Detailed collection of the various media technologies i have used throughout my portfolio.

1. EvaluationQuestion 4
Technology Uses Benefitsand Drawbacks
Photoshop Photoshop was the pivotal
programme withinthe creation of
my ancillarytexts. Its vast array of
editing features made it the most
appropriatesoftware to use due to
its photo manipulation capabilities.
Photoshop is hugely popularacross
the world and its use is well
documented on the internet,
meaning I was able to get to grips
with the more complicated editing
techniques with help from internet
bases sources such as forums or
YouTubevideos.
Photoshop is one of the most
popularand effective photo
editing software availableto
date. Its popularitymeant
tutorialswhere easily to find on
the internet. Its capabilities
provided me with everything I
needed to create the ancillary
texts.
Due to its professional
features, access to Photoshop is
limited to certain computers in
college and outside of school is
very hard to get hold of without
paying a premium price for its
services.

2. Premiere Pro Premier pro is the video editing
software I favoured when making my
music video. Though I had other
software availableto me, Premier
Pro was the most suitable option.
This programme was responsible for
the sequencing and editing of my
video, and combined by audiotrack
to the video footage.
It was my first time using this
software and its user friendly
layout made it easy to adaptto
its features. Its capabilities
provided me with a great video
manipulationtool, helpingme
through the entire editing
phase of my music video.
It’s not easily Accessible and
issues regarding the loss of
work and technicalissues
surrounding video clips
hindered the editing phase, and
perhapsreduced the time
availableto rework my video.

3. Blogger Blogger is the internet applicationI
used in order to document my media
portfolio. Its flexibilityin presenting
different media forms is what made
it particularlyappealingto me. It’s
cohesive nature allowedme to
present my work through Prezi’s,
Presentations/slide share and also
allowedme to incorporate video and
images which was part helpful
during the research and planning
stages of my music video.
Many ways of presenting
informationmeans your blog
can be diverse and interesting,
also allowing for easy
integration of other formats
such as YouTubevideos,
images, slide shares and Prezi’s.
Embedding images and
video’susing the HTML features
provided numerousproblems
and often resulted in variations
to the format of the page.

4. Survey Monkey Survey Monkeyscame in particularly
handy during the planningand
research phase of my project. It
allowedme to create audience
surveys which used a combinationof
demographic and pyschoeographic
questions, and gave me initialideas
about what my audienceexpected
from my products. It helped to
identify who my audience was, their
interests, and their views on the
issues that I wanted to explore
within my music video.
Compatiblewith mobile
phones meaning access to the
results of the survey could be
viewed quickly and easily. This
also meant more people had
access to the survey and it was
more convenientfor them to
complete the survey, as they
would not have to log onto a
computer, instead having access
from their mobile phone.
Some of the more advanced
features that would have
helped me refine my audience
even further required payment.

5. Prezi Prezi provided me with a modern
and dynamic way of presenting
information.I used Prezi to present
certain research tasks such as the
conventionsof the medium, and the
conventionsof the genre. Its
presentationsare easily integrated
with Blogger, making it an efficient
and user friendly application touse.
Prezi was preferable when
wanting to add video clips from
YouTubeinto the presentations,
made easy with the interface of
Prezi. This was important
because a key factor in
presenting research on music
videosis the music videos
themselves.
Some features are harder to
standardise on Prezi such as
text and colourformatting,
meaning presentationscan
easily look unprofessional when
great care and attention is not
taken.

6. Microsoft Word Microsoft word is a useful tool for
writing up notes and ensuring that
they make sense before I post them
up onto my blog. The office
programme allowedme to make
concise virtual notes that would aid
me throughout every process of the
media coursework. It provided a
great way of making notes in lesson
when independentlyresearching
music videos and theory work. It was
also used to present what props I
would be using in my products. In
the evaluationstage, it remained
extremely useful and its word
processing and easy to use interface
made it easier to carry out the
evaluationandtype up written
responses.
Its basic layoutand text
formatting capabilitiesmake it
the best choice for large written
responses. Word is easy to
access and is very easy to use
and customization is high
meaning you can make long
chunks of text visually
interesting too – this means
that creating work on word and
then transferring an image of it
onto blogger is a very effective
option.
The process of exporting
work from word to blogger is
made difficult as word doesn’t
have an optionto export
content in the form of an image
file.

