How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. How did you use media
technologies in the
construction, and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Diana Kalinina - Ivanova

2. Technologies for research
 For the research I mainly used the internet just to get the general idea of what type
of genre appeals to me and just general research into different ways to create
music videos. This part of the research was generally easy because there was a wide
choice of what to look for on the internet. Internet in itself is pretty simple to use as
having used it for years, therefore I found no problem when it came to searching
for the things that I needed to see in order to get the idea of what to include in a
music video. As internet is wide I was able to come across many different websites,
from which one led to another which meant that my research kept on broadening
more and more until I found what I thought is doable and would be fun to create. I
mainly used YouTube because it has many different music videos which helped me
enormously when it came to deciding what would we want to include in our music
video.

3. Technologies for research cont.
 Also as part of the research it was necessary to find out about what our target
audience want to see and expect from a music video. In order to complete this, we
used a Word Document to create a questionnaire which we later gave out to
people in our sixth form to fill in and then we collected them in. Once we got the
results in we used Excel to create charts in order to have visuals when it came to
planning for our music video. It I fair to say that the Word Document part was
pretty easy and straight forward, however Excel was a little bit more on the not so
easy side because I was unable remember how to actually use it. Therefore, it took
me a bit of time to see what I am doing and just to get the hand of it, in order to
produce presentable and accurate charts.

4. Technologies for planning
 For planning it was not so much of using technologies because we preferred to
draw or write down out visions on a piece of paper because once it came down to
talking, we were fine, however there were times where we heard the idea but
nobody could visualise it, therefore we turned to pen and paper for most
occasions. However, when we did use technologies we used internet, more
specifically YouTube because we watched certain music videos and there were
aspects which we wanted to in cooperate into our music video. At some points we
even used Word in order to have a saved copy of our ideas because sometimes the
pieces of papers happened to be lost. Other than that we did not really use
technologies for planning as it was about visualising and finding different ideas
which could be included in our music video, therefore the technologies that we did
use were very limited.

5. Technologies for construction
 During the construction process there were a lot of that we used in order to create the
music video, and when I was creating the individual digipak with the website.
 Starting with the construction of the music video which was the first thing. First when it
came to filming we used a Panasonic camera which we were given at school, tripod was
used and those were the two main things we decided to use. As I have a experience of
using such a filming camera it was simple and straight forward to me, same applies to
the tripod. One advantage of having just a camera and a tripod is that you can do a lot
more than anyone thinks at first, we were able to do panning shots with just a camera
and even tracking shots, so it is simple. However, the one thing I can say is that before
filming always got to make sure that the tripod is always in a good condition and the
camera battery is either fully charger or if filming inside then you can always plug in the
charger into the camera and film just got to be careful with the wires laying around.
Other than that for that particular part of the music video, technologies were not
difficult to use, as I mentioned before that is only because I have used such camera and
tripod before.

6. Technologies for construction cont.
 Once the filming was done, it was time to start importing the footage into a Mac which at first was
very confusing because I never really used one before. As I imported the video files onto the Mac
my next job was to actually get them in the relevant folder which was tricky because I had no idea
how to do it. However, with some practise on the third time when we uploaded footage it was a
breeze for me. Macs are in fact like an ordinary computer, however if a person like me is not used
to them it can be a little bit more tricky but with time it is very easy to use.
 Next we started the actual editing, this was done on Premier Pro, which has great qualities for
creating a music video, as it is more advanced that iMovie and produced great quality products in
the end. We mainly used it for the time line, making sure that the videos are in the relevant places.
We then started to work on the green screen footage we had, we had to key out the green
background and then wee just put a plain blue, yellow or pink colour in the background to
represent that indie pop genre. At first it was difficult but with watching some tutorials on YouTube
I was able to get the hang of things and by the end I knew exactly what and how I was editing. One
thing for sure is that I would recommend without a doubt to watch YouTube tutorials if anyone is
new to Premier Pro because they really do help. I also used Photoshop when it came to cropping
the background from the jeans so that we could use them for our actual music video, which proved
to be straight forward.

7. Technologies for construction cont.
 Once the editing of the music video was done, it was time to move on to producing an individual
digipak and website for the artist that we have created.
 Firstly, I started to work on my digipak. For my ideas I used pencil and paper as I liked to sketch the
rough ideas that I have so that I can see them as something that I visualise rather than make it
digital. However, once it came to making the actual digipak I used Photoshop for the front cover in
order to make the flower crown more prominent in the image so that way it show that indie side a
little even more clearer. I also used Photoshop in order to place the writing on the front cover to
make it clear to the audience who is the artist. For some aspects I used PowerPoint because I am
not the best at Photoshop and some tools were confusing, but I used it for the basics for example
for the back cover I placed the writing and grouped it all together on PowerPoint. I also used it if I
did not have the access to Photoshop which made my process of making the digipak easier for me.
Overall, I would say that Photoshop is great fro professional use to make something average stand
out, but at the same time PowerPoint is a great alternative because it has the same features but
there are certain tools which are missing in order to create something outstanding.

8. Technologies for construction cont.
 Once I was done with the digipak, I swiftly moved onto making the website. Just as for the digipak, I
sketched the ideas that I had and then went on wix.com so start creating a website. I first started to
look at some of the templates in order to see whether I liked any to use for my own website and
just adjust the layout as I was going and to make sure it is the way I would want it to be in the end.
Wix.com is actually easy to use for anyone because there is a possibility of help throughout the
website and even tutorials if necessary online which I found very useful when it came to making my
website. One thing that I would say is that in order to be able to use wix people need to be
comfortable with the fact that it does take time and adjusting a layout might prove to be difficult. I
found it very difficult to find the right image layout for the ‘gallery’ page because some actually
stretched out the images rather than have them the way they were originally. Then there were other
which cropped images making it impossible to see what the image is of. However, once the right
layout was found I realised that the website is starting to come together as I had a theme running
through the website which made it easier to see whether the website linked to the digipak as well
as the music video and the genre itself. I did not use anything else to construct my website except
wix.com which is simple to use with the right practise.

9. Technologies for construction cont.
 I also used Twitter, Instagram and Youtube during the process of constructing the
website. As I wanted to make it more interactive with the audience, I felt that those
were the necessary social medias. I did not find them difficult at all, as I have used
all of them before and even if I did not know how to use them I would of still got
the help on the internet or on that specific social media.

10. Technologies for evaluation
 In order to complete last part of my coursework which was evaluation, I used
different things. I used prezi, PowerPoint which was transferred to slideshare. I
found them all to be very easy to use, as I used them before and I found them
great for presentations for different things. However, for beginners I would say
some simple tasks just to get the hang of the websites would be great. I found
them great for evaluation because some of the questions in my head looked better
when resented in a particular way because it is more appealing to me; the person
making the evaluation as well as anyone actually who is reading it to see how I
have found the whole process of research, planning, construction and

11. Most used technologies throughout
 Throughout the whole process of research, planning, construction and evaluation,
there were certain technologies that I used. One being a laptop which I always
needed as that is how I researched, planned and evaluated the work that I had
created in the end. I was also documenting any changes, any ideas, or anything
along those lines on my blog at blogger.com, which I found very useful actually
because not only was I showing the changes but it helped me to see different
things that I have done and how I progressed myself. Internet was an essential
thing as well because I needed it for blogger, research and anything additional
when it came to producing my end projects. Other than that I did not really have
that many technologies which I used at all times, except laptop, blogger and
internet which in my books are the essentials.