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

2. The first piece of technology that we used to store our research, planning, and coursework progress was the website Blogger.com. This online blog allowed us to display our work through; presentation files, images and videos. This use of technology is most sufficient in storing our information as it fits the subject and offers a creative aspect to our work.

3. Technologies used in Research During my research I used the internet video sharing site, YouTube to upload music videos for analysing. I did this by embedding the video onto the blog. This was an effective and quick way (once the embed code can be used) of uploading videos onto the blog. The only problem that occurred was that whilst finding the videos that I wanted to upload some where copyright protected, and others once uploaded to the blog, the owner may have removed the video from YouTube and so I would have to find another video to use. Again I used the internet in part of my research to find out facts and figures and to search for images and videos.

4. Billboard.com Billboard.com was used to gather statistics on popular songs in the last decade. Bar chart was created on Microsoft word which is relatively easy to produce.

5. Still Camera A Lumix 12 megapixels DC Vario - Elmarit Still Camera, to take pictures of research that needed to be analysed, like the digi packs . This is a quick and easy method of uploading photos onto the blog for research.

6. Technologies used in Planning In planning our music video we decided to experiment with green screen. This was because we wanted to use this technology in our final product. To film our green screen footage, I volunteered to sit in front of a green canvas. There was back lights and front lights lit around me as to not create shadows, which would affect the editing later on. Once the footage had been filmed on the cannon video camera, we uploaded it to Final Cut Express and used the Chromakeyer tool to remove green screen background. We then found an BBC news background on Google which we converted into Final Cut Express which was appropriate for the News Reader Idea we had for the music video. This looks very effective and is an easier way of filming particular scenes like this, however, it is very time consuming and there can be faults easily made if not fully confident with the software.

7. Technologies used in Construction of Music Video To film the footage for our music video we used the Canon MD235 Video Camera. We felt that the camera was easily portable and set up relatively quickly on the tripod. However, a lot of additional lighting needed to be used in the footage as the camera didn't pick up the light as easily as hoped. The lighting that we used in most cases where just ordinary office lights and room lights, although not very professional it still made a difference to the scenes and increased the picture in the footage.

8. Final Cut Express Using Final Cut Express, we edited the clips by speeding up, slowing down and reversing the footage to match the pace of the song and to bring more dynamics to the video. In two sections of the music video we created a split screen, by moving cut scenes onto different time lines and making freeze frames to keep the image on screen even when not moving. We used the razor tool to cut the footage into smaller sections as to join my lip syncing to fit the music.

9. Green Screen The green screen in our final product was created by using BBC news background and weather background as well as taking an ‘embarrassing’ image and uploading them to Final Cut Express. We found that because we had practised with green screen before hand it was easier to do again but still quit challenging not to distort the overall image.

10. Technologies used in Construction in the Ancillary Tasks For our ancillary tasks of producing a magazine advert and a digi pack, we set up a photo shoot with a white background and use of front a back lights, and used the Lumix 12 megapixels DC Vario - Elmarit Still Camera to take the photos. After uploading all of our photographs onto the computer we selected the best ones and then I edited the images on Photo Impact 10. I basically re – adjusted the contrast, added lighting softened skin tone and enhanced the clarity on images to fit with our genre. The finalised edits on the photos was then done on a Apple Mac computer on Photo Shop. For example the frame in the background of the magazine advert.

11. Technology used in Evaluation Stage For Question 1, we created a directors commentary; which was as a group we recorded a voice over whilst footage was being played on the computer. Within this commentary we had three power points and two editing YouTube videos. The power point I created was made on Microsoft Power point and then converted onto Slide share. The two video were edited on Final Cur Express. The footage was then all linked together and editing on Final Cut Express and then converted to QuickTime and changed to a YouTube video so it could be embedded onto the blog.

12. For Questions 2 and 4, I created Power Points of Microsoft Power Point and then converted to Slide Share to embed on the blog. In these power points I included; images of ancillary task, still shots of music video and links to videos on the internet. I found using power point presentations an effective way of illustrating my work as I can include; images and texts together and separate my information over a number of slides, so that it is not all clumped together.

13. For Question 3 of the evaluation I created a Prezi presentation on Prezi.com. This is an interactive presentation which zooms in and out on information and instead of being on different slides it is all together. In making my Prezi presentation I found it enjoyable and interesting. I have know been introduced to new ways of presenting work in a animated way. However, even though it was fun to make, it was quite time consuming to link all the information together and place it around randomly.

14. To Conclude Over all I believe that the range of technology that has been used during all stages of our work including; research and planning, construction and in the evaluation, have helped me to produce my coursework creatively. Also the technology has further developed my skills from AS media as well as introducing me to new skills such as Final Cut Express and Prezi.