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

YouTube and Wordpress Throughout the whole project i have had to use media technologies along the way. During the research and planning stage, it was crucial that i had enough research and knowledge to provide me with the basic information i needed to create ideas and create the products. During the research stage i used the internet to provide me with different sources of information, particularly during my secondary research which involved me looking at secondary sources for which the internet was a big help. You tube is a media technology within the internet which also helped me to look at other existing media products to give me ideas and inspiration. You tube was really good for helping me with my textual analysis as i was able to study some real music videos. You Tube was not just good for looking at existing products but it was also good for displaying my music video, it was on you tube that i have created my own channel and uploaded my music video which is where my audience will be able to view it. Without you tube i would not have the knowledge that i do now from looking at other music videos. Another feature of the internet that i have used in my research, planning and construction stages was wordpress. Wordpress is an online blogging site in which i was able to create weekly production logs stating what exactly i have done and how i am getting on in the stages of my coursework. Blogging is a new technology that has become popular over the past few years and more and more people are now blogging their work compared to printing it out and putting it in a folder. I felt the use of Wordpress really helped me display my work and helped me keep track of what exactly i have done.

Photoshop Throughout my planning and construction stages of my music video i have used a program called Photoshop, this is a program that allows me to created my skeleton layouts, mock ups and final designs for my digipack and magazine advert. This program has a variety of tools such as the magnetic lasso which was a key tool for me when editing my photos, the mask tool, pencil rubber, gradient etc. The tools can be use to create various of effects and techniques to create a high standard piece of work. Photoshop is also good for editing photos by changing the brightness and contrast and adding curves to the images was specific things that i used in order to give my photos a professional finish. Photoshop also has a selection of creative fonts which is good for finding the perfect font to your work. Without the use of photoshop my tasks would not have the professional finish that i believe they have. Below are some screen shots showing myself using photoshop for my final designs.

Equipment During the construction parts of my video i have used some equipment which is considered to be a new technology. The use of a video camera was a very key piece of equipment, as it is a portable camera is meant i could go anywhere with it as it did not need to be plugged into any electricity source. The camera had a large amount of memory on it which meant i could take as many shots as i needed. I also used a laptop when filming my music video as it had the music playing in the background which helped me get the miming in time with the music.

Final Cut Pro Throughout the construction stages of creating my music video i used the software final cut pro, this is an editing software used to create a video. This program allow me to input my music footage and images, i was able to watch my raw footage before i edited it and placed it in the timeline, this enabled me to see what cuts i wanted and what ones i didn't. This program contained a variety of tools such as the blade tool and the pen tool which are the two tools i used most when cutting down my footage and adding in transitions. Transitions were another main feature of final cut pro, it allowed me to add in the most suitable transitions for each shot, i liked this feature because it allowed me to make my cuts flow better together but it also made it more interesting and more suitable for the song and the audience. Another good feature of this program was that i was able to change the brightness and colour of the footage, the best example of this was being able to change my shots to black and white and brightening them up for the chorus, i did this using the colour corrector. Without this feature i would not have been able to get the effect i wanted for the past and present aspect which i believe is one of the best parts of the video as it allows the audience to gain a better understanding. I was also able to add in text on top of the shots which was something that i felt was really important in the editing of my video. Final cut pro was one of the main programs that i used in my construction process and without it i would not have a successful video. Below are some screen shots of me using final cut pro.

Pages, Keynote & Numbers Other new technologies that i have used in my work have been programs such as pages, keynote and numbers. These programs have been useful throughout my research and planning stages. I have used keynote in order to display my questionnaire results as this allows you to present it in an organised way showing the graphs appropriately, keynote also allowed me to used different size and different style fonts which made my presentations more appropriate. I chose to create my graphs in numbers as this is a program which is similar to excel on windows. I found that numbers was the easiest way to create my graphs and it has a wide selection of different charts and graphs which i could also customise by changing the colours and sizes. I also completed my budget on numbers as it calculated up my figure itself which is a really good feature of this program which i found really useful. Pages was one of the programs that i used most as this allowed me to create a word document which was useful for my research and for my development diaries, and also all of my pre production documents, i was also able to add in screen shots which was good for helping me explain myself. These programs were all very useful in my work and without them parts of my work would not have been complete. Below are some examples of me using these programs in my work.

Conclusion Without the use of the new technologies that have evolved over time i would not have been able to create the successful promotional package that i have. The use of the internet, software and equipment has allowed me to gain new techniques and skills to create my work along with some new effects that i couldnt have used previously. I would not have been able to go forward with my own ideas and make my work my own. Using an apple mac computer throughout this process has also been a new technology and a big help as it contains all of the software that i have used which i might not have been able to get if i worked on a windows computer. I have used a new technology for almost every aspect of my work and this shows how technologies have become very important the creation of media products.