1. In the research and planning stages of this project, new technology played a key role in leading up to the stages
of production and post production as these different technologies allowed me to utilize a vary of media platforms
to gain an understanding about Dance music & conventions used in music video’s and other products.
For example, I was able to watch music video’s on YouTube from different genre’s like Hip Hop and Pop to the
genre of my choice; Dance music. Watching a number of music video’s and looking at peoples comments
underneath helped me recognize conventions that each Dance music used as well as learn audiences responses
for audience feedback which helped me to picture what the audience may like.
Using online social networking sites such as Facebook & Instagram also contributed towards research and
planning stages cause did I not only learn about audiences replies to different House/Dance artists but I learnt
about different artists or band, their star construction, marketing techniques and so on. Researching into this led
me to discover different methods in what I could use myself to aim and sell my products (Ancillary Tasks)
successfully.
Slideshare and presentations online were key in research and planning because it was second hand data. The
reason this new technology is good is because I used others opinions and research, as well as my own. I was able
to use information from other students as a basis for my own studies and explain how their work helped me in
studying and understanding about particular things. I learnt a lot, such as audience feedback, digipaks and their
style, magazine adverts, the conventions they used to construct it and Dance music iconography and
conventions.
Google Docs was a very good program to use as I am able to create consistent presentations, spreadsheets and
questionnaires on them.
From all this research and planning of music videos, digipaks and magazine adverts, it had enabled me to build up
Evaluation Question 4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?

4. To connote the genre of Dance or House music my research led me to the acknowledge that iconic
items used in music video’s and advertisement are items such as glow sticks or bright lights. I felt
glow sticks would be a good and fun idea of representing the genre, so by waving the light around in
an image, I felt it would defiantly present the genre and party lifestyle as fun or wild.
My choice to use the Nikon D3100 camera was because it is a good quality camera and I believe the
image would come out really good. Also, with the use of bright lights and lasers I felt the camera would
capture the movement and shapes of lights really well.
Similar to using glow sticks, fingers lasers were also used to connote the genre of Dance. I wanted to
produce a product that would not only epitomize the genre but also characterize the party lifestyle
and show that there can be a fun side to partying rather than the negative drug taking, pissed and
violent stereotype of House music and clubbing.

5. These were all
used to
embrace to
party lifestyle
as these are a
lot of the props
or items
known to be
involved in
Dance music.
As the previous slide explains.
The HD Canon Camera was used purely because of the quality and features that it contained which
consisted of colour options, delete and playback and an easy process to upload it to the computer. From
this, I learnt it was a quick method rather than uploading all the time to delete some, the fact I would
watch them and decide there and then what I wanted allowed me to understand and realize my intentions
to what I wanted in my video.
The college projector was used in the production stages of my music video because
it gave me an easy and abstract way of recording clips for my music video. Rather
than finding the money to go clubbing and recording (with risk of not being able to
take the camera in), I found it easier to find YouTube clips to record club nights,
lasers and party to emphasize the Dance vibe and genre.

6. •Online Image Editors
•InDesign
These are two of the main technological programs I used. Online
editors are quite important in the post production stages of my
digipak because images are a key element for most digipaks as this
is what the audience look at as well as the information, album
details and institutional details.
I used Indesign to create my Digipak, it was not difficult at all to
transfer my edited pictures from Photoshop into Indesign. It was
easy to add and delete things which made it simple to change or
alter my design quickly or when needed; preferably after my
audience responses.
I was able to copy and paste barcodes which I used on the back of
my digipak, this is a key convention that Digipaks contain on the
back of their album.
•Online Image Editors
•Photoshop
I used an online editor for my magazine advert as I wanted to definitively
connote Dance music through the images as these are often the main
thing that the audience look at as well as the information.
The online editors Pixlr and Picmonkey emphasized my images
dramatically as altering the brightness, contrast, shadowing, hue &
saturation and blurs gave it that House music. I attempted to focused
more on the shadowing and colour of lights as I wanted to connote the
iconography of Dance music through the lasers and darkness of the party
lifestyle.
Photoshop played a strong role in the creation of my magazine advert
because I needed to use a range of different tools and layers. This program
also allowed me to add effects to my typography which added that
stronger and deeper element of Dance music as the shadowed lighting
underneath my text connoted the lighting.
This updated application featured many different tools and options to use
on my photographs and magazine advert. An abstract and wild tool was
the mixer brush and burn tool, this tool pulled and stretched colour from a
previous layer or image which was the laser front cover. I felt that this tool
helped merge together both the front cover and the underneath image
which created a strong synergy branding between the magazine advert
and the image of the front cover.

7. New technology played a vital role in the post production stages of my project. Using application programs such as Final Cut Pro to place and edit
my video in and Motion which I used purely to add effects, movements, colors and lights to my video.
Motion was a brilliant program to use as it had a variety of options to add to my video. From my research, conventions and video’s showed me
that often Dance music video’s were based on illustration and amplifying purposes to entertain the audience (Goodwin’s Theory). In the
production stages I used glow sticks, lasers and lights but as it didn’t look fantastic on its own I chose to use Motion to add a powerful visual
style. Motion gave me plenty of options by adding movements, speed, colour, light and shaped effects, these new technologies added a different
and abstract style to my final product which was what I wanted to do in the first place.
Dance music is all about friends, having fun, surrounded by lasers and lights, rebellion, drinking, drugs, sexualized images or items, community
and abstractness. Whilst using Motion, I added effects such as bloom, light rays, outer glow, echo, brightness, lighting and contrast, the reasons
for the using these particular effects is because I wanted to emphasize the party lifestyle and give my video the feel of club and drunkenness. To
create the feel on drunkenness my main effect was bloom and outer glow as it made my performer look disorient and wild.
Final Cut Pro was just as good, it was pretty similar to Motion as it was easy to change clips and effects. Motion had effects that Final Cut Pro did
not so Motion was an advantage towards mixing up my visual styles and adding elements that connoted or gave off a feeling of abstractness.
These new technological programs gave me a huge advantage because it made my final products as similar and identical to Dance music
products as possible. Both of these programs made it simple to use as transferring a clip from one program to another was easy, the editing
process was straightforward as it would completely add effect from Motion to Final Cut Pro. From audience feedback and the minor faults at the
beginning of my video it was a quick and light process to change these faults, the rendering and uploading of my video to make it complete was
easy once it had been changed and finished.

10. I used Google Docs to create this basic structure of a questionnaire for my target
audience to respond to as I needed some form for feedback of my tasks. Where as
on Google Docs fellow students could comment on to my blog others could not. So
I felt the best way to come in contact with most of my target audience would be a
social networking site, therefore I uploaded it onto Facebook. This way I couldn’t
only gain responses from my target audience but also others who felt they would
like to leave an opinion. This means I wouldn’t only have helpful criticism from the
audience I am aiming to sell my product to but also others which gave me bigger
range of opinion.
An honest opinion from a 17 year old female friend of mine on Facebook, question &
answer about the music video. Would have had responses for digipak and magazine
advert but she had not seen them.
I felt by using Facebook it would grab a wider audiences eye and be more
contributive towards my feedback as Facebook is modern digital
technology and is by far much more used than Google Docs or a piece of
paper.
As well as my target audience being between 18-26 I feel my target
audience uses these types of social networking sites rather than paper or
Google Docs as it is all about communicating with friends and using
modern technology. This is why I chose to use this type of research for
audience feedback on my product(s).