How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media technology has been a vital element in the completion of this course. From the re-search, planning, construction and evaluation, technology has been a key tool in completing these tasks to the best of my ability. The first thing I did at the beginning of this A2 course was create a blog on blogger.com, and I would use this throughout the year and keep the blog up to date about what I’ve been doing as well as using it to present completed tasks. Blogger al-lowed me to track my progress, and the use of labels such as ‘diary entries’ and ‘research’ kept the blog clear and accurate. I found using the blog to be extremely helpful and efficient, and it made me much more organized when it came to putting all my work in to one place.On my blog, I had to present all the tasks I had completed in a variety of ways, and various computer websites allowed me to do this. For example, I used Prezi, PowerPoint and Slide-share to show all my documents in different ways, and this allowed me to have a much more interesting blog, and also exposed me to the many ways in which a document can be present-ed.

Furthermore, I used the equipment available to me to film myself several times for diary en-tries. I used a Canon 550 DSLR and tripod to film myself talking to camera about what I had been doing recently. I then used a SD card reader to transport this footage on to the computer and uploaded it straight on to my blog. This was efficient and quick, and could be easily ac-complished in a matter or minutes; showing just how important new media technologies are.

In terms of research, media technology was an essential tool as it allowed me to explore the Internet to find out more information about the Indie/rock genre, as well as provide me with the history of music videos and various other tasks. Access to internet sites such as YouTube (through Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox) also gave me the opportunity to see what professional music videos looked like and what they included and thus gave me inspirations for my music video. I also researched various locations for my music video through the use of Google.co.uk and then presented my findings on my blog. Also, when I was considering using t-shirts with lyrics printed on them I used Google.co.uk to research various shops I could purchase these t-shirts from, which was very useful because I could quickly discover which shop would be the cheapest and most useful. In addition, as part of the planning pro-cess I had to complete drafts for my magazine advert and digipak. In order to put these on my blog I used a Scanner which quickly uploaded the paper drafts as images on to the computer.

In terms of construction, there were various pieces of equipment and software available for me to use. At the beginning of the course I researched possible equipment I could use, which included a Canon 550 DSLR, tripod, steady cam, fisheye lens and jib. I went on to use the Canon and tripod multiple times for diary entries, and I used both pieces of equipment and the steady cam during production of my music video. I investigated using the fisheye lens also, however later decided it would not fit well with my narrative. Knowing these pieces of equipment were available to me at any time was very useful and encouraged me to learn more about the equipment, and I even completed a Prezi detailing the equipment and details about it.

When constructing my print tasks, the main software I used was Adobe Photoshop CS3. In my previous AS media course I used this software constantly to edit my magazine, therefore I was well experienced with it. This software allowed me to add filter effects to background images, which I took advantage of constantly. Specifically, I added the filter ‘Conte Crayon’ to the background image used throughout my print tasks, and this gave it a more unique and recognizable appearance. It also allowed me to cut out images and use drop shadows on fonts to make them stand out more. These elements enhanced the final product and made it much more appealing.

When editing my music video, I began using Adobe Premiere CS3, which I have much expe-rience with. However, due to it unexpectedly crashing and not saving my files, I decided to switch to Adobe Premiere CS6 which proved to be much more reliable. Using this piece of software I input all my footage in to the document and added the mp3 of the song in to one file. I then proceeded to edit and cut my footage in order to make it cut in time to the music, as well as edit out pieces of the footage that were unusable. I also altered the speed/duration of various clips in instances where the length of the clip was not long enough. This software also allowed me to add a fade transition to the beginning of the video, which I found very helpful and useful.

I have also used media technologies in the process of the evaluation. For one of my evalua-tion questions I presented it in the format of PowerPoint and uploaded it on slideshare, then putting the embed code on to a post on blogger. I also used Prezi for another question, which had a similar process; I created a Prezi file and copied the embed code on to a post on to my blog.