7. Microsoft
PowerPoint
Microsoft power point is a great
alternativeto Prezi and allowsyou to
save files as images which can then
easily be put onto blogger. It became
extremely useful when performing
the analysisof existing digipaks and
magazine adverts, and its
functionalitywith text and images
meant such tasks where made very
simple. Furthermore, combining
PowerPoint with a slide share
account means your presentations
can be directly embedded into Prezi,
which makes for a sophisticatedway
of presenting information.
Unlike word, PowerPoint
makes exporting presentations
and individualslides incredibly
easy due to its optionalimage
file formats. PowerPoint is
perfect for integrating visual
images and text in a
professional manner. Unlike
Prezi, it rarely looks
unprofessionaldue to its
regulated text formatting
system.
Includingvideo clips and
YouTubevideos is difficult and
hard to export onto blogger
effectively. For this particular
function, Prezi should be used.

8. Camera – Nikon
COO LPIX L840
Arguably, the camera was one of the
most important pieces of technology
I used throughout the course.
Despite being used just a handfulof
times in my research and planning
stages, the camera gave me the
capabilitiesto take photos (for my
ancillarytexts), and videosfor my
music video. The camera was fully
HD, and had sophisticated features
includingauto-focus and manual
focus.
Auto focus made it easy to
film in focus, though manual
focus allowedme to
deliberatelyalter the focus
within a shot, allowingme to
abide by conventionsof the
medium. The zoom feature
allowedme to change the
magnificationduring a shot,
which made for interesting and
diverse shots.
The zoom feature was
sometimes hard to operate, and
was difficult to operate without
drawing attentionto the
changing magnification.

9. Phone My phone was vital when
communicatingwith my actor to
arrange times and locationsto meet
and film. My phone also came in
handy when taking some practice
shots, because unlike a camera, I
alwayshad access to it. These
practice shots made it easier for me
to visualise what I wanted my final
music video to look like.
Always had access to it and
the qualityof the camera meant
my practice shots were able to
give me a clearindicationof
what my video would look like.
The phone also comes with
many opportunitiesto edit and
put effects on photosand
videosmeaning I can try out
some ideasbefore executing
them for real on my final
products.
My phone was not able to be
fitted to attachments such as a
tripod or stabiliser, meaning
shots where often unstable and
didn’t look professional.

10. Internet The internet was vital in the research
phase of my project. The information
availableon the internet allowsyou
to educate yourself on the
fundamentaltheory work
surrounding this course, and also
helps you refine your ideas for your
music videos, by directing you to
important sites such as YouTube.
Gives great access to
important educationalresearch
which helps to make your
theory work thorough and
accurate.
Not all of the informationon
the internet is entirely accurate,
meaning it can take time to find
relevant and accurate
information.
Slideshare Slide share allowed me to upload
PowerPoint presentationsand word
documents onto my blog in the form
of a slide share. This process helped
me present informationIn different
way to keep my blog interesting and
engaging for the readers of the blog.
A great way to vary the
presentation of my blog and
quick and easy to do.
Problems sometimes occur
when logging in because my
account is linkedto Facebook
which is not easy to access
within college.

11. Tripod The tripod allowedme to rest the
camera and keep it still during shots.
This gave a more professional appeal
to my filming as steady shots are
found somewhere in almost every
music video. The tripod is idealfor
filming shots that are fixed to a
specific spot and remain stationary.
The tripodsavailableto me
gave me great choice in terms
of height and allowedme to
pan and tilt, enablingme to
perform more difficult shots in a
relativelysimple manner.
Having borrowed multiple
tripods through the production
phase; I found some features
such as the abilityto tilt the
camera down where not
working properly on certain
stabilisers which meant I was
not always able to produce
certain shots effectively.

12. Stabiliser In a similarmanner to a tripod, the
stabiliser helps to reduce the
movement of the camera. The
stabiliser was used to keep the
camera stable when performing such
shots as a tracking shot, whereas the
tripod was more suitable when
filming from a set location.
The stabiliser is convenient
for performing tracking shots or
shots that require the camera
to follow the movement of the
character.
Not as effective at steadying
the camera as a tripod, meaning
camera is not completely still.
Email Services such as email allowed me to
send my audience survey out to a
great number of people easily, and
also allowed me to send work to
myself from home to college.
Effective way of reaching
audiencequickly.
Some work is not easy to
email across, and emails are
often less convenientthan
other communicationsuch as
messaging or social media
services.

13. SD card The SD card meant I could save the
phot and video content from the
camera. Some SD cards are small in
storage, but I decided to purchase
my own and gave myself a
reasonableamount of storage,
allowingme to take more videos
without the risk of running out of
space.
Storage meant I had more
room for error when shooting
the music video. Purchasing my
own card meant I could avoid
waiting due to the limited
number of cards availablein
college.
Though the card worked fine
with the camera providedfrom
college, other camera that I
borrowed would not accept the
card.
USB stick This device meant I could easily get
the content from my SD card onto
the computer, without using
multipleleads or other less
convenientand time consuming
processes.
This method was very quick
and easy to perform, meaning
editing time was maximized.
Didn’t have unlimitedaccess
as had to borrow them from
college.