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

Within this slideshow I will present the ways in which I used technologies to create my product.

ResearchDuring my research I used a number of different technologies to help. One I used was Survey Monkey. With this I created a survey to ask our audience things they like to see in music video’s to help us to create the most appropriate video for our audience. Using survey monkey also allowed me to see people comments on their thoughts and was a simple way to evaluate people’s opinions. Creating a survey on the internet allowed me to receive unbiast results as the responses were unknown to me.

Another part of my research was creating interviews of my audience, asking them their opinions on music videos which I could then use to get a better idea on a better video. To do this I used an DSLR camera to create the footage. This digital technique was good as I could easily transfer the footage onto the computer, making it easier to upload and edit. After creating these shots I then used Windows Live Movie Maker, This allowed me to edit the footage into a more presentable video, talking the viewer through each question.

Another part of my research was looking into existing products, giving me wider knowledge into the genre and the sort of products that are already out there. When presenting my work I used images from Google images. I also took my own images to get a wider range of existing products, to do this I used an IPhone to create the images. This was then easy to transfer onto my computer and then into my blog.

PlanningWhen planning, I used Google maps to screen shot the different locations that we planned to shoot in. this made it easier for us to visualise the making of the video and helped us to plan out the shots when making our storyboard. Though I would have been easier for us to visit the location first but due to the short time we had to plan this was not possible. To create our story board, shot listing and shoot schedule we printed out hard copies and filled them in by hand. By doing this we felt it was easier for us to visualise to shooting of our video and made it easier to physically plan it. We then took pictures of the sheets of paper and uploaded it to our blog. Doing it this way, we also found it easier to edit display how we changed the story boards later on. To plan our Props and costumes I used Google images to grab examples of the props which we will use in the video. Using this method saved us a lot of time in the planning process so we could concentrate on other parts of the creation of out promotional pack. With the style sheet I also took images from Google and cropped some of them in paint. This made it quicker for me create the example of an image that I wanted. I also took screen shots of examples of fonts that I liked, this came from ’Dafont.com’. Researching fonts from this website gave me a bigger range of fonts giving us more choices and ideas. We also created test shots for our digi-pack. To create these we used a DSLR camera, this was also good for us to practice using the camera for the video. These were helpful to plan the layout and over all look of the digi-pack and magazine cover.

ConstructionFor the making of our video we used a DSLR camera and tripod to create the footage. To the edit the footage we used Adobe Premier. Using premier, it was easy to see the footage, which we dragged onto the timeline. The clips were very easy to trim and edit to the right speed. Premier was easier to use then final cut pro as the tools were more accessible and we felt it lagged less the final cut pro tends to do. We could also edit the sound in premier, changing the volume and cutting out parts of sound we did not want. Another piece of technology we used throughout the production was Adobe Photoshop. On this we could easily edit the images and then add on the text, changing the font, layout, through to the colouring. Photoshop was easy to use and kept all of the files onto one program. Through the production we also used ‘DaFont.com’. This I where we found the font which we used throughout the pack. We downloaded this onto Photoshop and edit our product with this. Using Photoshop I could edit the text and image at the same time as shown on my magazine cover, I could also drag on other pictures from other parts of my work (e.g.. The example of the album cover on the magazine advert). With Photoshop we could change the opacity of the images and change the composition to make them fit better together, as shown on our inside cover.

Evaluation Throughout the process of making my product, down to the research and evaluation, I presented my work on ‘Blogger.com’. This allowed me to present my work in an accessible, secure way. It was also easy to edit the work if I had to make any changes. It was also very simple to upload images and videos from YouTube. It also enabled me to get feedback from my audiences if it was needed. In my evaluation, Blogger enabled me to upload my images easily and allowed me to lay them out how I wanted them to be seen when writing on blogger I could change the font and text size/colour if I needed to, to make it more presentable. When evaluating I also used ‘slide share’ to upload my presentation for my blog which Included one of my questions. It was simple to use and also allows me to get people opinions on my slideshow. I can also share it on Facebook and Twitter if I needed to get more peoples opinions. I created the slideshow on Microsoft PowerPoint which enables me to layout my work how I wish to and lets me present it in interesting ways. Using these methods of technology I could present my work in interesting ways to make my work more attractive and interesting to my audience. Finally I uploaded my video up onto YouTube which allowed me to receive feedback easily and made it accessible for my audience to enjoy. When this was uploaded I also embedded it onto my blogger site for people to see and to put it along side my other pieces of work and to add it together with my digi-pack and magazine cover.