This is question four.

1. QuestionFour- How did you use mediatechnologiesinthe construction and research, planningand
evaluation stages?
To presentquestionfourI will usesseveral Web2.0 sites.These will allow me toshow some toolsin
use andexplaineverythingindetail, alongwithvisibleexamples.The mainmediatechnologyIwilluse
isPinterest,becauseitwill provideme with enoughspace toexplainthetoolsthatIusedinPhotoshop
andFinal CutProX.Screencastswill beusedforthisquestion,asexamplesare bettertobe seenrather
than talked about.
During the research and planning stages I used many different Web 2.0 sites such as Pinterest,
Thinglink, Prezi, Survey Monkey, Popplet and Padlet etc. These were helpful in the research and
planning stages because they allowed me to easily share, edit, and develop my work as they work
from online sources.
For my research section, the first media technologyI used was Pinterest, which was an easy way to
collectideasthat I foundinteresting.Icreated three differentPinterestboardswhichallowedme to
accumulate a collectionof ideasthat I mightbe able to use for future use whenit comesto creating
the advert and digipak. Pinterest is a place to collate ideas and it is also a place to add music videos
that attracted my attention; this allowed me to have all of my options in one place.
Pinterestdoes,however,have limitationsincludingthe amountof words I was allowedtoinclude as
part of the descriptionof the productsthatIpinnedonthe specificboard.However,Pinterestwasnot
designed for essays - it was designed to allow people to collect and share ideas, with simple
descriptions. So for the purpose of the software I believe it was good to use as it houses all of my
starting ideas and helped with Photoshop techniques.
HavingdifferentPinterestboardsopengave me the chance to gaincreative skillsfromothersandtry
them out on my own products. This gave me the opportunity to be creative as it gave me a starting
point to all the other possibilities that Photoshop held.
I had to doseveral analysesonothermediaproductsaspart of research.To do this,Ineededarange
of differentmediatechnologiestomake the analysiseasytounderstandandread.I believe Thinglink
was very useful regarding this as it allowedme to keep my analysis on topic regarding the subject I
wasdiscussing.Thisgave me aneasystructure tofollow asthe appearance of anew dotmeantthat a
new section had been analysed.
Thinglink has some weaknesses because of the way the document is set out after comments have
beenadded. The reasonI thinkthisisa weaknessisbecause whenacommentisaddedtothe image
thathas beenplaced,the dotthatisusedisquitesubstantialinsize,anditthereforecoverstheimage.
Someone that is reading the comments may not be able to see what the comment is talking about
because the dot holding its place could be blocking the comment or the image.
This also means that the comments need to be either limitedto a few characters, or joining several
commentsintoone dot onthe page.I didnot like thisfeature onThinglinkasitwouldnothave been
possible toaddmore commentstothe page,infearof the image beingblockedcompletely.Thinglink
is a new software to me and I found it very helpful as it gave me a new way to present my analysis;
beingable toputa dot onthe exactpointof the article thatI wasanalysingwasveryhelpful asitgave
a betterstructure tothe analysisthanusing,forexample,MicrosoftWord,where arrowsand/orbrief
comments are spread around the page to try and pinpoint the source I was analysing.
Word is an everyday media technology for nearly everyone, but it allows a basis for professional
reports.I useda Word documentforanalysisandshotcount activities duringthe researchstage.The

2. Word documentwas easy to work withand it allowedimagestobe placedthroughout,makingsure
that the documentwasnot boringand unappealing.Itwasextremelyhelpful touse Wordbecause it
is easy to use, and it has so much room to continuously add as much detail as I wish, showing that
there are no limitationstothe amount I can write on thisplatform.However,one limitationof Word
isthat noanimationcanbe added,thereforeexamplescannotbe shownclearlyif theyare inthe form
of a video;thismeanstheymustbe explainedindetail before being able to begin evaluating them.
The Worddocumentthenneededtobe uploadedtoSlideShare,andSlideshareinstantlymakesallthe
animation on the documents still, illustrating that Word and SlideShare are a good combination as
both do not include animation. Uploading to SlideShare is important as it then allowsme to get the
embeddedcode to be able to add this to my blog. One strength of SlideShare is that it allows me to
presentmyinformationclearlyandthe audience caneasilymanoeuvre throughthe document.Word
allowed me to develop my creativity because the software allowed me to be professional, but I was
able to push the professional boundary until the work was set out in a creative way.
