1. Evaluation Q4
How did you use new media
technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation
stages?

2. • Blogger was certainly the most important element of our work as it was the platform which we uploaded all of our
research and planning, evaluation and our music video. It’s a great website as it allows you to upload most files on
there (i.e. images and videos) and if you can’t do it directly you are able to embed it using other websites (e.g. for
audio files or PowerPoint presentations). It kept everything organised and was extremely useful in giving you lots of
control over the posts.
• You could also upload your production logs by creating your own posts.
• The only problem I experienced with blogger was not being able to upload my music video analysis, however this was
rectified after I used the snipping tool to simply paste it as images into a PowerPoint presentation and uploading it.
Because it is an online website I also had a scare when I thought my blogs had been deleted but it turned out to be a
technical glitch.
• Overall, I have found blogger to be quite reliable and be able to post most things on there.

3. • YouTube was another important element of my coursework overall
for several reasons:
• It initially allowed me to surf through different music videos when
starting out to choose our genre and learn about the different
conventions of music videos.
• After picking my soul/jazz genre I was able to move on to looking at
that specific genre of music videos and analyze their
conventions, which opened up many of the inspirations of our video.
• I used adobe tutorials for Adobe Photoshop/Premier and any
technical things I needed help with.
• I was able to upload my Vox Pop onto YouTube after having edited it.
• Finally I was able to upload my own music video onto YouTube to put
on blogger for marking and to use the comments section as part of
my feedback evaluation.

4. Microsoft Word
• Microsoft was great when writing longer chunks of texts during my
research and planning, such as generic codes and conventions of music
videos or background information on my music video analysis. I was
also able to analyse my videos in an organised manner using a table on
Microsoft which I could keep pasting until I had finished my analysis. I
also used it when writing up my artist information and simply making
lists of what I need to do and my initial ideas to save on the computer.
• I could usually then copy this work and paste it onto the post section
of blogger.

5. PowerPoint
• PP was extremely useful as it allowed me to post my music
video analysis after being unable to do so directly. It is very
organised and easy to use and allows you to do many different
things. I also used PP for most of my evaluation questions as it
makes it easy to label things, add images and links whilst
keeping it all organised.
• For one of my evaluation questions I wanted to embed the
music videos on the PP, after watching a YouTube Tutorial I
learnt how to do this: after opening up the developer tab, I used
shockwave player to make an outline of where I wanted the
video to go. I then right-clicked and opened up properties
where I added the music video link (making sure to remove any
‘watch?’ and replacing ‘=‘ signs with ‘/’ as the video had taught
me). In the properties section I also had more control as I was
able to switch off video loop and my video’s playing
instantaneously. The only problem was that during the
conversion of the video on Slideshare the embed no longer
worked therefore I decided to upload the music videos directly
onto blogger next to my evaluation question for easy access or
by adding the links on the PP.
• Tutorial link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChq5drjQl4
• PowerPoint was also a great help during my questionnaire
analysis as I was able to create different forms of presentation
of my results (e.g. Pie chart/bar chart etc)

6. Slideshare/Divshare
• Slideshare was very useful as it
allowed me to embed my
PowerPoint presentations by
converting the file to one that
is compatible on blogger.
• With Divshare I was able to
upload any audio files I had
such as my audience feedback
in a quick and easy way, it also
allows you to choose the audio
skin you would like to put on
your site or blog which means
you can keep consistent theme
colours of your site.
• Signing up to both of these
sites is quite quick and free.

7. Microsoft Excel
• Excel allowed me to make all the data configurations I needed for my data
analysis. The 2007 version of Excel is much more linked and available to
Microsoft PowerPoint which makes it easier to use and see how my results
looked at the same time. Everything is much more simplified and there is
always an example beforehand to show you how it works incase you don’t
understand.

8. Internet/Google
• The digital online age has been the focus of our media coursework, as it is how I
collected my research and planning (e.g. looking at different media theorists). It
was also how I was able to Google any relevant information I needed. For example
before filming I looked at websites which talked about the different filming
techniques and camera shots that can be used which gave me more ideas and
inspirations whilst I was in charge of the filming of certain scenes.
• I also had access to anything I needed if I had any technical difficulties, not only
are there online forums for different groups that can instantly answer your
questions but there are also different types of software that you can download to
guide you in your work. For example when I found I couldn’t upload my music
video analysis I was able to download the snipping tool to help me.

9. Hotmail (Email)
• Hotmail was an important communication tool
for our group. We were able to send things to
each other if we were working from home and
also ask each other for any help or send each
other useful sites and ideas to do with our music
video.
• It was good that many of our work would be
sent to each other in this way as Hotmail is a
trusted website and saves all documents which
means work cannot be lost, when it can be if
work is exchanged through a USB as the file
could get corrupt or lost.
• We were also able to stick to filming schedules
by agreeing on a time and date through
email, to see everyone was doing their bit or if
everyone was prepared for the next day of
filming without having any last minute
arrangements. Due to new media most of us
have access to the internet on our phones which
means if we could not contact each other
through text/call we could simply email each
other and rest assured that our message has
been received.

