How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of your production?
1. How did you use media technologies in
the research, planning, construction and
evaluation stages of your production?
2. The software I used for my blog was Weebly. I chose to continue with this platform
because after using it last year for AS because I found it easy and useful. For example,
all the tools were placed on the right-hand side of the page which therefore made it
quick to access. There were also a variety of tools that allowed me to be creative with
the site for example I was able to embed my PowerPoint's and slideshares instead of
writing it as a blog post, however this was only to a certain extent as I used the free
version instead of the premium one.
Weebly
3. Wix
Whereas, as part of my ancillary products I used Wix for our website to promote our
artist instead of Weebly. This was my first time using Wix and though I found it much
more complex than Weebly, I chose to continue with it. The reason for this was
because, unlike Weebly, Wix didn’t limit me to be creative with the site as there
were more options on this site to create a much more bold and unique looking page.
For example, through the use of 3D glitch effect of the image of our artist, it gave our
website an eye-catching appearance.
It was important to present the website in the best way possible because although
the promotion of the artist will be much more popular on their social media than
their website – fans still may chose to browse the site as they may want to catch up
with the latest news about their favourite artist or even buy their merchandise from
the site.
5. YouTube
YouTube was the first platform I used for my research process. For example, at the
beginning of the year after we were put in our groups and had to chose a song for
our music video, we all browsed on YouTube to search for the different songs we
enjoyed.
Additionally, I used YouTube to help with my coursework, for example, when I
analysed music videos, I used YouTube to watch them. I then copy and pasted the
URL and embedded it on my blog.
Furthermore through here I was able to research a wide variety of different music
videos to gain inspiration for my own. For example, after watching Selena Gomez’s
‘Heart Wants What it Wants’ I became fond of the black and white filter used in the
video as I thought it worked well with the sad and heart-breaking narrative of the
song. Therefore, this inspired me to also have a black and white filter in our music
video, however unlike Gomez’s music video the visuals weren’t black and white
throughout all but only in some sections.
6.
7. Google
We all use Google everyday, it is an essential part of our lives today and our lives
wouldn’t be the same without it. This platform played a significant role during my
research process, for example, I used Google images to search for high-fashionable
clothing as I wanted to get an idea of how it would look like as an outfit together
because my group and I wanted our artist to be dressed in this style.
8. Instagram and Twitter
During my A2 production I decided to ‘think out the box’ by being much more
broader with my research than I was during my AS. This was achieved by not only
using YouTube to get inspiration but also other platforms such as Instagram and
Twitter.
Through Instagram I searched a variety of fashion pages such as Boohoo as we
wanted our artist to be dressed in high-end fashionable clothing. Whilst through
Twitter I searched the different hashtags used by artists when promoting their music
video or album, so we could use it for our own. For example, my group and I created
both Twitter and Instagram accounts for our artist as social media today is very big
and with this it is easier to reach a large audience to promote what you want.
9. Font Generator
During the process of creating our digipak, instead of having an ordinary title – I
browsed through arrange of different font sites online for inspiration. By doing this I
was able to experiment with a wide variety of different styles and decide which one
I thought would look well with our digipak.
10. SurveyMonkey
For one of evaluation questions I used SurveyMonkey, an online platform whereby you
can make surveys for free, to get audience feedback on our music video. I did this by
asking four simple questions in which they had to answer and then distributed them
through email. This platform was very helpful as it allowed me to get responses from the
audience quickly and I was also able to analyse the results later as well as making
comparisons.
12. WhatsApp
To discuss and plan for our music video during the process of its making, my group and
I communicated through our WhatsApp group chat. This made it easy for us to share
ideas quickly with each other which therefore why was very useful, as last year for AS
we didn’t have a group chat and instead we used Outlook to communicate with each
other. This was not every useful as sometimes we often forgot to check our emails
which therefore caused us to not be update with new ideas for improvements for our
opening sequence. However, with WhatsApp it was different as we used this more
frequently than our emails.
13. Google Docs
As part of our ancillary products we created both a website and digipak to promote our
artist. As part of our website we decided to include a ‘News’ page which includes the
latest news about what our artist has got up to, after browsing on Yuna’s website and
being inspired by her page.
Therefore, I took the role to write news articles about our artist and used Google Docs
to present them on. I chose to use this platform instead Microsoft Word because, one
of the designs on Google Docs includes a news style template which I thought would
work and look very well if I were to write my articles on them.
14. iPhone Photo Editing Apps
To edit the images for our digipak I decided to experiment with photo editing apps
from my iPhone, such as ‘Trippy’ and ‘Edit.lab’. Doing this was useful as it allowed
me to be creative when playing around with different editing tools such as
contrast, brightness and saturation.
15. Photoshop
To create our digipak we used first used Google to search for a digipak template
panel. We then used Photoshop to insert the images we took with a canon
camera on to each of the six panels. This was a new experience for us as we did
not use Photoshop in AS therefore at first we were not very confident and did not
have much knowledge on how to use it. However, we did not give up. As instead
we used YouTube to watch tutorials for beginners on how to use Photoshop
which eventually made things much easier for us.
17. Canon Camera
To film our music video we used the 550D canon camera. Because this camera has high
quality imagery it made the visuals appear the way we wanted. For example, through
auto focus it kept the shots we filmed to appear clear and not blurred. Additionally,
because we used the same camera at AS we had experience with it which therefore
made us be more familiar with its functions and we were able to film successfully.
18. Final Cut Pro
To edit our music video we used Final Cut Pro. Again, as we used this platform in AS
to edit our opening sequence we were much more familiar and confident with its
functions and therefore we chose to be more experimental with it than we were last
year. For example, during the editing process we chose to experiment with different
dark shade filters such as ’50s TV’, ‘Aged Paper’ and ‘Black and White’ – which we
chose. The reason for this was because, as the artist in our music video is singing
about her break-up, she is heart-broken and down. Therefore, we wanted to express
her sorrows the colours of the visuals as well hence why we chose to only use this
filter on her scenes.
20. When evaluating my work for each questions I chose to use different media
technologies to present each of them instead of answering it as a blog post. This is
because, I wanted to be as creative as I can when presenting them and by using
different platforms to do this I was able to. For example, through the unique designs
of each other presentation sites it allowed me to present my questions in an original
way.
