The document discusses the use of various media technologies throughout the stages of an A2 coursework project. WordPress was used to create a blog to display research, planning, production, evaluation, and final products. Video and audio recording was done using apps on a Mac and iPhone. Adobe Premiere Pro was used to edit video, adding effects like color grading and stabilizing. Photoshop was used to edit photos and InDesign to layout designs. Without these digital technologies, high quality production and presentation would not have been possible within the time and budget constraints.

1. Question 4- How didyouuse mediatechnologies inthe construction andresearch, planningand
evaluation stages?
Technologies were crucial whenproducingall of mycoursework, especially mythree finalproducts
as withoutthemproduction wouldn’thave beenpossible. Atthe startof the A2 course we set upa
blogon a website calledWordPress whichwasawayfor us to display all of ourresearch, planning,
production, evaluation andfinal products thishighlightswhy the internetwasone of the most
importanttechnologies forthiscourse. Iwasfamiliarwiththe website asIuseditfor my AS
coursework soit didn’ttake me longto seteverythingupandmeantthat I couldget onwiththe
course and tasksstraightaway. Bloggerwasthe otheroption we could’ve usedbutIwasalready
usingthisforthe examside of the course meaningImighthave got confused if Iuseditfor both
halvesof the course and I preferred the layoutof WordPress todisplay mypostsasI think itlooked
more professional andyoucouldmake play aroundwiththe theme tomake itsuityour coursework
includingcustomizingthe headerimagesalthoughitwasa bitmore complex thanbloggertouse.
There were some issues withWordPress withembeddingcertainsoftware’s likeEmaze, Prezi and
Slideshare because of FlashbyAdobe needingtobe updated whichmeantthatI had to hyperlink
quite a lotof mywork whichIdidwitha screenshotof itandlinkingthisimage sothatthe bloguser
couldclickon it andbe sentto mydocument. Although Slideshare didhave anembed link
specifically forWordPress thatmeantI couldupload mywork withnoissue if I usedthislink. When
it came to recordingvideos forproduction logsorotherpostsI usedthe PhotoBoothapp on my
Mac whichwassimple touse and recorded withhighquality audioandpicture. Torecordany audioI
usedthe voice memoappon my iPhone orSoundcloud. I preferred touse voice memothenupload
viaSoundcloud asit wasquick to do and I had previously recorded audiointhisway therefore it
wasn’thard forme to do. YouTube was how I uploaded myvideos tomyblogandthese were the
easiestformattouploadas they use a html linkthatis a separate window inaWordPress poststhat
meansitappears on the blogas youwishitto allowingforagood quality videotobe portrayed to
the user. Vimeowasthe alternative software Iusedtoupload videosbutIonly usedthisformy first
draft andfinal videoasI found YouTube a loteasiertoupload to forquick videos like myproduction
logsor behind the scenes.
The production stage of the course beganafterI had completed every taskinthe research and
planningsection of myblogandit wasthe stage of the course whenIusedthe most varietyof media
technologies. IusedaCanon550D DSLR camera to filmmymusicvideowithwhichI usedformy AS
course when I tookmy photos formy magazine butI had neveruseditwiththe filmingsettings
before thereforeittookme a while togetcleanshotsthat were steady asI needed togetusedto all
the settingsbefore beingable togetthe professional shotsIwasafterfor myfinal video. Togetthe
bestqualityfootage possible, Ifilmedat720p ratherthan the average rate of 480p thismeantI
couldfilmat a frame rate of 50fps and would be able toeditat 24fps whichis the mostcommon
frame rate forgood quality footage allowingme tochange the speedof myfootage easily inthe
editingstage withnoworry aboutthe quality dropping. The lensI usedtofilmwasa 50mm F.1.8
prime lensbecause itwasthe bestlenstouse for highquality footage. Moreover, asitis a small lens
that doesn’tzoominandout there were noextraparts that would move when filmingandI
wouldn’thave anissue withhavingtochange the settingseachtime Ifilmanew shot as I wasn’t
able to zoominor out. Thislenswaseasy to use in termsof focusingandexposure soitdidn’ttake
me longto learnall the correctsettings formy footage andensure thatall my footage wasat the
highestquality possible. FormyshootinBlackPark I took a zoomlens withme to attemptto get
more variety of shotsand play aroundwithzoominginand outon my performers andevenformore
scenicshots. I didn’tmanage touse many of these apart fromone clipof my female performerthatI
have usedtwice once at normal speedandthe othertime it’sslowed down asitwas the mainclipI

