The document summarizes the hardware and software used by the author at each stage of creating three media products. At the research stage, the author relied on computers, the internet, YouTube, Word, PowerPoint and Prezi to research target audiences and conventions. Cameras, an iPhone, Movie Studio Platinum and YouTube were used to film interviews and pitches. The author used Photoshop, a still camera, Movie Studio Platinum and YouTube to construct the media products, applying new editing techniques. Word and Blogger documented the process.

1. By Jade Dowse

2. Introduction
• Throughout my coursework, I have
used many different media
technologies to make three quality
products. This is through the
Research and Planning, Construction
and Evaluation stages. I will describe
the hardware and software that I
have used for each of these stages,
showing the level of difficulty I had
with each technology and if I had
experience of this technology at AS
Level.
Planning and Research Construction Evaluation
YouTube Cameras Word
Blogger Movie Studio Platinum Plus SlideShare
Prezi Photoshop PowerPoint
Word YouTube YouTube
PowerPoint Microphone Prezi
Camera Blogger Microphone
Movie Studio Platinum Google Blogger
Google Still Camera Movie Studio Platinum
Powtoon Word E-Mail
SlideShare Facebook
Go Conqr
Websites
MusicMachinery.com
BBC Social Class test
Bauer Media
Virgin EMI website
UK Tribes

3. Research and Planning
• I prepared the filming of my music video by first looking into
my target audience and the genre that I am making for. This
involved looking at software resources, looking at many
websites and researching existing media products on
YouTube to see the conventions of music videos. I then
prepared filming by creating shot lists, storyboards and
organising the mise en scene for my production.
• I mainly relied on the use of the computer and the internet
to research information.

4. Cameras, Iphone Movie Studio Platinum
• I used a HD Panasonic camera for my research and planning
to record target audience interviews and pitches. For this
project, I used these technologies. I had, howeve, not used
Movie Studio Platinum before – as for the AS project
someone else in my group worked on the editing whereas I
was the cinematographer. I learnt quickly the basics for
Movie Studio Platinum - where I just included a text frame
and cut the shots in place.
• An Iphone was used to show evidence of feedback
throughout the making of the music video, digipak and
advert.
• The film that I made is evidence of my research and allowed
me to look back at this to remind myself of the advice given
with regard to the construction of my music video, digipak
and advert.
TargetAudience Interviews Pitch
Feedback throughout coursework
Camera and Movie Studio Platinum

5. YouTube
• I usedYouTube to research existing media products for music videos such as
analysing a music video, looking at the conventions of music videos and
researching into my genre. This also helped give me inspirational ideas for my
own music video by drawing ideas from other artists within my genre.
• I also usedYouTube to upload videos for the target audience interviews and pitch.
• As I have usedYouTube in my spare time, this was easy to use.

6. Word, Powerpoint and Slideshare
• I used these softwares to record the research that I had
made such as using Microsoft Word for listing the shot
list, the final storyboard and the risk assessment. As I
have frequently used Microsoft Word it was at ease
using it.
• PowerPoint helped present my findings in an organised
way, especially for my SecondaryTarget Audience
research as it showed the progression of how I got each
piece of information.
• To upload these documents onto Blogger I used
SlideShare. I had a few problems with this website as
for one document it only uploaded one page - where
there was more than one page. But altogether, the
website was easy to navigate as I had prior knowledge
gained from AS level coursework.

7. Powtoon
• After using this website for AS last year and not liking it, I have now got a better
understanding of this site. I used this site for presenting the Mise en Scene of my
music video. Powtoon’s present a tutorial at the beginning so I made myself
familiar with this and it gave me knowledge of where the tools are on the website.
• The tools on the website are just like PowerPoint, but it is saved on the internet.

8. Prezi
• Prezi is a presentation site that allows the user to insert images andYouTube
videos. I used this for most of my blog posts as it lets me expand and spread out
the ideas. I used Prezi for the analysis of a music video, conventions of a music
video, generic conventions of pop, conventions of digipaks and adverts and
student video analysis. I used this website so many times because of the ease of
use and how the website enables the user to use videos and make the layout of
the presentation easy to understand.

