1. Overall the media technologies that I have used in my productions, include iMovie, Photoshop,
Illustrator, Paint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Web 2.0 in the form of Blogger, Survey
Monkey, Slide Share, YouTube, a Sony video camera and tripod, a Cannon HD video camera and
tripod, a Nikon camera and a Samsung camera.
When it came to the recording of my music video I used both a HD and a non HD camera to do the
filming. I used the HD camera to record the performance bit of my music video, I did this to create
the effect of my artist having clarity and conviction in what he was singing about. As the HD camera
is more clear and focused I hoped this would reflect the clarity and determination that the lyrics
reflect and my artist sings with.
For the construction of my digipak and magazine advert I used both Illustrator and Photoshop. For
the first drafts of my digipak and magazine advert I used only Photoshop to construct these. I did this
because I had more experience using Photoshop and I felt not only more confident using it but I also
felt that I knew the capabilities of using Photoshop and what could and couldn’t be done on
Photoshop. However after I had done the first drafts of my digipak and magazine advert I decided to
switch to Illustrator as I felt that the image that I was trying to portray of my artist wasn’t being
achieved by solely using Photoshop. When I did use Photoshop I used a range of technologies such
as cropping the image, distorting the colour, erasing the background (using the magic wand tool)
and getting rid of the red eye of my artist. On Illustrator I used technologies such as feathering the
image of my artist, having an effect of inner glow and outer glow on my artist and changing the
greyscale of the image.
For the design of my final digipak and final advertisement I found the middle ground and used both
Photoshop and Illustrator, I did this because I liked different aspects of each technology for instance
I liked the effect of feathering the edges around my artist on Illustrator and on Photoshop I liked the
easiness the quickness but more importantly I liked the preciseness that I got from using Photoshop
to erase the background of my image. Also in the creation of my ancillary texts I used a mixture of
both technologies to create my titles, similarly to how I used both these technologies on my images I
used Photoshop to edit the background and then I also used Photoshop to change the colour of my
font and then I placed my title onto Illustrator where I was constructing my digipak and magazine
advertisement.
However when I was filming the narrative for my music video I decided not to use a HD camera
because the quality of the camera that I did use wasn’t as defined and clear as the HD camera was
and I wanted to transfer this into the idea of uncertainty and the future not having defined or set in
stone onto my narrative. I had already decided that I wanted my narrative to be flashbacks and the
quality of the camera helped to create this feel of flashbacks as it set a tone and look of memories
being revisited.
I used I-movie for my animatic, my rough cut and my final draft of my music video, I did this because
I knew the technologies that I wanted to use and I –movie had those technologies so I decided to
stick to I-movie instead of switching to Final Express. On I-movie I created effects such as making my
narrative black and white. I did this by right clicking the clip I wanted until I was presented with a
menu of three options: video, audio and clip. I then clicked on clip and went to effect where I was
given a range of effect options and I clicked on the black and white effect. I used the black and white
effect because I wanted to highlight that the narrative is flashbacks which sum up the relationship

2. that my artist and the girl has. Also on I-Movie I used the romantic effect, to highlight that there is a
romantic relationship between the artist and the girl. Furthermore I used this effect to illustrate the
general romantic genre of my music video. To create this effect I right clicked the clip I wanted until I
was presented with a menu of three options: video, audio and clip. I then clicked on clip and went to
effect where I was given a range of effect options and I clicked on the romantic effect. I also used I-
movie to pick specific bits and periods out of what I filmed to create my music video. For instance
the performance where my artist is against the green background in total is 5 minutes and 25
seconds however using I-movie I was able to select and use just 9 seconds in my opening lyric.
Presenting my work on Blogger has been useful not only because it is on the internet so therefore I
could easily access it anywhere e.g. at home or school as well as when I was on the go via on my
mobile phone. Blogger also helped me to edit my work easily as it was computerised so I could easily
delete and rewrite mistakes that I had made and place pictures. Furthermore using blogger has
helped me develop my own skills in posting work on the internet, for instance I have learned how to
post survey’s that people will be able to do on my blog for example the survey I created to get
feedback on my draft magazine draft. Which I did by creating the survey on Survey Monkey
embedding the code onto my blog and clicking upload.
Using Survey Monkey to get my feedback was very beneficial as it was not only quick and easy to
use, in terms of designing the questionnaire and placing it onto my blog but also to see the results
the clearly. As Survey Monkey not only analyses the results for you but it also lets you see what a
person answered to all the questions. This makes it beneficial in terms of clarity i.e. the presentation
of the results and the understanding of the results.
The use of YouTube has been very high in my production featuring in my research, planning and
evaluation stages. I used YouTube firstly in the research stage to look at and analyse different R&B
videos such as J-Lo’s Im Glad video and Usher’s U Got It Bad video. In my planning stage I used
YouTube to research how an artist’s image is developed and changed through their music videos,
this I did through my star image analyse of Usher.
Lastly in the evaluation of my music video I used You Tube as the prosumer to post my music video
as the producer and also to get feedback on my music video. Additionally You Tube has been a very
useful tool that I have used when I have been stuck in how to post something on my blog. For
example when I first started posting videos on my blog that I had watched in relation to my research,
planning and evaluation I had no idea how to post those videos on my blog. So I watched YouTube
tutorials to help me understand how to post videos onto my blog.