Bethany Stokes used various media technologies throughout the construction, research, planning, and evaluation of her coursework. She used the blogging website Weebly to present her work in stages and embed multimedia like images and videos. She also used presentation software like Prezi and Emaze to summarize her research findings in creative, non-linear formats. YouTube was important for researching existing music videos, and cameras and editing software like Final Cut Pro were essential for filming and producing her original music video. Photoshop allowed her to design ancillary materials, and platforms like Glogster and SurveyMonkey supported evaluation and audience research.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 4: HOW DID
YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH, PLANNING
AND EVALUATION STAGES?
BETHANY STOKES

2. Firstly, I believe that one of the most important media technologies used within my coursework was the blogging website
‘Weebly’. Presenting my coursework in the form of the blog has afforded me the opportunity of putting my work into clear
stages which allows for the moderator to view my work easily and effectively. Weebly allows for different pages to be created,
and on each page different posts to be made with a variety of multi-media being allowed to be embedded on the pages. This
use of embedding has been of great benefit to my coursework as it allows me to embed the different media technologies I
have used onto the blog in order to present my work in interesting ways and experiment with different types of media which I
may have not used before. Being able to post and update the blog easily with clear and defined buttons to allow automation
of the blog, I believe that the use of this media technology has allowed me to be creative and present my work in the way I
want it to be shown, with images being able to be posted onto the blog in the form of jpegs or gifs to allow for variety in
different ways; either next to or above/below text; allowing me to effectively illustrate my work
Similarly to my AS Coursework, I used this blogging website to create my own blog to present my work and so I believe that it
is a valuable tool for people to view, comment and go through my work with; with the tagging system of important topics such
as ‘Research’ or ‘Digipak’ allowing moderators to find what they are looking for in a way which is time saving and efficient. I
believe that my understanding of Weebly has grown greatly from my AS Coursework, using it for much longer now and feeling
more comfortable with the website. This has allowed me to include things that I did not think of before, such as animated GIFs
onto my posts which I believe keeps the information from becoming too boring; illustrating points with relevant moving
images to explain my research and show a greater understanding.

3. • When researching into Music Video and Media theories that would be relevant and important to understand
when creating our own video, I used a variety of different online presentation software to summarise my
findings and show that I understood what I have researched and that I would go onto use these theories in the
development of my own work. One of the presentation tools that I have used in the research, planning, and
evaluation stage is Prezi; a free online presentation software which has bright, interesting themes and a
creative layout allowing to make a mind-map of sorts in the form of a presentation. Believing this to be more
useful in the understanding of certain stages of my research, planning, and evaluation; I used this in apposed
to a more linear PowerPoint presentation, such as this one.
• An example of my use of this media technology in my research stage would be in my presentation of Andrew
Goodwin’s Music Video theory in relation to narrative and audiences of music video. One of the main benefits,
I believe, of using this software is the use of circles and allowing circles to be put inside of circles (slides within
slides) which allowed One Single idea to be grouped into different parts, showing development of ideas and
understanding of theories by having examples and explanations included within a single point; allowing for my
development of understanding to be seen clearly.
Here, I have explained Goodwin’s theory of the idea of a Protagonist within
music videos and consequentially placed examples of this within the circle, show
casing my development in understanding. For this reason, the ‘flow-chart’ type
feature of this presentation software was chosen for these stages as it was
easy to use and similarly to Weebly, allowed for multi-media to be embedded and
so I could use YouTube videos as examples to show that I understood how these
theories can be seen to conform or subvert to existing music videos.

4. • As mentioned before in my use of Weebly and Prezi, YouTube has additionally been important in the
research and evaluation stages of my coursework. With the A2 brief being about music videos, naturally
for my research stage I had to understand conventions of already existing products of the same nature
and so used YouTube, a video hosting website, to watch and analyse existing music videos as the
majority of artists upload their music videos to this website. By being able to embed YouTube videos,
thanks to YouTube’s share option, I was able to embed certain music videos onto my blog in order to
use as an example for a point. For example, when researching into the Male Gaze, I used Katy Perry’s ‘I
kissed a girl’ music video from Youtube for the moderator to watch and then to read my points made
about the video. YouTube as a source of research has been incredibly important as a media technology
to my coursework and have used it to look into existing products in order to have a better
understanding of conventions of existing products which was important in order to create an effective
and successfully conventional music video of our own.