Survey Monkey is a valuable piece of technology to have because it sends out a questionnaire to
several people atonce.Aftercompletion,itwill collecteachanswerandstore itindifferentwayssuch
as percentages, graphs, bar charts etc. I used Survey Monkey because I needed some audience
feedback to my music video idea.
A limitationtothissoftwareisthatIcouldonlyinclude 10questionstoaskpeople,andif thequestions
wentover thisamountthen the software startedto charge money.On the otherhand, the software
had many strengthsincludingbeingable tocreate differentstylesof questionssuchas multi-choice,
open and closed questions and ordered etc. Having different typesof questions made sure that the
audience could not just tick a box and move onto the next question, they had to write and explain
reasonsfortheirpoint.Thisdetail wasnecessaryinorderforme tobe able toanalyse theirfeedback.
Survey Monkey helped me to become more creative with my questions, as I needed to devise
questions that the audience could not answer with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’; I needed to make them
considerthe questionsasmuchastheycould.Beinglimitedinthe amountof questionsIcouldinclude
was, however, beneficial because it made sure that I got to the points that I needed straight away.
Another benefit of Survey Monkeyis the way in which it collectsthe information from the audience
and thenchanges the data to make it more visual.Beingable to visualise the datamade it easierfor
me to analyse my results.
Prezi allowed me to create my audience profilesfor my research and filter who wouldbe my target
audience for my music video. I managed to create two profiles - one of a male and one of a female,
botharound similarages.These profileswerecreatedtoshow whatthe audience’scharacterswould
typically feature.
I triedtolimitmyuse of PreziasmuchasIcouldbecause itdoesnotgive me muchroomtoworkwith,
which is a limitation. Having work that features lots of detail cannot be transferred onto the Prezi
software,butis a strengththat it isan upgradedversionof PowerPoint.There are more thingsto do
on it and better design templates, but trying to expand the templates is a hard task as everything
needs to be moved and connections need to be added. This is a weakness because it is a very
complicated software; for simple, quick and professional looking presentations, however, it is very
efficient.
Using Prezi greatly developed my creativity because different backgrounds can be found to go with
the subject of the text. For example the audience profile Prezi that I created lookedlike a Facebook
profile which I thought was fitting considering I was creating an audience profile.

3. Planning required me to find advanced creative software that I could work with and create new
products such as my company logo, which I created using Photoshop. Photoshopwas used in the
planning stages, however, it was only briefly used in order to create a logo that I could include on
products so that I could emphasise brand identity.
One weakness of Photoshop is that it takes a long time to become accustomed too, but once I was
used to the way in which it functions, I could create products that were to a professional standard.
There are such a vast range of tools to learn how to use on Photoshop that it is impossible to
rememberthemall overthe short periodof time that I neededtouse it for,howeverIdidlearn new
toolsthisyear,and theyhave helpedprogressmyworkand give itmore creativity.Mylogo waseasy
to create on Photoshopbecause ithad all of the toolsthere to be able to achieve whatI wantedmy
logotolooklike.The factthatthere are somanypossibilitieswiththissoftware inthatnew andunique
designs are repeatedly introduced, is a key strength of Photoshop.
Photoshophasbeenusedtocreate twoof my mainproducts:mydigipakandadvert.I hadto overlap
images and change their settings, then rub out the extra overlapping in order to be able to see the
singersface clearly.WhenonPhotoshop,Iusedarange of toolssuchasthe colourreplacement,quick
selection, horizontal type, eraser, rectangular marquee, move and set foreground colour tool.
Quick selection tool was used in the making of my digipak and advert. I used this to select the
background around my actor so that I could work with just my actor’s silhouette; this tool was
extremely useful because it is quicker than having to draw lines around the image. The colour
replacement tool was used to change the colour of the image - I needed the image to be different
colours so that I could overlay the images and come out with an improved product.
The eraser tool was important in the making of my products because it allowed me to rub out the
extrafaceswhenthe imageswere overlapped,whichwasextremelyhandybecauseitthenmade the
face defined. The limitations were that if the wrong layer was rubbed out then the face would
disappear and need to be fixed.
Lastly,the horizontal typetool wasusedtoapplytexttomyancillarytexts,whichwereusedtoinform
the audience what the artist is called and what the album is entitled. There were limitations to this
tool,however,aswhenIclickedontextthatIhadalreadycreated,the toolcreatedanew layerof text
which I did not need. Each product had to link together so I had to think of creative ways in which I
could show they were discussing the same product.
