Question 4

Research Stage

I used internet explorer a number of times for research at the beginning of this project.  The main thing I used it for was to go on Youtube so that I could watch and analyse videos of the same genre so that I could see what codes and conventions were used in the videos and what style of video we wanted to create (narrative, performance, concept or a mixture).

I also used internet explorer to look at band websites so I could create one that my target audience would be interested in and would want to frequently check for updates or sign up for a news letter.  I used the internet because it has such a wide variety of sources that enabled me to carry out extensive research in order for my promotional package to be received as well as it could be by our target audience. 

YouTube was a useful resource to us because of its filing system which means that verified channels and videos with the most views come up first.  This made it easy to find the sorts of videos we were looking for.

Planning Stage

To plan for our project we used Microsoft Word to write lists of things we needed to achieve.  Doing this on Word meant that we could easily transfer the files between each other so that we could add in extra things or just modify the existing document.

We also used Survey Monkey to find out what sort of video we should make.  This was a useful piece of software because the answers to the questions were displayed in easy to understand graphs that we could use to help decide what route we were to go down. 

Construction Stage

To film the video we used my Canon 700D DSLR.  We decided to use this because during our preliminary task we used Sony HDV 1080i camera which took tape instead of an SD card which created problems such as other people taping over our existing work and it being time consuming to transfer the footage to the computer.  We thought that a DSLR would be more practical due to it being a lot smaller than the Sony camera and we would be able to conceal it more when filming out in public so that people acted more natural around us. 

To edit the footage we used Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs which was difficult in the beginning because we had only used it briefly in the preliminary task.  However, as the task went on we improved immensely and the variety of features meant that we could make the video look more professional and help it to run smoother.  One of the features I particularly liked was that you were able to zoom closely into the clips and cut them so they came in at the right time to the beat of the music. 

I edited the photos I used for my ancillary tasks in Adobe Lightroom because I have had experience with it outside of A levels so knew how to use it quickly and efficiently.  I like this software because it doesn’t have as many features as PhotoShop  so it’s easier to use.  I also only needed it to change basic things like the exposure, contrast and clarity so didn’t need as many tools to help me do this. 

I used Serif Page Plus in order to help me create my digipak.  I had used this programme previously in AS so was familiar with using it and found that it was very simple to import templates in so that I could get the dimensions of the photos I was using correct.  

Evaluation Stage

I used Prezi during my evaluation because I had used it before and knew that it was easy to navigate whilst giving effective results.  An advantage to using Prezi is that it’s interactive which keeps people’s attentions for longer and helps make it more interesting.  The designs are interchangeable which means you can change the animations, colour scheme and background to fit around the topic of your presentation.  I think it’s much better than software such as Slideshare and PowerPoint because they have been over used and the information can look too heavy on the page.  Prezi also allows you to insert images and links which is useful for backing up the text and balancing it out. 

For another evaluation question I used Padlet because again I thought this would be an interesting layout to put media and texts.  Something that I really liked about this website was that when you added a link to a website, it showed up on the page without having to get to the external site.  I thought this would make it useful for whoever is reading the question because it means that they won’t have the hassle of following a link, it will just be there alongside the text.  One thing I didn’t like about Popplet was that it looked a bit disorganised and messy due to the layout of it as there isn’t specific places to put text boxes and media, you just decide to put them wherever you wanted. 

I used Blogger for this evaluation question because Blogger has been the centre point of my two year A level media course and I thought it would be a good way to round it off.  There are many things that helped make Blogger for me an invaluable tool, such as how simple it is to leave and receive comments from other people which helped me to improve my work and helped me give feedback to others.  Blogger has a very useful tagging system that means I can tag each blog post so that when people look through my blog, they can quickly find what they’re looking for.  For example, all my evaluation posts are under the tag ‘Evaluation’ at the side of the page.