9. Google andWebsites
• Google is the main search engine that I used to research information for target audience and ideas for
my music video.
• Bauer Media – I used this website for my secondary research, looking into brands that my target
audience would like.
• Go Conqr – creating resources for people to see and learn. I have not used this website before but it
was easy to use so that I could make a spider diagram of the job roles that are required in the making of
this production.
• UKTribes – I used this website for my secondary research as it described different social groups.
• Music Machinery.com – helped me research about the demographics of my target audience related to
the genre that I am making for.
• BBC Social Class test – helped me find the demographic of my target audience for their social class.
• Virgin EMI website – helped me ask for the artist’s permission.
• These websites were easy to guide through and gave me the information that I needed.

10. Construction
•I used a range of hardware and software to film
and edit the three media products. The main
technologies that I used was the HD Panasonic
camera, Photoshop and Movie Studio Platinum.

11. Camera and Microphone
• To film the footage at the settings, I used a HD Panasonic
video camera. I was familiar with the use of the camera as in
my group last year I was the cinematographer. So this
technology was easy to use and I was confident with using the
camera. To keep the shots steady, I used a tripod.
• The microphone I used for recording the sound of knocking
on glass was another piece of technology that I have used
before.

12. CameraAngles
I used a range of camera angles to make the video interesting and engaging for the viewer
such as:
• A close up of theTV remote to indicate to the viewer theTV is going to become the main
point of focus.
• Long shots of the different settings, such as the school common room to set the scene for
the audience.
• Shallow focus shot - on the rose to show that the rose is the main focal point in the scene.
• Extreme Close-Up to indicate the action moving on – eyes shutting and opening
Some of these angles were new to me and others I had used before. I felt I needed the
variety of angles to make an engaging end product and I learnt as I went along. I reshot if I
was unhappy with the end result, as I mastered the camera work.

13. Movie Studio Platinum
• As I didn’t use this software last year when I
was in a group, I had to learn from scratch
the basics of Movie Studio Platinum.
Compared to what my group did last year, I
used a different style of editing to suit the
style of the video that I am making and suit
the genre of pop.
• I used filters and a variety of editing
techniques to make the video engaging. I
also used a variety of transitions
Removing sound from
footage so that I could delete
it and overlay the visual with
the song.

14. Magic Bullet Quicklooks to make the scene
black and white and adding filters.
I used a spiral transition to create the right mood
and move onto the next scene that links to the
narrative.
Importing the footage onto
Movie Studio Platinum and
adding them onto the
timeline
Some of the techniques used in
Movie Studio Platinum

15. • I used Photoshop mainly in the construction of my digipak and
advert. I have used Photoshop before in my Photography
studies where I have used a range of techniques. For my
digipak and advert, I have tried to think of creative ideas to
make them interesting for my target audience. For the digipak,
I used a Photoshop technique called colour splash where a
section of the image is in colour and the rest of the image is in
black and white. For the back cover, I researched how to make
the swirl patterns onYouTube. The advert uses the same font
and style as the digipak.
• I also used Photoshop in the making of my music video where I
researched how to make a carving on a tree and graffiti on the
wall. This took a lot of time to get right and to make it look
realistic as I had to view multiple tutorials and trials to get it
right. But for the music video it worked well.
• In my opinion, the software was easy to use and I have learned
editing techniques that I have not used before.
Photoshop
In the making of the music video, I made a
carving of a peace symbol in a tree by
using different layer effects
The layout of the digipak

16. Colour Splash technique where I
used the eraser tool on the black
and white effect on the image for
the front cover of the digipak.
I used the pen tool to make a swirl pattern
on the back cover of the digipak which
gives the digipak a professional feel.
The making of the advert where I
adjusted the image of the front cover
of the digipak onto the advert.
Some of the techniques
used in Photoshop

17. Still Camera
• I used the Canon EOS 1000D SLR still camera to take pictures of the artist for the
digipak and advert. Using this camera gave quality photos when I edited them as
there are many features on the camera that can be altered so that the images look
good.
• As I do A Level Photography, I was familiar with the camera and as I was going to
be the person being photographed, it was easy to teach someone else how to use
it.

