Daniel Wylie used various technologies throughout the research, planning, production, and evaluation stages of his advanced media portfolio. He used WordPress to create a blog to document his work, PowerPoint and SlideShare to create presentations, YouTube for research and to share his music video, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to organize his research, Google to research existing media products, iMessage/email to communicate with his team, a Canon DSLR to film footage, a scanner to upload documents, Adobe Premiere Pro to edit footage, Publisher to create a magazine ad, and InDesign to create a digipak. A tripod was also used to achieve stable shots during filming. These technologies were crucial in allowing Daniel

1. QUESTION 4: HOW DIDYOU
USE MEDIATECHNOLOGIES IN
THE CONSTRICTION AND
RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?
Daniel Wylie

2. Introduction
■ During the research, pre-production and production and post production stages of my
advanced media portfolio, I used several forms of technology to gather research and
information in order to produce my final products which included a magazine advert,
digipak and music video.
■ I also used various programmes, equipment's and websites that enabled my research
and planning process to go smoothly.These uses of technology, programmes and
equipment made the project possible and without the existence of these things, it is
highly unlikely that my project would have been created or it wouldn’t have been
produced to the highest standard necessary.

3. WordPress
■ The most important step for me and my team was was to set
up a blog that would enable us to backlog and keep track of
our work.We intended to produce this to our teacher and the
examiners. the website we found best suited to our needs
wasWordPress. Setting up the blog’s page was quite straight-
forward and simple.We had the choice to choose any theme
we desired. I chose the theme “Adamos” simply because I
liked how simplistic it was to manage and interact with.The
website permits anyone (mainly my teacher) to leave
feedback on my work I have put so far. Being the type of
theme it was, it offered a plethora of features that I found to
my advantage. Features such as embedding and uploading
videos and adding pictures. Overall, the blogging site allowed
me easy navigate and access my blog. It also allowed me to
upload all forms of work with several forms of media.
Through all of this, the website didn’t prove to be difficult and
enabled the construction of my blog to be as effective and
successful as it can be.

4. PowerPoint & SlideShare
■ Some of the programs I used during my research, production and evaluation process
included PowerPoint and SlideShare. PowerPoint and SlideShare allowed me to
produce and present my research in a slideshow format. I used SlideShare to upload
evaluations. I also used Padlet to upload my post like Goodwin’s Ideas. Likewise, I used
PowerPoint to make slideshows and presentations. I enjoyed using both of these
websites because it made my blog page and my overall research more engaging and
aesthetically appealing.

5. YouTube
■ YouTube is a video uploading and sharing website. It offers
millions of videos that can be viewed from anywhere. I
made use of this website a lot for research. Firstly, I used it
to research and analyse existing film trailers in the hope to
find codes and conventions that will apply to my music
video, plus to create my playlist of existing Indie Pop music
videos for analysis. I also usedYouTube to do more research
around film trailers that were already produced by other A2
Media students. Being able to look at other media products
from A2 students gave me guidance on what to do and
what to avoid repeating in my own project. Finally, I used
YouTube to share my music video making it accessible to
everyone to watch and of course to be able to embed it
onto my blog.YouTube offers users the opportunity to leave
comments which may be prove to be useful for my
audience feedback.

6. MicrosoftWord &
PowerPoint
■ MicrosoftWord came into handy quite a lot from typing up my notes and some of my
evaluation questions. I used MicrosoftWord to correlate all of my research together. It
has incorporated features that allowed my overall research to be presented in a
professional way.
■ Microsoft PowerPoint was the most utilized of all the software as I made presentations
on there to convert onto SlideShare. It also provided more themes and features to
work with and it made my research and presentation more engaging and eye catching.

7. Google
■ Google is a search engine I have found myself to being very familiar with as its used
for, well, almost everything these days. Google can be used anywhere as long as
there’s connection to the internet. It is very quick and straightforward to use. I used
the search engine to research and develop any information about codes and
conventions, audience research and existing real media products such as other music
videos that had been made professionally.Without the accessibility of Google, I
believe my project and research may not be as outstanding as I may have wanted to
achieve. Overall,Google has allowed me to gain wider knowledge on information that
strengthened my coursework further.

8. Communication
■ Communication with your group is critical. In order to communicate effectively, my
other group members and I communicated mostly used imessage/SMS and our school
email.We created a group chat titled “Media A2” which consisted of Lois and Ellen.
The purpose of the group chat was to plan and discuss any group work that needed to
be completed together and any questions we had.We also used imessage/SMS to
contact with our actors and actresses and find out about their availability concerning
film timings.Additionally, we used email to communicate as there were several other
pieces of group work that we needed to email to each other.These two
communication techniques we used also helped us gather some audience feedback as
we added in a separate group our friends to leave imessage/SMS feeback on our
products.

