Media Evaluation Post 4

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

George Picton-Clark

Transition of AS to A2

In my AS course in year 12, I carried out initial research for film openings and how to incorporate the generic conventions of a horror opening into my own. Due to the genre of horror being such a vast and divided one, it proved difficult to do this. My own film opening was a psychological one so researching films such as ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘The Ring’ helped me develop these ideas into something more. I used different platforms such as Youtube to investigate into these openings, combining my research into different softwares such as Prezi and Powerpoint to accentuate and show my understandings of different media softwares.

Similarly, in my A2 media portfolio, my initial research into my music video was conducted by researching the genre of trance, as well as music videos that fit in this genre to apply any understand and knowledge to my own production. I conducted my research by researching into different institutions by their social media platforms as well as video sharing platforms such as ‘Vevo’ and ‘Youtube’. From this research, I compiled it into documents and slideshares which were eventually published onto my blog on ‘Blogger’. This is a platform I also used in AS, due to its easy, simple and understanding interface. I took specific interest from music videos by artists such as ‘Brooke Candy ‘ and ‘Grimes’ due to the flamboyant and unique abstract narrative examples they showed.

Software and HardwareMy AS year wasn’t advanced as my A2 year, personally speaking, I hadn’t had as much experience with production of projects in AS as I do now. The unfamiliarity of specific software and hardware lead me to do more research into media technology. I used various tutorials on platforms such as Youtube to help me understand it more, something that I carried with me to A2. I used software such as Prezi to collate information which I had gathered, be it research, audience research, or other tasks which were set. However, in A2, I decided to use Powerpoint slides due to its easier and less time consuming interface. Software such as Photoshop and Pixlr were very helpful tools to help me produce ancillary texts. In AS it was to create a production logo. This was very time consuming for me due to my lack of background knowledge on photoshop. I decided to use ‘Pixlr’ in my A2 portfolio for my ancillary texts such as the digipak, promotional poster and my production logo. I felt a lot more confident using this as I could use my Chromebook instead of having to travel back and forth to the Mac Suite to

use the more advanced software like Photoshop. I carried the knowledge of simple tools on these editing softwares like Photoshop with me to A2, so I once again did more research into using the simpler software like Pixlr on my Chromebook. I was able to go more in depth to create my ancillary texts on a larger more professional scale in A2 due to the severity of the task. Creating distortion, layers and other various visual effects onto my album digipak allowed a more professional look from more in depth knowledge. Albeit, my final digipak plan was a lot different to my initial ideas I produced, this was due to complications I had trying to recreate initial sketches on a digital scale. I applied a more simplistic approach in my production stage of the digipak, due to it being more simple, but also conforming to conventions of the genre I was creating. This can be seen in the distorted images and inverted aspects, copying and merging layers, something that was a lot easier for me to do after the research I carried out.

For my initial ideas, I simply used word to compile a long list of different tasks, I felt this was a much easier approach to display my ideas instead of creating a much larger Prezi or Powerpoint slide. Videos, costumes, locations, cast, mise-en-scene, filming schedules and research were all aspects of this document which was compiled. In AS the task was a lot easier to carry out because it wasn’t as detailed, due to the project being a lot smaller, hence why I compiled the initial research into a Prezi which was easier to interpret a smaller amount of information. I also used ‘Youtube’ for many different tasks, be it research and construction, to the final production. I decided to use this as a platform that my artist could gain promotion and coverage from, the link could be promoted on various other platforms such as ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’. My final production was uploaded onto Youtube for these reasons, and it was also a way to help finalise my audience feedback from my video so people could gain an insight and be able to view the video without any other influence.

I also did this is in the AS stage of media, my final product was uploaded, as well as vox-pops in the audience research stage. To actually make my products, both times I used iMovie. This is a simple software that is on iMacs, it is fast, efficient and has a friendly interface which makes it accessible even for beginners. I had knowledge of how to use this from other stages like Year 10. Both times I used this to apply my different scenes in a chronological order, using transitionary effects and to edit shots which may have been shaky, this is something that I didn’t do in AS, but I did it in A2 to give my project a much more professional look. I was also able to adjust the lighting and the speed of different clips to make them stand out even more and highlight the importance that that particular clip played in the role of the video. I was also able to filter out any unnecessary background noise which interfered with the clips, also using the crop tool to finalize the scene by getting rid of any unwanted footage.

In both of my projects, I used a Sony HD Camcorder, this was a very effective piece of hardware as it was very clear and looked professional. I gathered knowledge and learned how to use the cameras more efficiently in the A2 stage using various settings to help stabilize and zoom in effectively without having to make mistakes. For my ancillary texts, the pictures of my artist were taken on an iPhone 5S, however, it still came out looking moderately professional, I used lighting and a blank wall to make it seem like it was in a studio, and I believe this worked out well to highlight the importance of my artist. After filming everything on the camcorder, the footage was uploaded to the iMac by using a memory card which was used to save any footage which was filmed. Using iMovie, it then allowed me to carry out the task that I needed to do.