By Joe Lever

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the constructions and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the creation of my music video and two ancillary tasks, I have used a variety of media technology in the construction of the research, planning and evaluation stages which, looking back on my final media portfolio, I believe were successful in fulfilling their purpose – to promote an unsigned band. When I compare my AS and A2 Media portfolios there is a clear development in my ability to use media technologies in order to create, edit and execute final products. During A2 I used a greater variety of editing techniques than I used in my AS Media project – a thriller opening sequence.

Software Blogger – Blogger is the template for my overall AS and A2 Media blog; it allowed me to post the

research, planning and evaluation for both products, as well as allowing me to display the products I had created. Over the course of AS and A2 Media, I used blogger more effectively during A2. The reason for this is because I became more fluent with the tools on blog and the way it works; I customised my background and the template during A2 to ensure that my blog is easy to navigate and is in chronological order dating back to my first post in 2015. I had issues during AS Media about how to embed presentations and PowerPoints however during A2 Media I found out how to do this quickly, all I had to do was simply embed the code from whichever website I used (usually Slideshare or Prezi) and post it in the HTML section of the blog. I also had difficulty uploading videos from my AS Media course onto blog, and cropping photos. For A2 I downloaded the images and films onto a memory stick which I then took home and downloaded onto my laptop to upload to blog as for some reason, the files were too large to upload; for this reason, I posted directly onto YouTube.com and found the videos from there to put onto my blog rather than upload directly from a computer. I believe that the changes I have made to make my blog easier to navigate will result in greater satisfaction and enjoyment from the consumers that view my blog.

iMovie – I used iMovie for the creation of my thriller opening sequence for my AS Media portfolio, and for the music video I created for A2 Media. I used iMovie more effectively during A2 Media as I used the tools available more to create a product that combines various editing techniques. For A2 Media I had learned from mistakes during my AS project such as making the shots too dark by adjusting the brightness. During the editing process for A2 Media, I ensured that any changes I made to brightness and saturation would not take away from the overall quality and visibility of the shot. I also used transitions more effectively in A2 Media, creating a product that runs smoothly. Ken Burns was another tool that I did not use during AS Media but used during my A2 Media course, it allowed me to frame my shots better by focusing on specific parts of the shot. The editing of my AS Media project was sufficient but it wasn’t complex or exciting like it is for my A2 Media project and I feel like my development in my ability to use iMovie to its full potential, has resulted in a music video that showcases my editing ability.

Software

Other Software – I used other pieces of software to create and contribute to posts on my blog, these pieces

of software are websites and apps such as Prezi, Slideshare, YouTube, Twitter, Picassa, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint and Photoshop. During AS Media I only used Prezi and Microsoft Word to enhance my blog however this year for my A2 course I have used a variety of different software to create products of a higher quality that will appeal to the viewer of my blog. Prezi and Slideshare are effective ways of presenting the content on my blog post in an interesting way that will gain the reader’s full attention. YouTube and Twitter have been used in order to gain my rough and final cuts exposure so that I can receive feedback from my target audience and Photoshop and Picassa have been extremely useful in the creation of my ancillary tasks – a digipak and a magazine advert. These two applications have allowed me to edit photos and shots in order to enhance them and add green overlays which link to the music video. On Photoshop, I used the lasso tool to highlight the eyes of the band’s front man, I then adjusted the Hue/Saturation and Colour Point in order to give him green eyes and green skin which is evident on the ancillary tasks. This links to the song and the unnatural colouring would immediately catch the eye of any passer-by or someone reading a magazine with the advert in.

Software

Camera – I used the cameras provided by my sixth form to film my music video.

During AS Media, I wasn’t very good with the camera as I felt it was difficult to operate smoothly whereas for A2 Media I knew how to use the camera to its full effect. An example of this would be to manually zoom; for AS Media I attempted to manually zoom in and pan across on several shots however I couldn’t do this with a consistent speed and so for A2 Media I simply kept the camera still and edited with Ken Burns to zoom or pan across as this rectifies that issue by performing the movement at a consistent speed. At A2 Media I also realised that you can switch the monitor so the you can see the shot from the front; this was useful when framing shots when the camera and tripod were in awkward positions such as on the sink in verse 1 of the music video.

Hardware

iMac – For both AS and A2 Media, I edited on iMac’s – the hardware that contained the software iMovie

on. I found the iMac’s difficult to operate during AS Media such as performing simple tasks like right clicking and screenshotting as they are different to normal computers however by A2 Media, I had figured out how to perform these tasks. The iMac’s provided by my sixth form were extremely important in both my AS and A2 Media products as they allowed me to use iMovie and Garageband which helped to create a product that looked more professional and of a higher quality.

Tripod – Tripod’s were useful during my AS and A2 Media products as they helped to film shots that were

stable without any shaking. In both projects I had to take some shots without a tripod (i.e. a POV movement shot that couldn’t be filmed with a tripod) which led to a slightly shaky shot, it was during A2 Media that I used the stabilisation tool on iMovie to stabilise any shot that I didn’t take using a tripod. Additionally, during AS Media I found it hard to find a central point where the tripod was entirely balanced but for A2 Media I had developed my skills and got someone else to hold the tripod in a central balanced position whilst I adjusted the length of the legs.

Hardware