During the process of my planning, research, construction and my evaluations, I have used a variety of technologies to help me create my final pieces. Although at the time I didn't appreciate how much software and hardware I used, looking back I used a lot to create everything I wanted to achieve. Overall, I am happy with how all of my final pieces came together and in this evaluation, I will explain everything I used to help produce them.
Apple Mac
Due to the fact we have macs at school, I was able to spend time on my music video and ancillary tasks whenever possible. However, as I don't have an Apple Mac at home I found it difficult at times to spend my free time working on my coursework. This was because the school Mac's are used by multiple people, during lessons and not. Therefore, at times when I'd go to use the Mac with my coursework on it, it would be being used and this limited my time that I could spend on my work.
Furthermore, as this is my second year on the course, and consequently being able to use the Mac's, I am already reasonably experienced in using this technology. Thus, it meant that the construction on my A2 media products was noticeably easier.
Panasonic camera
As I am fortunate to have my own camcorder, I was able to use this whenever I needed to film. I knew that I would only need to use the Sony camera to record all of my footage, as it has all of the facilities I need. The camera enabled me to film whenever possible, inside and outside of school. Therefore, I was able to capture extra footage if I felt that I needed more even after editing the original footage I had at school. Along with this, close to the end of the deadline I wanted to change bits in the video. By having the camera to hand I could go home and capture last minute footage in my own time. Another advantage of having my own camera was that unlike borrowing a school camera, I didn't have to think about returning it in time to school. I also didn't have a certain time limit to be able to use the camera. This was very beneficial because if I had planned to record footage at the weekend and I was delayed because of bad weather then it didn't mess my plans up too much as I could just reschedule on my own terms.
Nikon camera
As my parents have had this camera for a couple of years now, I felt comfortable using the camera to capture pictures for the ancillary tasks. I was able to easily capture the camera shots I needed, whilst using the different lenses that come with the camera. Consequently, this was an advantage because it helped improve the quality of my work instead of using a basic digital camera.
Search engines
I have used a variety of search engines throughout this project, however there was one main search engine I used most of the time. This was Google. I used this more often than others because I know how to use it more than the other, such as 'Bing' or 'Yahoo'. Therefore, it was the quickest way to obtain information. I found the Internet extremely useful when it came to the researching stage as I was able to see what conventions I needed to stick to when creating my music video and ancillary tasks/ Due to the fact you can multitask freely, I was also able to search music videos for inspiration as well as using Blogger to write my thoughts down. As I am constantly updating my blog and using other websites, such as Pixlr, YouTube etc. this was my most highly demanded technology I ended up using. The only disadvantage of using Google was that there is so much information to choose from, I had to research carefully and be selective with the information I chose. This meant that it was quite a time consuming task to do at times.
Blogger
This again was one of my most used piece of technology throughout this piece of coursework, as I had to continuously write for my research, construction and evaluations of my final music video and ancillary tasks. As I am fortunate enough to access the internet, and therefore Blogger, at home and school I was able to update my posts whenever I needed to.
YouTube
YouTube was another main technology that came in handy during this coursework, as I looked at a variety of music videos to find the song that I wanted to use. As well as this, it gave me inspiration when planning what will go into the music video. Additionally, I uploaded my final product onto this website so people were able to view the finished video.
Final cut pro
This was a main technology that I used as it had the editing software I needed to help create a professional looking music video. As I have had some experience of using it at school in previous tasks, I was able to experiment with various transitions and editing techniques to make my video more appealing to my target audience. Therefore, this was mainly used for the construction of the music video, as well as audience feedback videos.
Pixlr
I used this image editing software to edit the images I took for my ancillary tasks (digipak and magazine advertisement). I used this software for manipulating images last year, so I felt very comfortable using it this year for the same purpose. During the construction of the digipak, I used this image editor program to help me create the dull effect and image overlays that KlanKarussell's existing album has. Along with this, I used this for the finishing touches of my magazine advertisement, where I used the different image effects and image darkening. The software helped me to improve both the digipak and magazine advert because it enabled me to create a style that was like KlangKarussell's and also the style I wanted throughout the project.
Prezi
Until last year when I used Prezi software for some of my music magazine evaluations, I hadn't used it before. Although it was a bit confusing to begin with, I now feel confident using it. Even though this software is some what time consuming, I decided to use other technologies for the researching and construction stages of my products. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to use it in one of my evaluations for my coursework. This is mainly down to the fact I can go into detail when concluding on my final products as well as it being more visually appealing to read than just blocks of text.
Mobile phone
Throughout the planning stage of my music video, I had to keep in touch with my talent so they knew what time they needed to be free for filming and if there was a problem on the day I could let them know quickly. Therefore, texting or ringing them from my phone was the best was to communicate with my talent, as well both have unlimited texts and phone calls which means we could communicate easily without it costing. This piece of technology helped a lot when organising dates to shoot the film.
Tripod
This piece of hardware helped a lot during the construction of the music video, as I was able to get smooth steady shots with the use of the tripod. At times I needed the hand held effect to make the video more moving, but at times (such as using a pan shot of a run down estate) I used this device to keep the camera in the same place all the way through. This was to get the best possible footage. Due to the fact it is portable and it collapses, I could take it wherever I went because it isn't heavy to carry.
Bicycle
This was a very handy piece of equipment that I used more that the tripod in the construction of the music video. This was because I used the bike to strap the camera onto the seat so I was able to use a tracking shot, this is seen at the beginning of the video when the talent is walking through the field. The bike was mostly easy to transport to different filming locations, apart from busy areas in the town as I had to be careful.
