New media technologies were crucial to Shanaz Ahmed at each stage of her media project. In research, she used Google, YouTube, Jamendo and Blogger to gather information and organize her work. During planning, Google, Photoshop, YouTube and Blogger helped with developing ideas and receiving feedback. Construction involved using a camera, mobile phones, Final Cut Pro and Photoshop to film footage, communicate and edit together the music video and ancillary tasks. For evaluation, PowerPoint, Final Cut Pro and Powtoon allowed for detailed analysis using various visual and audio formats. Overall, Shanaz developed new technical skills through creative use of different media across each phase.

1. Q4. HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?
By Shanaz Ahmed

2. New media technologies were vital in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages. I used
different types of media technologies for the different
stages in the media project, which enabled me to
develop new skills and be creative.

3. RESEARCH

4. GOOGLE
Google played a big role in the research for my media project. I used
this search engine to find iconic artists of the Pop/Country genre. I was
able to identify the costume choices, make-up and hairstyles and the
props used by these artists and obtain the images I needed for my
research. This was a key tool in our research and planning because
we were able to form a star construction of our artist by looking at
existing female artists of this genre, such as Taylor Swift and Carrie
Underwood. Using images on google enabled me to look at ‘Andrew
Goodwin’s theory’ in detail and have an understanding of the
conventions I need to include. A difficulty of using this tool was that I
was unable to access certain websites for a while, due to the internet
restrictions we had on our college computers.

5. YOUTUBE
YouTube is a website that is used to upload videos of different things
that is shared with everyone. It is also used to share music videos of
existing artists. This was a crucial tool in the our media project
because it was based on creating a music video and YouTube allowed
me to access different music videos of different artists and identify the
different conventions needed for a music video. I mainly used
YouTube for my research, as I looked at music videos of popular
artists, such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Cher Lloyd and Ed Sheeran. I
focused on the costume choices in the music videos, the locations
used, the props used and how the music video was created. A difficulty
of using YouTube in my research was that YouTube is blocked on our
college computers and due to this, I was unable to access it and
conduct my research. This caused me to fall behind on my research.

6. JAMENDO
Jamendo is an online website that contains music posted by unsigned
artists and people that love music are able to download their music for
free. I used Jamendo to find an unsigned song for my media project.
As they were unsigned songs, I was able to choose any song I wanted.
This website was useful because the music was put into categories of
the genres and it allowed be to browse different songs of different
genres and select a song that I was interested in. I chose two songs,
both from the pop genre; ‘Sweet’ by Tamara Laurel and ‘When you are
gone’ by Marco Margna. We decided to use ‘Sweet’ because it is a
pop/country hybrid genre and different to other songs. However, a
difficulty of using Jamendo was that it was very time consuming. I had
to browse through a lot of songs because many songs didn’t interest
me, as not all of the songs matched the standards of existing songs.

7. BLOGGER
Blogger is a website that enables people to post things for other
people to see. I used blogger to post the research I conducted for my
media project. I was able to put up the pieces of work I did in different
formats, for example, a word document, a PowerPoint presentation
and a video. This was useful in my research because I was able to see
all my research put together and identify whether I missed anything
out. Using blogger was successful as it allowed me to keep a record of
all my work, particularly during this stage. However, I faced some
difficulties in adjusting to this website and its features, due the change
from using Webs to Blogger for this task. Webs was the website we
used for this purpose in our year 12 media project and the layout and
formats were easier to use on Webs.

8. PLANNING

9. GOOGLE
Google is used to search for anything people want. I used google in
my planning for potential features of my music video. It allowed me to
create ideas for our music video. I searched for locations that I can
use in our music video, which are easily accessible and near to us. I
searched for images of different female artists of our chosen genre,
such as Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Looking at these artists
enabled me to create an image construction and have an idea of what
to look out for when searching for our potential artist, as I wanted to
conform to the conventions of a real music video. Using google, I was
able to look for our potential target audience, as I had access to
statistics of the age range of the people who listen to our genre. A
difficulty of using google was that I formed ideas based on what I
found that were too difficult for us use in our music video, such as a
location that is too far away for us as media students.

10. PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop is a software used to edit images and make adjustments to
them to make it look like perfect. I used Photoshop to practice creating
a digipack and magazine advert for our music video. This enabled me
to familiarize with the software and the different tools and features
within it. For example, I learnt how to use the ‘Spot Healing Tool’,
which removes blemishes on the image. This give the effect of
flawlessness on the image as there aren’t any spots or marks. Also,
using Photoshop, I experimented with different font styles, which gave
me the chance to pick out a couple of font styles I want to potentially
use for the digipack and magazine advert. However, I faced difficulties
with using Photoshop as I was inexperienced with this software. It was
the first time I was using it and I found the features of Photoshop
complex to use, as I didn’t know how to use the tools.

