The document discusses how Dan Brown used various media technologies during the construction, research, planning, and evaluation stages of his media project. He used software like Premiere Pro, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to research, plan, create, and analyze various aspects of the project. He also utilized websites like YouTube, IMDB, Google, Survey Monkey, and social media to further his knowledge, gather audience feedback, and promote his work. Hardware like cameras, microphones, and his laptop were essential for filming, recording, editing and storing/accessing files.

1. HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND
RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?
Dan Brown

2. CONSTRUCTION & RESEARCH
During the construction and research of my media project I used a vast amount of
programs to help me further my knowledge.
I used a lot of different software and a couple of different websites which were key to
the creation of my final production.
I tried to use a vast amount of different software packages as the research stage is a
very word heavy section to my project.
In this section, I did generally use software and websites that are well-known and
easily accessible to everyone using a computer or tablet. The fact that I could use a
tablet to do some of the research meant that I could do work on the go when I was
away from my computer.

3. PLANNING
The planning is another word heavy section of the project. This meant that I was
trying to keep on using different software and websites to help me to plan out my
production so that it was easy to get hold of and not of a repetitive layout.
The planning stage also involved using some different pieces of hardware. I used
cameras, a scan, a printer, a tripod, a phone etc.

4. EVALUATION
In the evaluation stage, the media technology I used was to change the layout of work
so that it wasn’t in a repetitive format. To do this I changed the software and websites
I used to present information.
I also decided that a good way to get audience feedback was through a focus group
as I got a lot of information though my focus group in the planning stage of my
production. So I also ended up using a little amount of hardware too. This was mainly
just a camera and a tripod.

5. GOOGLE
Google was one of the most helpful search engines possible when researching for my
production, especially when I was researching for my ancillary pieces. Firstly I had no idea of
what sort of stuff people would expect to see on a horror film poster as horror posters are only
normally advertised at cinemas. Google images allowed me to look at a whole range of horror
film posters and notice similar and different aspects to each. This helped me to pick out
conventions that I could follow and conventions I could challenge.
I was a lot more direct in AS Media, I knew that I wanted to keep my work as similar to one film
poster and that was it. In A2 Media research I felt more confident in picking out conventions on
film posters and looking at different ways that I could challenge them instead of just following
them
Google being a search engine meant that I didn’t really use it in the planning or the evaluation
stages of my work.

6. YOUTUBE
YouTube was a key website featured in a lot of my work. I used YouTube for the video side of
the project.
I used YouTube as a website to watch film trailers so that I could gain knowledge on what was
in them and what wasn’t. YouTube helped me to find conventions within horror film trailers
and also helped me with what some people didn’t like about certain trailers, this was down to
the comments sections. This meant that I could read other people views about a trailer who I
knew nothing about, meaning that I could get an unbiased opinion. The popularity of
YouTube also meant that the amount of information I received by looking at the comments
was massive and also incredibly insightful.
YouTube doesn’t only contain professional work, but also work of past A Level Media Studies
students meaning that when I was planning, I could look at the kind of conventions that other
Media students thought could be challenged or followed and It gave my an insight to whether
it would work or not.

7. YOUTUBE CONTINUED…
YouTube was also key to the evaluation stage of work. In AS Media I wouldn’t have
dreamed looking at what other people thought of my work, but at A2, I saw the comments
as a way of improvement. People who had took the time out to watch my media would
surely have comments on ways to make the production better.
After putting my final production on to YouTube, I also used the description underneath the
video, to add a link to my blog which I hoped people would notice and then see that I
would be open to constructive criticism.

8. IMDB
Just like YouTube, IMDB was a key player in the research stage to my project. This was
because IMDB has a complete database of almost every film ever made which meant that I
could search for any film and IMDB would bring up all the information and the trailer to the
film.
I did use IMDB to watch film trailers as I knew they were the legitimate trailer and not some
parody which could be found on YouTube. I could use the trailers to see what real media
texts looked like and pick out conventions that I could follow or challenge in my own
production.
I used IMDB in the evaluation of my project because I could
Pick out the conventions that I challenged or followed and
Show that in my evaluation question one.

9. EMAZE
Emaze is a great piece of presentation software that I used in the research and planning stages of my
production.
I used emaze in the research stage to present some of the findings that I did, for instance, I used emaze when I
was looking at the genre conventions of horror films.
I used emaze because it was different to using Microsoft PowerPoint which has limited amount of designs, but I
feel that emaze had a wide variety of designs which I could use to differentiate some of my presentations of
information.
Emaze also included all of the tools that I needed to make my presentation appealing to other people. Emaze
allowed me to insert image which I feel is crucial to presentation as they give the audience something else to
look at instead of a text heavy presentation. Obviously text could be added but the sizes, colours and fonts
could be changed.
A key part to this website is that the presentation would automatically save itself after about two minutes
meaning that the lost of work by ‘accidently’ not saving, was minimal.
This was a completely new piece of software to me as I had not used it in AS Media and only
heard of it during the start of A2.

