1. Evaluation Four
How did you use media technologies in the
construction, production, research, planning and
evaluation stages?
2. AS to A2
In my AS coursework I have carried out research for a film opening in the horror genre. Taking into
consideration the different convention of horror, in order to get a wider knowledge of these, I have
watched various horror film openings on YouTube, and conducted a History of Genre using Prezi. This
helped because I was able to visually see the links between some of the films I have researched ;
Dracula, The Woman in Black and Insidious, as well as many others.
Likewise, for my A2 coursework, I have carried out similar research about music videos in the pop genre. I
done this by watching various videos in the pop genre, created by pre-existing artists such as Bruno Mars,
Beyonce, Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix.
Once all my research has been completed I have put it all into powerpoints, prezis and Vox Pops,as these
were clear and simple ways in which I have displayed my research and findings.
3. Once these were ready, I have posted them on ‘Blogger’, an easy to use website
that shows each stage of my research,planning and pre-production for my music
video. The same website was used for my AS coursework in the same way, to
display my research, planning and pre-production of my film opening. In order to
create my music video, I have looked for inspiration at different artists work, such
as Selena Gomez, Beyonce and Bebe Rexha, as they all have similar styles and
they use clear conventions of the pop genre.
4. Software
I believe that my skills have developed from AS to A2 with regards to research, planning and production. I
believe it is evident from the changes in writing and presentation from my AS to my A2 coursework, as it is
clearly more detailed and refined in terms of how everything is presented. The use of Prezi has also
developed, as in my AS coursework I have used it quite limited, whereas for my A2 media coursework I
have used more complex features of it and combined writing with images, in order to explain in more detail
my findings. Further, my Photoshop skills have massively improved in my A2 work. This is shown through
my digipak and magazine poster which have been edited using photoshop. I have also used photoshop to
create my record label logo, which is present at the beginning of my music video.
5. Planning, Pre-production and Presentation
When planning for the music video, I had to come up with initial ideas, in order to show my ideas and what I was thinking to
do with my music video. To do this, in order to make them very clear, I have used a website called ‘mindmeister’, which has
helped me create a mind map, which I have also colour coded for easily following each different idea. This also enabled the
mindmap to be much clearer that it would have been on paper, as this one is digital. When planning for the costumes,
props, locations and casting, I have created a separate slide where I had included all of the above, briefly giving details
about what each artist would wear, where I would film and what props will be used. This was effective as the slide enabled
me to include pictures, which made everything more clear to explain what I was referring to. Additionally, I have also
created a separate slide, where I have planned the lyrics of the song (Lyric Planning), here I have added details of what will
be happening on the screen at each point when the lyrics are being sung. For my ancillary texts planning, I have used A4
sheets of paper to draw each cover or poster, I have then annotated them and scanned them in order to post them on my
blog. This has been very helpful as they have been a guide for meto use when I was photoshopping the ancillary texts,
however, when scanning them, the drawings are not as clear as on paper, once they are put on a digital computer screen.
6. Hardware
When filming the footage for my media products, I had used various equipment,
more for the A2 coursework than for the AS. For my AS footage, I have used a HD
camcorder from Sony. This was useful at the time, however when uploading the
footage onto the Macs, the quality had dropped significantly. This however was
changed at A2, as I had used a DSLR Nikon camera to film my footage and take
photos for my photoshoot. The difference in quality was drastic, and this has
helped me as the quality of my video was more improved, and also shows
development from AS. This also helped, as using a DSLR camera in the dark
photo studio has not caused any problems with dark or grainy footage.
