A2 Portfolio for media

1. QUESTION 4:
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH,
PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?

2. RESEARCH AND PLANNING

3. YOUTUBE
YouTube was one of the main platforms we used for research and planning process in
order to find case studies for gaining our ideas and inspiration into planning our music
video. In addition, YouTube allow us to develop our ideas further by looking at other
professional artists and how they would use conventional elements in producing their
music video. One of the case studies we were mostly inspired from was Lana Del Rey’s
Ultraviolence due to the sad and dark atmosphere. It gave us an idea of how we could
set the mood for our music video, since our video is based on conceptual dark-art;
therefore, setting the mood would create a huge impact toward our music video.
YouTube was also the technology I used to upload our finished music video in order for it
to meet the audience, as again it is a significant technology where music and fans meet.
Furthermore, we used this technology to upload our rough-cuts and pitch feedback
which was very effective and helpful in term of organising my feedback.

4. GOOGLE
Google is a search engine which was probably the greatest research source for
us, because we could search ideally anything we want to find information
about. For example, we used Google in searching Prezi, YouTube and
LeytonMediaHub as this were highly needed and used for our project. When I
used Google I also came across to Google images which it was a useful
technology for researching case studies of an CD digipack to see how an
actual digipack look like, which then could lead me gaining some ideas and
knowing the formal elements being used, so I know what to features/add when
producing my own digipack. In addition, I used Google to research more about
theories such as Goodwin’s, Levi-Strauss theory and Postmodernism by giving
me a better understanding when applying it to my evaluation in question one.
Overall, Google was the main resource we used throughout this project and it
had helped me a lot.

5. TIMETOAST
TimeToast is a software which allowed me to organise my time by creating
a timeline online to keep in track for every tasks. This helped to see which
deadlines I need to meet for each specific task. I also used TimeToast in AS
Media Studies, at first it was quite confusing but gradually I’ve began to use
it frequently, especially in A2 portfolio as it had helped me to become more
organised by recoding each tasks and the date of the deadlines.

6. MOODLE
Moodle is a website in our college that’s only
accessed by the students and teachers. It
helped me and my group a lot for this project
because we managed to get some sources
that we needed, for example, call sheets,
risk assessment forms, storyboard
templates, the treatments and the talent
release forms. These were really helpful as it
guided and inform us. Moodle also benefit
my learning by allowing me to access course
documents and guidelines into planning our
video and evaluation.
LeytonMediaHub
(http://leytonmediahub.blogspot.co.uk/) is a
website created by our college media
department. This website was really helpful,
because we could see work from other
students and the previous years, therefore, it
helped us to get inspired. We could also see
other people music videos and comparing
them to find out what other factors in our
video could be improved.
LEYTON MEDIA HUB

7. CONSTRUCTION

8. DSLR CAMERA
We used DLSR Canon 600D to produce and film our video. This camera was one of the most
significant and key technologies in the construction process, it was the most useful way of
constructing a music video and taking professional photographs for our print products. When
shooting our music video tripod became a beneficial equipment, as it prevents shakiness and
make sure the camera is still and secure when I am recording a scenes. Furthermore, I had some
trouble with the setting when shooting as the lighting was too dark, which lead some scenes get a
little grainy when we saw it on the big screen; the causes of bad lighting affected our footage as it
doesn’t look proficient therefore, we had to edit some of the footage to make the lighting brighter
so the image is much clearer despite our concept give off a dark atmosphere. I believe that the
image should be bright and clear so the audience can see the visual much better. I also used
DLSR camera when taking photographs for my print products so my images would look high
quality and professional. Although I had experience with the DSLR camera from AS Media
Studies, but in A2 I believe that my skills have developed and broadened even further as I gained
more confidence when I was shooting my video and photos.

9. LIGHTING
Lighting was a significant part of the photography. Although we mainly
used natural lighting in our video, however when shooting in the studio
we used the photography lighting as the use of lighting allowed us to get
the right level of lighting we needed. Since our video concept give off a
dark and moody atmosphere, we wanted to use the right amount of
lighting to emphasis the mood and to make sure that the image is clear
for the audience to see the scene much better. I believe lighting is one of
the most important equipment for the construction process, because it
allowed me to build on how to work with the lighting in the studio.

