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

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

2. To answer this evaluation question I am going to break
down the process of my practical production, and
evaluate what media technologies I used in the
constructing of my music video;
• Research and Planning
• The making of my music video
• The making of my ancillary products; poster and
Digipak
• Evaluation process

3. Research and Planning
Blogger
• To record all of my research and planning I
used the website Blogger, a blog–publishing
service which allowed me to make various
entries, upload Prezi's, videos and annotated
images. The website was relatively easy to
use, I just had to remember to label all of my
posts (with A2 media) to differentiate my
previous AS media work. In addition to this it
helped me record all of my research and
planning as I progressed in my practical
production work, and was further easy to
import all the different media technologies I
had used in my evaluation process, such as
Prezi's and Slide shares.

4. Research and Planning
Google
• The majority of my research was
done through the search engine of
Google. While researching into the
alternative jazz genre I was able to
find a plethora of online material
that allowed me to look at previous
music videos, examples of Digipaks
and posters, and evaluate what
codes and conventions I wanted to
interpret into my own production.

5. Research and Planning
YouTube
• The social media network YouTube had a big
impact on my practical production. The way
in which I found my original artist; Jess Smyth
known as ‘BiigPiig’, was through the social
network. In addition, within the research and
planning process I watched an array of music
videos to study the codes and conventions of
existing work, which further helped me in the
creating process of my own production.
Without YouTube, understanding the whole
concept of a music video production would
have been a difficult task, and therefore this
technology was crucial to all aspects of my
production.

6. The making of my music video
Camera Equipment
• To shoot my music production, I borrowed
a HD camera and tripod from school.
• This was also the same equipment that I
used to film the section of my music video
in London – and therefore had to be careful
with the equipment in a busy city center –
however before filming I wrote a detailed
shot list and evaluated my risk assessment.
Redhead Lights
• I also borrowed the red head lights – and
used a colour film to put over the lights
when shooting to give the effect of pink /
red lighting.
• This use of technology particularly helped
me in conforming to my music videos genre
conventions and helped me create the
sense of style and mood I wanted to create.

7. The making of my music video
Final Cut Express
• To create my music video I used the
editing software Final Cut Express.
Luckily I was familiar with the
program and was relatively easy to
use. The most challenging aspect of
using this software was that this
time using it I had to learn how to
edit my original song to my artist lip
singing. In particular, I used the
marker tool to match up both sets
of audio to create perfect lip
syncing. In addition the software
allowed me to edit the colour of my
shots, and apply different colour
tints and fades. The software was
crucial to my production.

8. The making of my ancillary product; poster
and Digipak
Lumix Camera
• To shoot the original images for both of my
ancillary products I used my own Lumix
digital camera. The images that I took were
mainly in London, of buildings and scenic
long shots, such as the one from the top of
Primrose hill which features in my Digipak.
However, due to illness, I could organize or
meet my actor who lip synced my original
song and there fore had to take screenshots
from the film I had taken. Luckily these
were of a good enough quality to use.
However, I did have a few original images
that I had luckily taken on the day of
filming, and used one of them within my
one of the sections of my Digipak (top left).

9. The making of my ancillary product; poster
and Digipak
Photoshop
• To create both my Digipak and my poster I used the
software Photoshop, which again I had previous
experience of using. Within the process, I was able to
learn about the different editing tools, particularly
when making my poster, such as drawing over an
image with the different tools and then deleting the
original image to create the impression of an outline; I
used this technique within my poster. I also learnt how
to import all the different sections of my Digipak which
I had made separately, and then put them together to
create a net. I also used the opacity tool when making
the CD Inner section of my Digipak, so that there was a
faint image of a CD template, shown in the photo
below.
• Photoshop was again crucial to the creation of my
ancillary products, and was software that was
relatively easy to use and pick up quickly.

10. Evaluation Process
Prezi and Slide share
• I used both the presentation online software of
Prezi and Slide share to present the answers to
my evaluation questions. Both software was free
and easy to use online. For Prezi, it was a simple
and effective way of presenting both text and
images in a clear presentation process, and a
range of formats and themes to choose from.
Both presentation software helped me a great
deal and made my evaluation exploration look
more aesthetically pleasing and exemplified the
different pieces of media technologies I have
used.

11. Evaluation Process
iMovie
• I used iMovie when editing my video
feedback. Here I recorded some of my
fellow students watching my music video
and reacting to it. I was able to edit it, so
that while the feedback video was playing
there was also my music video playing in
the left hand corner which meant that you
could see exactly what my audience were
reacting to. This helped me gain some really
crucial feedback that I was able to use, and
understand what the most effective
elements of my production was.