Evaluation question 4

1. Evaluation Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the research and planning,
construction and evaluation stages?

2. Within this presentation, I will be evaluating the different media
technologies that I have used within the research and planning,
construction and evaluation stages. I will discuss the different
hardware and software I have used at different stages of production
and whether I found them easy or hard to use and the reasons why I
decided to use the different media technologies. I will also discuss in
detail the different aspects of each technologies. For example I will
go into detail explaining the different editing techniques I have used
on a software called Movie Studio Platinum when making my music
video.
Research
and
planning
Construction
of the 3
products
Evaluation

3. Research and Planning

4. Research and planning
 The research and planning involved me using a range of media technologies
including both hardware and software. The research and planning was
extensive research in which I found out who my target audience was, what
their demands and wants were and also what conventions were generically
seen within the genre I chose (indie pop). The research and planning also
involved developing/creating my ideas and also planning out specific tasks in
order to successfully create my products e.g. shot lists, casting auditions etc.
COMPUTERS-
I have used a computer for
the majority of my research
and planning as it has allowed
me to use the internet and
software to clearly research
and show my findings.
THE INTERNET/GOOGLE-
I used the internet/google to help me
research different things, for example I
used a website called uktribes.com to
research into the demographics and
psychographics of my target audience. I
also used websites such as www.bbc.co.uk
to use their social class tests to find out the
social class of my target audience.

5. BLOGGER
 Throughout the whole of my research and planning I used blogger. I used it to
show my findings and research as it is a clear and simple way of doing so. I
have used blogger before (during the year 12 AS coursework) so I understood
it and knew exactly how to use it. This was helpful as it meant I could easily
add things to my blog and adapt it accordingly. I believe blogger helped show
my findings during the research and planning in a simple, chronological and
effective way. I used blogger in conjunction with other technologies such as
Prezi and Youtube. I think they work well together and have helped me show
all of my findings during the research and planning stages and it helped me
have a check list of what I had done, and what I had left to do regarding the
research and planning.

6. The images show me writing a blog post and
then the actual post on the blog itself.
 Writing the blog post  The post on the blog

7. PREZI
 I used Prezi a lot during the research and planning stage, as I think it is an
effective and simple way of clearly showing my findings. It allows you to
create presentations that are enjoyable to watch. Furthermore it allowed me
to add in YouTube video’s as examples to back up my findings, and it allowed
me to personalise each and every presentation so my research and planning
was clear and concise. It also made it a bit more fun to do, you can change
the transitions and colours of the presentation so it makes it personal to you.
I have used Prezi before doing last years coursework so I had a clear
understanding of the software which meant I could quickly and easily use it to
create numerous presentations during the research and planning.

8. Here is a screenshot of one
of the Prezi's I have made. It
is a presentation showing
the target audience
research. Within the Prezi I
have used YouTube to be
able to show videos such as
my target audience
interviews and my pitch. I
also used Prezi's features to
personalise the presentation
and ensure the content was
clear. For example I used
different ‘brackets’ and
‘bubbles’ to section off each
research section. I believe
this has helped make the
presentation be clear and
concise to the audience and
it has helped me to
understand my research
better which has ultimately
influenced the quality of my
final products.

9. Movie Studio Platinum, Cameras and
YouTube
 In one part of my research and planning I used 3 different technologies together -
Movie Studio Platinum, a Camera and YouTube. This was during my target audience
research as I used them when doing the target audience interviews and the pitch.
 CAMERA- I used the camera to film the target audience interviews and the pitch. I
was comfortable using the cameras as I had used them before when filming last
years coursework so I knew exactly how they worked. I didn’t use any fancy shots
or framing techniques as I believe the filming I was doing just needed simple,
standard professional shots in order to clearly show my interviews and pitch. By
using the cameras it allowed me to clearly show my target audience research and
allows to audience to see real life footage, which I believe helps show my research
and planning in a more advanced way. Once I had filmed the relevant footage I
transferred it to a computer via the SD card reader and moved it to my files so
that it was ready to be placed into movie studio platinum to be edited.