10. EDITING

11. FINAL CUT PRO
Final Cut Pro was one of the main editing programme we used on the Mac computer to edit our
music video. I find editing music video was hard for me, because I have never edited a music
video in a professional editing program; however, one of my team member Asia had some
experience in editing video on Final Cut Pro, and she taught me the basic skills along with my
other team member Abbas as well. Gradually, I felt confident in editing our footage together and I
enjoyed fast cutting rates in each scene because the fast cutting rate emphasis the narrative,
especially during the forest scene when the character was running because she thought that she
saw her lover, but then she realised she was just seeing thing. The fast cutting rates evokes the
audience by allow them to interact with the video. I also enjoyed adding special effects such a
duplication effects to show how delusional the character were in seeing her lover. I find the
duplication effect was the hardest of all effects we’ve done, we had to search and watch tutorial
from YouTube in order to apply the effect. Although it was hard and a bit of time wasting but the
outcome look great and it suited our narrative. From this programme I learnt how to use shortcut
buttons when syncing and rendering footages, in general I believe that my skills increased greatly
in editing, synching the visual, adding effects and filters.

12. PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop was a software that I used to construct my print products. In my
AS portfolio I used mainly Photoshop to produce my outcome; therefore I
had a great knowledge of the software already. However, in A2 portfolio it
allowed me to extend and broaden my skills further on Photoshop in to
intermediate level. For my A2 portfolio it allowed me to experiment more
technical skills by adding effects and using specific tools in order to make
my print products look professional. In addition, Photoshop allowed to me
change the brightness and the contrast of the photos as some of the
photos was not proficient enough, and allowing me to change the lighting
of my photographs made my work look more aesthetically pleasing. I think
that Photoshop was a great help in producing my print product and it had
definitely expanded my knowledge on Photoshop.

13. ILLUSTRATOR
For illustrator, I mainly used this programme to edit my fonts for the
print products, though I find this editing programme is difficult as I am
still a beginner at it but I wanted to extend my editing skills further. I
managed to find the fonts that was suitable for my prints and in order
to do this I had to change the opacity and fill in with colours that
would suit the house style of my prints, after I converted the fonts into
PNG and transferred onto Photoshop. Overall, I do wish to improve
my skills on illustrator as illustrator is a programme that is best for
manipulating fonts and this programme would be a great help for me
in the future.

14. EVALUATION
TECHNOLOGIES

15. BLOGGER
Blogger is the website that I had to blog and update everything I did in
this project, even though I already had experience in using blogger for
my AS portfolio I became fully confident with blogging for the A2
portfolio, by blogging every weeks including the research and planning
of our ideas, and the development of the production of our products also
blogging the different steps that I took which lead up to my final outcome
and the evaluation. Blogger also enabled me to embed links from other
technologies by copying the embedded code and inserting it on to the
‘HTML’ format. So, when other technologies are displayed on my blog it
is easily accessible for the viewers. Blogger have become one of the
main sources from getting feedback for my prints products, as blogger is
an interactive website which allowed my classmates to comments my
products and give me feedback of what I should improve.

16. PREZI
Prezi is a technology that I have used throughout the coursework for
both individual and group work. I think it is one of the creative
technologies that I find comfortable to layout my answer and to
organise presentation for my work. Prezi is also easy to access images
from Google images, and insert links from YouTube and other several
websites. In addition, Prezi helped me to present my ideas orderly yet
creatively as it helped me to break down my ideas into different slides
and sections, in order for my ideas to be reached out and allow the
viewers to understand my intention and ideas; this technology was very
useful when presenting our pitch to our classmates.

17. SLIDESHARE
Slideshare was a useful website
for me, as it allowed me to convert
the presentation from PowerPoint
onto SlideShare so it connect onto
my blog, which would be much
accessible for the viewers. This
technology also helped me to
present my ideas and navigate
each slides easily.
WIX
Wix is technology that I used for the
first time in my A2 portfolio. I used this
technology for question one because it
allows me to create website and
illustrate my explanation further and
clearer. Although this was a new
programme for me to use and in the
beginning I did had some difficulties,
however, when I was using it I started
to enjoy it due to the formation of
allowing me to create my own website
and present my work in a creative way.