Evaluation of A2 media coursework Question 4

1. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Technology played a massive role in terms of the construction, research, planning
and evaluation stages for my coursework. Technology has allowed me to make sure
that my work is of a high standard which is aesthetically pleasing, but also acquires
the conventions needed for the audience that I am targeting. The most important
piece of technology that I used in this process was the internet and was frequently
used from the beginning to the end. At the start of the process, I had to create a
blog in which I would display all of my work. I have done this process before when
completing my coursework at GCSE and AS Level; therefore I did not have to spend
too much time looking into how to use the site which gave me more time to carry
out the research tasks. Overall, this is where I uploaded all of my work for the
planning, construction, research feedback areasof my coursework, but also where I
logged my process.
Blogger was a very useful tool as it did allow me to upload my work when it was in
various formats such as moving image and print. For example, when carrying out
research, the majority of the tasks were on PowerPoint. I would upload the
PowerPoint presentation to slide share and then I would be able to embed this onto
my blog by clicking on the HTML tab. With it being the hub for all of my work, it did
allow me to go back to previous posts that I had made and make any adjustments
and make sure they adhered to the brand guidelines that I had set out for my
product as it was extremely important for me to ensure that there was consistency
throughout. One aspect of the website that made this extremely easy for me to do
so was the labelling of posts, for example, the rushes log was a part of my planning
therefore this was the label I gave it. This enabled me to have subheadings, which
overall, made it easier for me to navigate through the posts that I had uploaded to
the site.
Google and the internet played a massive role in the research aspect of my
coursework. The search engine allowed me to find masses of information which
enabled me to produce detailed posts. For example, many of the posts consisted of
me looking at other music videos and the directors and podiums in which they can
be presented on, using sites like Wikipedia and YouTube – which I found through
Google – allowed me to find out all the necessary information that I needed for
those posts. Another use for YouTube was me being able to gain access to tutorials
and explanations on how to use various parts of the software needed for the editing
of my work. This made the process much easier due to there being a step by step
process to follow alongside the explanation given by teachers.
The internet as a technology also played a massive part in audience research and
feedback through various surveys and social mediums. For example, when gaining
access to feedback frommy target audience, Survey Monkey was a website that I
used to produce a questionnaire to go alongside my music video and subsidiary
tasks which enabled me to gain feedback from my target audience. From this I was
able to make any alterations to my work as I wanted to make sure that it fit the
genre that the video was being made for. Also, social medium websites such as
Facebook and Twitter were also a massive help in terms of the audience as they
helped me gained access to people and friends who I felt would be the audience I
would target for this music video. Gaining feedback from my peers and friends was
extremely useful as this did allow me to make any adjustments to the footage,

2. furthering the alterations that I made through feedback I gained from the
questionnaire on Survey Monkey.
When filming the footage I needed for my music video and taking the images that I
needed for the subsidiary tasks, I used a Canon 550D DSLR camera. Prior to this, I
had used these cameras when completing my coursework at GCSE and AS Level,
however, I had the camera settings on automatic, whereas this year I used the
manual settings to ensure that the footage that I filmed was of the highest quality. As
the manual settings were not something I was familiar with, I used the tutorials that
were on the Haydon Media school website, alongside thosethat I found on YouTube
to experiment with the different tools that were available to me. When collecting
ideas on how to film my music video, I had decided that I wanted to use a variety of
close up and mid shots with a shallow focus, as the props featuring in the video
played a key role in the narrative. This meant that it was important that I had the
camera set up properly in order for me to achieve the look that I wanted. In order to
allow me to get this shallow focus, I needed to use a wide aperturelense that would
be set at approximately 1.8, allowing me to have a blurred background whilst
allowing more light in, which in relation to the ISO settings was beneficial as due to
this being set low to approximately 100, less light would be allowed in to ensure that
the picture was not grainy, therefore, by having the lower aperture, I was able to get
the perfect shot. In addition to this, I also 3 lights to brighten the shot – 2 diagonally
pointing towards the actor in the centre of the shot, the third positioned in the
background to brighten it. When shooting I experienced how important it was for
me to get the lighting right, for example, when I had not positioned the light covers
correctly, the footage was much too bright. Finally, when filming on the first day, I
had struggled when trying to make sure that the footage was in focus as the screen
on the camera was quite small, however, I spoke to a teacher and they gave me an
additional screen which was slightly larger and it enabled to make sure that the
quality of footage was good and that it was in focus.
When it came to the post production of my video, I edited the footage that I had
filmed using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects. Both programmes
were installed on the computers in the media rooms at school and I had access to
them both during and after school time. I imported the footage into the programme
and dragged them on to the timeline alongside the chosen song Maps – an audio
film I downloaded. As the music video I produced was solely narrative based, I did
not have to ensure that the lyrics matched what the actor was saying, however, it
was still important for me to ensure that the footage lined up with the message
amongst the lyrics in the song. For the majority of the shots I filmed for the footage, I
used a Steadicam to ensure that the shots were clear and not shakey, however,
there were still some shots which still looked a little shakey, especially the footage
filmed outside of the black box. To adjust these issues I used the Warp Stabiliser tool
in Adobe After Effects. This tool allowed me to smoothen out the footage and make
it look more aesthetically pleasing and professional. Another piece of software that I
used was Adobe InDesign which is where I produced the final Digipak and
magazine advert. It was important that I followed the Brand Guidelines for both
products, which is something the paragraph style tool allowed me to do. The tool
enabled me to make sure that the font size and adjustments was consistent through
both products as well as the colour of the font. Overall, various technologies played
a massive role in the construction and research, planning and evaluation of all of my
media products.