A2 Media Coursework

1. Q4 : How did you use
media technologies in
the construction and
research, planning and
evaluation stages?
One major, evident technological tool I used was blogger, this is a website that allows people to
create individual, personal blogs - this removing the hassle of creating a website. Blogger
allowed me to have a structed, efficient and reliable source to allocate and put all my
coursework on. It also allowed me (alongside people who view my blog) to see the gradual
process I make from planning out storyboards and initial ideas to my final piece, which I also
feel is beneficial as I get to see progress I made. In this presentation, I will discuss how I used
media technologies within the construction of my research, planning and evaluation stages of
my work.

2. Research

3. YouTube and Google
• YouTube and Google may seem like simple, basic platforms that we used in our everyday
technological lives, however, it was extremely beneficial in the research section within my advanced
portfolio. This is because it allowed me to do my revision on things such as codes and conventions of
short films and film posters. This is helpful because although I did have previous knowledge over, I
did not have the in depth, specific information needed in order for my research section to be of high
quality, this meaning, if I was to use the information I had initially knew about short films and used
only that for research, it would simply not be detailed enough. Thus, Google and YouTube were
extremely beneficial, as I was able to research everything I needed to know about film posters and
reviews, short films and also help recap my knowledge on the horror genre. You can see how
implemented my new knowledge and understanding of short films and horror films through my
slide shares and prezis (which I will discuss that in my next slides). To add on to that, I also used
Google to search up images of existing film posters and film reviews for me to analyse.

4. YouTube and Google
• YouTube was used mainly used when doing my analytical work in my short film, for example, I
would watch real life short horror films and analyse them to see if they fit the codes and conventions
of short horror films. To add on to that, simply watching a large variety of professional horror short
films and even A grade A-Level horror short films would give me a general idea on how I would want
my own work to be, this provided work to compare my own to and also give me inspiration. Overall,
this enabled me to produce high quality, realistic texts as it I had not only multiple references on
how my end product should look like but also done a lot of background research on the codes and
conventions so I knew what to and not to include in order for my text to reflect a real life text, this
also catering to my target audience as they could easily recognize the genre of my short film. To
present my analytical work unto my work I used TubeChop by cutting out and isolating specific
parts of the YouTube clip.

5. SlideShare and Prezi
• So now that I was at a stage where I had got all of the information required in order for my
knowledge and research to be of a high standard, I needed a technological platform which allowed me
to distribute and present the work on my blog without the standard way of writing it all on Microsoft
word then copying pasting it unto blogger. Evidently, when you look at the analytical work on my blog
(analysing horror short films), that is exactly what I did, however, that is because since it was simply
analytical work, I didn’t want to go overboard and too creative, especially as I had already used a
form of technology - this being TubeChop. Thus, unless it was analytical work, I would use SlideShare
and Prezi to present my work, specifically presenting the actual knowledge (such as the codes and
conventions) unto my blog.
• SlideShare and Prezi are both presentation tools, alternative to things such as PowerPoint, they
allowed me to present my work in a more creative way, this not only making my blog more exciting
and interactive (as the person viewing my blog would have to do things such as clicking unto the next
slide) but also make my blog more aesthetically pleasing. Slide-share and Prezi gave me the
opportunity to me present your work online in a way that wasn’t the standard and was also beneficial
when it came to theories and explain them or quick points, this making it very easy access for my
audience viewing my blog. To add on to that, it is also a more interesting, fun way to present
information in comparison to just doing a written essay on my blog.

6. Survey Monkey
• When doing my short films, as it was my main piece of practical work, I evidently had to research the
target audience of my short films and horror films. This is because, knowing your target audience
would be beneficial in knowing how you will not only market but represent your product. So for
example, if your target audience is young children, there would be clear boundaries that you should
not cross as it would not be deemed appropriate whereas if your target audience is adults 18+ you are
less limited.
• Thus, to find out this target audience I used the technological software ‘Survey Monkey’. Survey
Monkey is an online software which allows you to submit survey’s to the public. I used this software
in order to actually find out what my target audience was. Although I had rough idea on the kind of
people who my short film would attract, I wanted to see if my initial idea could be broadened or
smaller. This was beneficial because I got to receive feedback from people interested within my genre,
finding out what attracts them and what gives them the most audience pleasures. Although I
previously already knew about Survey Monkey, I didn’t know the capability of it and how much it
could actually benefit me in the process of making my final media product.

7. Planning

8. Microsoft Word and Prezi
• Now although in my previous research section I mentioned how I tried to avoid my Microsoft Word in
order to have a variety in the way information was distributed, this was different for my planning
section. In the planning section, it required me mostly to make posts about things such as problems
occurred, my pitch, my roles of the team and risk assessment, therefore, because of this, I believed
Microsoft Word was the most appropriate way in distributing this information, especially as the
context within the planning section was meant to be more serious.
• Despite this, the platform Prezi was also used within some of my blogpost, such as the initial ideas
posts and also the props, mise-en-scene lists. Likewise to why I used Microsoft, I also feel that Prezi
was also very appropriate for these particular posts and did add more creativity towards my planning
section.

9. Premier Pro and a Computer Scanner
• I used Premier Pro in the planning process of when I did my ‘Test Footage’. Test footage required me
to demonstrate that I learnt from my researching process and tested it out in my real footage/when I
was doing the practical side of work. For example, in my research section, I researched typical
camera angles within the horror genre, so within the Test Footage, I made sure I featured some of
those camera angles to show that I am responding to my own work/research. To demonstrate this, I
evidently had to go on Premier Pro to access all the camera video clips, as Premier Pro was the
software I used to edit my short film on. Moving on from that, I used to the clipping tool to take
screengrabs off these exact clips and exported them onto my blog.
• I used a computer scans to make scans of my draft and final storyboard. Storyboards are part of the
planning section and is something that I didn’t feature in my foundation portfolio, which I felt
slightly hindered my work. I used a scanner instead as I feel it was the most professional way to
distribute and show the storyboard, in comparison to taking a picture of the storyboard on my phone,
which would not be as clear or graphic as a computer scanner, this providing high quality work fpor
my blog.

10. Evaluation

11. Evaluation
• For 'Question 1' in the evaluation, because I had to do a deep analysis of all three of my media
products, I did a blog post for each one, because I felt this was the most efficient way of distributing
the analysis. I was originally going to a video to do this but felt that it wouldn’t be as effective as
doing the 3 individual blogposts, due to me not being to articulate myself as well on a video.
• For 'Question 2‘, which was based on how my main product and ancillary texts linked, I chose to on
the software 'Microsoft Word' as it allowed me to use things such as: shapes, text boxes, hyperlinks
and others. I thought that Microsoft Word was the most appropriate software for this question as I
felt like this question was more essay based.
• For 'Question 3‘, it was based on the idea of what I had learnt from audience feedback. For the
question, I had decided to use ‘Prezi’. This is because this browser software because it made it easy to
categorise the different, various opinions I gained from my audience feedback. It would make it easier
for my audience to navigate through.
• Lastly, for Question 4, clearly here, I used SlideShare, likewise to Prezi, I feel it was the most efficient
way to depict the information as I could categorize the different information (like I split up Planning,
Evaluation and Planning) and the audience could easily navigate through each slide to access the
appropriate information.