Evaluation Question 4: How did I use technology in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

In this question, I will be discussing how I have used technology in the four areas Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation.

Research & Planning, Construction and Evaluation

Throughout my A2 course I much preferred using Blogger to AS. This was because I could navigate around it easier, make my blog look more professional and felt I could really show my journey through the course well.

During the Research and Planning process, my blog was my own personal diary. I posted ideas for my music video on here along side ideas for my ancillary. This included ideas of shot types, concepts behind shots and record and artist names. Most of my TA researches were composed on blogger as I could easily layout my findings in a post. By creating a section at the bottom if my posts called "how this has influenced my creativity and planning", I was able to develop my ideas with the research I had done on music videos and audience thoughts. Blogger aided the construction of my video due to all of these features.

One feature I love about blogger is that it is accessible from anywhere on any device. This meant I could post my ideas straight away so i didn't forget them. I researched "where is the love" by the Black Eyed Peas. The use of putting signs up and holding them to get a message across really inspired me to use this in my video. On the other hand, I found rearranging images onto my posts difficult as they didn't move where I wanted them to on the page.





I used a camera to capture shots of my artist on location of the music video and shoot the video which I then posted on my blog. I also used it to take photos of my artist posing to the camera for my digipak and advert. I was lucky enough to bwe able to sign the cameras out of my media class room at anytime. Locations we took the camera included the local town centre and local parks and fields surrounding Brigg. The biggest problem we had was the weather. We had planned to film on days when the weather was supposed to be nice. This also meant that we couldn't get the camera wet. However, it rained on two of these days. This meant we had to rearrange which was easy as we were all free.




The second type was a PC Computer. I used this to post on my blog and create various presentations on my blog. I also created my ancillaries off of Adobe Elements 11 on the PC.








The final type of hardware was a MAC computer. I created my music video on this on Final Cut Pro X. I found it harder to use the mac as I had only ever used blogger and Adobe on them before. This was something I was not used to.


Research & Planning

I found thinglink the best possibly way to present research posts on adverts or magazines. This was because I could comment on multiple aspects of the advert I was analysing and it would appear on a certain part of the image. I had no problems with this and was quick and looked great when created. for example, when I researched the Paul Young advert in classic pop magazine, I could put a pin on features including the masthead and text. This made my analysis a lot clearer.

Emaze was by far my favourite software to use as I could be the most creative on this. I loved the different layouts available and felt that these posts were the most organised. I could express my views in a really interesting way on this site and I didn't have any problems with it at all. My most favorite layout was the one shown in the picture below. It is colourful, bright, grabs the attention of the reader and appeals to our target audience. This was due to the colour scheme being pink and yellow. On emaze I embedded the videos of the ones I was analysing and screen grabs as well. 

Powtoon

In the research stage I used powtoon to analyse Geri Halliwells music video "It's raining man". I found this very similar to emaze although I didn't find it as easy to use as emaze. One big problem I had was that without paying a subscription fee, I couldn't make my presentations fun looking. They were quite plain. However, I did like that I could go into a lot of detail on my posts.

Chirbit

I used chirbit to upload a recording of the focus group I conducted for my TA research 3. This was a really effective way to use technology in my research and planning stage. As part of an academy, some of the websites are blocked and chirbit was one of them. We had to get permission off of the schools trust in order to unblock it. We also found it worked on our phones and because the recordings were on our phones, it was a lot easier to upload them on our phones. Especially as we would have to try and get it from our phones to the computer.

YouTube

I used YouTube the most during my A2 course. I researched the song for our music video and
I analysed music videos and their features. I researched a lot of music videos including different types of narratives, institutional features and shot types. For example, for different narratives, I researched Pink's music video for "Funhouse". My research showed that it uses a performance and narrative base. I researched Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud". On all of Ed's videos, he includes the Warner Brothers logo on the video. Finally, I also used Funhouse to research shot types.

Google Searches

When researching my digipak and adverts, I used google images. One digipak I researched in particular was Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. This was because it appealed to our target audience of a more female audience. It also had features that would appeal to the older end of our audience.

Evaluation stage question 4 from KenzaHardy1