Evaluation – Q4

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

Software Photoshop is an image-editing software that I was able to access on the majority of computers in college. I

used Photoshop to manipulate images in the post-production stage of making my products e.g. the magazine advert and digipak. As I had used Photoshop in the first year of the course, I was already knowledgeable in navigating around the software and could do most things independently.

Final Cut Pro is the editing software I used to edit my music video. I was originally going to use Premier Pro on the editing suites but there was a technical problem (it wouldn’t read my video files). I had little experience with Final Cut prior to editing but once I understood the basics e.g. the blade tool and how to add and remove effects and transitions, it became a lot easier. For any additional help, I used YouTube tutorials.

Microsoft Word is a word processor that I used for my checklists and this helped me with my time management as we were set deadlines for particular research and planning tasks and we also had to set our own independent deadlines. I also used it for my lyric timing and lyric analysis.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program that I used to create the Health & Safety grid, moodboard, collate my audience research results and for costume and location lists.

Windows Live Movie Maker is a video editing software that I used to put together my step-by-step videos for the evaluation. I could access this program from home as it is a free software included in Microsoft Essentials.

Hardware I realised that college cameras would be in high demand so I decided to borrow a friend’s camera as it

meant that I could film whenever I needed to. It is a Fujifilm FinePix (S2500HD).

I did need to book a tripod on a few occasions as I did some filming on rooftops and by the river so by securing the camera to the tripod this was a lot safer and allowed for steadier shots. It was also beneficial for windy days as the tripod is much easier to hold steady than the camera alone.

I bought a 16GB SD card as the one I originally had could only hold 1GB of memory which would have been no where near enough space for the amount of footage I needed including still shots for my ancillary texts.

I used a card reader to get my still shots from my SD card to the computer.

Hardware

Apple iMac – I used this for editing my music video and updating my blog. The problem I faced with this was that I could only access my music video on the same Mac every time but as I shared it with other people, it was not always available for me to use when I needed it.

College Computers – I used these for research and planning lessons and I could use Photoshop on them unlike my laptop at home.

I used a scanner to scan in my hand-drawn storyboard into the computer so that I could create my animatic. My laptop – I used this for planning and research and updating my blog at home. Apple iPhone – I used the Twitter app on this for communicating with my male lead and iMessage for

communicating with female actress. I also used it so send emails to myself (for backing up work and sending work to myself so that I could access work I had done at home at college). I used my phone to check the weather for filming and to take shots and videos for my filming diary. I also used my phone to take screen shots of the iTunes Store, Spotify app and Music app so that I could then Photoshop my product into these mediums as example of how my product would look in existing media. I used the notes and reminders for my own personal organisation e.g. outstanding things I needed to put on my blog or a shot list for a particular filming slot. I used the Voice Memos to record my voice overs for the step-by-step tutorials in the evaluation.

SanDisk 32GB USB stick – I used this to store my work throughout the process as this meant I could continue with work I had done at college at home. As the size of memory available is large, I found this advantageous as it meant I could store anything from music video drafts to class presentations that I had downloaded from Moodle (student intranet).

Websites Blogger – I used this to post all of my A2 Media portfolio work which was useful for not only me to

keep track of my progress but also my peers and teachers as feedback is an integral part of the process. This site also has the ability to embed Youtube and Vimeo clips, Prezis, Slide share presentations and also upload images and videos.

Moodle – This is the student intranet in which I was able to access all of the class presentations covering theories, blog checklists and A Grade example blogs. I also downloaded the digipak template from here and was able to monitor deadlines.

Evernote – I used this for my filming diary as it’s layout is similar to a diary so I thought it would be visually engaging and exhibits my ability to use a range of presentational devices.

eBay – I used it to purchase the ballerina music box and this was simple to do as I already had an eBay account.

Prezi – I used it to create more interesting presentations as an alternative to PowerPoint and it allowed me to use different media within the presentation such as voice overs, inserting images and YouTube clips. Prezi also allows you to share and embed your presentations and it is an account based website so all of my presentations were stored in the same place and I could access them from any computer I wanted to.

Google - I used this search engine for majority of my research and I was able to access photos and videos of existing products.

YouTube – I used this to post my drafts of my music video and I also uploaded my step-by-step tutorials for the evaluation as this made it easier to embed into posts on my blog. In the research stages I used YouTube to look at existing music videos to help me understand the codes and conventions of my chosen form and genre and also for inspiration.

TimeGlider – I used this to create a timeline for my History of Medium – I think the visual aid of it being an actual timeline helped me get my head around all of the many important historical and contemporary events that have structured how music videos are constructed today – it is easy to go back and look at as it not set out using massive indigestible chunks of texts.

Slide share – I used this as a way of presenting my PowerPoint presentations which is more effective and accessible than uploading each individual slide.

Survey Monkey – I used this to create my audience research surveys as this then affected how I would construct my products because in order for it to be a relatable and successful product I had to adhere to audience needs and expectations.

Urban fonts – this website allowed me to access a range of fonts that were closer to ones I had seen used in existing products rather than the ones available in Photoshop and Microsoft Word.

Wordle is website that generates word collage from the text that you enter into it and the larger the word the most frequently it appeared in the text. I found this a very useful site for collating my audience research results as one of the questions were ‘what three words/phrases first come to mind in relation to ‘domestic abuse’?’ so using the word collage I was able to identify which words appeared most frequently and use it as an influence for my products.

WeVideo is a free video editing software that I used to create my textual analyses. It allowed me to upload the music video , add a voice over the top of it and uplaod images.

Online converter – I used this to convert my video files from ‘.mov’ to ‘.wmv’ files as I had recorded them on my iPhone and Windows Live Movie Maker could not read them.