How did you use media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

ResearchThe web was the main source where I retrieved most of the information that I used in order to create a successful music video along with its other ancillary texts. With the help of the internet I was able to find out information about similar artists that are in the genre that my chose artist was in. I did this in order to understand what makes those particular artists successful with the type of music videos that they released. I found out information about the music industry in both the past and present.

In my research, I was able to find out codes and conventions of music videos, digipaks and digipak adverts in the hip hop/rap genre. My chosen artist was my older brother who is an independent musician who creates music in my chosen genre. I was able to listen to some of his songs personally through YouTube and unreleased music that he had created on his laptop.

Research continued…In order to see if my music video would be appealing to my initial target audience, my teacher had organised a screening for all the students to showcase the progress or finished products of our ancillary texts.

Most of the audience were in the age group between 16 and 25 years as the screening took place at my college. Teachers aged 28+ were also amongst the audience. This allowed a variety within my feedback. Majority of the audience really liked the music video, the response from everyone was generally positive.

YouTube was the main platform that I used in the process of planning. I was able to draw ideas from music videos in the genre of Hip Hop/Rap and adapt them to what I wish to carry out for my own work.I used YouTube on various platforms such as laptop,desktop and my mobile phone.

Planning

Planning is considered to be one of the most important parts within the coursework. What is planned before the construction is will translate in the music video, digipak and advertisement.

My blog created on Word Press was an element from the use of the internet that enabled me to do the coursework and receive feedback from my teacher. It was easy to use and it made things easy to stay on top of . Each step in the planning process was posted onto my blog.

Word Press allowed me to embed videos and photos in to it in order to show the places where I had received some ideas from.

I also used Word Press to blog the process of filming on the day and the editing process which occurred afterwards.

PlanningMicrosoft Word was another form of technology that I used during the planning of my music video. I used Microsoft Word to write up the list of equipment, props and individuals needed for the production. I also used it to create the shooting schedule, locations list and risk assessment in the form of a table so that the ideas could be seen clearly.

Word was used to help create the questionnaire for both research in the target audience and feedback from audience on final product of the music video.

This particular software is extremely easy to use as I have been using this software from primary school and I had also used it for my preliminary task in AS Media Studies. I printed out enough copies of each questionnaire and handed it out in order to receive information for my research and planning.

PlanningMy mobile phone was a major item that was used during the process of planning for the music video. My phone allowed me to communicate instantly with the artist in order for us both to understand the plans for the music video. We were able to discuss filming dates, costumes, props, locations etc. via Whatsapp Messenger. This is much more sufficient that meeting up in person as the schedules of the artist as well as mine did not necessarily favoured each other.

When filming the video, I used my phone again in order to capture the process/construction of the video. I sent these images through my email as well as connecting my phone in order to transfer the images on to my laptop, school desktop and my USB as a back up.

ConstructionFor the construction segment of the coursework, I used my college’s shooting equipment. This includes a Panasonic Video Camera and a Sony photo camera. I provided my own tripod in order to record the video in a still motion, and lighting equipment with cut out cardboard in order to create a spotlight effect.

Once I had finished filming, I uploaded the footage on the desktop computer at my college using Adobe Premier Pro. In this particular software, I was able to add/take away footage, synchronising the song and the footage and adding video transitions as well as effects e.g. speed.

Adobe Photoshop was used for the construction of my digipak and the advert for the digipak. It was used to make the front cover of the album and the back cover whereas the internal CD cover was created on another editing software that I was able to use at home.

EvaluationWord Press was used to blog about the research, planning, filming and editing process that was carried out from the beginning of the task to the end.

I was able to download the Word Press application on my iPhone and be able to update my blog posts without actually having to go onto a computer/laptop. I also accessed my blog on my own laptop and the computer provided at college.

The layout of my blog tries to embed a simplistic way to present all the work that I have done for the coursework.

Evaluation

For my evaluation I used Microsoft Power Point, Slide Share and Prezi, which are all easily accessible forms of visual presentations.