how did you use media technologies in the the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. I used a number of different technologies throughout all stages of the
coursework. Some enabled me to do things which with out the technology,
I wouldn’t have been able to and others were less helpful and restrictive
either due to my lack of ability with unfamiliar equipment or simply that
fact that you are relying on something other than yourself to produce what
is already in your head.

2. Panasonic HD DV camera
I used the camera for-
• Photograph locations
• Take pictures to make part of my mood board
• Take images as the main points of my media
texts

3. Photographing locations
This was useful as it enabled me to see how the locations translated onto computerised
images, e.g. as a result of this process I did not use the woods as a filming location very
much due to the natural lighting making it really hard to get the summery glow effect on
camera, even if it looked perfect for it to a human eye.
This may have achievable for someone with more time to understand the features of this
camera in full. However I did find the camera fairly easy to understand, the manual focus
was simple to instigate which made playing with the depth of focus and the sharpness of
the images quite interesting. Also, the automated settings were clear and useful to help
me get a crisp photograph in all of the different location sights.
These images represent what conditions you should use them in to
get the best picture you can. This is helpful if you are not used to
taking photographs where quality is important.
A feature I didn’t enjoy was how it didn’t take a picture if it didn’t like he lighting, this could be
down to me not using it properly or correctly. However I wanted the [picture as it was, I thought
it looked okay but I couldn’t take it. This could be an example of technological determinism – this
theory is about how technologies available directly affect the societies they are part of, and the
people in them. This example shows how is can be apparent, as a camera is the first way I now
think of translating an images to show others, when this didn’t work for me I just moved on. I
didn’t think to draw it or re-create it in another way, the technology didn’t work for me so I gave
up! This is also an instance of where hindered my creativity to some degree.

4. Pictures For My Mood Board
This was an important thing to include as it was the first thing as part of my pitch were I
could include something I had made – the first time I showed something which had been
influenced by research and translated it into something original and creative.
The easy-use-ness of the camera was vital for this as it didn’t take u too much time to set up
and meant that I could wait until a break in the clouds and still get the image I wanted fairly
spontaneously.
In this way the simplicity of this camera very much helped me in terms of creativity as there
is no other way I would have been able to show what I was trying to create as I am not
artistically gifted, and even if I
were the convinces of this
process wouldn’t have been
matched.

5. Pictures For My Final Pieces
The features of the camera, which allowed me to get remotely professional looking images
were very useful as the feel I needed for my texts were creative and the images were to be
the vocal point of the digipack and the advertisement. So, having good pictures was
important to make the overall pieces look professional.
Another good aspect of the camera for this was that it’s really light, so I was able to walk
around the locations in Worcester from 12:30 until 8pm taking pictures of locations for he
video and images to be included in the digipack and its advert.
However, I did run out of card space and battery without getting all of the images i would
have liked, but i probably just got a bit carried away to be fair!

6. Panasonic HD DV camera
I used the video camera for-
• Filming the music video
• Filming audience feedback
Filming The Video
• This camera was very useful during the shoots for the music video as it was
easily to move around meaning I had freedom with the takes and could get a lot
of different angles of the same thing quickly.
• Also being able to move the screen to see what’s being filmed was helpful as it
enabled me to direct performers while seeing how it was translating on camera.
• The quality was not the best in the world, some of the panning isn’t as smooth
as it could be, more shots per minutes would have been good. But I don’t think
it is enough to make the camera work look obviously unprofessional, if it does it
is most probably down to me!

7. Filming Audience Feedback
• This was good as it allowed me to collect more
in depth quantitative data. This can be done in
written mode but that is more premeditated
so there is more tendencies for people to
over-think their answers, where as videoing
people means their answers are spontaneous
– this results in less demand characteristics
(hopefully).

8. Photoshop cs5
This was amazingly useful! It helped me make my images not only stand
out but also made my work look more professional. This may be due to
my lack of skill as a photographer, but also when making the text having
the loop selector, which predicts what item you are trying to delete,
move or copy and selects it for you makes putting in icons for twitter
and facebook look so much more professional, or take so much less
time.
Other effects which were vital
for me to change the feel of my
work was the brightness and
contrast levels. This is
ridiculously easy and changed
my pictures all in the same way
which helped them to have a
synergy.

9. Gmail- calendar
Things i put onto my calendar here were e-mail
to me reminding me of things i had to do, this
flashed up on my home screen on my phone
so i would not forget, it also sent reminders
to other people who were involved with that
particular task. This was useful as it made it
more likely that everyone I needed to be
there would be there or that they would at
least remember to let me know if they
couldn’t be there so plans could change.
Channel 4 OD
I used this to get images of the television texts i had taken ‘inspiration’
from, this is useful as the things i like are always available for me to
see at any time.

10. I used this for-
• Researching target audience
• Researching theory
• Sharing my work
Researching Target
Audience
This image is taken off the statistics available on youtube, it
allows you to see who has watched the video, where they
are from, there age, gender etc. This very quickly gave me a
good idea of who the music video need to be aimed at.

11. Researching Theory
I used youtube to watch videos about enchasing
creativity, researching other music videos and
watch how some music videos were made for
ideas – it is very helpful because of how quickly
you can source a lot of information.

12. Sharing my work
Its all connected and all of my work is in the same channel
It is also useful as i have made my work global! There have
been people from America and Canada who have seen my
music video, this means that even if my target audience live
in another country they will still have access to it!
It is really easy to connect my work
with media 2.0 so getting target
audience feedback was made a lot
easier as i could put this on a tweet
and @ them in it so that they
would have a direct link to the
video.

13. Twitter
This was a useful social network to have available, being able to update
people such as performers all at the same time instantly is useful. Being
able to tweet people who work at Island Records, to show that I had
attempted to contact the business who have ownership of the song.
Blogger
This is where I can easily update all the things i am doing and bring together things that
have influenced me and develop my ideas, this is a good thing to have as part of the
process as i can go over the things i have blogged if i have been doing other things for a
while so that i can understand where i was going with my ideas. This i did find useful as
a general rule, the only thing is that its not that good on-the-go so it takes time to make
a blog post.
Smartphone
Having access to all of these thing all of the time was extremely useful being able to do
coursework for 20 minutes when I was on the way to college was helpful and having
everything in my hand all of the time was definitely useful as it is similar to having a pen
and paper with me all of the time, this meant that i could write down an idea as i had so
that i didn’t forget it.