A2 media

2. I used media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages.

3. However when evaluating what type of technologies my
team used, one everyday item was an essential,
smartphones, however, in my case the IPhone.

4. The use of Iphones created a quick and efficient way of
communicating amongst other things. The team in which I was
in that consisted of me, and two other girls called Nina and
Libby, used our iPhones to I message one and other and
communicate our ideas for when we wanted to meet up and
create our music videos.

5. This extremely quick source of communication helped us dramatically and is
a brilliant example of modern technology used in everyday life, We used our
iPhone for communication during the construction of our video, as well as it
actually being used in our video as a prop to make it look
more real and true to the life of a
teenager, the Iphone itself was
filmed within the music video
and was used to send a text
which would inform the party
guests that the main character
who was being surprised with
a party for her 18th birthday,
was outside.

6. I phones were also used in the background of shots, again
emphasising the stereotypes of teenagers.

7. As well as using our phones to communicate via Imessage,
we also used an app called WhatsApp, which we used to
create a group chat between the three of us, and enabled us
to send voice notes and fast messages to one and other
when planning the construction of our video.

8. In order to create a ‘home made video’ look to our video, we
also used our iphones to record some footage, which
contrasted against the high quality Nikon camera in which we
used.

9. We also used social networking apps including
Facebook and twitter. These two social media
sites helped us to not only communicate with one
and other, but they were used during the planning
and evaluating stages including audience
feedback

10. Also, whilst I was creating the video, my team and I were only able to
edit and construct our video at college as none of us had a software at
home, I found that this was a setback and if I had the programme, I
would have been able to possibly add more to the video, however I
believe it’s at its full potential, also, I think if we were to have an apple
mac at home, I could have switched between the two software’s.

11. During the planning stage of our video, Mind genius
was a software which helped my team to gain ideas,
We each did our own mindmap and compared them. I
found it to be difficult to understand at times however
after a while of using it I got used to it and was able to
use it efficiently and create a mind map of an ideas
generation.

12. I believe it helped us a lot as when we first put our
ideas together on the software for our initial thought of
the narrative for a music video, we changed our minds
and then produced another mind map. After
comparing our two ideas, we chose our second idea,
as I stated within my production diary. I believe seeing
it on screen with the help of mind genius helped us
come to a decision.

13. I also believe that another piece of brilliant technology
which we would not been able to create our video
without was the cameras in which we used. As well as
using an iPhone camera, we also used a Nikon
camera. We used this piece of technology a lot for
both ancillaries and our final products. This use of this
technology enabled us to have some high quality
footage within our video aswell as the home video
effect we wanted to portray with the iphone camera.

14. Camera Example shot

15. As you can see there is a clear distinction in the
difference of quality, however this was purposely done.
The majority of shots are ‘shakey’ in which creates a
home made movie effect which we believed the
audience would find more enjoyable as they would feel
they could engage with it more. Some of the ‘home
made movie’ shots and hand held shots of the video
was filmed with the Nikon camera aswell as the iphone

16. Along with the camera, we also used a tripod, however
we did not use a tripod much of the time, using a tripod
helped us create the shots we wanted,
and was mainly used at the beginning
of our music video however with the
following footage, we wanted to
create a hand-held effect, if we
were to have used a tripod
throughout the whole of our video,
we wouldn’t have got this effect.

17. After filming and using the camera, we then needed
to edit the footage we had recorded on the camera
and on our phones, and then create the music video.
To do this we used the windows
computers in college and a
software called adobe premiere pro

18. Adobe premiere pro is a top of the range programme and
therefore allowed us to edit and piece our clips together
and produce the end product in which we wanted to create.
I believe we did this in a
very professional way
and that this software was
crucial in creating our
video to the standard
that it is at.

19. As well as our final product, we also had to create two ancillary products
including a
CD digipak
and a
magazine
advert which
we then
would
compare and
contrast with
our final
music video.

20. During the process of planning and making the two
ancillaries, I used adobe Photoshop on both my
laptop at home and the college computers as I was
able to download a 30 day trial.
I was able to alternate between college and home as I
was able to access Photoshop and create my ancillary products
easily,
I have used Photoshop before and I find it very interesting to use.