11. YOUTUBE
YouTube was useful in my planning as I used it to upload my animatic
video, which is a storyboard of the different shots and locations we
decided to use for our music video, in order. The actual music video
would be a replica of the animatic video, but instead of still images, it
would be actual scenes of the artist lip syncing. It is very helpful
because it was a guideline to what I needed to do and I was able to
access it on my phone when we were filming. Also, I was able to use
YouTube to upload the drafts of our music video for the audience to
see. This allowed me to receive feedback from the audience on what
was good about the music video and what wasn’t. The feedback
enabled me to make improvements to the music video, for example, I
added narrative to the music video to make the audience interested in
the music video, throughout.

12. BLOGGER
Blogger is a website used to post things, making it available for other
people to see. I used blogger in this stage by uploading all of my
planning and ideas I created for our music video. This was useful
because it allowed me to organize and manage my work and put it in
order of when I did it. I was able to post my planning of the music video
on different posts and explain the decisions I made and why I made
them. Also, I used blogger to gather the work of my group members
and post it on my blogger, comparing what I found, how it helped me
and contributed to the final decisions in producing the music video. For
example, I put Shema’s and Imran’s work on costume choices on my
blogger and it enabled me to know the different costume choices we
will use for our music video.

13. CONSTRUCTION

14. A camera is vital in this stage of construction. I used a Cannon DSLR
camera to film the footage for my music video and a camcorder to film
the images for the storyboard animatic. I drew images of the shots I
wanted to include in my music video, filmed them and put them
together in order to produce the storyboard. As this was the
storyboard, the camcorder was suitable for this. On the other hand, I
used a DSLR to capture the footage for my music video because it
was of a higher quality. The DSLR also enabled me to use its different
features, such as using the manual focus, which allowed me to focus
on what I wanted in the frame. However, a difficulty I faced is that
some of the scenes that I recorded were shaky, as I had a lot of
scenes to film in a limited time.
CAMERA

15. MOBILE PHONES
Mobile Phones were very important in this stage of construction. I
used my mobile phone to communicate with my group members,
during the crucial time of filming. It enabled me to create a group
chat on WhatsApp and discussed the days we are all able to meet
up to shoot the footage. This was useful because I was able to
inform my group members if I was unable to attend the day we set
to film. Also, if there were any last minute changes, for example,
the weather was bad as it was raining on a day we were going to
film in Regent’s Park, so we spoke on the group chat and decided
to shoot the scenes
in Shema’s house instead, as it was indoors. A difficulty
we faced with this is that Tanim didn’t have internet on
her phone outside, so it was difficult to get through to
her after she left her house.

16. FINAL CUT PRO
Final Cut Pro is a software used to create and edit videos. Final Cut
allowed me to put together all my footage and place them in the order
of the shots I wanted and according to the beat of the song. Using this
software, I was able to match the visuals to the lyrics and ensure that
the lip syncing is perfect. Also, I using editing techniques, such as an
overlay, which is when two video clips are layered on top of each other.
This presents the two clips together. I included video transitions, such
as ‘fade in fade out’, so that there isn’t a harsh change between the
clips and it looks smooth and natural. Final Cut enabled me to use the
effects of ‘black and white’ in my music video, which I used to establish
the memories of the artist. A difficulty was to match the video clips to
the lyrics, as if one of them was out of place, then they all were
misplaced.

17. PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop is a software used to edit images and adjust the way they
look. This was essential in the construction of my media project as I
used this to create my ancillary tasks. Photoshop enabled me to alter
the images taken by the camera, such as using the ‘Spot Healing Tool’
to remove any spots and marks on her face. I was also able to change
the background of the image and add texts to it. This enabled me to
develop my editing skills as it required micro editing, which I learnt to
do. I used this to accomplish the target images of the different tasks.
However, the ancillary texts opened my eyes to the complexity of print
editing. I had not used Photoshop before, so I found it difficult to
establish the use of this software. After experimenting with the different
features of Photoshop, I was able to construct my print tasks.

18. EVALUATION

19. As a year 13 student, I acquired competent high level
of technical skills and wanted to demonstrate these
by using a range of forms to show my evaluations.

20. POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Using PowerPoint Presentation in my evaluation gave me a
chance to explore the text and provide a deep analysis of the
work I have carried out. I am able to show my examples by
inserting images into PowerPoint to further explain my points.
However, the evaluation task was a bigger challenge than I
though it was and it required me to use elements of my research
and planning and collaborate them and present them using this.
Using PowerPoint was very time consuming, due to the level of
detail it consists of.

21. Using Final Cut Pro for my evaluation task enabled me to
produce a response that is both visual and with the use of
audio. I was able to insert images and existing videos of
examples I referred to and I used the audio to explain my
response in detail. Using this software for this stage enabled
me to present my communication skills and make the video
interesting. This was also time consuming as it required a high
level of patience and concentration to import the different
videos and images and complete this
task.
FINAL CUT PRO

22. POWTOON
Powtoon is an online website which I used to create
an interactive video using text and animations. It
provides a variety of different effects that I was able
to use. This also enabled me to use text and visuals
to present my question.

23. Overall, I have obtained a high level of skills in a
range of technologies, which I further
developed this year. I have been able to
discover a range of technical skills and develop
my creativity by using a range of software,
hardware and online sources in my media
project.