5. • Another presentation software that I used in the research stages of my courework was emaze. Like
Prezi, Emaze is a free online presentations software which offers lots of different interesting forms and
animated pages, and transitions which allowed me to tailor each one to the different points I was
making and different types of research I conducted. Like the other websites, emaze allowed me to put
extra content onto the pages such as youtube videos and images in order to keep the presentations
interesting and show a greater understanding of the information I had reseached into. I had used this
website in AS Media Studies but believe that I have come to understand it better this year, having been
able to create different presentations which look very different and allow for information to be
conveyed clearly, effectively and interestingly. One of the presentations that I made on emaze was a
biography and presentation of Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze; the interesting layout allowing me to
not only show who Mulvey was but also what the Male Gaze is with images and videos as examples.
Similarly, this presentation website allowed me to create other presenations to show my development
and understanding of the research, such as the research into the artist itself.

6. • In the creation of our music video, the use of the Canon DLSR cameras that we used to film were
incredibly important media technologies to the successful creation of the video; without the camera we
could have no filmed and therefore not had a video. The high-defintion camera allowed us to have clear
and professional looking shots in our music video, being able to record in 1080p. In addition to this, the
settings of the camera allowed us to film in different locations regardless of the lighting and the
weather through the adjustment of white balance and ISO. I believe that my understanding of this
particular media technology has come a long way since AS Media as I am now able to adjust the
settings to allow for a more professional and conventional looking music video. I believe that the use of
this media technology was fundamental in the production stage of our coursework. In a similar fashion,
we had Lauren use the Nikon camera to take pictures of us for the digipak and the magazine advert; the
camera once again being an important media technology used when making a successful music video.

7. Additionally in the creation of our music video, we used the media technology of the editing software
FinalCutPro in order to edit the footage we had to the music video. Using this media technology was
incredibly important as it allowed us to edit the footage we had into the form of the video; cutting the
clips, importing them onto a time line and placing the song underneath. In addition, the use of the video
editor allowed us to edit the look of the clips- stabilising some of the shakier clips and saturating the clips
that were duller in order to stay conventional to existing products. I believe that my ability within the
software has increased greatly in my A2 Coursework, having additionally used FinalCutPro to create the
animatic for the video. Using this media technology was very important in the production stage of our
music video.

8. • In the creation of the digipak and magazine advert, the media technology ‘Photoshop’ was incredibly
important and was what we used to edit our photos and to create each of the ancillary texts. We used
’Photoshop’ due to the variety of options the software afforded; allowing us to create what we wanted
in the limits of our knowledge of the software. It was my first time using the software properly so I felt a
little out of my depth at first but with time and practice I became quite fluent in the software and could
use the different tools to create what I wanted to and present the ancillary texts in a way which was
conventional and met the specifications of a real advert and a real digipak.

9. • Another media technology I have used in my coursework in the evaluation stage, as well as the research
and planning stage is Glogster; a website that allows you to make infographics and moodboards known
as ‘Glogs’. I have decided to use these as a part of my coursework as I believe they allow me to convey a
lot of information interestingly in one image; being able to embed GIFs, images, videos, and text onto it
in order to show a lot of information. In my evaluation stage for evaluation question 1, I used Glogster
to make a Glog explaining how we used the convention of costume in our music video in order to
appeal to our target audience and stay conventional to the genre. Similarly, I used Glogster in my lyric
analysis stage; using the clear layout and ability to place images to illustrate the lyrics and write my
analysis onto the glog next to the lyrics; showing our ideas and and understanding of the song that we
have chosen to use in our music video. I believe that this media technology was useful in the
presentation of planning and evaluation; presenting information in a clear and interesting way.

10. • In addition to this, one of the important media technologies we utlisied in our coursework was the
Survey hosting site ‘Survey Monkey’. This website was incredibly important in the creation of our
audience survey, allowing us to make a survey to share with our target audience in order to get
feedback and learn more about what to include in our music video. I believe that this survey was
incredibly important in the creation of a music video that appeals to our target audience by learning
what they want to see in the video. The easy navigation and design of the website allowed for us to
make the survey easily and the share feature allowing us to put them on social media for our peers to
do and assist with the video. In terms of research and learning about what they wanted in our music
video, the use of this media technology was incredibly important.