media studies

1. How did you use media
technologies in the research,
planning, construction and
evaluation?
By Maddie Quirke

2. MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES USED IN
EVERY STAGE
The two main media technologies I used within
research, planning, construction, production and
evaluation are Wix.com and an Apple Mac.
 I used Wix.com to produce a website to host the
research, planning, construction, production and
evaluation. This enabled me to present and upload
my work, which kept it organised and the
opportunity for people to view it. The website
created is shared in a group which includes two
other people, we are all able to have our individual
pages by using different sections and links.
Throughout my design of my third of the website, I
was able to keep a coherent theme, I did this by
using the same colour scheme, same font and
matching pictures.
 Additionally, I used the Apple Mac in order to create
my advanced portfolio. The Apple Mac is the most
important media technology that I have used, as it
has allowed me to produce all of my work and
designs, as well as accessing different facilities e.g.
Wix.com, internet, photos etc.

3. RESEARCH
Within my research I have used multiple media technologies, some of the main
examples are YouTube, Prezi and Google.
 To start my advanced portfolio, we needed to discuss as a group what song
we were going to create a music video for. The final decision we made was
to use “Really don’t care” sang by Demi Lovato. However I had little
knowledge about the song, therefore I used Google find out some basic
information about it. I was able to discover that the genre of the song is
dance-pop and this is what my work was going to be based on.
 Another important media technology site I used was YouTube. This gave me
access to the “Really don’t care” music video, as well as other dance-pop
music videos. This enabled me to analyse and compare the different music
videos, discussing their similarities and differences. Without this website I
wouldn’t of been able to complete my research successfully.
 Furthermore, I used a media technology site called “Prezi”, this enabled me
to design presentations in a more interesting and imaginative way. I was
able to present my work on this and then transfer it onto the website using
an embedding code and copying it onto Wix.com. I enjoyed using this
website, similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, as it gave me a range of different
colour schemes, themes and designs in order to select the best one that
suited my topic of work.

4. PLANNING
Within my planning I have used a variety of media technologies in order to
complete different tasks, some examples are Slideshare, Microsoft word, Canon
camera and Lyricswikia.
 I used the Canon Camera for both the costume shots and location shots. This
piece of equipment allowed me to produce clear images of the intended
picture. I chose to use this professional camera as I knew that I would be able
to take a high quality picture on it. After taking the picture I was able to upload
it onto the Apple Mac and transfer it onto our website.
 I used Microsoft word to create a shooting schedule, however this could not be
directly uploaded to the website so I therefore had to transfer it onto
Slideshare and then embed the code onto the HTML link input on Wix.com.
 The Google server was also a key media technology that I used as it enabled me
to find images for my digipak designs, analysis and adverts. I found it very easy
to transfer the images from Google onto the website by saving the image and
then putting it on the website via “insert image”. This allowed me to analyse
the image on the digipaks and adverts.
 I used Lyricswikia to complete my piece of work titled “Lyrics Analysis”. This
let me copy and paste the lyrics of “Really don’t care” by Demi Lovato onto my
website in order to analyse them. This was a simple way of viewing the lyrics
instead of having to type my own transcript by continuously listening to the
music video.

5. CONSTRUCTION
In my construction stage, I used multiple media technologies to
produce my work, some include a video camera, tripod and
lighting system .
 When we filmed our music video we used a video camera and a
tripod. The video camera gave us an average image but however
could've been a better quality. Therefore if we were to film our
music video again we would use a different camera, with a
better mega pixel in order for a higher quality image. However
the video camera was able to provide us with a big memory, in
order for us to store all of our takes on the video. We used the
tripod to get a steady frame of video recording, this way it
created a better effect for the video as there wasn’t a handheld
effect which could've caused shakiness and lost focus.
 Within the filming of the music video in the drama studio, we
had access to stage lighting. This was convenient as it provided a
dim light on the band set which contrasted well with the dark,
black background.

6. PRODUCTION
Within the production stage I used multiple media technologies in order to complete
different pieces of work. These technologies include a Mac Book, iMovie HD,
Microsoft Publisher and YouTube.
 The Mac Book helped me to upload our clips that we had filmed and we were able
to edit our music video. We first imported the clips that we filmed on the camera
onto the Mac Book and then transported them into iMovie HD. The iMovie HD
software was easy to use as it was in an organised layout which gave us clear
options to use. There are multiple functions that you can use on this software,
some that we used were transitions and effects. We used transitions to cut from
each clip that we filmed to make the video run smoother and used effects in the
narrative clips to dull the colour of the video. We would definitely recommend
iMovie HD software as it is an excellent editing site, that meets a high level of
standard and is easy to use.
 I used Microsoft Publisher to create my final digipak, I used this media technology
as it gives more options of editing tools to finish my design. I was able to easily
import the pictures on to my digipak template and add text and images where
necessary. This program allowed me to finish my final digipak and digipak advert
design.
 We used YouTube to upload our music video, therefore we could transfer the video
onto our website using a video link. This enables people to view our music video
on our website.

7. EVALUATION
Within my evaluation I used multiple media technologies
to complete my work, some examples are a Canon
camera, Tripod, Slideshare, Microsoft PowerPoint and
Microsoft Word.
 For my first and second evaluation question I used
Microsoft Word to type up my answer and then copy
and pasted it onto our website. I used Word as
Wix.com doesn’t provide spell-check, therefore I find
Word more useful.
 For my fourth evaluation I used Microsoft PowerPoint
to create a presentation and then uploaded it onto
Slideshare so I could transfer it onto Wix.com using an
embedded code.
 For my third question, we worked as a group to film a
discussion on our feedback, using the Canon camera
and Tripod.