The document summarizes the various technologies used by the author at different stages of constructing, researching, planning, and evaluating a media product. During research and planning, the author used a private blog to upload coursework. Prezi, Slideshare, and Powtoon were used to create online presentations. Spreadsheets, calendars, and mind-mapping tools helped with planning and organization. Video and image editing software like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro were used for construction. Social media, cameras, and communication apps supported different stages of production.

1. By Aminatta Sylva 13H

2. Question 4- As part of the construction, research and planning
and evaluation I have used various types of technologies
throughout these stages.

3. Haverstockmedia blog
 During the research and planning stage of our media product, my group and I used a blog (Haverstockmedia), in
order to be able to upload our coursework on to. I found this blog very useful.
 The blog also allows us to embed videos into a blogs such as YouTube videos, Slideshares and prezis. We could
also upload pictures onto our blog. However the disadvantage of the blog, was that you couldn’t see all of the
content at school due to slow internet connection. Therefore, I could only upload work certain pieces of work from
home.
 An advantage of the blog being private was that people that did not have an account could not see your content. The
blog also allowed us to create tags and categories, which made our blog look organized and made work easy to find.
The blog also worked as a place to put down reminders of work to be done, for example I could save drafts of work
partially completed or task to be undertaken for homework etc.
 The blog was used throughout all the stages of the coursework; during the construction stage I used it to upload
time schedules, risk assessments, test shots, and other media that will be added to final media product. During the
research and planning stage the blog held all my work from music video analysis, lyric analysis to audience feedback
and other research.
 The blog was used during the evaluation stage of the coursework to upload the final media products and do the
evaluation questions, but on a different tab. This helped make my work tidier and easy to find.
 The blog was like a diary revealing how my project was going, what work has been done and what work I am planning
on doing.

4. Prezi, slideshare & Powtoon
 Prezi- I used this online presentation to present my work on my research and planning
and evaluation. I developed my skills with Prezi, as I had experience with the website from
my foundation portfolio as I find it a lot easier to use than a year ago. I like to use this
online software because it makes my presentations look more appealing to the viewer as I
can add music and videos to it, it makes presentations appear visually attractive.
 Slideshare- I used slideshare to share my work so that it could be uploaded to my blog. It
was used throughout all the stages of my coursework.
 Powtoon- This is another online presentation website that I used which was also very
visually attractive. It allowed me to use animations, videos, add music and much more. It
can turn slideshows into videos which can then be uploaded to YouTube, this beats
having to click through slides. I used this during my research and planning, it helped me
create short videos of for example, ideas of location, digipak analysis etc.

5. PowerPoint, Word,
Googlesheets
 PowerPoint- I used PowerPoint to create presentations during the
research, planning and evaluation stages of my course. It allowed to me
to create basic slides of information with pictures.
 Word- I used it to type up filming schedules, analysis of posters and to
write to the star.
 Googlesheets- I used this online spreadsheet platform to collect some
audience research. It allowed me to create a questionnaire, and gave
me the output of data in the form of tables, charts and graphs, which
made it easy to read. I was able to access this from home, school and
on the go through the use of Google Drive. Which was were I stored a
backup of my ancillary texts’ pictures.

6. StoryboardThat, Text2Mindmap, Weebly.com & Wordle
 I used this online storyboarding platform as a way of creating digital storyboards to plan what I want
to see in my music. My skills have further developed with the use of this technology, as I used it last
year; I created better storyboards this year.
 Once the storyboards were finished, you had the chance to either download it as a slideshow or
pictures, which you could then turn into a movie with the use of final cut pro 7/X.
 I used text2mindmap as a way for brainstorming ideas and thoughts I have. I used this during all
stages of my course. However, what I did not find useful about this online brainstorming software
was that you could not save as you went along, so if you want to add more work to your mind map
you could not because it has already been turned into a picture.
 I also used Weebly.com to create a test website for my artist.
 I used wordle to create brainsstorms of the words that stand out the most from the lyrics; this
helped me generate ideas for my music video, and what themes etc are associated with the song.

7. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram& Twitter
 YouTube- this was the main source for me to watch music videos when generating ideas during the
research and planning and construction stages of my course. I also used YouTube to upload test
shots and the final media product so that the audiences can view it.
 YouTube was also used for audience research when analysing music videos and creating star
construction work, as it showed me how popular a music video was and whether it received negative
or positive responses from fans and viewers.
 Facebook- used to contact the star to seek permission for the use of her song. Also used for
audience feedback and the final product was shared on Facebook. Facebook was also used for
research on Pop/ R&B stars- what kind of things they posted and how many fans they had; same
thing was done on twitter.
 Twitter- this helped us get an idea of what kind of person the star that I am researching is.
 Instagram- this was used during the research and planning stage of my production; during my star
constructions I used Instagram to see what stars upload.
 Furthermore, stars use social media to promote new singles and albums by sharing snippets or
behind the scenes, in order to please their fanbase.

