How did you use media technologies in the construction 

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout my advanced portfolio, I used a range of media technologies to enhance

aesthetics, experimentation, creativity and understanding of these technologies.

During my research, the Internet was key in attaining secondary data which disclosed conventions of media products (genre

specific music videos) and helped build the foundation of my whole portfolio. All images that were not taken by me were taken from the Internet by searching buzzwords into search

engines such as 'Google'. With Web 2.0 offering many application and networks, I used many of these to discover and

present information in a number of ways.

When looking at pre-existing videos to depict, I used the streaming site YouTube. Youtube includes content from prosumers - including record labels - which is

accessible around the world via the web. YouTube helped me discover music videos from many genres; enabling me to understand how they vary. YouTube was also used

to distribute vodcasts we had completed during planning for our pitch, initial ideas and storyboard. However YouTube was not used to distribute our music video as they're

are copyright ground the video breached. As YouTube has been a means of illegal downloading since the rise in digital downloading in the early noughties, record labels

and artists have taken it upon themselves to block the opportunity of illegal consumption and distribute their videos on YouTube through owned, restricted

channels (i.e. Vevo, owned by Sony and Universal). As our song was commercial and owned by Sony, it faced this fate. For this reason, we distributed our video on the less

popular site, Vimeo and felt as though promotion would aid recognition.

Today social networking is a part of many people's everyday life, and my market research discovered that it is one of the top ways in which audiences gear of new music videos. We therefore used

Twitter to promote the music video and the artists' album so audiences could hear it via Twitter and spread the word. Twitter

was also used when contacting the artist, as we know that Twitter is the resort for connecting with fans, with artist making constant

use of it.

A lot of my research included getting ideas from audiences of music videos and R&B music. We seeked this information by producing surveys through the site 'Survey Monkey'. The site allowed us to create many types of questions - we used multi choice questions when collecting quantitative questions and commentary questions for detailed information. This information lead us to

how we storyboarded the video and how we planned the products as we aimed to gratify the audience. The Internet also contains sites which have

lyrics to songs and I found 'Drunk texting' lyrics on MetroLyrics, enabling me to analyse the lyrics while dismissing the instrumental of the song and

depicting the words intensely.

I used Microsoft PowerPoint widely for creating presentations for my pitch and question 4 of my evaluation. The PowerPoints were a mode of

summarising information and presenting it in a way which is aesthetically appealing look through and engage in. I also used PowerPoints to create the moodboards for the R&B genre and our music video. I have always used this to group images together by selecting all images and using the tool 'save as a

picture'. I used this as it allows me to place pictures in discretionary places and I was able to be creative with placement. For example, I made the mood board for R&B so that it followed a timeline; panning from pictures from the

90s to the present day.

During planning, I also used the application ShowMe using an iPad to identify and describe audience profiles. The applications allowed me to add pictures,

annotate and voice over. The ShowMe allowed me to have analytical discussion about who potential audience members will be as the images

acted as triggers to new ideas. For example, the image of a young woman cued what I understood would be her common activities and what she music

she favoured.

When constructing we used hardware technology to film and edit the productions. We used a Canon camera (E05, 60D) which we familiarised ourselves with enough to

experiment with. For example when filming, I liked the appearance of effecting the focus to blur out. This was done at the end of the video and acted as a closing curtain.

Artificial lighting was used in some of the house scenes to compliment to existing lighting yet we were unable to use the lighting for scenes outside. It brightened the

video, making it appear more professional. The biggest software for construction was 'Final Cut Pro' which we used to edit our music video. We were able to create many

features, we planned based on research to make the video representative of the R&B genre. The distinct features such as the change in pace, the prism effect and transition were created on Final Cut Pro. The application allowed us to experiment with features

on Final Cut Pro that we may not have thought of before to create visuals that were aesthetics. Photoshop was also important in constructing our digipak and advert.

The use of photoshop helped me understand the processes in creating an enhancing picture. For the front cover of the digipak we created layers in which we could effect each layer differently,

making the backdrop of the image high in lighting and blurred and the artist brightened but a solid image.

The process of my coursework was documented on the blogging site weebly. On here I presented information in a neat layout

which included links to navigate users on my blog and condense text. Some navigations included creating mini slideshows and

this was useful when including several pictures in a section. The site implemented codes to include platforms from other sites.

This helped in research, planning and evaluation.