10. Movie Studio Platinum, Cameras and
YouTube continued…
 MOVIE STUDIO PLATINUM- I used this software to edit the footage from the
interviews and the pitch. I have used it in year 12 so I knew how to use it,
furthermore as it was the research and planning stage I didn’t need to add
any fancy editing techniques and I could keep the editing simple which meant
I could quickly and effectively edit the footage. By doing this it creates a file
that can be transferred onto YouTube which will ultimately help put my
research and planning onto a technology that can be viewed by an
audience/my teacher/the examiner.
 YOUTUBE- Once the editing was done, I rendered my video so that it could be
uploaded to YouTube. Once I had done this I ‘dragged and dropped’ the file so
that it could be uploaded. Once uploaded I used the embed code to transfer it
onto my blog so that the videos could be shown in my research and planning.

11. Here is the ‘drag and drop’ feature that
I used to put my videos onto youtube:

12. I then used the ‘embed’ feature to be able to
place my YouTube video onto blogger.

13. IPHONE
 When doing the research and planning stage we used an iPhone to take stills,
which we then placed onto our blogs and Prezi's. An example of where we did
this was the auditions. During our auditions we took photos in order to show
on the blogs what the auditions involved and to prove that we had done
them. Another time where we used the iPhone to take photos was during the
class discussions. When designing the digipak and advert we had a class
discussion regarding our ideas. This was done to try and finalise our ideas and
to find out what we needed to improve upon in order to get the best design
and ideas for the digipak and advert. We used the iPhone to take pictures of
all of our ideas so that we could present them all on our blogs. This would
clearly show the development of our ideas in a clear chronological way. I am
used to using an iPhone and the camera function so I knew exactly how to do
it which meant I could do it easily and I believe it looks effective on my blog.

14. Here are screenshots of where we used the
iPhone to take pictures to put on our blogs:
 The photos from the auditions  The photos from the class
discussions

15. Transferring the photos to the
computer
In order to get the iPhone photos
onto the computer we had to use a
lightening to USB cable. This meant
I could plug one end into the
IPhone and the other end into the
USB port on the computer. The
process was quick and simple and
allowed my photos to be
transferred from the iPhone to the
computer quickly and effectively.

16. Construction

17. Construction
 The construction of the 3 products (music video, advert and digipak) involved
a range of equipment and software, some of which I had never used before.
The main equipment we used were cameras, a tripod, a Go-Pro and a key
light. The 2 software’s we used to make the 3 products were Movie Studio
Platinum and Photoshop. Constructing the 3 products was quite intensive
and took quite a long time which meant we spent a lot of time using these
different technologies so by the end I believe we had got the hang of it!
TRIPODS-
During part of the filming we used a
tripod. This allowed us to get steady
shots that weren't shaky or tilted. The
tripod was adjustable so this meant
we could adapt it depending on the
shot we wanted. For example we
could change the height, angle or pan
the camera. I believe by using the
tripod it helped us get professional
shots that were effective.
GO-PRO-
For the introduction of our music video we
decided to use a Go-Pro on a chest-mount in
order to get a point of view shot to make our
music video look artistic and unique (as this is a
common feature of indie pop music videos). We
had never used a Go-Pro before so this was a
new experience which meant it took a few
attempts to get it right! However I believe once
we got the hang of it, it was easy to use and I
think the footage we got from it looks effective.

