Media Technologies

1. Evaluation
Our coursework for year 13 involved using a very wide rangeof technologies. The
blog, the production and editing of the video all required the use of different apps
and equipment. Being in the 21st
Century, wehave been able to fully use Web 2.0
and the latest technology available to get the desired results, despite having a few
difficulties along the way. In this essay, I willevaluate this useof technologies for
our coursework.
We created our blog on WordPress, this site has proven to be better than Blogger
for us due to the availability of a lot moreeye grabbing themes and flexible
formats. Itis also easier to use due to quicker and more direct ways of embedding
documents and videos into a post. For our research, wherewe carried out surveys
through questionnaires and analysed the data to narrow down a genre, we used
applications fromMicrosoftOfficelike Word, PowerPointand Excel. These are
generic and universalapps which is why they might not be interpreted as us fully
seizing or exploring different technologies. However, they effectively presentour
data and allow us to include visualaids like pie charts, bar charts and tables which
make the information more accessible. We used these apps while researching our
target audience as well, though with the help of Web 2.0 and Google.We also
researched theories, like ‘The Male Gaze’ by Laura Mulvey, wherewe used apps
like PowToon to create an animation which might be more attractive or absorbing
to an audience compared to a Word document. We also used YouTube to post
the animation as a video and embedded it in our blog. YouTube was also used in
posting Weekly Journals for the weeks of research and planning. This might be an
effective use of technology as YouTube is a very popular and mainstreamapp
around the world, instantly making these videos more accessibleand appealing.
Features like the like, dislike and shareoptions can help us reach a wider audience
and receive usefulfeedback.
The planning of our music video also involved the use of different technologies.
We used mobile phone cameras to take pictures of the locations we wanted to
use in the music video. We also extensively used Google to narrow down the
equipment, props and costumes we should use for our genre, EDM and the music

2. video. We used Prezi while researching and planning the genre conventions and
technical conventions wewould use. This, however, proved to be problematic
because Prezicannot always be embedded properly into a WordPress post. This
resulted in us including a back-up link to the presentation in case of technical
difficulties. We learned that we could use alternative presentation apps like
emaze that havebetter embedding options. We also used SlideShare instead of
Scribd to share documents as it has a personalized embed link for WordPress
which is much more convenient and effective.
The production of our Music Video involved us using a Nikon Camera for most of
the filming. This gave us good quality videos and allowed us to usea tripod to
take more stable shots. However, this footage did not have the quality we desired
which might haveaffected the professionalappeal of our music video.
Technological Convergenceallowed us to use an IPhoneto film a few shots which
resulted in much better and appealing video quality. Our video could havebeen
better if we could haveused a more professionalcamera like a DSLR that would
have much better zoomoptions, effects and video quality. We used IMovieto edit
all the footage and make the music video. This was extremely effective, as the
app offers a variety of video editing options like speeding, slowing, enhancing and
cropping. Italso has various themes, transition options and allows us to insert text
or another video into the video. This was very helpfulas it enabled us to play with
the footage, include a lot of effects and makeit as professionalas wecould. It
even helped us improvethe video quality to an extent. Itdid, although give some
difficulty due to it only being available on a MAC. We also used Pixlr, an online
app that allowed us to include drawings on to a part of the video. This allowed us
to create intertextuality between our music video and the original Justion Bieber,
Skrillex and Diplo version and helped us create moreunique visual appeal. This
may havehelped make our video more familiar and attractive to the target
audience.We played our video on YouTube while asking different people to give
us feedback for our evaluation and used a phone’s voice recorder app to record
this feedback. This was very helpful as they were more comfortablethis way,
compared to being videoed. Itis also more appealing than justnotes or a Word

3. Document. We also have the recordings with us which makes it easy to back to
them whenever weneed while editing and evaluating.
For our coursework, we’veused a very vastrange of technologies which has been
mostly very useful and effective. We wereable to fully take advantage of the
latest apps available to us, whether online or offline and also used Web 2.0
consistently. Web 2.0 allows grassrootlevelactivity and participation, allowing
anyoneto publish anything. We were really able to seize this by using Wordpress
and YouTube to post our work and research, making it accessibleto anyone
around the world. The IMovieapp and increasing megapixels in cameras enabled
our video to be more professionaland appealing to the target audience.
Technology is converging and improving every year and is allowing the consumers
of the product to get a lot more actively involved and even become the producer
or distributor while reaching a wide audience. This represents a key shift in
audience behavior that is only predicted to increase over the years.