Media technologies used in the construction phase were complicated, and they needed to be
experimented with before any of the footage or images were added to them. The primary
technologies I used were Photoshop, YouTube, Final Cut Pro X, and the camera, which was a Canon
EOS 700D.
YouTube wasthe simplesttechnologytouse andIonlyneededittobe able topublishmyvideos,and
thenlinkthem up withmy blog,this was important,however,asthe examinerneededtobe able to
witnessmyvideo’sprogress.YouTube,however,didhave aweaknesswhenitcame touploadingthe
video, because it took an extremely long time to process and then even longer to publish. After the
videowas on YouTube,I was able to share the web linkwithmy specifictargetaudience.Thiswas a
strength of YouTube as it is easily shared to receive feedback, and it is easy to access via YouTube.
To be able tofilmdifferentshotsIhadtouse acamera,(CanonEOS700D) andwiththe helpof atripod
I wasable tostart filmingdifferentscenes.Becausethe camerahadbeenupdatedtoanewerversion,

4. my footage came out clear and detailed, which gave a more professional look to my footage. I was
able todo lotsof differentshotswiththe camerasuchasshallow andpull focus,medium, long,close-
up,extreme close upshotsetc.The functionsIusedonthe camerawere autofocusandmanual focus,
zoomlensand the recordingbutton.The zoomlenswasa functionIusedin orderto be able to zoom
in or out on different objects. The autofocus corresponds well with the zoom, as it makes sure
everything stays in focus when it is zooming in or out.
I used the camera to acquire footage for my music video, for the photoshoot and for my
digipak/advert. Everything captured on the camera was used; even if it wasn't featured on my
products,the rusheswere still shownonmy blog as progress.I had no difficultyusingthe cameraas
it was similarto the one I usedon my AS course.This meantthat I alreadyhad knowledge of howto
use the camera, meaning I could use it with more skill and more efficiency.
I had to become creative withmyshotsbecause ina musicvideothe shotsare neverstagnant - they
are always moving. I needed to think of shots to film that moved and also fitted in the frame.Every
shotneededtobe thoughtaboutcarefullysothatlesshadto be changedonthe editingsoftware.An
example frommymusicvideowouldbe the scene at 3:04; thisshot placesmy actor inthe middle of
the screen, so that when the camera zooms in she is always fully in the shot.
The camera has its strengths because it aids the filming as it makes sure things are in focus when
filming, but there is also an option to manually focus the footage which is a strength because being
giventhe optiontochoose howit needstobe filmedhelpscreate differentshots.Imanuallyfocused
myshotsinthe scene where Icreatedapull focus;thesceneinwhichthe twoactorsare inTaekwondo
class aboutto fightisan example of this.The camera is overPhoebe'sshoulderandgoesfrom being
in focus from Phoebe's head to then pull focusing to Lauren's face.
Final CutPro X allowedme tocreate ananimaticstoryboard,bydoingthisitgave me the opportunity
to see any gaps inmy story.Because I did not have enoughshots to cover the full song,I had to add
more detail into the animatic storyboard to make sure I had an idea of how many shots I needed in
my musicvideo.Alsoon Final Cut Pro X, I usedthe timeline tobe able to editthe shots to the beats.
To do thisI had to use the wavelengthsshowninthe software whenthe songwasadded.Ihas to see
where the wave lengthsdiffered,thismeantthat there was a beatthere,and a new shot neededto
be shown at that point.
This mediatechnologyhasseveral strengthsandno weaknesses(thatI have encounteredasof yet).
The strengths include being able to add effects onto the footage, changing the tones and colours,
puttingmarkersintothe clipto helpmatchthe lipsyncingupetc. All of these allow the producttobe
tiedtogethersothat all of the footage lookslike itisfrom the same video,suchas keepingthe same
effect on the full video. Creativity can be gained from this media technology because I was able to
experimentwithall piecesof the software to see what wouldhappento my footage.I was also able
to work with thought beats to create a better and more effective music video.
As mentionedbeforeIusedFinal CutProX duringmy constructionstage.Thissoftware helpedme to
edit all of my footage and join themtogether to make a finishedmusic video.I was also able to add
transitions to the next shot and add effects onto the footage because of the software. Some of the
tools I used where Select, Blade, Snapping,Markers, and Retime.All of these tools were vital to the
construction of my music video.
