The student used various media technologies in the planning, research, and evaluation stages of their media production project. Google Chrome and YouTube were used for initial research on design conventions and how to use software like Photoshop and Final Cut. Photoshop was the primary software for designing elements like fonts, pictures, and the digipak. WIX was used to build the website with matching colors and styles. PowerPoint, Prezi, and SlideShare helped in presenting research, and Blogger organized all stages of work. Final Cut Pro was used for video editing, like matching clips to music beats. Overall, the technologies helped give the productions a professional quality and continuous style.

1. HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH
PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGE?
REBECCA POLLEN

2. THE INTERNET
(GOOGLE CHROME)
Within both research and planning as well as my overall
production google chrome has helped me in several ways.
During research and planning it helped me to look for similar CD
designs which have been key influences for my final production; it
helped me to compare different aspects of the media and how
they bring everything together to make the final piece. This was
especially helpful when looking for common conventions within
digipak designs.
As well as that during my production google chrome, including
sites like thestudentroom and Wikipedia helped me to understand
and get to grips with the software like final cut and Photoshop.
Without google chrome I wouldn’t have been able to do affective
research and not be able to plan my productions; this has been
one of the most helpful pieces of software within my music video,
website and digipak production.

3. THE INTERNET
(YOUTUBE)
Whilst completing research and planning as well as my final
production YouTube has come in extremely handy.
During my research for my music video, YouTube allowed me to
view similar productions completed by professionals within the
industry. Videos by artists such as: Justin Bieber, Little Mix, Fifth
Harmony and Sia. All of these artists had similar conventions
within them that I wanted to feature in my own personal final
piece. YouTube allowed me to evaluate and look at their
characteristics properly; this enabled me to plan effectively.
Within production YouTube also came in handy when trying to
figure out how to get certain affects on the programmes, there are
thousands of YouTube videos explaining in great detail the way in
which to complete these tasks. This came in handy in particular
when looking to edit with Final cut as is was a piece of software
that I hadn’t encountered before; however also helped with
elements of WIX and Photoshop as well.

4. PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop is one of the main pieces of software when creating my
productions. It helped me to create the font types which carried throughout
my entire production whether it be in the music video, digipak or website. As
well as this it also helped give my production that professional look; by
making pictures more in focus and eliminating imperfections. It helped me to
create colour themes etc. which helped with product continuity. I found most
of the elements of the software easy to use, however some elements which
were harder to use allowed me to complete further research and widen my
skills.

5. WIX
WIX is the primary piece of software that I used in order to create my website.
The features that I allowed me to create, such as hyperlinked pages etc. really
made my page look professional. With sliding image boards and galleries it
allowed me to really make the website personal. With created matching colour
themes it was easy to personalise and customise the designs I selected.

6. PREZI NEXT, SLIDESHARE & POWERPOINT
PREZI NEXT
Prezi next is a piece of software
which came in handy as it was a
easy way to present my
evaluations and research and
planning. It uses colour and is
extremely interactive therefore
making it engaging for my
audience.
The software was simple to use
and very easy to navigate; I used
Prezi next in order to show the
evaluations of my digipak and
ancillary tasks, as well as sound
lists and planning for my
products.
SLIDESHARE
Slide share is a piece of software which I
used to share my evaluations and
presentations for research and planning
from creating PowerPoints. It was simple
to use and enabled me to present work
easily and share it on an easily readable
format. When appearing on my blog
they are no hassle to view and are
available for anyone to read making it
easier to present to my audience.
POWERPOINT
PowerPoint is the main method of
presentation that I used throughout
both my Year 12&13 pieces of
coursework. They are easy to use,
presented in an easily readable format
and make the work I produce look
extremely professional. I used
PowerPoint to present my evaluations,
equipment explanations and
justifications as well as elements of my
research and planning. The designs of
my PowerPoint presentations match in
colour and are presented
professionally. It is this level of
perfection which has made my
production as well as my research and
planning evaluations.

7. BLOGGER
This piece of software has really helped me to
organise my work perfectly and present it on
an easily readable format for both myself, the
examiner and my tutors.
Blogger is the piece of software
which I have used in order to present
the different stages of my Media A-
Level; the research and planning
stage, production stage as well as
the evaluation stage.
It is easy to navigate and personally
design, easy to import different
presentations such as PowerPoints,
slide shares and Prezi presentations
onto.
It can easily have many different
photographs and video footage
which is presented in an
aesthetically pleasing, personally
designed way.

8. SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGIES USED…

9. CREATING IN
COLOUR PICTURES
AND A
BLACK&WHITE
BACKGROUND
This was a long and strenuous task; in order
to achieve this effect I, inserted the image
that I wanted to edit and made sure that the
photo was the background and selected the
‘eraser tool.’ After this I made sure that the
black and white image was on top of the
coloured image layer in the layer structure
section at the side; I then selected the eraser
tool and carefully spent a long time rubbing
out the figures of the 5 individuals in order to
leave them in the original colour of the
picture-brightly coloured.

