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

2. Construction
• We used media technologies in the construction stages
by filming our music video on a HD camera. This enabled
us to ensure that we had a high resolution picture to
make sure that our music video looked as professional as
possible. It also meant that when we created our
ancillary tasks, we had a high resolution screen shot from
our music video.

3. • We used Final Cut Express to construct our
music video, we did this by uploading the
shots from the camera onto the mac and
converting them using Voltaic. We then
created a new Final Cut Express project and
imported the files into it. From here we could
then drag them into the timeline and arrange
them in the order that matched our
storyboard.

4. • As well as this we also
used a mobile phone to
purchase our track on
the iTunes store and
then uploaded it via
USB on to the Mac. We
then imported it in to
Final Cut and placed it
on our timeline.

5. • We also used media technologies throughout our
ancillary tasks, the main one being Adobe
PhotoShop. After we had taken a screenshot from
Final Cut Express, using the Mac screen capture
tool, we opened it in PhotoShop and began
constructing our poster and album cover. To do
this we used layers and the opacity tool to create
the effect of the lights and performer being in the
sky behind the protagonist. On top of this we
then inserted text to follow the conventions of a
poster and CD case to create an effective and
professional appearance.

6. Research
• We used media technologies in the research for our
promotional pack to create a good understanding of
what is expected of our products. For example, we
used YouTube for research in to music videos of the
same genre to find conventions which we could
use, develop or challenge to create an effective
product.
• Before creating our main products we also used Final
Cut and a HD camera to create both a performance
and a narrative preliminary task, to give us a better
understanding of how to combine
cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene
within a music video to make it effective.

7. • Within the research for our ancillary tasks we used media
technologies such as iTunes to see how an album cover
appears in a digital format, as people are now more likely
to buy music online than in hard copy format therefore the
appearance of the album cover on screen is just as
important as the printed version. We also used Google to
help us create a professional appearance of the back of the
album cover, for example what to write for copyright and
used the copy and paste tool on the Mac to place the
copyright symbol and barcode on to the back of our album
cover within PhotoShop.
• We also used Blogger to look at past student’s blogs to
understand what they did well or aspects that we could
improve on with our own products.

8. • As well as this we also used Google to research in to
posters. We found that they often included a review
and if they were currently on sale or their release date.
Therefore the media technology we used helped us
understand what needed to be included within the
poster and gave us a better understanding of what the
product should look like.

9. Planning
• We used media technologies in the planning of our
promotional pack through the use of Google maps to scout
possible locations. This was so that we could see if they were
suitable before we decided to go and look at them in person.
This was an important part of our planning as we needed to
get a good idea of the location before we went to look at it in
person otherwise it would have been a waste of time.
• We also used the internet to check the weather forecast for
the days that we were filming to ensure that it would be
suitable to film. Because we filmed in many different locations
within 1 town we needed to ensure that it remained dry all
day so that when we put it into our timeline it was the same
weather throughout.

10. • We also used face book email to organise our actors
to be at the right place and also to plan the day. This
was an excellent example of where digital
technology was vitally important within our
planning as without it we would have found it very
difficult to organise our itinerary and to know where
we needed our actors and at what time.
• Another way we used digital technology was by
using digital technology to take pictures (with our
mobiles) and upload them to blogger. An example of
this was taking photos of our story board and
uploading it to blogger on the mac.

11. Evaluation
• For evaluation question 3 we used the social
media site Facebook to promote our video
and to gain audience feedback. We also used
the statistics tool on YouTube to see the
demographics of the people who had viewed
our video.
• For evaluation question 4 we used slideshare
to uploads a power point presentation which
we then linked to our blog.

12. • We used media technologies within our evaluation question 1
by using YouTube to go back to the similar music videos which
we used within our research. We then paired these with the
clips we had taken using the HD camera and had place in to
Final Cut. We created another new project within Final Cut and
used this to edit together the clips to demonstrate where we
had either used, developed, or challenged the conventions of
the real music videos within our own. We then further
developed by using YouTube to upload the Final Cut Express
project and used the annotation tool to comment on these
conventions.
• For evaluation question 2 we used a mobile phone to record a
commentary about the effectiveness of the combination of our
main product and ancillary tasks. We then uploaded these via
USB to the Mac and imported them into a new project on Final
Cut Express. After this we imported photos into Final Cut
Express that related to what we are talking about in our
commentary to provide evidence for our comments. For
example photo’s of similarity’s between the products of our
promotional pack. We then uploaded the Final Cut Express
project to YouTube.