The student used various new media technologies throughout the construction, research, and evaluation stages of their A-level media studies project. During research, they used YouTube to find inspiration and filmed interviews using a Canon camera. They researched album designs on iTunes and artists' websites on Google. For planning and communication, they used WhatsApp and Facebook. They took photos on an iPhone and edited them on an iPhoto app. They created a website using Wix and uploaded audio using SoundCloud. Video editing was done using Adobe Premiere Pro on school computers. Throughout the process, they documented their work by taking screenshots and posting to a blog created using various programs.

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

2. Introduction
 As an A level media studies student I
have become more exposed to all of the
technologies that we can obtain easily
today. Due to all the the easy access we
have to all of them this has enabled my
work to be the best of its ability with very
few problems over the course of my A
level media production.

3. During research we used to film
interviews, to fulfil
questionnaires, to edit the
questionnaire videos, as a main
search engine, and to look at
existing work. These programmes
and websites were only used vary
briefly, apart from YouTube which we
used to gain inspirations and look at
other A levels students work.

4. When researching about digipak’s, I used ITunes to
look at the artists artwork and photography to gain
some insight of the conventions of a pop album
design.
This involved typing a name of a song or album I
wanted to look at, and would simply come up on
the screen.

5. For the webpage research using the Internet, I researched many
mainstream artists websites to look for similarities and differences
between artists such as, The Scissor Sisters and NikiMinaj.
This was easily done through the use of Google, and most of the time
selecting the top link on the search engine will give you what your
researching for.
When applying this thorough research towards my project I felt well
equipped and prepared having explored several case studies before
designing, and brainstorming as a team. This is exactly what I wanted
to produce in my music video for ‘Lollipop’

6. As the digipak and website are ancillary tasks, they contribute huge amounts
to the launch of my final media product. Working in an ambitious group of
two permitted me to operate constructively and independently to get my task
done. We decided to constantly convey our ideas throughout the process of
planning, filming and editing. When looking at the idea of sharing
ideas, when we were at home the use of various methods that helped us
communicate as a group, where we could share, photos, video’s, links and
ideas for one an other to look at. We did this through creating a ‘media’ group
on whats app messenger on the I Phone and blackberry, and also a group on
Facebook. This was a huge advantage as all of our ideas were shared
therefore they wouldn’t be forgotten as they were written down.
Whats app

7. The first task we set out to do in the production stage was the film. The filming
process was done over 2 shoots, through the use of a canon X1H1 camera. The
reason that we used 2 cameras for our music video, was due to the fact that every
shot we had filmed we had filmed from two angles thus when It came to editing we
could create more innovative shots and use match on action shots. For example; the
two pictures below present a girl playing hopscotch from two angles, which
enhanced the realistic view of her. However this did mean that we had more filtering
and shots to choose from which was indeed extremely time consuming considering
that we had a deadline. Therefore the use of this camera and the use of 2 of them
both constrained and enabled our work.

8. When filming outside the only source of light we had was natural light, this is
because we filmed the 2nd shoot outside so that the days were bright and clear on
sunny days. There was however other shots I filmed in the professional studio in
which we had rented out, such as a pan shot and tilt shot. When filming the lip
syncing and the previous shots mentioned in the music video as there was no
natural light we used red heads being pointed in the right spot to create a silhouette
of those singing to the camera, this did however involve a lot of trial and error for
the singer to stand in the correct spot.
Red Head ^
Filming wasn’t actually too hard as we had learnt the basics at AS, although last
year for our opening sequence to the thriller we used a man and 4 professional
actresses. In contrast to this year where we used over 25 children! It was extremely
hard work working with the cast as we had to act like responsible adults, and take
authority, yet it was a fun and lively experience.

9. During the two shoots for our music video I managed to take pictures on my
IPhone throughout the day of what was happening on set, as I knew some of
these pictures would come in great use for my ancillary tasks. Through taking
pictures on my IPhone it was extremely easy to upload to my laptop through
the use of ICloud, which uploads straight to my laptop whenever I take a
picture. Not only did I take pictures for the ancillary tasks, but on shoot I
tweeted pictures on twitter of some of cast to their friends at home to show
their friends and family what they’re up to. One could say that although this
was for out media A level, in fact the children really gained many skills and had
lots of fun throughout the shoots. Once the pictures were uploaded to my
laptop, I then edited the brightness and changed the contrast through the
application IPhoto on my Mac book pro.
IPhoto
ICloud
Mac Book pro

10. To create my web page I used an online programme calledWixthat
provided me with a template that I worked with, and added my own edited
images and text as well as the soundtrack, which was uploaded through
the use of Soundcloud. The web page was something that I wasn’t used to
using so it did take time to get to grips with all the innovative tools and
ideas you could use to enhance my websites authenticity. There were
however tutorials online to help me, thus I did not encounter any major
problems.

11. The editing for all of the footage was done on the school computers, with a
double screen to work with making it easier to see what we were doing. After
plugging the camera in to the computer with a connecting wire a syncing the
footage on to the computer. The programme that we used to conduct our
editing was Adobe Pro Premier, The song we had chosen we had bought of
off Itunes, was also added to the time line. This programme was known to me
as it was the programme I used last year, however there were a lot of new
features that did not use prior to my as level. The tools that were used most
of the time were the cutting and selecting tools, which were placed on the
keyboard so we had easy access to the timeline as these tools, were a major
part of editing our piece. The timeline is where all of the footage is and it can
all be sided along to put in the correct places.

12. The newest feature I had leant, allows you to play with the speed of the
footage, as I increased the speed of a few shots. For example, the girl with the
running in a circle with bubbles, to give a rapid effect of the bubbles. Also making
the Mario game faster to sync with the lyrics, thus amplifying them. The colouring
was also played around with as most of the shots were brightened up to look
more appealing and exciting to the audience. This was done by dragging and
dropping ‘warm up’ and ‘summers day’ tools which enhanced the shots portraying
the message we wanted to send to the audience. As time went on, the
programme became better known to me, allowing it to get increasingly easier and
also less time consuming. Over all the editing process did take time initially, but
as I got more and more familiar with the features that I was using for the
project, my skills developed more.

13. Throughout the entire process of my work, I had taken screen
shots of everything I was doing, through the button on the
keyboard which allows you to do so, and I was constantly posting
on blogger, of what I was doing, and what I was up to during my
progression. When posting on my blog I used various
programmes, which help me develop my innovative and special
blog. For example; the use of
Kizoa, Prezi, Eamaze, Scribd, Smilebox and Slide share really
made my blog interactive. Besides this, I managed to obtain more
creative skills when presenting a piece of work, not just on
Microsoft word.

14. Through creating a blog, I managed to put all of my research
and planning onto a an internet page, which made my work
easier to manage and is more efficient way to keep track of my
progress and ‘things to do’ for my media products. Using this
blog has been useful and easier than using a physical file due
to the fact that I can’t actually lose any paper or important
notes; everything is automatically by date. Through having a
blog, an advantage would be that I could access my work
where I was and I didn’t need to find my folder to find anything.
Also, a blog made it possible to embed videos from YouTube
and insert Prezi’s and current music video clips at the touch of
a button. My blog is visually intriguing and exciting to scroll
through. Yet it is also extremely organized and labeled.