Evaluation Question 4

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

I used a variety of media technologies during the construction and pre-producrion of my music video. I found the media technologies that I used very useful

During the research and planning stage, I used media technology such Youtube and Google so that I could research codes and conventions of pop music videos. By using Youtube, I was able to easily watch music videos in good quality and analyse them using the codes and conventions that I research on Google, and I was also able to compare them to other music videos. I researched bands such as American Football on Google, who are of a similar genre to the song that we chose to make our music video to.
When researching our audience, we made a questionnaire using Surveymonkey and used the social network, Facebook, to share the link so that it would be seen by a wide variety of people. I knew that Facebook is popular with people similar ages to our target audience, which is why we chose to distribute our survey on social network sites. I also again used Google so that I could so primary research and look at what other, previous people had found out about audiences and music videos.

During planning, I spent a lot of time using Microsoft products such as Powerpoint and Word. I found that by using Microsoft, it was a way that I could present plans and ideas neatly and clearly. For example, we drew up shooting schedules for the group to follow using Microsoft word. We were able to draw up a chart and fill it in with detail on Word. I used Blogger to upload any work that I had completed. Blogger was good because I could present my work clearly and it was easy to use. Websites such as Slideshare and Prezi are very good for a way to present work because they were interactive and help for my work to look professional and neat. I can also easily embed them onto my blog so my blog is more interactive and looks more eye-catching, not just plain.
We also used our mobile phones a lot during the planning stages. Everyone in the group had camera phones so we were all able to take pictures of potential locations that we could use. The cameras on the phones weren't the best quality however it was only so we could get  an idea of the type of lcations that we could use. We also used our mobiles so that we could keep in touch and comminucate with each other. Whatsapp is a good app to use because we can text for free and also we can all chat to each other over one group message. We can also share pictures we had taken from our phones over Whatsapp which was also useful.

During production I used Final Cut Pro on the Apple Mac to edit my video. It takes some time to get used to Final Cut but because I used it for my AS production, I was confident with my way around the software. Final Cut offers features such as special effects and colour mixer. I used these features to add effects to my video as well as make some of my footage brighter. By being able to drag footage to where you want it to go, it made it easy for me to edit the video and put it in a sequence. 
When making the website, I used wix.com. Wix gives users a number of templates that they can work with as well as a blank template for people who are advanced at using the site and can make their website without a template. I could easily upload pictures and videos of the band onto the website using wix as well as changing the housestyle and font of the text. Wix was easy to use making the whole process of making the website easy.

We uploaded our completed music video onto Youtube. It is free for users to upload their own videos for people to see. We initially had some difficulty in uploading the video from the Macs to Youtube but when we finally did, I was able to embed the video onto my blog as well as put the link on social networking sites so that more people see it.