, and create a moving presentation that users can

operate.

The benefit of Prezi allows me to present my work in a different way rather than just through blog posts. By creating an interactive presentation, users can

move through at their own pace. The use of different layouts and colours is also eye catching and would hopefully make people want to read my work.

During Research and Planning, I could create a fun and effective mind map in Prezi about different nineties styling I had researched into. I used the light bulb idea, as a light bulb represents an idea and these are all my ideas about how I

could style my performer.

Prezi was also a good option when evaluating my work. This idea of suing footsteps shows a journey from my research through to the production stage,

and then evaluating the decisions I made.

Canon EOS 550D

During the Research and Planning stage, I had practice shots using the

camera and researched into different camera techniques and terminology.

This benefitted me as I tested out using the camera and finding different

options such as filming in Black and White and Sepia and knew what phrases such as ISO meant. This

experience helped, as when I was ready to use the camera for my first shoot, I knew exactly how to use it.

From this test research, I realised that I could achieve a grainy vintage effect

by increasing the ISO, so decided to do this during the production stage.

During production, it was beneficial using this camera rather than any other camera, such as one on my phone or a home digital camera. This was because the Canon EOS 550D is much more advanced and sharper. Luckily, the camera is very small and light,

so when filming up London, it didn’t take up much room and could transport it around easily.

Fish Eye Lens camera shot

This camera too offered the option of being able to change the lens, which I did to a Fish Eye Lens. I used this lens

for a few shots, one which I did include in my video. I liked this look, as I think it’s fun and edgy, which is

the feel of my video.

I decided not to film in a high ISO, as if I didn’t like this look when I watched my videos on the computer screen, it would mean I would have to reshoot

my footage again.

I used this computer programme to produce my music video. This was the first time I had used this, however it was very similar to Moviemaker which I have used many times before, so fortunately it didn’t take long for me to work it

out.

Although I did have one difficulty. When I first started using the programme I would edit my video in Quick View. This was very easy and simple to use. However, when I began adding in more footage, sometimes I needed to leave a space for footage that I hadn't recorded yet. This then caused me a problem. When I added in footage further along the timeline, I found it difficult to place it exactly where I needed it. This means some

parts were out of sync, leaving an unfinished looking video.

However, I soon discovered expert view. Although this offered much more features I didn’t use, it did

allow me to place footage anywhere I needed on timeline.

This program offered an option that Moviemaker doesn’t, which was incredibly beneficial. Previously I had decided to not film with a high ISO, however luckily, this programme offers an option to add a film look. One

of these was a Vintage look, which was perfect for my video. It adds a yellow tinge to my video, and a subtle grainy effect. I added this to all my

footage and was very happy with how it looks.