10. PREZI
Prezi – yet again, another great piece of presentation software that allows the user to add and manipulate text,
add pictures and shapes to presentations, making them more appealing to an audience. The work on Prezi was
also saved online so there was almost no worry of losing the work unlike saving it onto a memory stick.
The thing that makes Prezi unique compared to the other presentation software packages and websites was
the strange but fascinating navigation route the website could use through the presentation. It can be used
normally, just going from ‘slide’ to ‘slide’ however you can put information in the middle of words and have the
website zoom into that piece of information. This is what stopped Prezi from being the same as a normal
presentation package.
This was one of the presentation packages I used in AS Media, however I didn’t really know all of the tools I
could use and what everything did.

11. MICROSOFT POWERPOINT
PowerPoint was a great and accessible piece of software that I used during the research
part of my project. PowerPoint does have a minimal amount of designs to use but so
many tools compared to Prezi and emaze which could be used. I also used this software
for a lot of my AS work because I was very confident in using it.
I started using PowerPoint to create some presentations and then uploading that
presentation to Slideshare, another great website that presented my work in a different
way to the other sites I have been using.

12. MICROSOFT WORD
I didn’t really use word to present any work but did use it a lot. Firstly, I used it
for planning work before I started on the presentation software. Any time
when I thought of a new idea, I would use Word to note it down so that I
could member this later. This meant that any ideas I had would be saved
somewhere on a computer, meaning that I always had all ideas I had come up
with.
I also used Word in the planning stage of my production as I created the
Script using it. This was because Word allows templates and contained one for
a movie script which made my script look very professional and realistic.
In the evaluation stage I used Word to crop images that I wanted little bits of.
This allowed me to only show the audience the parts of the images that I want
them to focus on as the use of shapes and arrows showing the bit I’m
explaining doesn’t allow a big enough picture.

13. MICROSOFT EXCEL
I only used Microsoft Excel in the planning and evaluation stages of my work. I used it in
the these stages as I had just received results from my questionnaires and I wanted a
way to present my finding to make it more interesting than just writing. This is the
reason I used Excel. Excel allowed me to collect my finding and then resent them in
different kind of graphs and charts including pie charts; bar graphs; line graphs etc. This
again just made it look like the work wasn’t all the same and just added some more
appeal to that section of the planning.
I also did the same in the evaluation as I received questionnaire results back during this
stage too and thought that the nicest and most appealing way to present the findings
was through the use of graphs again.
I was also very confident in using excel for the creation of graphs as I did this in AS
Media too.

14. E-MAIL
E-mail didn’t play a huge part in my project, however I did use it. In the planning section of
my project, I decided to e-mail a profession media company based in England to see if I could
get some ‘expert’ opinions so that I could make my work a bit more special and maybe make
it stand out from the rest.
I sent the e-mail earlier in the year still now, I have not received a reply. This doesn’t make my
project a failure, but does mean that I don’t have the ‘expert’ opinion that I wanted.
I would have maybe received an reply if I had messaged numerous companies or one not as
successful as the one I did.
I used my own gmail account which means that if I’d have received a reply I would have
received a nofication about the e-mail thought my phone.

15. ADOBE PREMIERE PRO
I decided to use the editing software, adobe premiere pro. This is because, I used this software to edit my
AS media piece, which means I am use to the software. Using the software before also meant that I knew
what most of the things did, which made it a lot easier than using another software which I would have
had no knowledge of. It is also the software which I use at home, which means that it was readily available
to my unlike final cut, which I would only be able to us at college. I also feel that it is the most professional
software to use as it contains a lot of functions that are not seen on final cut or movie maker.
I also edited my focus group’s with Premiere Pro as it’s one of the editing packages I have and it also
allowed me more time to gain more knowledge of the different tools that I could use when editing my
actual product.

16. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
I used Photoshop for the creation of my ancillary pieces. Photoshop is only
photo editing software, however I found it so easy to use to make the actual
layout of my ancillary pieces so I decided to use it for the whole thing. Having a
keen interest in using Photoshop meant that I knew a lot of the features and
tools that I had at my disposal so that I could create the most professional
looking magazine front cover and poster.
At AS we were not given any ancillary tasks, however at we were for are A2
preliminary. In this I didn’t use Photoshop, but actually publisher. When
finishing the creation of my preliminary I felt that it looked very unprofessional,
that’s why I decided to change graphics package.

