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

AS to A2In my AS coursework, I had carried out research for a film opening for a thriller movie ; considering how the genre of thriller varies so much, I decided to initially combine the genre with the detective genre, to do this, I looked at movies like ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Jeepers Creepers’, in order to try to create a mix between the two. I used varying social media platforms like YouTube to watch the openings , and even looked on the blogging site Tumblr, to see if there was anything more that I could pick up on. I put all of my research into various powerpoints and documents to showcase what I had learnt. Likewise, for my A2 coursework, I carried out similar research for a music video in the electropop genre. My research was done by watching various videos in the electropop genre, made by varying artists from varying record labels, on websites like Vevo and YouTube. Once I had conducted all of my research I compiled it into Prezi’s, vox pop’s, powerpoints and documents, as they were an easy way to show what I had learnt about the genre.

Once I had done these, I published everything onto the website Blogger. Blogger is an easy website to show the stages of my research, planning and pre/production for my music video. I also used Blogger to showcase my AS work for the very same reasons for my film opening. For my music video, I took inspiration from a wide variety of artists, not just those included in the electropop genre. Specifically, I looked at Halsey and Troye Sivan as they both portray similar narratives in their videos like the one we had made, but also Queen in the way they frame the band in the videos, and artists like Kesha and Lady Gaga for the magazine poster and digipak.

SoftwareFrom AS to A2, I believe that my skills have developed across my research, planning and production. Personally, I think that it is evident across my two blogs, as the quality of my written work and presentation of my work, is more detailed and refined. I used a bigger variety of software, such as Prezi, which is an interactive way of creating a powerpoint, I actually found this much easier to showcase my work, this was easy as I could transition two slides, one with pictures and then the other with writing to show in more depth what I meant. In addition, my photoshop skills have been further developed from AS, shown through my digipak and poster that I have created for the A2 work, aside from photoshop, I also used the software ‘Pixlr’ to create a logo for my record label, before the group decided on the one that was present in the beginning of the music video. I found Pixlr slightly difficult to use as the program was different to that of the one I was much more used to on Photoshop, I then decided that when it came to the task of creating the digipak and poster, I would use Photoshop despite not having direct access to it which resulted

-me having to carry around a Toshiba laptop during the time that I created my ancillary products. When it came to assemble the various parts of footage for both the AS and A2, a Mac was used, however with the A2 we had used Final Cut Pro X, personally, I thought that the program that was used for the A2, iMovie, was much better as in iMovie, I was able to split clips much better, sync audio and stabilize shaky shots, which was something that was an issue in the AS work.After the video had been edited, it was then uploaded to YouTube, publicly, so that we were able to gain some audience feedback from it, and then made it available on the blog by embedding the link onto a post.

Planning, Pre-Production and PresentationWhen it came to plan for the music video, my group had started to come up with initial ideas, to showcase our ideas, we had originally written them down onto a A3 wipeable sheet, however, the writing was unclear so we created a mindmap on the website ‘mindmiester’. This then enabled the mind map to be digital and much more easy to read. Furthermore, when it came to plan the costumes, props, cast and locations, the information had been compiled into a powerpoint where each side had a setfocus filled with the detail needed. This was also done as part of the lyric planning, verses and chorus’ were put onto separate slides, and there was a brief but detailed explanation as to what would happen during each point in the song. Additonally, we had also created a storyboard that went into even further detail, showing what the shot was for that scene, and how long it needed to last for, this came in handy when it came to editing the video. The storyboard was created by

-hand, and this was then scanned into the computer, and uploaded onto the blog as a new post. Both of the ancillary tasks, the magazine poster and digipak were also drawn out by hand during the planning stage. These were also scanned in, and then placed into a powerpoint with a detailed description of everything shown and a reason as to why it was placed onto them. Once this was done, I had carried out four different photoshoots of the artist, (myself), to cater to each of the people in my groups needs. Each of my pieces that make up my ancillary tasks were created using Adobe Photoshop. Considering that I had worked with it previously, I found it much easier to use this time around. I To present my work, I used a wide variety of formats. I used powerpoints if I had lots of information to present and there were topics that I needed to cover, such as the one I made for my music video analysis or the one showing the planning of the cast, location, props and costume. I used Prezi’s to go into more detail with certain topics, such as my Star Theory one, I was able to include a large amount of relevant information without over cluttering the area, or making the presentation too long, which is what would have happened if I made it into a powerpoint.

HardwareWhen it came to filming my media products, I had used various pieces of equipment, more so for the A2 coursework. For my AS work, I had used a Sony HD Camcorder, this particular equipment was useful at the time, however we had noticed there was a difference in the quality once the footage had been uploaded onto the Macs. Furthermore, we had a technical issue with the camera, which resulted in the group ending up using a Samsung J5 camera to record a small portion of the footage. It was noted that the quality of those shots were better than those shot onto the camera, and this was taken into account for the A2 work later on. For the A2 work, we had used three different types of camera to record on. Firstly, all of our original footage was shot on the Sony HD Camcorder, however, as we had been filming in a dark photo studio, the footage was grainy, and very little of it was actually picked up on film.

We had then reshot the interior scenes using a Nikon DSLR Camera for these shots and the exterior shots, with a Fish-Eye Lens attached for the exterior shots. Additionally, we had more interior scenes in a bathroom where we had used the phone camera as we did not have access to the Nikon at the time. Moreover, just by looking at our AS work to the A2, there is a clear difference in the quality of the footage, and the editing of the products, as I have a deeper knowledge and understanding of what is needed to make a good quality, professional looking media product through all the research that I have conducted over the year.