Evaluation: Question 4

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

Throughout my coursework I have used several different technologies that have helped me to research existing products, create my own products and evaluate my final products. I have used various deceives such as computers and laptops where I have been able to record my own work, find software to create my mocks ups and final products on and websites where I have easily been able to evaluate my work. By using technologies such as computers where I was able to gain easy-access to other technologies such as the internet. 

By using the Internet I have been able to use several different websites throughout my research and planning, production process and finally throughout my evaluation of my products. One of the main websites that I have used throughout my work is Blogger; which I used to showcase and present all of my work together in an organised way. I had decided to use Blogger as I found it was simple and easy to use and understand. Furthermore, it was an easy and accessible website where I was able to upload images, embed my footage and embed power-points easily.

I also mainly used the website Prezi throughout my work as it is an interactive power-point. I preferred to use Prezi than Blogger as I found it easier to create my work on there. Also I liked how on Prezi I was able to include an interactive element where my work was presented in a more spaced out manner and in different methods; while on Blogger at times I felt I was a more limited to present my work as I was only able to create blog posts. Furthermore, I liked how on Prezi I was able to edit and manipulate the design of each original template so that I could design the presentations to be presented a clear way that was suitable for my work. 

Additionally, for my research I had used a website called Poplet where I was able to create mind maps such as what different types of music videos there were and what different types of genres there were. However, I rarely used Poplet than the other websites as I had found that Poplet too simple to use. Additionally, Poplet unlike Blogger and Prezi wouldn't let me save my work and I found this to be irritating and difficult at times as I often had to redo my work on there. 

Similarity, I also presented my work on a website called SlideShare, where I was able to upload my power-point presentations. I found that it was easy to upload my power-points onto SlideShare and then onto Blogger. However, I did have some issues with SlideShare as unlike Prezi I wasn't able to re-edit my work, instead if I had made a spelling or grammar mistake I had re-upload a copy of my presentation to SlideShare. I also found that at times when I was uploading my presentations to SlideShare that the layout of my presentation would be altered, such as my text would be covered up the images I had planned to used. This caused problems as I kept having to change the original presentation until SlideShare presented a layout of my presentation that I was happy with and which didn't remove any of my information.

Google was the main search engine that I used to find existing products such as music videos, digipaks and posters. I made sure that I only googled products that were relevant to my chosen genre so that I could easily view the conventions from the genre pop and so that my research would be more precise for when I planned my own music video.

While I also used websites like YouTube and Vimeo to watch and analysis music videos. I decided to use these websites as they contain a wider range of pop music videos and I found that this would give me a better idea of the different conventions of music videos; that I could then follow and apply whilst creating my own music video. However, while I was making my product I also used these websites to upload my own footage on like my rough cuts and then my final video. I found this to be effective as these websites often contained a wider audience so this allowed me to gain more relevant feedback for my work rather than just asking my peers. After I had uploaded my video to YouTube, I had some problems with Youtube's player size as my video didn't fit within in. Instead black borders where around my video. I had problems with this as I had tried using YouTube's editor to change the size of my video. However, I found that this did reduced the quality of my video. Although, I was eventually able to overcome this problem; after I experimenting using the editor more. I found that was able to find the coding for the YouTube's player size so that I could change the size of my video within the quality being lose.

While I used social media websites like Facebook and Tumblr to ask people from my target audience to fill out my questionnaire. I did this because I knew that I would be able to find a wider audience that was part of my target audience rather than just asking members of my peer group; this allowed my research to become more precise and relevant to my work as I was able to use my target audiences’ opinions but also the opinions of other people that may not be within the age range of my target audience. Furthermore, after making my video I decided to use these social media websites to advertise it. As from my previous research I had found out that these social media websites often impacted my target audiences’ lives. This was beneficial to me as by advertising my video on these sites I was able to gain a bigger audience and this also allowed me to gain more feedback for my product that was relevant.

I decided to use the website SuveryMonkey where I was able to create online questionnaires. I liked using SuveryMonkey as I was able to gain a wider variety of feedback from a bigger example of my target audience rather than just collecting feedback from my peers. Furthermore, I liked how on SuveryMonkey it collected my results from my questionnaires in the format of bar charts as I felt that this was a well presented way to collect my feedback - rather than comments.

Finally, I used a website called Da Font where I downloaded two different font styles, ‘Thin font’ and 'From Where You Are’ which I have then used throughout my digipaks and my poster. I found that downloading and installing these fonts on my computer was quite simple to do. I had decided to use the website Da Font as there was a wide variety of different fonts to choice from. However, at times due to the large amount of font choices this did make my choice of deciding what font style I wanted for my products more difficult as there was too much choice.