18. Key light
Some of our scenes were in a woodland area
and at night time so therefore it was very
dark. This meant that we had to use a key
light in order to create light to be able to
film. The light was fairly small and lightweight
which meant it was durable which was helpful
as we could move it around easily depending
on the shot we wanted to take. The light was
very easy to use so this meant we could
quickly turn it on and off and get on with the
filming quickly. It also allowed us to create
shadows and different lighting effects which I
believe help show different character feelings
so that the narrative could be clearly seen
which ultimately has helped make our music
video high quality.
This is the key light that
we used during filming:

19. CAMERA - Panasonic HC-X800
 Every single part of our music video (except the introduction that was filmed
on the Go-Pro) was filmed on a Panasonic HC-X800 camera. I had used this
before during our year 12 coursework so I had a good idea as to how to use it
which meant I could use it effectively and sufficiently. We did experiment and
use more features of the camera this year. For example we used the time-
lapse setting to create a time-lapse of the sky.
By setting the camera to film at 2.5
second intervals it allowed us to get
footage of the sky over a period of 7

20. CAMERA -Panasonic HC-X800
 We also took off the auto focus setting during one part of the music video.
This was because it allowed us to set the focus ourselves to ensure the right
part of the shot was in focus. We did this on the shot of the mobile phone, as
it allows the audience to clearly see what is written on the phone. This is
essential to the narrative so it was important that we had it clear and in
focus. This took a few attempts to do as we was so used to it auto-focusing,
so we had to learn how to focus it ourselves. However once we got the hang
of it I believe it worked well and looked effective.
Here you can see where
we have used the focus
on the camera to
clearly read the text on
the phone.

21. By turning off auto-
focus and focusing it
ourselves it allowed
us to focus on what
we wanted.

22. CAMERA - Panasonic HC-X800
 For a lot of the woodland shots we didn’t use the tripod as we wanted
a ‘handheld effect’ as this was something that’s stereotypical of our
genre. I think that these shots are effective and work well with what's
going on in the scenes. Overall I think we used the camera in a
professional way and the shots we took were effective and realistic.
We took care in each shot and took them several times in order to get
perfect shots. The camera combined with the tripod allowed us to get
steady professional looking footage and the shaky handheld shots
allowed us to attract our target audience, which together helped
ensure our video was high quality.

23. MEMORY CARD
 Once we had got all of the footage we wanted we got the
SD memory card from the camera and placed it inside the
slot on the computer to transfer the footage to our
computer files so that they could be put onto Movie Studio
platinum to be edited. This was a long process as it took a
while to transfer all of the footage – especially the time-
lapse, but once it was all on the computer it was easy to
put into Movie Studio Platinum

24. MOVIE STUDIO PLATINUM
 Movie Studio Platinum is the editing software that we
used to construct our music video. We used this software
during our year 12 coursework so we had a good idea as to
how to use it however I believed we pushed ourselves this
year as we used more extensive professional features of it
to make our video better. Movie Studio Platinum allowed
us to cut, edit and transform our footage to create a high
quality finished product. There were lots of different tools
which helped us achieve this.

25. MOVIE STUDIO PLATINUM
 Filters- One editing technique we used was filters. We used this on the time-
lapse scene as it helped give an artistic indie flare to the video (which is
stereotypical of the indie pop genre) so will ultimately help attract our target
audience. To do this we had to select the footage we wanted to edit and use
the ‘magic bullet quick looks’ button to select a filter in order to apply it to
the footage. We decided to use a pinky/purple toned filter as this was more
typical of the indie pop genre so will help attract our target audience more.

26. Applying the filter-
1. Fist we selected the time-lapse footage as this was the
part we wanted to add the filter to
2. We then right clicked and selected ‘Video Event FX’
3. We then selected the type of video
effect we wanted. We chose to use a
‘magic bullet quick look’ and applied
a filter from this. We chose the
pinky/purple filter as this would fit in
with our genre more and attract our
target audience

27. MOVIE STUDIO PLATINUM
 Slow Motion- Another editing tool we used on Movie Studio Platinum was the slow motion
effect. We used this to create a dramatic effect when the glass was being tipped over. We
think this adds more drama and helps add to the narrative and keeps the audiences attention
on the screen. To do this you we selected the frames that we wanted to be in slow motion,
pressed the ‘Ctrl’ button on the keyboard and dragged the frame to the right with the mouse.
We knew it had gone into slow motion as the frame got a ‘zigzag pattern’ and looked like
this:
 Rewind- We also used the rewind editing feature on some of our shots to further add an
artistic feel to the video. To do this we selected the frames we wanted in slow motion, right
clicked with the mouse and selected rewind. By doing this I believe it makes the video more
eye-catching and will ultimately help attract our target audience more. It also allowed us to
re use some of the shots and this was essential in creating a narrative and also to ensure we
filled in the timeframe for the music.

