How did you use media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

By Alex Halls

Construction

The following sources and programs were

used to construct my final products. Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Premier Pro

Camera

Video Camera

iPhone

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Photoshop played undeniably the largest part

in the construction of my project. All my

ancillary tasks were created on Photoshop as

it provides a diverse service as it is a very

versatile piece of software. All the Black &

White edits were made on Photoshop by

playing around with the saturation and all the

text was created by downloading and playing

with lots of different types.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

AfterBefore

This is an example of what I have achieved purely on Photoshop.

Clearly with these pictures I have added text and adjusted the

saturation to create a professional look for the album cover.

Adobe Premier Pro

Initially we had trouble with the software but

now we have sorted it out and now we have

constructed our Music Video without any

problems. We have used Premier Pro to

create a Music Video, the software allows us

to edit the transistions, timings and effects of

the video. It is the only software we could use

as if we were to use Windows Media Player, it

would not have looked as professional.

Samsung PL201

To be able to use images in our work we had

to take our own pictures using our own

cameras, for this I used the Samsung PL201

Digital Camera. The pictures are taken with

14.2 megapixels so the quality is quite

good, which is a good start for when I start on

them in Photoshop.

HD Video Camera

Because we were having problems with the

original camera, Nia and I was given a HD

Video Camera which enabled us to shoot in a

much higher quality then the rest of the class.

We shot all our footage with this video camera

to maximise marks for production.

iPhone

The iPhone was very useful as a last resort

act-in camera, we got quite a few good shots

with the phone and because of the versatility

of apple products and software we were able

to download photo-editing applications to

make our life a lot easier and to be able to

work on the move.

iPhone

Before After

As you can see, the applications you can download for iPhones can prove

extremely useful. The software we used ‘Vintage Cam’ acted as a basic

Photoshop as we were able to change saturation, dimensions etc.

Research

The following sources and programs were

used to collect primary and secondary

research. Questionnaires

Hard Example Materials

Example Materials

General Browsing

YouTube

Questionnaire

I used ’Questionnaires’ made on

‘www.polljunkie.com’ to find out about the

target audience and target market. This was a

primary source of research and one that held

quite high priority as I had quite a few ideas

and this helped me make my decision.

Questionnaire

This image is taken from

‘www.hallsmedia.Wordpress.co

m’ and is a conclusion of the

results of a poll/questionnaire

made on ‘www.polljunkie.com’.

Hard Example Materials

By ‘Hard Examples Materials’ I mean real

artists album covers, digipaks and magazine

posters. This helped me to achieve an

understanding of the quality of work I needed

to create. I looked at similar genre artists as it

would be most helpful for example Ed

Sheeran’s + album which was also I newly

produced piece which enable me to examine

current trends in the market.

Hard Example Materials

By annotating and analysing the products, it allowed me to copy certain features

in my project which added to the professionalism of my final piece.

Example Materials

I found lots of example material on the internet

as it was an easier source then finding

hardcopies. Specifically I was looking for

album adverts and posters. I found these by

looking at specific industry websites, for

example ‘www.rollingstone.com’. I found it

useful as I found materials without having to

put extensive effort in.

Example Materials

I found industry websites very useful as they

had a lot of useful information about their

products and artwork. This enabled me to be

able to make an educated decision on what

was effective and what wasn’t.

General Browsing

I used general browsing as a last resort and it

proved helpful as on a few occasions I was

struggling to find helpful resources and a

random website provided useful information

and resources. A website called

‘www.marketingmagazine.co.uk’ had

interesting ideas on the features like the title

etc.

YouTube

I found YouTube to be one of the most helpful

media platforms whilst research my project as

it gave me the capabilities to look at previous

students work and compare and use features

that they had used. Also I could use famous

music videos to see how they were produced

and the how they projected emotions to their

audience.

Planning

The main thing that helped me to plan my

project was audience feedback. I produced my

project through trial and error and therefore

communication had a huge role in my planning

phase.

Social Networking

YouTube

Social Networking

Social Networking namely Facebook and Skype were crucial to the production of my work. Every time I changed something on my work I uploaded it to Facebook and asked for peer and audience feedback, luckily my peers fitted into my target audience which made it a lot easier.

I would Skype with Nia whilst producing our work enabling me to produce better work as it would be a combination of both of us, for example we have been able to stick to our colour palette because of clear communication.

Audience Feedback

This is an image of a draft piece of work I uploaded to facebook, you can see to

the right hand side of the image there is a column of comments giving said

feedback. This is an example of a process I repeated several times to get the

final piece of work right.

YouTube

I also used YouTube in the Planning phase of

the project and in much the same way, I

examined and analysed previous students

work to compare my work and use certain

features in my own project. Examining others

work allowed me to know what to expect work

and time wise.

Evaluation

The Evaluation process is the shortest but

requires the most written work. To complete

this I used:

Wordpress Blogging

Video

Prezi

Microsoft Powerpoint

I have chosen to use four different formats to

show my extensive ability across the software

scale.

Wordpress Blogging

How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts? – This is the

question I have answered in a blog format as I

think it will be easy to combine images and

text together to make a structured answer.

Video

In what ways does your media

product, use, develop and challenge forms

and conventions of real media products? –

This is the question I have answered in a

video format as there is a lot to talk about, so

by talking about it, it will be easier to answer

quickly.

Prezi

What have you learned from your audience

feedback? – This is the question I have

answered in a Prezi format as there are

several points I have discussed and so by

addressing each at a time, it will make the

answer more clear.

Microsoft Powerpoint

How did you use media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages? – Finally this is the

question I have just answered in the

Powerpoint format, allowing you to see a

breakdown of each resource I have used and

how I have used it.