8. Whatsapp, iMessage, SMS, Google Calendar
 I used Whatsapp, iMessage, SMS to stay in contact with my artist
during a filming period. These applications allowed to plan filming
schedules and inform my artist directly. It was a good way to contact
her because I available to reach on different platforms, and this is
good in case I need to cancel filming because of something, I would be
able to contact her on spot through different platforms.
 I used Google calendar to plan out my day, for example, filming on
Monday, time 16:00-17:30, edit footage at 17:45-19:00. It sent me alerts
15 before a programme is about to start, and 15 minutes before a
programme is about to end. This helped me become more organized
and balance my school work with my production work. It made the
stages of my course less stressful.

9. Construction stage- HD (DSLR) Cameras, speakers
& iPod
 I used a HD Camera to film my entire music video and a DSLR camera to take the pictures
of my ancillary texts. This year the camera that we were given had longer lasting
batteries, this meant that we could do more filming outdoors and not have to worry about
running out of batter; same with the memory capacity of cameras. The HD cameras made
my footage and pictures look professionally made as they are of very good quality.
Unlike last year, my hand held shots are much steadier, as this year I filmed my entire
music video by hand.
 I used speaker and my iPod touch during the filming of my music video, in order for the
artist to hear the song and to lip sync. The speakers helped us because it meant that the
sound was audible, unlike my other test shots, in which I did not bring along my
speakers- the star found it hard to lip sync because he couldn’t hear the music.

10. Construction stage- Adobe Photoshop & InDesign
 During this stage I used Photoshop to edit and create my ancillary texts- digipak images and
album magazine poster. My skills with Photoshop has improved, as I was able to manipulate
my images successfully. I used YouTube tutorials to help me when I was editing my pictures
on Photoshop, I feel that my knowledge of Photoshop has excelled over the course. Once the
pictures were edited, I would save a jpeg and a psd version, in case I wanted to go back and
edit something. I then uploaded the image onto my digipak.
 Photoshop allowed me to carryout various tasks such as making a background black and
white, changing the colour of things, adding fish eye lens effect to images, brightening and
darkening images, creating Polaroid-like images, adding texts, overlaying text with images
and many more.
 I downloaded my digipak template from the internet on this website.
 I used InDesign to create my digipak mock-up, however, towards the end of the course I
decided that it was a lot easier to create my digipak on Photoshop as I did not need to
transfer files over.

11. Final cut pro 7
 I used final cut pro 7 to edit and compose my music video at
school. I had already developed my skills with final cut pro as
I have used it for about 3 years now, but this year I used the
video filters in final cut pro to make my music video appear
nostalgic, as well as changing the speed of flashbacks. I
slowed down some clips so that the audience can seek
pleasure in watching the music video, this followed
Goodwin’s theory of voyeurism. I also used colour filters to
make the video look brighter; this follows the convention of
Pop/ R&B music videos having high-key lights and/or bright
looking stars and locations.

12. This is the tool box section on the final cut pro 7
software, which allows us to do effects to our
footage. For example the pen-tool was used to
create fade ins and outs for our footage and audio.
The blade tool was used to cut our footage into
smaller chunks, taking out the unnecessary parts.
The volume tool right beside it helped me maintain
the volume, by limiting how loud it could be, this
stopped the volume from being too loud, as we film
near a busy road.
The viewer allowed us to create subclibs from
footage taken. Then we could organize our
footage by creating bins to put them in. We also
used the viewer to change the colour of the
footage, create matt colour blocks so that we
don’t have a black screen.
We created sequences in order to be able to use
the timeline and save it properly. The timeline was
where everything was put together, including the
titles, music, sound effects and footage in the
form of subclips (so that the original clip has not
been permanently modified)

13. On the timeline this is our sequence, and as you can see
there are many little clips everywhere and audio files as
well. I also found out that I could have up to about ten
audio layers, during the construction of my media product.
During the flashback scenes, I
slowed down the speed to
encourage the feelings of nostalgia
and voyeurism within the audience.
I was able to change the
brightness/darkness of our footage
by the use of the effect Colour-
corrector. I ensured that most of
the footage was of the same
brightness. This also allowed me to
follow the conventions of pop/R&B
music videos of high key lighting.
These tools above
allowed us to increase
the size of the clips onto
the sequence, to use the
pen-tool, mute an audio
track. I used this to adjust
the volume and opacity of
clips on my project.