28. MOVIE STUDIO PLATINUM
 Cross Over- During the final part of the music video in the woodland scenes
we used a lot of cross overs. This is a feature of Movie Studio Platinum that I
was familiar with as I used it a lot during my year 12 coursework, so I knew
how to easily do it. To do it you simply place the 2 frames you want to ‘cross
over’ on top of each other. Because I knew how to do this, it meant we could
quickly and effectively add the editing technique and it would look
professional and artistic without too much effort. This meant we didn’t spend
hours wasting time applying the editing technique and it helped us to ensure
we finished the music video on time.
As you can see, we have
crossed over the shot of the
fire and the shot of the friends
sat around the campfire.
This image shows the editing of
where we used the ‘cross over’
effect on the 2 shots.

29. PHOTOSHOP-
Here are my advert and digipak, to create these products I
used the software Photoshop. I used Photoshop because once
you learn how to use it, I believe it is fairly simple and it
makes the products look professional and realistic.
On Photoshop I used a variety
of tools in order to help me
create these 2 products, for
example; text tools, magic
wand tool and layers. I hadn’t
really used Photoshop before
so it took me a while to get
used to it as it is fairly
complex, but once I got the
hang of it I feel I did a good job
in making the 2 products and
we are happy with how they
have turned out.

30. PHOTOSHOP- text tool
Research showed us that a convention
of digipak’s is including the band name
and album name on the front cover, so
to do this we used photoshops ‘text
tool’.
This is the text tool. To use it
you simple click on it and
select where you want to place
the text. You then insert the
text you want and then you’re
free to personalise it. We went
with simple fonts and white
colours to ensure it stands out
and meets generic conventions.

31. PHOTOSHOP- text tool
As you can see, we have also
sued the text tool on the
advert. For example we used it
to add in the band name, album
name, release date, websites
and even reviews. By doing this
we are meeting conventions and
it ensures the advert looks
professional and realistic. We
also added text to the back of
the digipak. We added a song
list and also all of the legal
copyright information, again,
this helps make it look realistic
and ensures it meets
conventions.

32. PHOTOSHOP- magic wand tool
 In order to add images such as the HMV logo to our advert or the Warner Bros
logo to our digipak we had to use the magic want too. This tool allowed us to
get the logo off the internet and delete the background so that only the logo
was left. This ensured it fitted onto our digipak and advert without a harsh
background so it wasn’t obvious it was copy and pasted.
As you can see the HMV logo we had on our advert has no background so it
merges into our background, whereas the image from the internet has a harsh
white background. We used the magic want tool to delete the white background
and just keep the text.
The logo on our advert
The logo we used
from the internet
on our advert

33. This is the tool we
used to delete the
background on the
logos. To use it you
select right click and
select the magic
button tool. You then
select the parts you
want to delete and it
highlights it. You then
click the delete
button on your
keyboard and it
deletes the selected
area.

34. PHOTOSHOP- layers
These are all of the layers in which I had to
use in order to create the digipak and advert.
In order to create a professional looking
product I had to create all of t he different
layers. This allowed me to add different text,
images and designs on top of each other to
overall create the final products (digipak and
advert). This did get quite confusing at times
as I ended up with a lot of layers, but once I
got the hang of it and sorted the layers out, it
was effective and I think it ultimately helped
make the products look as good as they could
be.

