HOW DID YOU USED MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

RESEARCH

The internet was the main tool I used to help me with research and planning. Websites such a YouTube allowed me to watch music videos from both the past and present and therefore allowed me to gain valuable insight into how the music industry has changed / developed over the years.

Google also allowed me to research into different genres of music in depth. I was also able to research ways of meeting audience expectations and learn about theories such as Goodwin's, which I then later applied to my work.

We also used video a camera to film our focus groups. This allowed us to collect valuable information from our target audience about their opinions, what they expect from a music video etc and later analyse it and ensure it was included in our work.

All of the research I had collected throughout the course was posted on www.blogspot.com .

This allowed me to publish my findings and keep track of what I had and had not done.

It was a way of viewing all my work in one place and it allowed me to edit previous posts as I went along and found out more information about certain topic areas.

PLANNING FOR RECORDING

Firstly, our group came up with both a hand-drawn storyboard and an animated one. For both, pictures were taken of the still shots using a Nikon camera and then uploaded to the computer.

For the hand-drawn storyboard the pictures were then published straight to our blogs.

For the animated one however, the images were transferred onto the Mac computer and onto a programme called Imovie. Here, we transformed them into a still shot movie which showed what would be happening in each scene of our video. We then lay our background track over this so the images changed according to the lyrics and the music.

PLANNING CONTINUED

After we had established where and how we wanted to record our music video, we created a calendar which stated the filming times and dates.

Along with this, it included the locations and costumes needed for each shot and approximately how long it would take to film.

We used two forms of technology to create our calendars. One was using the programme Paint and the other was using the programme Prezi.

FILMING

We filmed our music video using a video camera.

This was a very useful piece of technology as it allowed us to record over our mistakes and delete scenes that were not needed.

This saved us time when we were editing as only the scenes we needed were there.

EDITINGWe edited our music video using the Imovie

programme on the Macs. This allowed us to rearrange scenes into the

right order, make them longer / shorter, add effects and lay our track on top.

This process took a couple of weeks as it was the first time we had used the programme. Initially, it was quite difficult to use / understand but other resources such as Google helped us to find answers to the questions we had about the software.

CREATING THE ANCILLARY TEXTS

The next stage was to create our digi-pack and magazine advertisement.

Both were created using Photoshop. This allowed us to edit the images, match colour schemes, create new layouts etc. This helped to link both ancillary texts together as we could create similar layouts etc on each of them.

At first, Photoshop was difficult to use but after searching for tutorials on YouTube, it became much easier to use.

We also used a website called www.dafont.com , from which we got our fonts.

EVALUATION

All of the different technologies have made it much easier to gather audience feedback and present my evaluation.

I gathered information for my audience feedback from YouTube and also by recording interviews with our target audience.

I have used many different technological programmes to present my evaluation. For example, I used Prezi as it transforms a presentation into an animated version and it is easy to embed YouTube links into it.

I have also used Microsoft PowerPoint which I converted onto Slideshare in order to publish it on my blog.

As well as this, I have also taken my own videos and taken print screens to support my points throughout my evaluation.

All of the forms of technology I have used, have allowed me to expand my knowledge and understanding of different software's. They have also allowed me to present my research and work in a much more entertaining and capturing way.