3. The first online tool I used was YouTube. YouTube allowed me to watch
existing music videos, which gave a sense of direction and inspiration.
I was provided with a wide range of information on formal conventions
and genre conventions in music videos, this helped me with the
decisions I was considering when constructing my own music video. I
found YouTube particularly useful when it came to finding music
videos from same/similar genres as it showed me ‘recommended
videos’, which reinforced my understanding on whether a convention
exists in that genre or not. Without YouTube, it would have been
difficult for me to analyse music videos effectively. This helped me
further on in the planning process as I knew what conventions were
needed in the genre and type of music video
Performance, Art, Narrative etc) that I wanted to produce.
4. When is came to sourcing our artist, we used a
variety media technologies. I signed up to sites like
SoundCloud, Bandcamp and Spotify so I had wider
access to unsigned artists which was very beneficial
as it allowed me to be particular/ ”picky” about the
artist I wanted. However, I came across my artist
whilst on Instagram after noticing a friend had
‘Liked’ his video. After hearing the 15 sec snippet, I
emailed him straightaway and he agreed to be a part
of the music video. This would not have been
possible if I did not use media technologies
effectively.
5. When it came to presenting, for example analysis of music
videos, album covers etc, I mainly used Microsoft PowerPoint as
a presentation source. The reason for this was because I was
able to display information and images clearly and use
arrows, bubbles to illustrate a point. Every now and again, I
would switch to Prezi, as I felt it was similar to PowerPoint, in
terms of portraying information clearly, but it was more
interactive due to the swift transitions from one point to
another. Furthermore, the website I chose to create my portfolio
on was Weebly. I am very happy that I chose this website as it is
very easy to use, especially for beginners. The main feature
which impressed me was the function of ‘dragging and
dropping’ the tool such as text boxes.
7. My group all had a mobile phone which was great as it meant we could
communicate with each other outside of school. Other than the phone
itself being very useful, apps such as WhatsApp made decisions easier
to make; we created a group chat were we would discuss and develop
our ideas and make plans for our production work and discuss any
issues we had without having to meet up. Another application which
was useful was ‘Maps’. Due to the filming location being unknown to
most of us, this app came in handy on the shooting day, it came with
more than one route which helped a lot. On the day of filming, we shot
with a Sony Nex-5 camera and at times, used either a tripod or
glidecam. As it was quite bright and sunny that day, we had to adjust a
few settings which we learnt via YouTube. When it came down to
editing, we went with Final Cut Pro as this was the most accessible
software we had. As I prior knowledge from AS on how to use it, I was
quite confident and played around with a lot more effects, including
reverse effect and colour correction.
9. When designing my digi-pak, I started off with creating it
on Photoshop as I had not used this software at AS and
wanted to experiment with it. It was extremely easy to use
than I had anticipated and I produced a well designed digi-
pak. The iPhone app ‘Pic Lab’ also inspired me with some
effects that I wanted to recreate on Photoshop. The app
consisted of a particular overlay in the shape of a
triangle, which I played around with until I achieved my
desired result. The online software which I decided to
create my portfolio was on Weebly, this is due to the ‘easy
to use’ functions and the variety of options available.
11. As I had used Prezi during my research and planning stage, I
was comfortable with all the functions and able to create a
well-put-together presentation. Therefore I used it to present
Question 1 as it was the best way to include images as well as
video clips. For Question 2, I decided to go with YouTube as
again, I was more confident when editing on Windows Movie
Maker. It was very basic but included some fun transitions.
Question 3 was created on Glogster as it was similar to
Prezi, where I could involve different media texts but did not
include swift transitions form one point to another.
Overall, the technologies used to create my evaluation
questions were simple, yet effective.