35. Evaluation

36. Evaluation
 When evaluating the 3 products I used a range of software and hardware.
These technologies allowed me to thoroughly evaluate my work and present
my findings in a clear professional way. I used a microphone to record my
voice in order to create an evaluation video and I then used movie studio
platinum to edit this video together. I also used YouTube to put my music
video on, and this allowed the public to view my video which helped me gain
their opinions on it. I also used Prezi a lot during the evaluation of my
products and this helped me to show my findings and answer all of the
evaluation questions. By doing this in a clear structured way it has helped me
to ensure I have met all of the criteria regarding the 3 products and it has
helped me see how I can improve upon my work in the future. There were 4
questions during the evaluation stage and I used Prezi to answer 2 of
them,and then a video and Microsoft PowerPoint to answer the other 2.

37. PREZI
 Prezi was a great way to evaluate my work. It is a simple website that I have used a lot during the 2
year media course. It allowed me to use interesting ‘bubbles’ and styles to show my findings and
ultimately evaluate my work thoroughly. Prezi also allows you to add images and videos from
YouTube and the internet so this meant I could use YouTube videos as examples to back up my
findings which I believe helped me to evaluate my work even more. I am very familiar with Prezi so
it meant I could quickly and effectively use the website to create the presentations, however the
website was a bit temperamental so this meant it sometimes deleted my work, or closed down half
way through which was very frustrating. However to overcome this I ensured I saved the Prezi as
often as I could and kept on top of my work load to ensure I didn't fall behind.
Here is one of the
Prezi’s that I
made for the
evaluation
questions

38. BLOGGER
 Every single part of my evaluation got put onto my blog on ‘blogger’. By doing
this it meant I could chronologically and clearly show all of my findings
regarding the evaluation. Blogger is simple to use and I believe is a great way
of showing my findings. It also gave me a ‘checklist’ and meant I could see
which evaluation questions I had answered and which I had left to do. Blogger
works well with other software's such as YouTube, Prezi and Slide Share so it
meant I could use these software's in conjunction with Prezi to evaluate my
work. Blogger is an online website so it means my teacher and the examiner
can easily see my work and it meant I could access my blog and update it on
the go wherever, whenever.
This image shows
one of my
evaluation
questions that I
have uploaded to
blogger.

39. POWERPOINT AND SLIDESHARE
 For the final evaluation question I decided to use PowerPoint.
PowerPoint is a simple, but yet effective way of presenting my findings
and evaluation. I am very familiar with it so it meant I could use it
easily which was helpful in ensuring I completed the coursework on
time. It also allowed me to add in pictures from the internet and this
helped me include examples to back up my findings and evaluation
which I believe helped make the PowerPoint look better and meant I
could evaluate my work to a higher level. As you cant directly put a
PowerPoint onto Blogger I had to use SlideShare to do this. SlideShare
is a simple way of getting an ‘embed’ code so that I could place the
PowerPoint on my blog. This was a quick process and meant I could
easily get my final evaluation question onto my blog.
 PowerPoint allowed me to personalise and design my own presentation
and meant I could use things such as arrows to show examples of my
work, which helped to clearly evaluate my work to a high standard. By
using PowerPoint it also meant I was using a ‘different’
technology/software rather than always using Prezi, so it added
something a bit different and unique to my blog. This is an example of an embed code that
you get from SlideShare to allow you to put
your presentations onto Blogger.

40.  In conclusion, I believe I have used a range of different
technologies in all 3 stages of production. I have used some that I
am familiar with such as Prezi and YouTube, however I have also
pushed myself and developed my skills by using new software's
such as Photoshop. I have also developed my skills on Movie
Studio Platinum as I used more advanced editing techniques. I
have also used new hardware's such as the Go-Pro and even
though it took a while to learn how to use it, I am glad I did, as I
believe it has helped make my final 3 products look professional,
stylish and meet my target audiences demands. The technologies
I have used meant I could get detailed research and plan my work
effectively, create 3 sound products and to evaluate my work
thoroughly.