This is for my fourth evaluation post for my A2 Media Studies coursework.

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

2. AS Portfolio
In my AS portfolio in Year 12, I was required to create a film opening for a genre of
our choice. We, as a group, chose to create a film opening with genre of a
detective thriller. To create this, I did research into these genres and their
conventions as it was a hybrid genre. I completed this research to understand
what was required when creating a text. As film openings are generally short, it
would be crucial to be accurate and succinct to get out meanings across. To
present my research findings, I used a variety of presentation methods and
uploaded via blogger. This is because blogger is a widely accessible platform that
is easy to navigate and view, making my work clearer.

3. A2 Portfolio
For my A2 advanced portfolio, I was required to create a music video as well as
the ancillary texts of the digipak for an album as well as a promotional poster for
the album. The artist which I promoted was a newly-created artist, and we worked
in a group for the music video. For this work, I again did research into pre-existing
examples to help guide and form our music video construction. Again I used a
variety of presentation methods and uploaded them to ‘blogger’ as it was easier to
navigate. The presentation methods I used include prezis, slideshare, word
documents and a YouTube video for our music video. Since there were more than
one texts as part of this portfolio, we worked as a group in planning and producing
the music video, however I worked by myself in designing and producing both my
digipak and my poster.

4. Presentation
For the research section within the A2 portfolio, I used the methods such as
prezis, slideshare and word documents to present this information. For the more
complex and detailed work, I used prezis as it made it easier to include a large
amount of text in a manageable style and amount. Slideshares and word
documents were used to vary the presentation to show my creativity in presenting
the research. For our initial ideas as part of a group, we scanned in the image
from the paper that we planned on however this was not easily visible. To make it
easier to view, we uploaded it as a digital mindmap using ‘mindmeister’ which was
very clear to read. We presented our music video by embedding it as a video onto
the blog, and we used YouTube as it is a popular video sharing website. The
presentation methods that I used during A2 were the same as AS as it is a clear
and effective way of presenting the material.

5. Hardware and Software
For my A2 pre-production sections, I used my chromebook to research and write out my
findings, whilst using software such as Google and YouTube to collate my information. In
regards to my pre-production, we initially used paper to produce these initial ideas however
we used the programme ‘mindmeister’ through Google to reproduce this. For our filming, we
used a variety of cameras to film. Firstly we used a Sony HD camcorder which was the basic
handheld camera that we used. We also used a Nikon DSLR camera to record some of the
more advanced and clearer shots, as well as a specialist lens for different effects. As we
hadn’t got access to either of these cameras during filming for the bathroom interior shots,
we used a Samsung J5 mobile phone camera as an alternative so it was recorded. In the
post-production stage, we used a Mac computer to edit our music video, however we used
the iMovie software for this editing. In regards to my digipak and poster, I used a Mac
computer as the hardware and used Adobe Photoshop to edit both of these products. For
the pictures for the digipak and poster, I used a Nikon DSLR for the higher quality images.

6. Hardware and Software - AS
In comparison to my A2 portfolio, my AS portfolio used much the same hardware
and software. For the research of our genres and pre-existing examples, I used
my Chromebook and used Google to complete this research. For our planning
section of the film opening, we used the Chromebooks to type up a script however
we drew our storyboards on paper before scanning them digitally to place on the
blog.
Whilst filming our film opening, we used two different cameras. We used the Sony
HD camcorder to film the majority of the footage, however when we went to film
outside it stopped working so we had to used the Samsung J5 mobile phone
camera to record that particular footage. When editing this footage together, we
used the Mac computer and uploaded the footage onto this before editing it
together to the final product by using the software Final Cut Pro.

7. Overall Comparison
After completing both of these portfolios, I am able to look back and evaluate my
skill development over the two years. In regards to my AS portfolio, I believe that
my research was fairly well-written and well-structured onto different presentation
documents. However in regards to the film opening itself, I believe that the
cameras that we used were not of the best quality which limited the quality of our
footage before editing. We didn’t have access to the more technical camera,
however we did the best we could with the particular camera we used. In regards
to the editing, we used Final Cut Pro which required a higher skill level. As it was
the first time any of us in the group had used it, we struggled with it and were not
able to complete the work to our highest standard.

8. Overall Comparison
In comparison to the A2 portfolio, my research documents are to the highest of my
ability and their presentation is more refined and more succinct than that of A2. My
varying presentation methods helps to keep it ‘different’ as none of the documents
look identical, nor do they look vastly different. In regards to the filming, the quality
of the footage was much higher due to the more technical Nikon DSLR camera
being used which helped increase the quality of our video in comparison to the AS
film opening. We also used different editing software as we had previous
knowledge and experience of using iMovie, which helped in creating what we
wanted in a more efficient and time-saving the way. The editing was much better
because of this as it made sure we were completing the task with pre-existing
skills to the best of our abilities, unlike at our AS level.