Jordan Crookell

Evaluation: Q4
Q4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
In order to convey my work effectively and present it well, I had to use a
range of technologies on my blog to ensure that the information was
exciting to read with videos, presentations and written justifications.
Throughout the process from the preliminary task to the final A2
evaluation I have tried to make my bog as exciting and visually effective
as I could so that viewers can read different posts in different ways such
as presentations or animated videos.
Prelim
Blogger Blogger is very easy to use and works well if you are just trying
to create a written document. It acts just like word and you can type up
work onto it easily without it being too time consuming. It is very easy to
access once you are logged into your blogger account and is god for
seeing what you have done so far in the preview tab of the page.
Scribd Scribd is a technology where you can upload word or PowerPoint
document and the get an embedded link so that you can put that
document for example, on your blog through Scribd. It is very easy to use
and effective for quickly uploading large documents.
YouTube YouTube is a multimedia website that lets you upload and
share music and video files. We used YouTube to look for a song that we
wanted to copy. We looked through many music videos and decided which
of them we could make effective music video for. This had to be on ewe
could copy as closely as we could so we looked carefully until we decided
upon the song Fireflies. Using YouTube was extremely helpful as we were
able to compare and contrast lots of different music videos to find the one
that we wanted to use. Because YouTube is such a widely used website we
were able to find a music video that we liked.
Pinnacle 19 Studios Pinnacle 19 Studios is an editing software that we
used to edit our preliminary and final music video. It is an alternative to
iMovie that we could us on the school Macintoshes. Pinnace takes a bit of
time to get used to but once you have learned the basics of how to drag
different clips to the edit line it is fairly easy to use. To use clips from
footage to the edit bar and we could start editing the video. Pinnacle
displays the video clips you have inserted on the left so that you can see
all of the clips thus making it easier to choose the one you want. This
editing software was very effective and good to use whilst editing the
preliminary music video and the actual music video.

Jordan Crookell

Research
Blogger Explained previously
YouTube Explained previously
Scribd Explained previously
PowerPoint PowerPoint is a piece of technology that allows you to
create multiple slides for information or a presentation to share with
people. There are a few different background designs that you can use
however, it I not the most exciting way of formatting work. PowerPoint is
extremely easy to use and takes little time to create a presentation. For
this reason it was very effective for our research because we had to
present wat we had been researching into to the class and it made it
simple to convey that information.
Google Slides Google Slide is an online presentation software. It is very
similar to PowerPoint and is another way of creating presentations that
can easily be shared and created in a short space of time without a lot of
stress.
Prezi Prezi is similar to a PowerPoint, you can create slides in an arty
and visually appealing way. There are lots of different backgrounds and
design layouts that you can use to make it stand out from an ordinary
PowerPoint presentation. Scribd is a very effective way of presenting a
PowerPoint of sections of information as it is very arty and is aesthetically
pleasing to watch as an audience member.
Facebook
Padlet Padlet is a website that allows you to create documents of work
on a page. After completion this page can be moved about by the
viewer with the mouse and they can scroll over to look at all of the
information displayed on the page. Padlet is used more for taking
notes and smaller documents as you can create word boxes and
notes boxes. There are many different arty designs and backgrounds
that you can use to make the document stand out from others forms
of work.
Unsigned.com Unsigned.com is a website where unsigned artists put
up their music and it is free to listen to for anyone. It allows you to browse
through lots of genres and sub-genres for bands and songs of all styles.
We used Unsigned.com to find the band and song that we used for our
music video. After looking into the genre of indie rock, we found a few
bands that we thought had some good songs that we could potentially use
for the video. After listening to them all we decided to go with the band 28
North and the song Los Angeles. Unsigned.com was a very helpful and
effective way of finding a song and band that we liked for the music video.
The browsing was clear and easy to use, producing lots of results which
helped us find the song more easily.

