Question 4 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Apple Macs Padlet BloggerPowerpoint Glogster SurveymonkeyMicrosoft Word Wix YoutubeFinal Cut Pro X Photoshop Google ChromeMindmeister

For the creation of my project, I primarily used Apple Mac computers that we have in our media classrooms and around the college which can be accessed easily. We used the online software ‘blogger’ to create an online blog which will collate all of our work and allow us to access it anywhere and even on smartphones through the blogger app. Posts can be uploaded from home or in the classroom. We will be posting work during the next few months for our Advanced Portfolio Media G324 project. Blogger has many features that allow you to have access to a large amount of customization within your pages and layout of your blog. Free website which contain blogger templates can be downloaded to transform the look and theme of your blog for your audience. The theme of my blog is simple and modern yet it establishes clear brand identity through my banner image, which is of my two artists and below including the headers for each of the stages of our journey, ‘Research, Planning and Construction and Final Products’.Blogger also enabled us to link posts and pieces of work that had been done on other software applications such as Slideshare, Glogster, Prezi, Wix, Padlet, Powerpoint, Microsoft Word and Mindmeister and also the importation of videos linked from Youtube and images from our portable drives. Using these forms of media in order to present my work in order to diversify the way my blog looks making it more appealing. Glogster was a web-based format which allowed you to create poster designed pieces of work which could then be embedded onto my blog.These online media technologies were free to use and made our blogs look more interesting and creative, as it was another form of media to document our work on. During the research stages of my project, I used the popular video-sharing website youtube to explore ideas and watch influential music videos that were within the pop genre so that I could establish the codes and conventions of these real media texts so that I could appeal successfully to my target audience. Using google chrome I researched into the styles of current music videos which genres typically followed these rules and styles, this opened up my ideas to more varieties of music videos that I could explore and merge together when it came to the construction stage of creating my own. Survey monkey became a useful media technology when it came to my audience research, it allowed me to create a music genre survey which the link could be sent through the college email in order for students to respond and give their opinions. It was useful as it gave me the choice to ask multiple choice questions and to rate certain scenarios in order of likability which helped me in the planning stages of my project.

Whilst using screen grabs from Youtube music videos and also using Google images, I created a music mood board and a Padlet which I used to collect all my ideas for my products which I could update with new images/videos that I had found inspirational whenever I pleased. Using the HTML code I embedded this onto my blog, along with other pieces of work from Slideshare that were uploaded documents produced in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint presentations. Google Chrome therefore became a key media technology in which I used throughout my research as it enabled me to not just view pre existing music videos but also into other digipaks and magazine adverts which we were also required to produce alongside our music video. In the construction stages of my project, the CANON EOS 600D offers a full-hd eos movie which is going to make the quality of my video much better as it shoots in 1080p. This was used to record all the footage which I was going to be using in the music video, I also borrowed my friends camera which was a CANON EOS 650D a slightly better model than the one I used, and also a fisheye lens to capture some interesting shots. As my friends camera was the next model up it meant that during the video some shots are better quality than others but I tried to separate these shots about so that it was not completely noticeable. Final Cut Pro X was used to edit all of the footage which was recorded. This media technology software was an upgraded version offering much more advanced techniques, effects with the best thing being that no rendering was necessary after every clip. Previously from Final Cut Express which I had used the year before to produce my horror opening sequence. The 1080p recording enabled high quality shots to be captured, specifically of the powder paint ensuring the bright vibrant colours and its movement was effectively captured due to the good quality the canon captured in.

Onto the planning stages of my project, I planned my ideas onto the media technology Mindmeister, allowing me to collate my thoughts onto a online mind map, being able to brand off from different music video designs, adding more detail so when it came to storyboarding, I had a better understanding of what I was doing as well as making note of other pop artists I liked the look of.Using the popular social networking site Twitter, I tweeted their music record company of Icona Pop which is ‘ZEN MUSIC GROUP’ requesting permission to use their song. Photographs for my recce shots/call sheets were taken on my smartphone (Iphone), this technology meant my photos could be uploaded straight from my i-phone and onto a post within my blog, as blogger has its own app which can be downloaded free from the app store enabling you to blog posts where ever and whenever as long as you have an internet/3G connection.

The digital technology Final Cut Pro X was used to produce the animatic which was a digital version of my storyboard, this enabled me to see exactly where my shots would go to which part of the song which was then uploaded onto Youtube.Microsoft word and Powerpoint were used to create a number of the documents within the project; call sheets, treatment sheet, shooting schedule, prop lists, cast recruitment. Slideshare then enabled me to upload these and embed the work onto my blog.

To export the final video, we had to share/export it either as a master file or send it straight to Youtube but this would mean a lower quality outcome than exporting it as a master file. After the video/during the editing process of the music video, the ancillary texts had to be created next. The ancillary texts consisted of producing a digipak and magazine advert to accompany the music video and to therefore market/promote our artists. To take the photographs, I used the Canon EOS 600D again, offering 18.0 mega pixels, this was going to make sure my images had a professional look about them making it more convincing that my album was real. Photographs were then imported from the canon onto my portable drive and placed in a appropriate folders which I titled ‘Photoshoot’ and ‘Ones to use’ which would be were the shortlisted images would be held. Photoshop was a useful media technology software in the creation of my digipak and magazine advert as this was the platform in which they were produced on. It allowed me to layer images, edit their colour, contrast and crop images and merge them to others. It gave me access to a number of different and useful features.

In the final stages of the project, I decided to use a number of digital media technologies to show creative ability and exploration of a number of different platforms and ways I could present my work. All four evaluation questions will be accessible on a Wix which I have created so that the questions can be viewed all on the same website and therefore easy to get too as the link will be placed onto my blog. Wix has many customisable features so you can tailor your blog to whatever style and theme you are after creating. Having a slideshow on the home page of mine with numerous photographs of my artists helps further establish brand identity and star image of the group, it also looks professional and current.

To conclude, i used a wide range of media technologies throughout the stages within my project in order to show my journey and experiences creating these products. The media technologies used enhanced my work making it more creative and visually pleasing to a wider audience and allowed me to successfully research into my music genre in order to understand the pop world and product three products which contain iconic conventions.