22. Aswell as those in previous slides, the internet also helped
me when researching before producing our music video as
we used many different websites on the internet, we found it
easy to use as we use the internet every day switching
between internet explorer and google chrome

23. The internet helped me to gain a lot of information and
ideas when deciding what to use in my product in terms of
the way it should look. Using social websites such as twitter
and Facebook helped me gather ideas, as it helped us to
plan our music video better and also gain audience
feedback once our first draft of our music video was
complete which was when we made massive improvements

24. YouTube was a big part of our research before we
actually started to plan and create our video. It
allowed us to look at other existing music videos and
then gain ideas

25. My team and I also used YouTube to get our music video
out there. We uploaded our first draft and our final music video.
One team member uploaded it so that we each had the same link.
Draft edit Final music video

26. Similar to using Youtube to look at existing music
videos, I also looked at a range of existing products
on google images to find existing CD Digi packs and
music advertisements.

27. The search engine which I used to find everything I was
looking for including previous examples of existing Digi
packs, etc., was google, it helped me when planning
constructing and researching. I have always used
google and it was a very important tool for my team.

28. As my team and I are big fans of pop music, we decided to first of all
watch pop music videos such as Beyoncé and Rihanna, followed by
other genres in order to gain more understanding of music video
conventions and what we should include in our own video.
Beyonce – ‘XO’,
having fun, laughing with friends.
Rihanna – ‘We found love’,
fast paced edits, strobelights, slow
motion, etc.
Emeli Sande – ‘What I did for love’,
Bright pink colour scheme throughout.

29. Facebook was used to create Facebook focus
groups which we used to gain primary research and
helped us gain ideas from audiences to see what
people liked the most when it comes to music
videos. We did this by creating a survey and placing
the link onto Facebook.
I also used this method in order to gain feedback
from my initial draft edit which we then used to
improve our video based on peoples responses

31. We created a survey on a website which I only started
to use during the media course, called survey monkey, I
had never heard of the website before starting college,
however I believe it was beneficial to me as it allowed
me to gain people’s views, responses and interests via
a short and simple survey over the internet.

32. I used social media sites such as twitter and facebook,
and I also used outlook to email the survey monkey link
to others so that they could fill it in and I would then
receive their responses.

33. Similar to survey, monkey, I also only started to use blogger when
I started the media course, I had also never heard of this before, I
used blogger to display my coursework on, ranging from my
product research to my final product, to evaluating it. I believe
blogger has helped me as it has enabled me to display my
coursework between the two years in a very efficient and modern
way.

34. I found blogger to be fairly confusing when I first started to
use it. I also had to use other websites which would convert certain
presentations into the correct format in order for me to display them
onto blogger itself, for example slide share. When I wanted to place a
presentation onto blogger, like this presentation itself… I had to save
it as a document and then log onto my online slide share account,
upload my attachment, and then copy the converted link into my blog.
I had to do this method with a range of other websites, one of which
was Prezi.

35. Prezi is another way to display work, it is an
online programme which adds a modern way of
presenting information and coursework to the
audience, I used Prezi for the first time during
my media course, and I used it a lot to display
information throughout my advanced portfolio
aswell as my foundation portfolio.

36. I believe social networking sites is a great way of getting your work
out there and ensuring as many people as possible can view it.
One of the social networking sites we used to distribute our music
videos was on Facebook.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites,
alongside twitter, the two of them are the most easiest to promote
and share products. Facebook was useful as it helped distribute
our work to friends and wider audiences.

37. My team and I occasionally felt like we were
being set back by technology as we fell into a
range of difficulties

38. Our main difficulty was with adobe premier as it began to
lag a lot when playing our video and it therefore stopped us
seeing the full potential quality.
We also had issues loading clips onto the software and
exporting the final draft of the video.
However we came to the conclusion that it was the specific
computer in which we were using to edit our product which
had a range of faults and repeatedly crashed.

39. I also believe that my team had a lot of time which was
wasted, for example when memory
sticks which included work from
home were forgotten, another way
in which time was wasted was
when the college internet was
down whilst completing my product
research before hand.

40. However, overall the technology I used was amazing and it
helped me and my team work efficiently and allowed us to
create a product which we believe is at its best ability.
I believe that without using all of the different media
technologies which we used, we wouldn’t have been able
to create the end product as well as we did or to any similar
standard, aswell as presenting our work including
evaluations and product research.