10. USB
• It was important to have a back up of everything
on a USB and not just our computers incase
anything crashed or got erased. Because it was
portable it was also easy to take the USB from
school to home or the library to work on the
research and planning. I also had a copy of
Photoshop on my USB which came in handy if I
was using a computer that didn’t have Photoshop
and could simply save ‘PSD’ files and work on
them wherever I was. For example when working
on the magazine advert at school, some of the
computers in the study room did not have
Photoshop which meant I could simply open it
from my USB. However, it’s not good to solely rely
on the USB as some people did lose it meaning
they had to begin much of their work from scratch
and files are also easily corruptible if the USB is
not ejected correctly.

11. Camcorder
• This was essentially the most important
device of our final product as without it
we would not be able to attain all of the
necessary footage. It was important for
the camcorder to be of good quality to
make the video look more professional.
Through the camera we were able to film
a variety of shots and angles for our music
video. I also used the camcorder to
complete my ‘Vox Pop’ interviews for the
research and planning part of my
coursework.
• I also learnt that the better the initial
filming of the footage the easier the
editing. After filming the first few scenes
we gained much more knowledge into
how to go about filming the next scenes
by taking into consideration the editing
part of our work.

12. Lighting/Ring Light
• When filming our performance
scenes we had to have very good
lighting against the green screen in
order to make it easier for us to cut
out when it came to editing it out.
The positioning of the lights
mattered and so did the intensity
of the light (how many lights we
used).
• The ring light which was attached
around the camera also helped to
lighten the areas we were shooting
to eliminate as much of the green
as possible.

13. Green Screen
• The green screen came in very handy as
we were able to change the setting of out
performance scene last minute and edit it
quite easily.
• When working with the green screen, the
first thing we had to do it make sure it
was evenly lit. We also tried to keep our
actress as far away as possible from the
green screen so as not have too many
drop shadows which would then effect
the editing process.
• We then had to work to light our actress
and really bring her out.
• The green screen was analysed before
filming started to make sure there were
no creases or folds that had
unintentionally been created. The only
problem was that the green screen was
only on the wall and not the floor which
meant while filming we had to keep it a
mid-shot and not too far, showing only
her upper body.

14. Tripod/Camera Wheels
• The tripod was extremely useful in making our
narrative shots very professional as it kept
everything still. Which meant even if the quality of
the camera was not great, the stillness of a shot
would still make it look good, as it is far too
difficult to try and stand steady. Inevitably there
will be some vibrations which will become more
obvious when watching the video, this was the
case with some of our park scenes as it was too
difficult to place the tripod on some of the very
hilly areas. However, as the tripod is adjustable on
many levels in most cases it was easy enough to
keep it straight and still when we needed to use
it, for example in the café scenes.
• For the performance scenes we also had portable
wheels for our professional camera which made it
easier to move around the artist and film
her, making it all very seamless.

15. Camera
• The camera was used during both our
narrative and performance scenes to take
pictures of the actress during the
construction of the video (to use later for
developments) and also to picture her with
some poses to use for our ancillary products.
This was important to us as we wanted the
video and the ancillary products to be closely
related. We took turns with the camera
whilst one person would film and another
would help in directing, the person with the
camera had to be very creative in their shots
and make sure we had plenty to look over
later to pick for our ancillary tasks. On the
next page are some photos which we
rejected for the magazine advert.

16. Rejected Photos for Ancillary
This picture had far too many
shadows in the background
which meant it would have Although this picture was
been very difficult to simply the distance we wanted of
change the hue and contrast of her to be away from the
the background to a more camera it was far too dark
suitable colour as it would and was not as appealing as
come out all different. We also other images to be used for
found that the pictures of her the magazine advert.
in a bun made her seem far
too distant and cold and chose
that her picture should be one
with her hair out.
This picture was nice composition wise.
However, we felt that we didn’t want
her to be looking directly at the camera
as it removed any mystery of the artist
and didn’t fully suit the theme of
‘floating around’.

17. Serif Moviemaker
• I was able to use this software when editing my Vox Pop as it was much
simpler and didn’t need any fancy editing tools. You are able to simply
drag and drop the different parts of your footage to create your video. I
was also able to add text and music to go with my video.

