2. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
3. Construction and Research
This is an example of my blogger dashboard. Blogger
played a huge part in the construction of my A2 task. Using
blogger I was able to frequently record my work in
chronological order which allowed my work to have an
overall sophisticated presentation.
From my blogger dashboard I was able to change the
template of my blogger which enabled me to present my
work in many different ways. I chose the dynamic layout as
I allowed me to have a range of different ways in which my
work could be shown. For example, using the sidebar
structured my work, whilst the flipcard showed my work
through the use of imagery.
Blogger was continuously used throughout the production
of my work throughout my planning, production and
evaluation process. This is because there is no limit to how
much work can be shown on blogger. This heightened my
creativity and therefore allowed me to produce work
frequently at a professional level.
4. Continued…
Alongside Blogger, Prezzi also helped hugely
through the continuation of my work onto my
evaluation. From this I was able to express my
creativity as Prezi turns your work into a moving,
interactive way of presenting my work. The many
different themes also helped to show the
establishment of my work. For example, even
though I chose to create a spider diagram effect,
one of my options could have been a pathway.
This would of helped me to show the process of
my work and the journey I went on. However, I
had some difficulties using Prezzi as it was a
relatively new software for me. From this using
Web 3.0 became very helpful through the means
of using ‘how to’ guides on Youtube.
Here is a clear example of one of the ‘how to’ guides I used for
Prezi. Here I learnt how to create some simple tasks such as
adding a text and changing the colours of my created Prezi. This
allowed me to present my work differently and make it stand out in
comparison to my previous presentations all made on PowerPoint.
Using a Prezi also allowed me to show how I developed from my
AS work, and from the start of my A2 work. Using Prezi for my
evaluation yet again allowed my work to be shown at a
professional, artistic level.
5. Research and Planning
Our research and planning revolved primarily around
Google and YouTube. This enabled us to gain quick
access to the websites in which would direct us to
previous Pop artists music videos and Digipaks which
gave us clear ideas for the production of our work. This
allowed us to not rely purely on what we thought were
conventional aspects of a Pop music video, but instead
research into them which effectively changed our
perceptions of music videos. From this we realised that
a narrative based music video would be most
conventional of our target audience, and targeting our
audience would need to be done through the means of
colours and body language. This was shown in our
music video and our ancillary tasks, all of which would
not have been possible had it now been for the
planning and research.
6. Production and Creation
Throughout the production of our music video, we understood
that we needed to use an advanced editing programme in which
would allow us to use sufficient editing techniques throughout the
creation of our work. Therefore we decided that Final Cut Pro was
an appropriate software to use. Even though at first, this
programme was difficult to grasp, with practice we was able to
complete our music video at a professional level. Using the
banding tool to cut our footage up into different sections allowed
us to match together our lyrics with our visuals. There was also a
vast range of effects in which were placed onto our footage. This
allowed us to portray clearly the narrative of our music video. By
adding the ‘Combat’ effect on our footage we were able to let our
audience know the differences between memories (through
narrative) and natural lighting in which was our performances.
However, the Mac computers in our editing room was not always
available to us. Therefore, we were able to continue editing via
iMovie on an Apple Mac from home. Using this allowed us to
continue our professional level of work however away from our
school environment. The creation of our work through the use of
iMovie was no different from what was created via Final Cut Pro,
and was easy transferable through the means of a USB. This
allowed a continuous level of work, and a successful production
of work to be inevitable.
7. Continued…
Through planning our work, we used the online editing software iPiccy in
order to experiment with different styles and techniques. This was helpful
in being able to identify with what fonts looked good and which images
would be most representative of our target audience. Once decided, we
developed our ideas through the use of Adobe Photoshop whereby our
knowledge had broadened from previous experiences through our AS
task. Our progress throughout this task was made prominent through our
final products.
As shown below, I have added a clear image of our finished digipak print advertisement whereby we merged the layers together to achieve our
overall look. This was very successful through the production of our work as we was able to create an advertisement in which was both
representational of our music video and target audience, whilst also challenging the general conventions of the Pop genre. The creation of our
ancillary tasks would not have been possible had it not been for the use of photoshop. Using the various editing techniques allowed our work to
be completed at a continuously artistic level.
Crop Tool – Resizing original image
to fit our advertisement.
Magic Lasso – Cutting our artist out of
the original image.
Defining Brush Preset – Changing
the physical appearance of the image.
Auto Contrast – Adapting the
brightness of our print advertisement.
Stroke – Changing our font to stand
out more amongst our image.
Colour Overlay – Highlighting our
fonts.
8. Web 2.0 sites and audience feedback.
Using Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook allowed us to gain a greater in sight into our audience feedback and how well we targeted our
audience. This allowed us to decide whether or not or work needed to be developed. The comments received were mostly positive, however
the negative comments were very helpful as we received feedback from our primary target audience making the feedback even more
reliable. Overall, I believe that the planning and research in which lead to the production and construction was hugely successful throughout
the process of our work. However, had there been more time as a group we would have gathered more audience feedback in order to
receive a broad range of feedback, and then change our ancillary tasks and music videos in order to make them hugely conventional of our
target audience. This, had it been done would have been very helpful, however I believe the work in which was created was at a continuously
professional level and conveyed our creative making skills through the use of digital technology.