2. got that withthe zoomlensthatsuited the tone of my videoandwasin focus. All of myshoots for
my videotookplace inoutside locations therefore Ireliedonnatural lightinganddidn’thave touse
any studiolightstoenhance the brightness of myperformers. Withsome of mynighttime shotslike
one of mytwo performers inLondon, I reliedonpostproduction inPremiere andhadtoeditthe clip
to be a bitbrighterwhichlowered the quality slightly butdidn’tmake itlook worse itjustimproved
the visual aesthetic.
Digital technologies wasthe mostusefulwhenitcame tothe editingstage of myproduction as it
allowed me togetrid of all the little mistakes thatImade whilstfilmingandgetall myfinal tasksto
be the bestquality possible. Iusedadobe premiere procs6 to editmymusicvideotogetherwhich
tookme a while togetusedto as I had neveruseditbefore butwiththe helpof tutorialsand
enoughpractice I managedtolearnall the skills required anddeveloped myeditingthe more I
workedonit.I usedmany differentfeaturesof thisprogram, the mainone wasjustcroppingmy
clipsto make themfitintime withmysong andensure they flow together. WarpStabiliserwasa
helpful effectthatIusedona few of my clipswhichslightly zooms intoyourclipinorderto make it
smoothertherefore makingitappearina betterquality. Although Ididhave a few problems with
thisas sometimes Ihada clipthat was fartoo shaky that thiseffectzoomed infartoo muchand
made it look worse thanitdid before meaningI hadto finda differentcliptouse. Thiswasmost
helpful formyfirstdraft, Ididn’thave to use itas muchfor my final videoasImanagedto improve
my filmingwhenIdidmyre shoots. Anotherfeature Premiere hasiscolourgradingwhichIchose to
use to improve the visuals of myvideoandgive ita bettercolourscheme. I usedthe three point
colourcorrector tool on many of myclipsonce I had made an adjustmentlayeroverthe clipI
wantedtoedit. Each wheel changedthe colourof a differentpart(high, midandlow tones) of the
clipmeaningthatI had lotsto play aroundwithto getthe besttone to suitmyvideo. Itended to
alterthe midtonesthe most as thiswas the mostsubtle anddidn’tmake myvideolook fake orover
editedwhich suitsmyindie popgenre. The only editingIdidthatwas obvious wasonthe three
consecutive clipsof asunsetasI alteredthemtobe completely differentcolours sothey contrast
one anotherand addsome brightcolours to my video. Forsome of my clipsIchangedthe colour to
blackand white toaid to the narrative of lovers fadingaway fromone another. The bestthingabout
thisway of colourgradingis that if I didn’tlike the wayitlookedIcouldeasily removethe layerand
getback to my original clip. AnothereffectIuseda lotwas fadesfromone clipto anotheras this
made the videoflow ratherthanlookingroughandallowed myvideotobe visually pleasingtomy
audience. Idecided tochange the speed of the black andwhite clipsbyslowingthemdowntohalf
the speedtoaid to the narrative andmatch the timingsof the song. I believe thatthisalongwiththe
coloureditingmade these clipssuitthe themeof myvideoalotmore meaningthatI didn’tbreak
away fromtoo manyconventions andwould thereforepleasemyaudience. AfterIhad fully edited
my videoandwaspleased withhow itlooked, Iexported itanduploaded ittoVimeoratherthan
YouTube due to the higherquality of Vimeoandthenuploaded ittomyblogalongwithmy two
ancillary taskssothat people canview all mywork. Premiere wasthe bestprogramtouse for my
editingasitwas simple once touse aftera while andwasso easy to go back if I editedsomething
wronglike deletingthe adjustmentlayerforcolourgrading.
Anotheradobe software thatI usedto editmyphotos was Photoshop whichwaseasy touse as I
learntthe basicfeatures of itfrom myAS coursework. Photoshop wasmyfavourite software as
there wassuch a wide range of toolsto play around withtomake my photos the bestI could. When
editingmyphotos Imainly changedthe contrast, brightness andcolourlevelstomake themall link
togetherandsuitmy indie popgenre. ByeditingmyphotosImanagedtoimprove the quality of
some of themand completely alterthe tone sothey wouldall suitone another. Itriedtoeditthem
insubtle waysto stickwithmygenre conventions asthe indie poptendstostickwithnatural colours

3. rather thantoo brightor monochrome like poporrock. Afterconstantly changingthe colouringof
my photos I transferred themovertoInDesign (anotherAdobe software)tolay themoutin the
formatof my advertanddigipak. Toadd evenmore originality tomyancillary tasks, Idownloaded
my ownfontsfromdafont.comandI found twochoicesthat matched mytheme well. Idecided
between the twofontsandcolours forthemby seeingwhichsuitedmyimagesandthe tones Ihad
editedtheminthe best. Formy advertI useda twoshot of my performers anddecidedonthe
correct fontinwhite as the image wasrather darkso the white contrasted itnicely. AfterIhad
completed myadvert, Imovedontolayingoutmyedited imagesintomydigipak andthentypedout
all the textthat was required. One tool Ifoundusefulwasthe pentool toget a colourfrom my
sunsetimage anduse it forthe side sections of mydigipak tomatch all the photostogether. One
thingI didstruggle withslightly waspixelation of the imageswhen Iresized themtofitthe correct
squares of the digipak butonce I had placedthemincorrectly thiswasn’ttoo hard. Also, I used
InDesign formyevaluation question 2as itwas a differentformattomyother3 andallowed me to
display thisina variety of ways. Thismagazine layoutwassimple forme due tomakinga music
magazine lastyearfor myAS coursework anditmeantthat I couldmake it look very professional. I
chose to stickto the conventional magazinelayoutwithcolumnsandphotos toplease mytarget
audience more. Ithenwill uploadthistoissuusothatit can be embedded ontomyblogandmy
audience will be able tolocate italongsidethe restof mywork.
I believethatwithoutthe use of digital technologies forthe research andplanningtothe production
of mythree final tasksto myevaluation withinmyA2coursework, mypostsand quality of work
wouldn’thave beenanywhere nearasgood. My blogon Wordpress wasusedtodisplay every single
task I hadto complete usingothersoftwares like Emaze andSoundcloud topresentthem. Digital
filmingandeditingaidedme intermsof budgetandtime aswell asensuringthatmy work was
portrayed ina professional yetsimpleway. AlthoughIdidstruggle withgettingusedtosome of
these technologies, overtime Imanagedtogetusedto all of these programsand produce the best
quality work Icould.