Throughout my project I used deceives such as cameras and mobile phones to take photos and record my footage. Within my research and planning I used cameras to take photos of different locations and props and outfits that I could use for my video; as by taking photos I found that it gave me a better idea of what my video could look like. I mainly used cameras to record my footage, however I did find that I had some issues with this as at times my camera was placed on the wrong setting and this caused some of my footage to be blurry. This caused issues with filming as at times I had to re-do some of my previous shoots. Another issues that I had with filming is that at times the camera I was using would run out of power and die. However, whilst I was filming I made sure to bring back up cameras and mobile phones in-cased this did happen; although, the issue with filming on too many different deceives is that it did cause the frame my footage to be different sizes. This gave me problems whilst I was editing my footage as I often had to re-alter my shots digitally and had to change some of my long shots to medium shots so that they fitted with the other frames of my footage. 

I used software such as Photoshop to digitally edit and manipulated my images. I did this to improve the quality of the images that I used to create my other products. I did simple edits on my images such as slightly using the curves tool and by slightly increasing and decreasing the brightness and contrast of my images. I found Photoshop to be quite effective as I was able to improve the quality and add detail to my photos quickly and easily.

Another software which I had used throughout my products is Fireworks. I used Fireworks to first create my mock ups and then eventually my final products. I found that Fireworks was easy to use as I was easily able to create borders for my products, create advertisement and eventually create a logo which would display the company that supports my chosen artist. I liked using Fireworks, as I found that it was simple and easy to create symbols and shapes unlike Photoshop. I also liked how Fireworks contained a variety of different colours and this allowed me not to be limited for choice when I was finding colours that would be an effective colour scheme but also infer elements of the genre pop. Furthermore, I liked how on Fireworks that I was able to group certain items together; this made it easier for me to create the final layout of my products, as I was quickly able to drag multiple items into different compositions rather than dragging items once at a time. 

I used the software Sony Vegas Pro 10 to edit my video. I decided to use this software as I had a copy of it on my laptop and I thought that I would be quicker with my editing at home rather than using the school's software. At first I had some issues with using Sony Vegas Pro 10 as I had no idea how to use it. However, after I had watched some videos off YouTube and experimented with the basic edits and cuts that I could make on there. I was able to go from a lack of knowledge of understanding how to use Sony Vegas Pro to having a better understanding of the tools I would need to use on the software that would be effective in editing my footage. I also decided to use Sony Vegas Pro 10 to digitally edit my footage. I was able to brighten parts of my video, such as the beginning section of my video where my main actor is getting ready. I decided to use the levels tool to digitally brighten the light exposure of this clips and I found this to work well. However, when I showed my video to my target audience they mentioned within their feedback that they still felt that parts of my video, such as the beginning part when my main actor is getting ready, was still slightly too dark. Similarly, I use further editing tools within the software such as luminous tool to cause parts of my videos black and white. I found this to work effectively well as I was able to change the setting for each clip that I wanted to be black and white, rather than changing all of clip to black and white at once. I was also able to have different video playing simultaneously, such as the different dates my main actor goes on. At first I had trouble with this as I wasn't able to crop down the video to the same size as I had planned to do within my storyboard. Although, I eventually decided against the idea of having each video be a similar size and instead I cropped down each clip so that the parts of the footage that I wanted to show were displayed instead. I found that I was also able to change the ratio of some clips, I found this to be quite useful as not all of my footage had the same ratio. However, the only problem that I had with this, was that clips that were originally long-shot images were now changed to medium shots. I found that I was also able to easily add text and transitions. I was able to add my text onto a video track above my current video. After text had been added - I was able to use the generated media tool, where I was able to change the font of my text, size, colour so that it could reflect my current colour scheme from my other products. I also found it easy to add transitions within my video; I mainly decided to add transitions to my text. I decided to use transitions such as push and bright lights as I felt they were quick and I felt this would further add a tone of my fun to my video. At first, I had difficultly when changing the length of the transitions so that they matched the beat and lyrics of the song. However, after I few tries and I was able to effectively time my text transitions so that were in time with the song.

While I used software like Microsoft Word to write and plan out the annotation that I have used throughout my work. As unlike most of the websites that I have used, Microsoft Word had a spelling checker and this allowed me to make sure that my work was fully correct and that there were no spelling or grammar errors.

                     

I used other software such as Microsoft Power-Point to create my power-points that I planned embedded on the website SlideShare. I intentionally used Power-Point as I wanted to display a use of different technologies throughout my work. Also I liked the layout of the presentations and I felt that by using PowerPoint I was able to present my work in a more layout way rather than Blogger.

I used software of a digital voice editor called Voice Memos that I had downloaded onto my IPod, I found this to be effective whilst creating the commentary for my music video. I found that by using this software that I was able to view the recording time while I was speaking, which was beneficial as this gave me idea of how long my commentary would be. Furthermore, this helped me to create director's commentary that didn't go over the length of my current track. Additionally, I found that was able to go back and re-edit parts of the voice memo while I was creating it and this was helpful if I decided to change the word order of my points.