17. SURVEY MONKEY
I have used the website ‘Surveymonkey’ so that I could get some audience feedback as I
went along planning my production. I created a survey which helped me to decide some of
the conventions which my target audience would like me to follow and some conventions
that they thought I should change, as they would like to see something different. The
website allowed me to copy the URL to the actual questionnaire so that I could send it out to
people of my target audience. This website made the questionnaire that I sent out look very
profession.
Not only did SurveyMonkey have great features to help create a questionnaire, but it also
presents the results back, so it can be easily interpreted by the user.
I also used this website in the evaluation, as I created two more surveys to help me with what
people thought of my finished production.

18. FREESOUND
The most effective horror film trailers use a variety of atmospheric sounds and music. The main thing that is
need though is some atmospheric, scary music. To find some of this music, I went on the website
‘Freesound.org’. This website is full of royalty free, music and sounds. This is a good website to use as
everything on the website is royalty free, and YouTube is likely to take a video down for copyright
infringement if it contains music owned by someone whose music isn’t royalty free.
Freesound also meant that I could download the sound straight from the website to my laptop allowing me
to use it straight after downloading it.
This website contains a lot of sounds that were ‘usable’ as well, it wasn’t just one that I thought of using.

19. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
Social media websites and application were great to use in the evaluation stage of my work.
Facebook allowed me to send out a post with a linking in it to my blog and my production pieces. This
meant that everyone in the world who stumbles upon the post could potentially access my work,
increasing the size of the audience to my production.
I also used the chat function on Facebook to communicate with my actors, letting them know the time
I needed them for filming and the clothes and props they needed to bring with them.
Instagram was very similar, it allowed me to post a picture of my production and add a link to my
production, again potentially increasing the size of the audience, thus meaning that I would get more
audience feedback about my product.

20. GO CONQR
I used ‘Goconqr’ as just a different way to show my audience my findings
during the research part of my coursework.
Goconqr allowed me to create flashcards and mind maps to display work. I
liked using the flash cards as they were easy to make and a very different
way to display information.
I did use the mind map function on Goconqr in my AS media but decided to
not use it this year as I felt that navigation around the maps would be too
challenging and time consuming for the audience, as I found it hard myself
to navigate through the work.

21. DAFONT
Although ‘DaFont’ wasn’t a crucial website to my production, I still used it in the
planning of my work. Default fonts on all programs are not what I was looking for
when creating my production. All the default fonts are boring and have a character to
them. I was looking for a font that had a spooky character to itself, one that was kind
of conventionally seen for horror films but had something, unique about it.
Using ‘DaFont’ allowed me to search for a font using certain categories, horror was
one of them. The website doesn’t then give you one or two to choose from but
hundreds, maybe thousands.

22. LAPTOP
When doing all of the work towards my project I used my own Acer laptop. This
played a key role in my media coursework. Firstly, it allowed me to access the websites
I needed too (Blogger, Prezi, IMDB), therefore allowing me to complete tasks outside
of the college, meaning that I could get the tasks all done in my own time.
I also have many different types of software on my laptop, including Photoshop,
premiere pro and all of the basic Microsoft programs.
As I used my own laptop, I didn’t have to worry about someone accidently deleting
my work.

23. HD VIDEO CAMERA & CANON
CAMERA
I also used one of the cameras to film a small focus group contain a couple of people form my target audience
group. Just like the survey, this helped me to decide what some people would like to see in my production and
some of the things that I could change which would make my production different compare to real media
productions. I did this during the planning and evaluation stages of my project as I filmed two focus groups.
When planning my production, I decided to firstly take pictures of the location that I am planning to film at. I
actually decided to use one of the cameras from the media department at college. I used this because it would
mean that the pictures that I would take would be of higher quality. I also meant that I could use a bright flash.
Whilst using the camera to take location shots I also used a tripod, this was because I wanted to pictures I took of
the location to not be blurry and be straight and not tilted.
I also used a HD video camera for the recording of the actual production. I used this because I
had used them before and to me, they made good quality productions.

24. IPHONE
I used my own iPhone 5s a lot during each stage of the project, this was mainly in the planning stage. I
used the application ‘Notes’ a lot as any ideas I had on the go, I could write down so I would
remember them.
I also used the camera on my phone for some of the location shots, this was after the original location
shots were taken and I thought that I could film in a new/different room in the house, instead of
bringing the camera home from college again, I would just snap the picture with my iPhone.
On my phone, I have a lot of the different social media sites, which meant that I could use the social
media sites and I’d have knowledge whenever someone would like, comment or share a post.
I used the messaging feature on my phone so that I could message my actors and see
what day we were all available, so that I could create the shooting schedule.

25. BLOGGER
This is a secure website on the internet which allowed me to keep all of my findings in the in
the same place. Blogger also allowed me to use many different formats in which to display my
findings in different ways so that I can keep the audience to my blog interested and wanting to
continue to read my work.
This is because I used blogger to look at the research that I did so that I could make my
production as realistic as possible. All the research information was in the same place so it was
so easy for me to go to the specific information that I needed. I was also able to use blogger
so that I could all of my planning in the same place, but on a different tab.