1. The document discusses the author's use of media technologies in their AS and A2 media studies courses. In AS, they researched film openings on YouTube and organized information in Prezi and PowerPoint. In A2, they researched music videos on platforms like YouTube, Vevo, and compiled findings into documents, slideshares, and a blog. 2. The author gained more experience with software like Photoshop, Pixlr between AS and A2, allowing them to create more professional ancillary texts for their A2 music video project. They used iMovie to edit footage and uploaded final products to YouTube for promotion. 3. Hardware like a Sony camcorder was used to

1. Media Evaluation Post 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
George Picton-Clark

2. Transition of AS to A2
In my AS course in year 12, I carried out initial research for film openings and how
to incorporate the generic conventions of a horror opening into my own. Due to the
genre of horror being such a vast and divided one, it proved difficult to do this. My
own film opening was a psychological one so researching films such as ‘Silence of
the Lambs’ and ‘The Ring’ helped me develop these ideas into something more. I
used different platforms such as Youtube to investigate into these openings,
combining my research into different softwares such as Prezi and Powerpoint to
accentuate and show my understandings of different media softwares.

3. Similarly, in my A2 media portfolio, my initial research into my music video was
conducted by researching the genre of trance, as well as music videos that fit in
this genre to apply any understand and knowledge to my own production. I
conducted my research by researching into different institutions by their social
media platforms as well as video sharing platforms such as ‘Vevo’ and ‘Youtube’.
From this research, I compiled it into documents and slideshares which were
eventually published onto my blog on ‘Blogger’. This is a platform I also used in
AS, due to its easy, simple and understanding interface. I took specific interest
from music videos by artists such as ‘Brooke Candy ‘ and ‘Grimes’ due to the
flamboyant and unique abstract narrative examples they showed.

4. Software and Hardware
My AS year wasn’t advanced as my A2 year, personally speaking, I hadn’t had as
much experience with production of projects in AS as I do now. The unfamiliarity
of specific software and hardware lead me to do more research into media
technology. I used various tutorials on platforms such as Youtube to help me
understand it more, something that I carried with me to A2. I used software such
as Prezi to collate information which I had gathered, be it research, audience
research, or other tasks which were set. However, in A2, I decided to use
Powerpoint slides due to its easier and less time consuming interface. Software
such as Photoshop and Pixlr were very helpful tools to help me produce ancillary
texts. In AS it was to create a production logo. This was very time consuming for
me due to my lack of background knowledge on photoshop. I decided to use ‘Pixlr’
in my A2 portfolio for my ancillary texts such as the digipak, promotional poster
and my production logo. I felt a lot more confident using this as I could use my
Chromebook instead of having to travel back and forth to the Mac Suite to

5. use the more advanced software like Photoshop. I carried the knowledge of
simple tools on these editing softwares like Photoshop with me to A2, so I once
again did more research into using the simpler software like Pixlr on my
Chromebook. I was able to go more in depth to create my ancillary texts on a
larger more professional scale in A2 due to the severity of the task. Creating
distortion, layers and other various visual effects onto my album digipak allowed a
more professional look from more in depth knowledge. Albeit, my final digipak plan
was a lot different to my initial ideas I produced, this was due to complications I
had trying to recreate initial sketches on a digital scale. I applied a more simplistic
approach in my production stage of the digipak, due to it being more simple, but
also conforming to conventions of the genre I was creating. This can be seen in
the distorted images and inverted aspects, copying and merging layers, something
that was a lot easier for me to do after the research I carried out.

6. For my initial ideas, I simply used word to compile a long list of different tasks, I
felt this was a much easier approach to display my ideas instead of creating a
much larger Prezi or Powerpoint slide. Videos, costumes, locations, cast, mise-en-
scene, filming schedules and research were all aspects of this document which
was compiled. In AS the task was a lot easier to carry out because it wasn’t as
detailed, due to the project being a lot smaller, hence why I compiled the initial
research into a Prezi which was easier to interpret a smaller amount of
information. I also used ‘Youtube’ for many different tasks, be it research and
construction, to the final production. I decided to use this as a platform that my
artist could gain promotion and coverage from, the link could be promoted on
various other platforms such as ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’. My final production was
uploaded onto Youtube for these reasons, and it was also a way to help finalise
my audience feedback from my video so people could gain an insight and be able
to view the video without any other influence.

7. I also did this is in the AS stage of media, my final product was uploaded, as well
as vox-pops in the audience research stage. To actually make my products, both
times I used iMovie. This is a simple software that is on iMacs, it is fast, efficient
and has a friendly interface which makes it accessible even for beginners. I had
knowledge of how to use this from other stages like Year 10. Both times I used
this to apply my different scenes in a chronological order, using transitionary
effects and to edit shots which may have been shaky, this is something that I
didn’t do in AS, but I did it in A2 to give my project a much more professional look.
I was also able to adjust the lighting and the speed of different clips to make them
stand out even more and highlight the importance that that particular clip played in
the role of the video. I was also able to filter out any unnecessary background
noise which interfered with the clips, also using the crop tool to finalize the scene
by getting rid of any unwanted footage.

8. In both of my projects, I used a Sony HD Camcorder, this was a very effective
piece of hardware as it was very clear and looked professional. I gathered
knowledge and learned how to use the cameras more efficiently in the A2 stage
using various settings to help stabilize and zoom in effectively without having to
make mistakes. For my ancillary texts, the pictures of my artist were taken on an
iPhone 5S, however, it still came out looking moderately professional, I used
lighting and a blank wall to make it seem like it was in a studio, and I believe this
worked out well to highlight the importance of my artist. After filming everything on
the camcorder, the footage was uploaded to the iMac by using a memory card
which was used to save any footage which was filmed. Using iMovie, it then
allowed me to carry out the task that I needed to do.