How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Construction• We used media technologies in the construction

stages by filming our music video on a HD camera. This enabled us to ensure that we had a high resolution picture to make sure that our music video looked as professional as possible. It also meant that when we created our ancillary tasks, we had a high resolution screen shot from our music video. W e used Final Cut Express to construct our music video, we did this by uploading the shots from the camera onto the mac and converting them using Voltaic. We then created a new Final Cut Express project and imported the files into it. From here we could then drag them into the timeline and arrange them in the order that matched our storyboard.

• As well as this we also used a mobile phone to purchase our track on the iTunes store and then uploaded it via USB on to the Mac. We then imported it in to Final Cut and placed it on our timeline.

• We also used media technologies throughout our ancillary tasks, the main one being Adobe PhotoShop. After we had taken a screenshot from Final Cut Express, using the Mac screen capture tool, we opened it in PhotoShop and began constructing our poster and album cover. To do this we used layers and the opacity tool to create the effect of the lights and performer being in the sky behind the protagonist. On top of this we then inserted text to follow the conventions of a poster and CD case to create an effective and professional appearance.

Research• We used media technologies in the research for our promotional pack to create a good

understanding of what is expected of our products. For example, we used YouTube for research in to music videos of the same genre to find conventions which we could use, develop or challenge to create an effective product.

• Before creating our main products we also used Final Cut and a HD camera to create both a performance and a narrative preliminary task, to give us a better understanding of how to combine cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene within a music video to make it effective.

• Within the research for our ancillary tasks we used media technologies such as iTunes to see how an album cover appears in a digital format, as people are now more likely to buy music online than in hard copy format therefore the appearance of the album cover on screen is just as important as the printed version. We also used Google to help us create a professional appearance of the back of the album cover, for example what to write for copyright and used the copy and paste tool on the Mac to place the copyright symbol and barcode on to the back of our album cover within PhotoShop.

• We also used Blogger to look at past student’s blogs to understand what they did well or aspects that we could improve on with our own products.

• As well as this we also used Google to research in to posters. We found that they often included a review and if they were currently on sale or their release date. Therefore the media technology we used helped us understand what needed to be included within the poster and gave us a better understanding of what the product should look like.

Planning• We used media technologies in the planning of our promotional pack through the use of Google

maps to scout possible locations. This was so that we could see if they were suitable before we decided to go and look at them in person. This was an important part of our planning as we needed to get a good idea of the location before we went to look at it in person otherwise it would have been a waste of time.

• We also used the internet to check the weather forecast for the days that we were filming to ensure that it would be suitable to film. Because we filmed in many different locations within 1 town we needed to ensure that it remained dry all day so that when we put it into our timeline it was the same weather throughout.

• We also used face book email to organise our actors to be at the right place and also to plan the day. This was an excellent example of where digital technology was vitally important within our planning as without it we would have found it very difficult to organise our itinerary and to know where we needed our actors and at what time.

• Another way we used digital technology was by using digital technology to take pictures (with our mobiles) and upload them to blogger. An example of this was taking photos of our story board and uploading it to blogger on the mac.

Evaluation• We used media technologies within our evaluation question 1 by using YouTube to go back to the

similar music videos which we used within our research. We then paired these with the clips we had taken using the HD camera and had place in to Final Cut. We created another new project within Final Cut and used this to edit together the clips to demonstrate where we had either used, developed, or challenged the conventions of the real music videos within our own. We then further developed by using YouTube to upload the Final Cut Express project and used the annotation tool to comment on these conventions.

• For evaluation question 2 we used a mobile phone to record a commentary about the effectiveness of the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks. We then uploaded these via USB to the Mac and imported them into a new project on Final Cut Express. After this we imported photos into Final Cut Express that related to what we are talking about in our commentary to provide evidence for our comments. For example photo’s of similarity’s between the products of our promotional pack. We then uploaded the Final Cut Express project to YouTube.

• For evaluation question 3 we used the social media site Facebook to promote our video and to gain audience feedback. We also used the statistics tool on YouTube to see the demographics of the people who had viewed our video.

• For evaluation question 4 we used slideshare to uploads a power point presentation which we then linked to our blog.