18. Adobe Premier Pro CS3
• This product greatly benefited us during the construction of our music video, in fact it was
one of the most crucial software's used on the computer. This is because it allowed us to
professionally edit our music video using the different tools. We would first upload our
footage using ‘capture’, and then keep rendering the edited files as we went along. The
software allowed us to cut out the green screen by highlighting the colour green and then
using the blend/contrast tools to further blend any remnants of the colour and finally
replace it with an image of our choice.
• The razor tool was extremely significant as it enabled us to cut any shaky parts of the
footage and get rid of any footage that we were not using. For example, in our initial
filming we had filmed a scene of the actress falling asleep, after deciding that we weren't
going to use that scene we were able to completely erase it by first cutting it with the razor
tool. It also allowed us to interlink the different footage to integrate it all in a seamless
manner.
• The stretch tool was also quite important, especially for our video as it had many slow
motion scenes and fitted quite nicely with the song.

19. Adobe Photoshop
• Photoshop came in handy in the making of our ancillary work, it was much
easier to work with Photoshop in the construction of our A2 production
work as we were more familiar with it this time round as we had previously
made a music magazine in our AS work. It is also very easy to find tutorials
on Photoshop on places such as YouTube or Google if any of us got stuck on
anything.

20. Iphone/Blackberry
• For my audio feedback I was able to
use the ‘memo’ app on the smart
‘Iphone’. I was then simply able to
email it to my hotmail account and
work with it however I needed to on
the computer.
• Twitter, the social networking site has
become very popular with the app
being available on most smart phone.
Using a BlackBerry others in my
group were able to send tweets to
gain feedback on our video which we
then used to further develop our
video.

21. Prezi
• I found that for many of my evaluation questions
and other work I really enjoyed making
PowerPoint presentations as it put me in control
and allowed me to be very creative. However at
times it was limiting and did seem quite
repetitive, which is why after some online
research I found ‘Prezi.com’. This was a unique
way of making fun and interesting presentations
which could be seen on my blog. I had much more
control in Prezi as I was able to manually say
which path I wanted the presentation to go and
choose everything from the shapes to the colours
that I chose to present my work on. I had
previously also had a few problems with PP in that
it would freeze and crash and my work would be
lost, unlike PP, Prezi would constantly auto save
the smallest of changes and even if the computer
were to crash you could always log back in to your
account and your presentation would be safe and
sound.
• The website also allowed you to upload images
and embed videos which was a very useful tool.

22. Freeonlinesurveys.com
• This website was another useful
tool for me to get some audience
feedback, as not only did it
conserve paper as I didn’t have to
print out the surveys but it was
much less time consuming as I was
able to choose what type of
question I wanted (e.g. open or
closed) and if I wanted multiple
answers or not. I was then able to
simply give the choices and state
whether a question had to be
answered or not. This was another
free site that was very easy to sign
up to and made it very effortless for
me to collect answers from.

23. Snipping Tool
• After having troubles uploading
my 5 music video analysis as they
would not upload directly to
blogger, I found this little tool to
be immensely functional. I was
able to ‘snip’ around anything I
wanted copied and save it or
paste it as an image. I was able to
download it online and later
went on to use it for my
evaluation questions as it made it
much simpler to simply copy and
paste the things I wanted rather
than using the ‘Print Screen’
button which would copy the
entire screen.

24. Mp3 Cutter/Converter
• After sending myself my audio feedback on
hotmail, after opening the file I realized that I had
accidentally recorded an extra 40 seconds of
silence which would make it very confusing for
anyone hearing the audio. Turning to the internet I
found a website called ‘MP3 Cut’ which didn’t
even need to be downloaded, you simply
uploaded your audio onto it and cut the parts you
wanted. However here I faced another problem as
my audio would not be uploaded because it wasn’t
in MP3 format. On the same site I found an ‘Online
Audio Converter’. There I was able to convert my
audio file to MP3, go back cut the parts I wanted
then upload the file unto Divshare to embed into
my blog.
• Without these websites I may have had to
rerecord my interviews and find another way to
upload it as MP3, which means it saved me a lot of
unnecessary time-wasting.

25. Facebook/Twitter
• The last piece of new media technology I used for my evaluation work was the social
networking sites ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’ which have now been ranked the top two most
popular social networking websites. These sites are not only used by young people but by
people of all ages and backgrounds from all parts of the world. It has made communication
much more digital and instantaneous. This is why smart phones such as
Iphone/Samsung/BlackBerry have all opted to having these sites as available for download
on their phones. This means people have even higher access to such sites even when they
are out and about. For me I was able to use these sites for my audience feedback, I was able
to attach my music video and send out to friends to see what they thought about
it, encouraging some of them to comment through their YouTube accounts. It also allowed
them to then share my video if they wanted to. This was a useful way for me to collect
feedback as it was quick and also easy for others to simply leave a comment.
• At times it was also a useful way to contact people asking them to help us with our video
(For example when we were messaging people to act in out video). We were able to
communicate as a group and finally I was able to stay in touch with our chosen artist who
would send me the audio of her song and also tell me parts of the lyrics which may have
been unclear to me and also for her to give me background information on the group.