9. Video Camera
■ During the filming of our music video, we used a Canon DSLR.
It was lent to us by our media studies department.We were
advised by our media studies teacher on the best camera to
use what was the Canon DSLR because this camera will be
better in terms of achieving a more professional and high
definition quality footage for our media project.This camera
was also used to take multiple pictures for the magazine cover
and digipak.The Canon DSLR was provided by the sixth form
and was used to film all of the scenes implemented in our video
which proved effective in producing focused shots and high
definition quality. Both video cameras had similar features to
each other.They both consisted of a small screen that enabled
the cameraman to see what is being shot or filmed.They both
had zoom levers that made it easy to zoom in and out during
the process of filming a scene. Both of the cameras were
portable which meant they were easy to transport to any
location. But the Canon DSLR was produced to take higher
definition shots which is why we chose this camera over the
other.

10. Scanner
■ I used the scanner during my research and planning stages and this was only used a
few times. I used the scanner to scan my storyboards and lyrics onto the computer in
order to produce my blog posts. It was a simple and effortless process. I used Snipping
Tool to save screenshots in a JPEG format so that I could easily transfer images onto
my blog.

11. Adobe Premiere Pro -
Film Editor
■ The use of Adobe Premiere was another main piece
of technology in my construction stage. Premiere
was the program we used to edit all of our shots
together in hope to create a cohesive and
professional video. I found it to be very user friendly
and generic to use.The programme gave us a bit of
trouble along the way with exporting issues and
sound issues but other than that it was efficient in
allowing my group and I to organize our shot and
crop any sound and scenes that were not needed as
well as allowing us to edit contrast and add
transitions etc. It also gave us the opportunity add
any effects and filters we needed for the music
video. For my music video we used the contrast
feature so we could lighten and dim some of the
scenes which adds continuity to my video.The
programme enabled us to darken and lighten the
concentrated light in the video so it could fit within
our intended genre. The razor tool is used to cut out
footage that’s unnecessary.
All imported
images, videos or
audios appear in
this section of the
page
This row of
tabs
incorporate
provide
functions
available to
the user so
that they can
create
different
effects and
make use of
different
features
provided. This is where you
can add and edit
footage and add
effects and also
add songs etc.
This section
allows you to
play footage
whilst it’s
been edited.

12. Publisher & InDesign
■ In order to create the magazine poster, I used the software Publisher to
do so.The software provided features that enabled my poster to look
professional and presentable. For my digipak I used a software called
InDesign which had many features that allowed me to create a digipak
that I was proud of. For my magazine poster I used publisher which I am
very familiar with. I know where all the tools are and what they do and
this allowed me to quickly put together my magazine advert with
precision and care. I started with using the background tool that allowed
me to choose a photo for the background and then it was just as easy as
adding in text boxes for the release date and album name etc. and
changing the fonts. I added in stars for the rating of the music video just
by inserting shapes onto the advert. For my digipak this was slightly
more complicated to complete. It took me a lot of time to get to grips
with the software InDesign as it was brand new to me and rather
technical. We had help from out teachers on templating out the digipak
and we got given a list of tools the software uses and how to use them
correctly and what they do.The digipak took a longer period of time than
the advert due to these struggles. I over came them by working with the
software and also messing around on it with random pictures which
helped push my learning of InDesign. The main tools I used were the copy
and paste feature and importing photos,Text tool and also there was a
tool I used which could bend the text so I could curve it around the disc on
my digipak.

13. Tripod
■ Using a tripod proved to be a necessity as it allowed me
to gain really stable and coherent shots. I found that the
tripod helped in manoeuvring the camera safely as long
as the camera was tightly screwed onto the plate of the
tripod.The purpose of the tripod plate is to hold the
camera in place and prevent any shaking or falling off
during filming.This helps in adjusting the camera
movement which I found was helpful in filming tracking
and establishing shots.The small bolt allowed us to
modify the position of the tripod when needed.There
was also a level on our tripod that allowed us to ensure
that the shots where exactly straight and the tripod was
on a flat surface too.We could loosen all the moving parts
and tighten them. Being able to loosen the moving parts
allowed us to move the tripod around smoothly without
any sudden movements or jolts.

14. Conclusion
■ In conclusion, the use of media technologies have been significant in the success of my
final product. I have used a range of different technologies during my research,
planning, construction and evaluation stage.Although some of the media
technologies proved to be quite difficult to work with, and some that didn’t work
completely correctly, I overcame any disbelief in my ability to use them and in turn
created efficient and professional products.