How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?A2 MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION

EMILY DEVLIN

I believe that a good Media student makes themselves familiar with a variety of media technologies, no matter how difficult they find it. They should use them in their work as it shows a wide range of knowledge regarding current media technologies and the skills they have obtained from using them.

Whilst creating my coursework portfolio, I used several different media technologies in my planning, research, production and evaluation processes.

I am now going to explain how I used these media technologies in relation to my work pieces, what I learnt from using them and how I feel that they have benefitted my work.

I have an already existing account with Spotify so I decided to use it when researching my genre. I found it to be more useful than YouTube due to the fact that it is easier to listen to a variation of artist’s work rather than searching for every individual song. The fact that Spotify provides it’s listeners with suggestions on what to listen to based on their already existing taste proved very helpful when it came to researching my genre. It opened my eyes to artists similar to Jake Bugg which aided me in understanding the conventions and styles of my selected genre.

YouTube has been a very frequently used media platform throughout all the stages of my coursework. Having my own YouTube channel enabled me to show the development of my promotional music video in several different stages.

During my research stages I was required to do textual analysis’ of three already existing music videos. I used YouTube as my main source for obtaining and watching these videos. I believe that YouTube was the best option for me at this point due to the fact that artist’s official videos are posted on there. This made it easy for me to watch them and also allowed me to span across the genres of music videos to ensure my understanding covered a wide range.

I next used YouTube to upload videos of my planning processes. This began with me taking pictures of possible location choices using my Fujifilm (camera type) then making a short video using Picasa 3 with a Jake Bugg song as background music. Once this was finished I uploaded it to YouTube and embedded the link on my Blogger page. I did this because I thought it would be more visually appealing than simply placing photos in a blog post and it also demonstrated my knowledge of media technologies. I then used YouTube again after using my iPhone 5 to film my artist’s screen test along with some practice shots. I downloaded the app, YouTube Capture, and used that to upload the videos to YouTube straight from my phone.

When I first began my editing process on Adobe Premiere, I only had a few shots to work with initially. Instead of just waiting till I had the full video to start editing, I decided to familiarise myself with the program and begin editing the shots I had together. I then exported these files and uploaded them to YouTube as ‘Editing Drafts’. These uploaded videos showed that I had taken time to ensure I knew how to use the program and were a documentation of me gaining knowledge and expertise.

Once I had finished my first full draft of my promotional music video, I also uploaded that to my YouTube channel and embedded the video in a post on my blog. This made it easier for my video to be viewed by its assessors. Due to the fact that YouTube allows its videos to be shared via Facebook status, I decided to use this in obtaining my audience feedback. This method proved quicker and easier for all involved as it was quicker than people having to search for the video themselves or me having to email the link to people.

I had documented the making of my promotional music video through a number of photographs and videos of behind the scenes which I then decided to make into one whole video using Windows Movie Maker which I uploaded to YouTube. This allowed me to show a lot of the production processes through one medium.

YouTube Capture is an app I downloaded on my iPhone 5 from the App Store. This app enabled me to not only upload videos to YouTube straight from my phone and filming but to edit them also.

This app is free to download and gives its users the availability of uploading videos from their phone to their YouTube channel. There is also an option to capture a video on your phone’s camera through the app which then uploads straight to YouTube.

The editing tool allows its users trim video clips and add their own soundtrack.

I found this very useful as it meant I could upload and edit my own clips whilst on the go and it saved me the stress and time of having to find the correct wire to connect my phone to my laptop then wait for it to copy over and then upload it.

Facebook and all social media in general is a great way for people to share almost anything they want with others all around the world.

That is why I decided to make use of my Facebook profile as a means of obtaining my audience feedback. I shared my uploaded draft through a Facebook status in which I asked my friends to comment their opinions on the status.

I found this to be one of my most favoured methods of obtaining audience feedback. I found this so favourable because I received a great deal of feedback. I have accounted this to the fact that people in my demographic spend a lot of time on social networking sites such as Facebook. The popularity and frequent usage of this specific media institution aided my results greatly.

Google Chrome is my preferred browser of choice which meant that it was frequently used throughout the production and evaluation processes of my coursework.

My default search engine is also Google as I find it to be the most proficient.

Without Google, I would not have had access to Blogger or YouTube. The convergence of these three institutions allows me to have all my accounts in one. This was extremely helpful as it meant that I only had to sign into one account to access m emails, bookmarks, search preferences, Blogger and YouTube Accounts.

PowerPoint is a simple and easy way of making presentations in your own style with custom animations and transitions, that’s why it is quite an obvious option when it comes to the use of varying media technologies.

PowerPoint documents can be saved in several formats. One of the format possibilities is a jpeg. document which means that each slide will be saved as a picture. This option comes in handy when posting on Blogger as the images can be uploaded as a blog post.