The select tool was the easiest tool to use, as it moved the footage around, and allowed me to click
on the footage to be able to see the optionsitheld.The tool I usedthe most in constructionwasthe

5. blade tool, as it allowed me to cut all of the unnecessary footage out of the video. This meantthat
myfootage wasnotpiledontopof eachother,whichmakesthe constructionharderif itwaslikethat.
AlsoIusedthe feature thatallowedme toretime myfootage,thiswas‘customspeed’.Ihadmade my
actor sing the song 1.5x faster than the song is, so that when the video was retimed, it gave an
emphasisedeffectwiththe lip-syncing. Iusedthe custom speedtoput the footage back to a normal
speed, and this mean making the speed 67%in the software.
There wasanissue withthissoftware asthe retime isnotexactly convertedback,becausethe retimed
footage cannot be changed to the exact decimal of time that it needed to be. Snapping was a very
useful tool asitmakesure thattherewasnogapsinmyfootage,asitsnappedallthe footage together.
This did cause a problem when I was trying to go close to the footage but not exactly on it, but this
waseasilyresolvedbyquicklyturningthistooloff.AlsoIusedmarkerswhichallowedme tomake the
footage and the music,doingthishelpedme findthe pointI neededinbothpiecesandjointhem up
simply.Iusedthe markersto findthe beatinthe music,and to linkthe lip-syncing up with the song.
The effectsthatIhave usedonFinal CutProXisalighten,thishasbeenusedonthe lipsyncingsections
of the musicvideo.Ihave usedthiseffecttobe able to add some colourintothe shot. Addingcolour
into the shot made sure that there was a link between the video, advert and digipak. The main
transition I have used on my music video is the gradientimage,because it allows the scenes to flow
into each other better than they were at the start.
A limitation to the software is how it does not accept some file formats correctly, meaningit makes
the footage bury. But other than that is has no other limitations when it comes to the software, as
longas youknowhow to do a specificeffectthenthe software will workproperlyandapplyitto the
footage.I hadto learnhowto do differenttechniquesonthe footage soI believe usingthissoftware
has made me more creative and has widened my knowledge.
My evaluationgivesme the opportunitytouse asmany of the mediatechnologiesthatI can possibly
incorporate intomy work. I will house all of these on anotherwebsite calledWix.Eachquestionwill
have differentmethodsof presentations.Allof the mediatechnologieshavetheirlimitationsbutthey
also have their own strengths. Therefore, I have chosen to use a collection of media technologies
which will make sure my evaluations are still in detail but in different methods of presentations to
make sure the descriptions do not become boring to read or view.
I am choosingtouse a Wix because Ihave usedone before(formyevaluationinASlevel).Thismeans
that Iknowhowtouse iteffectively,andIwouldliketohave asoftware thatIamfamiliarwithsothat
nothing goes wrong. The main reason behind my decision to use a Wix is that I know that all of the
Web 2.0 websites are compatible with this site,therefore my use of technology will not be limited.
With my Wix I am able to designitbasedon differentideas,suchaspresentingitina way that looks
like it is the record label’s site.
In AS,I hadsevendifferentevaluationquestions,whichmeantIneededanew methodtopresentmy
work for eachquestion.This yearI only have fourquestionswhichmeansIcan use a combinationof
the Web 2.0 sites for each question - I aim to feature at least 2 different Web 2.0 sites for each
question.LastyearIcreatedanewscastforquestionone andthistime Iwill alsocreateavideo.Ihave
decided that the first question this year is more adapted to a discussion of a music video, so I will
attempttoput thisquestioninaninterestingvideoform.Questiontwowasalsoavideo,butthisyear
I want to use many websites so I am avoiding using the same presentation method twice.

6. I useda Prezi as a methodof presentationlastyear,butI didnot like how the Prezi turnedout,and I
do not think that it is an effective way to present my evaluation questions as of this year.
Consequently, I realised that it would be beneficial for me to try a new website: Emaze. Last year,
Questionsix allowedme tobrieflydiscussthe differenttechnologiesused,butItisQuestionfourthis
yearthat allowsme to go intodetail aboutwhichtoolsIhave usedand what theirdisadvantagesand
advantages where.
I believe thatI have developedfromlastyear as I have used differenttoolsandmediatechnologies.
For example,last year I hardly used Photoshop, but this year two of my main products relied on
Photoshop. Because of this, I have learnt how to use Photoshop in general and have created some
very good products from this software that I am proud of.