Evaluation Part 4

How did you use media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages?

Construction and Research

This is an example of my blogger dashboard. Blogger

played a huge part in the construction of my A2 task. Using

blogger I was able to frequently record my work in

chronological order which allowed my work to have an

overall sophisticated presentation.

From my blogger dashboard I was able to change the

template of my blogger which enabled me to present my

work in many different ways. I chose the dynamic layout as

I allowed me to have a range of different ways in which my

work could be shown. For example, using the sidebar

structured my work, whilst the flipcard showed my work

through the use of imagery.

Blogger was continuously used throughout the production

of my work throughout my planning, production and

evaluation process. This is because there is no limit to how

much work can be shown on blogger. This heightened my

creativity and therefore allowed me to produce work

frequently at a professional level.

Continued…

Alongside Blogger, Prezzi also helped hugely

through the continuation of my work onto my

evaluation. From this I was able to express my

creativity as Prezi turns your work into a moving,

interactive way of presenting my work. The many

different themes also helped to show the

establishment of my work. For example, even

though I chose to create a spider diagram effect,

one of my options could have been a pathway.

This would of helped me to show the process of

my work and the journey I went on. However, I

had some difficulties using Prezzi as it was a

relatively new software for me. From this using

Web 3.0 became very helpful through the means

of using ‘how to’ guides on Youtube.

Here is a clear example of one of the ‘how to’ guides I used for

Prezi. Here I learnt how to create some simple tasks such as

adding a text and changing the colours of my created Prezi. This

allowed me to present my work differently and make it stand out in

comparison to my previous presentations all made on PowerPoint.

Using a Prezi also allowed me to show how I developed from my

AS work, and from the start of my A2 work. Using Prezi for my

evaluation yet again allowed my work to be shown at a

professional, artistic level.

Research and Planning

Our research and planning revolved primarily around

Google and YouTube. This enabled us to gain quick

access to the websites in which would direct us to

previous Pop artists music videos and Digipaks which

gave us clear ideas for the production of our work. This

allowed us to not rely purely on what we thought were

conventional aspects of a Pop music video, but instead

research into them which effectively changed our

perceptions of music videos. From this we realised that

a narrative based music video would be most

conventional of our target audience, and targeting our

audience would need to be done through the means of

colours and body language. This was shown in our

music video and our ancillary tasks, all of which would

not have been possible had it now been for the

planning and research.

Production and Creation

Throughout the production of our music video, we understood

that we needed to use an advanced editing programme in which

would allow us to use sufficient editing techniques throughout the

creation of our work. Therefore we decided that Final Cut Pro was

an appropriate software to use. Even though at first, this

programme was difficult to grasp, with practice we was able to

complete our music video at a professional level. Using the

banding tool to cut our footage up into different sections allowed

us to match together our lyrics with our visuals. There was also a

vast range of effects in which were placed onto our footage. This

allowed us to portray clearly the narrative of our music video. By

adding the ‘Combat’ effect on our footage we were able to let our

audience know the differences between memories (through

narrative) and natural lighting in which was our performances.

However, the Mac computers in our editing room was not always

available to us. Therefore, we were able to continue editing via

iMovie on an Apple Mac from home. Using this allowed us to

continue our professional level of work however away from our

school environment. The creation of our work through the use of

iMovie was no different from what was created via Final Cut Pro,

and was easy transferable through the means of a USB. This

allowed a continuous level of work, and a successful production

of work to be inevitable.

Continued…Through planning our work, we used the online editing software iPiccy in

order to experiment with different styles and techniques. This was helpful

in being able to identify with what fonts looked good and which images

would be most representative of our target audience. Once decided, we

developed our ideas through the use of Adobe Photoshop whereby our

knowledge had broadened from previous experiences through our AS

task. Our progress throughout this task was made prominent through our

final products.

As shown below, I have added a clear image of our finished digipak print advertisement whereby we merged the layers together to achieve our

overall look. This was very successful through the production of our work as we was able to create an advertisement in which was both

representational of our music video and target audience, whilst also challenging the general conventions of the Pop genre. The creation of our

ancillary tasks would not have been possible had it not been for the use of photoshop. Using the various editing techniques allowed our work to

be completed at a continuously artistic level.

Crop Tool – Resizing original image

to fit our advertisement.

Magic Lasso – Cutting our artist out of

the original image.

Defining Brush Preset – Changing

the physical appearance of the image.

Auto Contrast – Adapting the

brightness of our print advertisement.

Stroke – Changing our font to stand

out more amongst our image.

Colour Overlay – Highlighting our

fonts.

Web 2.0 sites and audience feedback.

Using Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook allowed us to gain a greater in sight into our audience feedback and how well we targeted our

audience. This allowed us to decide whether or not or work needed to be developed. The comments received were mostly positive, however

the negative comments were very helpful as we received feedback from our primary target audience making the feedback even more

reliable. Overall, I believe that the planning and research in which lead to the production and construction was hugely successful throughout

the process of our work. However, had there been more time as a group we would have gathered more audience feedback in order to

receive a broad range of feedback, and then change our ancillary tasks and music videos in order to make them hugely conventional of our

target audience. This, had it been done would have been very helpful, however I believe the work in which was created was at a continuously

professional level and conveyed our creative making skills through the use of digital technology.

Concluding…

Overall, without the primary use of media

technologies, creating media products in terms of

audience feedback and research and planning

would not have been possible. The overall use of

final cut pro and iMovie alongside Photoshop

allowed our media products to be created to the

best of our ability, creatively and professionally.

Using Web 2.0 programmes such as Facebook

allowed our audience feedback to be received

quickly, all of which was suitable for our target

audience. The use of YouTube and Google were our

primary source of research which hence lead to

planning. Without further research into previous

music videos and digipaks our production of work

would not have been fully conventional of our target

audience, and our production would have relied

purely on our ideologies surrounding the Pop

culture.