Evaluation Q4

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

I used Animoto during this project to present my pitch about the band and music video to the rest of the class. Animoto was the best product to use to present my work to the class, this is because it creates a video made up of images. You can put your own music in the background as well, this makes it more personalised, you can also add captions to the images to explain it in a better way. This is why I decided to use Animoto to present my pitch. I could have used it to present other pieces of work as well, but I decided against it.

Final Cut Pro was used to edit my final music video, I used this as it was the best technology to use as it is a professional editing software program. Final Cut Pro is an editing software that is used the on Apple products, I used this software at home so that I could do it in my own time and take as long as I wanted, rather than trying to rush it in school time.

I have used Blogger the most out of all the other media technologies, this is because I used this to publish all of my work, every piece of work that I have done has been posted on the blog, this is so that it can be seen and then commented on by my teacher. As well as this my peers can view my work and then comment on it as well, this helps me with the rest of my work as I then got an understanding of the views of people in the target audience. Another positive of Blogger is that the teacher can post work on his blog and inspiration for our work that we can then go on and view. This helps as we can view this at any time and even at home which means that I don't always need to talk to the teacher and he doesn't need to talk to us.

A Nikon D3100 camera was used to film the music video, this was so that I could create the video. The camera was of a relatively good quality which made the video look better than if it was a poor quality camera.

Scribd was used  a couple of times during the research, planning and construction stages of the products. I used Scribd to present work that I had done in a professional document, which made it easier to read and understand.

Photoshop was I big part of the project, especially for the ancillary texts. I created both the digipak and the advert using Photoshop, this was because it was the best programme to use to create professional products. I also used Photoshop to present some of my work, I did this to create a professional looking layout for my work that I could then post on my blog.

I used a tripod when I filmed my music video, this was to produce shots that were steady and didn't shake around, creating a more professional look.

An iPod was again used during filming, I used it to play the song so that the band could hear it which helped them with lip syncing.

A speaker was also used during filming to play the music out loud, this made it easier to hear the song and make the lip syncing and playing easier.

I have used Microsoft Word for most of my work, I used it to check my spelling  so that I didn't have any mistakes in my work. I also used Microsoft Word to create mood boards as I did this at home and I don't have Photoshop so it was the easiest thing to use.

UK Tribes was a website that I used a lot during the research for the main product, I used this to find out about the audience for my band. UK Tribes is a website set up by Channel 4 for people to do research about young people, it gives information about loads of different social groups. It gives a lot of information about each group so you can find out exactly what each certain group do, look like and wear. This was very useful to me and helped me produce my audience research and audience profile posts.

Another website that I used was YouTube, this again was important for me in the research stages of the main product as I used it to look at existing videos, and look at things that I liked and videos that matched the genre that I was doing. I also used YouTube to upload some of my own videos such as the animatic in the planning stage and the music video in the construction stage. YouTube helped me to present the video to my audience.

I used an iMac computer throughout all of the stages in the project. I used a mac at school to do all of my work, I used a mac as it was the best piece of equipment for me to use, this is because it had all of the programmes that I needed to complete the project, for example Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

I also used a Laptop when I was at home, this was so that I could complete some work when I wasn't at school so that I would still be on schedule to finish the product. It also has some programmes that are not available on the iMac at school, for example Windows Movie Maker, I used this to edit and publish my animatic, I used Windows Movie Maker as it was only images that I had to edit which meant that I didn't need a sophisticated editing programme and it was easier to do as I was at home when I created my storyboard.

Another application that I used on my laptop at home was Microsoft PowerPoint, this was used during the construction stage as I created the pattern that I have used on my digipak and advert, I used PowerPoint as I thought that it was quite simple to create the shapes on there, I also used PowerPoint as I was at home and I didn't have access to Photoshop, so I used it as an alternative. I also used PowerPoint to present my work in a professional manner, like what I did with Photoshop, I created the audience profile using PowerPoint.

A memory stick was a vital part of all stages of the product, this allowed me to save my work at school and then transfer it to my laptop at home and vice versa, this meant that I could work on a piece of work at home and at school without losing any of it or without having to start again, this was a massive advantage for me. It also meant that I has a back up of all of the work that I had produced, this was another positive a the work at school or home could have got lost or become corrupted and I wouldn't have had to start again as I had it on my memory stick.

I used Sound Cloud during the project to create a playlist of potential songs for the music video, this was in the research section of the project. The playlist indicates to the viewer which songs I was thinking of doing and as they can be played on my blog you can hear what they sound like, which is better than just reading about the name and band.

I also used Twitter during this project. I created a twitter page for my band to gain recognition and act as if they were a real band. This would appeal to the target audience as well as a lot of them would use twitter, this increases the band's recognition and promotes the band's brand.