10. HOW TO CREATE A CLIPPING MASK
In Photoshop creating a clipping mask enables
pictures to become a part of a piece of text
and the fill of the text appear to be a chosen
photograph. I decided to use this theme to
create the inside feature of my digipak.
In order to do this I opened Photoshop and
inserted my chosen image. After this I
duplicated the image and labelled it ‘image
copy;’ then I created a new layer making the fill
a solid colour (white.) After this I inserted the
text I wanted it to read and chose the
appropriate font size and type. I then ordered
the layers so that the solid white layer and the
text layer were sandwiched in-between the two
photo layers. Then I went to the menu at the
sidebar and went down to the ‘create clipping
mask’ option, this gave me the effect that I
wanted.

11. IMPORTING AUDIO
To start off with , after I had chosen my song I had to somehow import this audio on to
the final cut. This was done by downloading the track on to my memory stick, I then
pasted the song into my school folder. After importing the track onto final cut from my
school folder I thought of cutting out some of the song because it was too long and
quite repetitive. This could have been done on another iMac facility 'Garage band'
however I decided to use final cut.

12. Once the audio had been placed I locked that
bar so even if I were to edit any footage after
this point the audio would not move. After
filming I uploaded the footage on to final cut
by uploading the footage onto a memory stick
from the card reader. I then re-visited the
idea of how I wanted my music video to start.
I wanted my music video to start with a shot
of the night sky with the title of my song
strung in the sky in white. I then wanted this
too pan down into a blurry, far shot of my
band which quickly zoomed into focus. I went
through each beat and cropped and cut it to
the certain beat; in this case the counts were
every 1 count changing - this helped me
greatly as I soon began to understand how
the sharp editing and timings as this was one
of my weaknesses towards the beginning of
the course.

13. Through out the editing I only used 2 filters but as I used it a vast amount I
became very comfortable in using them and so I personally didn't find it
difficult I using the filters. One of the filters was a colour corrector.

14. EDITING COLOUR
Firstly, I highlighted my specific clip, I then clicked effects, colour correction then colour
corrector. This is when the picture above appeared so I played around with the tabs at
the bottom, underneath the two wheels. I increased the saturation and fiddled around
with it; I did this because I filmed in the evening some of the footage was particularly
dark, and this helped in order to brighten the image and make it more focused and
sharp.

15. EDITING THE SPEED OF VIDEOS
In order to edit the speed of a
video either making it faster or
slower; I selected a clip within the
list on my storyboard on Final Cut
and selected this icon in the right
hand side, this drops down some
options including: fast, slow etc. I
then selected either fast or slow
and it gave me options of how
fast or slow between the numbers
of 2-20.

16. ANCILLARY
TASKS
I then used the 'control command 3' combination
on the iMac in order to take a screenshot. This
allowed me to then publish it onto my blogger.
She then took each individual image and placed
it into Photoshop and use the free transform tool
to manipulate the images so that they are a
realistic size for a 3D CD case.
Creating a digipak, I used Photoshop
to edit the images and layer on the
text. She then saved each panel and
an individual jpeg; allowing me to
insert each image into Microsoft
Word to put the images together in
the same layout that the digipak
would be seen in.

17. MY WEBSITE
The website in which I created was made suing WIX online. This software
allowed me to create hyperlinked pages, create location buttons and import
the logo and type font that I had previously created on Photoshop. It also
allowed me to personalise my website by inserting images of my band and
also edit personal information. It allowed me to alter type font and colour
scheme in order to make it fit into my overall theme.

18. I feel that without such software like
Photoshop and WIX that my final
productions would not have the
professional quality and would be
extremely hard for me yo create a
continuous style running through all
three tasks.
WIX allowed me to insert certain
animated features which again I think
gave my website the more professional
look.
It also allowed me to keep styles and
colour themes throughout and the
software was easy to navigate and easy
to understand and work with making
the experience easier and less time
consuming.

19. DIGIPAK
The software that I used to create
my digipak was Photoshop; this
software allowed me to focus and
edit images in order to make
them look more professional.
Also this software helped me to
edit the photos and make them
more in focus as some of the
photographs taken weren’t of
great quality. Using the ‘magic
wand’ and ‘blemish’ tool I was
also able to alter any
imperfections within the bands
skin.
Without Photoshop the photos
wouldn’t have come out as well
as they did.
Photoshop also allowed me to
play around with different fonts,
and this came in handy when
needing to find fonts which
matched the rest of my designs
as there was a wide range to
choose from. The range of
different tools available allowed
me to play around with the style
and appearance of my photos
whilst also allowing me to edit
the colours of different photos in
order to help them fit in more.
On the next slide is an example
of a photo who’s colour I edited.

20. ORIGINAL EDITED COLOUR

21. MY EVALUATION
This coursework has challenged me within its complexity, seen as I had
ever used these programmes before. Before this course I had never
been into photography and therefore even filming on the Canon
camera and even cs4 software which I used throughout the course. I
think another reason that I found the tasks more challenging was
because I completed the entire production individually as I didn't group
up with anyone meaning I had a lot of extra work to do, whilst juggling
learning how to use the software. But I believe I created products which
suited my target audience (R&B and pop audiences) and I promoted the
band like any record company would. In my opinion I struggled
working in a group but I thoroughly enjoyed it and we all learnt a great
deal from this opportunity.