If there are too many slides to have as jpeg. files, a PowerPoint presentation can also be uploaded to SlideShare. Another convenient option considering that SlideShare files can be easily embedded onto Blogger posts.

I have used PowerPoint to make presentations showing both my pre-production and evaluation processes. Examples of this would be the planning of make-up styles for my music video and my initial narrative ideas. I liked how I could have an individual slide to show steps/processes I have been through.

SlideShare is a website which enables its users to upload slideshow presentations so that they can be embedded on sites such as Blogger.

There is an option to have either a free or paid membership, a paid one meaning you are entitled to extra options for a small monthly fee.

It is very simplistic to use. All it requires is for a person to upload their already completed PowerPoint presentation to the website which then allows the presentation to be embedded onto other websites such as Blogger.

This was very helpful in cases where a PowerPoint presentation I had made had too many slides to save them all in a j.peg document (explained in previous slide). It allows for a basic presentation that is effective without being over the top. I believe it is also a clear demonstration of my knowledge with regard to differing media technologies.

Windows Movie Maker is a program that lets its users create films using their own pictures, videos and music. It also allows users to add transitions and filters.

I used this specific program to make a short clip of behind the scenes footage and pictures from when we were filming my music video. I wanted to document as many of my planning processes as possible and I thought behind the scenes was too large an aspect to ignore.

I decided that making a short film from my collected imagery would be a better way of showing what went on as opposed to people just being presented with pictures. I believed it was more fun for the audience whilst being a professional way of depicting it.

Windows Movie Maker allowed me to add my own soundtrack (‘Seen It All’ by Jake Bugg) which helped in reinforcing my selected genre whilst appealing to my demographic.

This program is very easy to use. To choose the items I wanted to appear in my video I simply clicked on the box which allowed me to browse for photos and videos. I then selected the files I wanted to use and, after a short wait, they appeared in the box. To change a specific file’s position, all that I had to do was drag the file to the place I wanted.

Once I had finished adjusting each file to the length and position I wanted it in and adding any extra edits, I simply clicked on Save As and my file was ready.

Prezi is a slideshow making website. Presentations can be made in a variety of different forms and structures as it pretty much gives users a ‘free reign’ on the layout.

Instead of everything being separated into category related slides, Prezi acts as an interactive mind map where a different part is zoomed in on at the click of a button.

Although I appreciate the initial idea of ‘Prezi’, I did not enjoy using it, hence why I have only used it once (Pre-production, clothing inspiration post) throughout my full coursework process.

I found that the freedom Prezi allowed meant that it took a long while to arrange the presentation and was highly time consuming, something which I could not afford due to the time constraints attached to my pieces of work.

Adobe Photoshop CS6I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create both my ancillary texts.

I applied the skills I had already learned from my music magazine last year (magic wand tool, changing colours of specific objects, airbrushing, resizing, colour alterations etc.) to both of my ancillary texts. This program is probably my favourite to use out of all that have been mentioned. I wanted to learn new skills to apply to my work in order to demonstrate that my knowledge had expanded since the previous year.

Not only did I need to have a good understanding of what to do on Photoshop, but I also needed to be able to work quickly as I had to create a magazine advertisement and a digipack in a fairly short period of time.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 - DigipackMy six-panel digipack required me to create six separate images which were then to be saved, shrunk down and added to my digipack. To create these I got four screen grabs from my music video, and two original images. I made them all black and white and heightened the contrast. I then proceeded to decide which image would go where. After I had made that final decision, I went on to add to the pictures whatever was needed to match their conventions. This included barcode, track listing, copyright details, cd cut out, house font etc.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 - DigipackI downloaded a six panel digipack and saved the file as a jpeg. Once I had finished editing each picture I added them to this image, remembering to rotate them if needed and cut out the image around the CD.

Adobe Premiere Pro is the program that I used to edit my music video together.

This program could be seen as being the equivalent to Photoshop for videos.

I found this program incredibly easy to use. I think this is due to its similar layout to Photoshop, a program which I am very comfortable using.

The only tools that I used on this program were the ‘Matrox Old Movie’ filter and the clip trimmer (which allowed you to speed up or slow down the length of a specific clip.

The most important skill I learnt on this program was how to overlap matching clips and lower the opacity in order to give characters within my video ghostly effect. An example of this within my own work would be the scene where my fictional artist is looking in the mirror for his girlfriend to appear next to him and then disappear at the touch of his hand.

Sony CX280 Full HD HandycamI used the Sony CX280 Full HD Handycam for the filming of my promotional music video.

I found this camera easy to use as it was small and easy to carry but still delivered HD quality images. It also connected easily to the tripod I was using.

The only criticism I would have with this camera is that the battery life is not as long as I’d hope for it to be, which is unfortunate when filming in outside conditions.

Fujifilm FinePix S1800 Digital CameraI used my digital camera throughout all the processes of my coursework. I used this camera for all of the photos on my blog and the behind the scenes footage.