18. YouTube and Google
• Searching on Google helped me find techniques that
I could use in my music video that linked me onto
YouTube. I researched how to make a time lapse and
to slow down time. I also researched Photoshop
techniques such as the graffiti, tree carving and swirl
pattern on the back cover of the digipak.
• I also uploaded the music video ontoYouTube so that
people can watch it.

19. Word and Blogger
• To record the progress, editing and filming
updates, I usedWord and Blogger. I used these
technologies as they are used just for small
posts. Using the SlideShare embed code for
word documents means I can place these word
documents onto Blogger - so that it can be
shared on multiple platforms and to show the
progress throughout the whole of my
coursework.

20. Evaluation
• For evaluating my final product and the progress I have made on this course, I
used media technologies so that I could record this.
• For each evaluation question I used:
‐ Prezi
‐ Audio Recorder, Movie Studio Platinum andYouTube
‐ Microsoft Word
‐ PowerPoint and Slideshare

21. Prezi
• As I have used Prezi throughout the course, I used this to present one of my
evaluation questions. I used Prezi because this was a big question to answer, as I
was analysing conventions of existing media products against my own media
products. I wanted to showYouTube videos, to show music video conventions and
generic conventions of pop, so I used Prezi as this allowed me to show the work in
a clear and concise manner. I did have some problems with Prezi at this stage as it
said that there was not enough memory to load up the Prezi. But overall, Prezi is a
good media technology to use.

22. Microphone and Movie Studio Platinum
• I verbally described one of my evaluation questions into an audio recorder. This
was simple to use as I just had to press record and turn the microphone on for it to
work. I then edited the sound in Movie Studio Platinum where I added images to
the video that were from the internet as well as video clips of my music video and
the ancillary tasks.

23. YouTube
• I usedYouTube to upload the music
video so that I could receive
feedback in the comments section
to gain audience feedback.
• I also uploaded Evaluation Question
2 withYouTube to be embedded
onto Blogger.

24. Word, PowerPoint and SlideShare
• I usedWord on Evaluation Question 3 on the audience feedback
where I added pictures from feedback sessions and graphs from
my target audience research.
• PowerPoint was used on another evaluation question where I
presented the technological processes, showing tables, pictures
and text.
• I used SlideShare to publish these on the internet and use the
embed code to place onto Blogger.
• These technologies were easy to use as I have used these in my
everyday life.

25. Social Media Sites
• To get constructive feedback for one of my evaluation questions, I used social
media sites such as Facebook and email. I used these sites, as they are what my
target audience use.
• These sites were easy to post messages to my target audience and easy to get
responses in the comments section or replies from email.

26. Blogger
• I have used blogger to host all the work I have done in one place, so that it is easy
to find all the work and it shows the progression of the research, the construction
and the evaluation of the products that I have made. I have used this throughout
all of the stages of my coursework. I have got used to this website and received
feedback - which has allowed me to improve my work. From the experience I had
last yea doing AS level, I was more relaxed with Blogger.
• This was easy to access as it can be accessed over the internet and it allowed me
to embed Prezis, SlideShare documents made on Microsoft Word or PowerPoint
andYouTubeVideos. In addition, I could look back at previous students’ work for
inspirational ideas.

27. In Conclusion
• I have used a range of technologies in the research and planning, construction and
evaluation of my 3 media products. I used both hardware and software to
construct the products. I did use some technologies that I used last year such as
Prezi and Powtoon, but I also used some other technologies such as Go Conqr and
learnt different techniques on Movie Studio Platinum and Photoshop.
• The different technologies used show I have done thorough research, constructed
the video and ancillary tasks using new and prior knowledge. I evaluated the
products and progress to the best of my ability. Overall, the media technologies
that I have used show the knowledge that I have gained through media
technology, the difficulties I had with each one and the progress I have made in my
coursework.