Several programs were used during the construction, research, planning, and evaluation of a music video project. Research was conducted online using YouTube and Google to find inspiration. A Canon camcorder and tripod were used to film the music video. Adobe Premiere Elements was used to edit the video footage. Ancillary tasks were created using a Canon DSLR camera, flash, and lamps for photography, and Adobe Photoshop to edit the photos. The project and evaluation were presented using Blogger, Microsoft Publisher, SlideShare, Prezi, MindMeister, and Glogster to make the blogs and presentations more engaging.

1. How did you use media technologies
in the
construction, research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Several programs were used during the
construction of our music video, ancillary
tasks and in the research and
planning behind each of these tasks. I have
continued to use different technologies
when presenting my evaluation.

2. Research
One of the most used websites I used for my initial
research was YouTube as this gives access to
basically all music videos, meaning I could easily
look for particular videos. It also gives similar
suggestions making it easier for me to find other
music videos which are appropriate to the genre we
I was researching.
The most obvious website for carrying out
research was Google which allowed us to look
up digipaks and magazine adverts of different
bands/ artists as well as look up clothing etc.
Another useful source for research was
magazines (both music and celebrity ones)
as these meant we could observe clothing
and style as well as looking at magazine
adverts for our second ancillary task.

3. Making the Music Video
To make our music video, we needed a camcorder for the filming
and so borrowed the schools handheld Canon (fs406) video
camera. We found it easy to operate and carry around due to its
size, while the fold out screen could be turned at various
angles, therefore making filming, for example at a birds eye
view, easy to do and ensure the whole of the character could be
seen in the frame. In addition to this camera, we used a tripod
to keep the camera steady when it would have to be held for a
long time, for example filming Ellie from across the road after
the first flashback scene.

4. Editing the Film
To edit the music video, we used Adobe
Premiere Elements which meant we could cut
down clips, add effects and insert transitions to
give the music video a professional look and
ensure it met our expectations.
This shows the list of video effects we could use
during editing; we used both, inserting cross fade
effects between certain clips, while using a black
and white colour change effect to separate the
flashback scenes from the present.
This shows part of the timeline where we
inserted each of the video clips, while the
soundtrack was placed and edited in the
‘audio’ line.

5. Constructing Ancillary Tasks
One of the main pieces of technology we needed to construct our
ancillary tasks was a professional camera to carry out photo shoots. My
dad lent us his which is a Canon eos 7D which produces clear, un-
pixelated images. I learnt how to adjust the aperture, exposure
time, sensitivity ISO and flash settings to get the photos we wanted.
had a separate flash which could also
We be
used from different angles along with
the camera flash to prevent
shadowing on the model. In addition
to the camera and flash, we used two
large lamps to increase the brightness
of the photo shoots, making the
model clear to see and overall
reduced the amount of editing we had
to do to make the photographs look
attractive and meet our ancillary task
plans.

6. To construct our ancillary tasks, following the photo shoots we
carried out, we found Adobe Photoshop to be the most useful and
appropriate program. I had previously used it in my AS work and so
was familiar with the different features of it, making it easy to use.
Both ancillary tasks were constructed using this
software; we could insert and edit the images as
well as adding text, icons and barcodes to the
products using 'layers' therefore meaning each part
of the product could be edited/ removed without
the rest being effected.
These are some of the tools we used
while editing the ancillary tasks photo’s. I
have labelled their main jobs to show
why we found them helpful in making a
digipak and magazine advert.

7. Presenting and Evaluating
My Coursework
Blogger is obviously a very important program in
presenting my coursework, however, other programs and
websites have been involved which I believe make my
blog both more interesting and more attractive.
I used Microsoft Publisher quite a lot during my
coursework as it is suitable for images to be pasted to
and then saved as pictures or edited (such as being
cropped) before inserting them into blogger.
Slide share allows you to insert PowerPoint presentations or
Microsoft publisher documents into blogger posts. These make
posts more interesting than just writing it straight out.
This allows you to create animations, which I have
done in a few posts. Rather than inserting loads of
pictures next to each other, they flick through one
after another like a slide show.

8. Prezi is a website which allows you to make
presentations, inserting both images and text. I
found it useful to present my feedback as it
showed my train of thought and the steps I took
to make changes more efficiently than could be
done in a simple post.
This is a brainstorming website which I have made
a couple of mind map's using. It is easy to use as
it sets out the mind map automatically, allowing
you to just write out the information you want.
I have carried out part of my
evaluation using the 'Glogster'
poster making website. I found it
a very creative and interesting
way to present my thoughts as
text, images and animations can
all be used on it.