Jordan Crookell
SoundCloud.com SoundCloud.com is a website thats lets anyone
upload songs and music that they have personally created. This can then
be shared with lots of people and you can follow people so that get
notified when they release new music. This music is free to listen to for
anyone and is widely used by upcoming artists who are trying to make a
name for themselves in the music industry.
Production
YouTube Explained previously
Pinnacle 19 Studios Explained previously
Blogger Explained previously
Photoshop Photoshop is a piece of professional editing software in
which you can edit images and pictures. There are many different
elements to Photoshop and it takes a while to get to know what to do and
how to manipulate images. Some of the things you can do include fade,
change the opacity, depth, effects etc.
Cannon digital photography camera This was the camera that we
took out with us on set whilst filming for the photo shoot and images that
we could use on the advert and digipak.
Artofthetitle.com This is a website where you create your own title.
You can select from many genres and styles and there is loads of choices
of different styles and designs. As well as this there is a type box where
you can type in the lettering you want to create and all of the options for
different styles will appear. This is a very good website and was effective
for helping our group find the typography that we thought worked best
with the magazine advert and digipak.
Development from AS to A2
From AS to A2 I have learned and developed my understanding and
knowledge of using different technologies a lot and have come on very far
since I started the course. I have learned in more depth how to use more
and more technologies and media texts as well as learning lots of new
skills and technologies that I had never even heard of or used before
starting the course. Some of these technologies include, Padlet, Powtoon,
Photoshop, and prezi.
There were a few technologies that were new to me in A2 and that I had
not used or explored properly at AS level. This gave me the chance to
develop my understanding and knowledge of the subject and has allowed
me to gain lots of experience during the course. I had not used Photoshop
in AS and doing the A2 course has allowed me to become confident with
editing images and creating using the technology.

Jordan Crookell
Although I had used Pinnacle 19 studios a very small amount for the tasks
in AS, I had not fully explored with it and got to properly edit a section of
the video as another member of our group (when it had twice as many
members in). Being in a smaller group has meant that I have had
experience with this and have learned so much and developed my editing
skills a long way. Before the editing of the music video for A2, I had never
really had the chance to actually edit sections of footage. I have been able
to select and add shots into the sequence, stretch and change the length
of the footage in relation to the video, use effects such as reverse and
slow down footage so that it fits with the beat of the song and much more.
This has developed my practical understanding from AS and I feel much
more confident with editing footage and sound having done this course.
One technology that I had heard of but never used before was Photoshop.
In AS we did not use Photoshop as it was not necessary for what we were
doing. However, for the ancillary task we had to use Photoshop for the
magazine article and the promotional digipak. After being given a quick
tutorial on the basics of Photoshop, I was then able to have a play around
and get to know the technology a lot better.
I am now confident with controlling the gradient, opacity, structure and
effects of an image on Photoshop and much more. When I was first
learning how to use Photoshop I was shown the basics of what you could
do and after that we tested out some of the different features such as
gradient and opacity. In this end this proved to be extremely helpful as the
idea we had for our magazine advert was to fade the Los Angeles
cityscape into the background of the frame over the artist. Testing out the
gradients and opacity for a while before we started creating our actual
advert allowed us to be efficient with time once we had started as we
knew what sort of picture we wanted to create.
I have gone from not knowing how to use Photoshop at the start of the
unit of work to having completed the digipak for our group, to what many
people we have got responses from and I to a very professional standard. I
feel that I have come a long way from knowing nothing about the
technology to creating the digipak and am a lot more confident in my
ability to edit on Photoshop.
Brief
The brief that we were given for our preliminary task was to find a music
video online, for example YouTube and create a video that was as close to
the real thing as possible. This covered all the elements of mise-en-scene
such as costume, lighting, location, etc as well as cinematography and
camerawork from angles to shot types.
In the planning process of the A2 preliminary task, we had to think as a
group how we could get the video as close to the real video as we could.
There are many things in the video that we would have to try and copy to
make our video effective. To help us out with this, we looked at cutting to

Jordan Crookell
the beat. This is where there is a cut or edit from one shot to another that
goes with a beat in the song. Conventionally when cutting to the beat,
edits are short and sharp and go straight from one shot into another. As
well as this, they are normally found on the bass or snare drum in the
music. This is because these are loud and powerful notes that are easily
distinguishable to listeners and they stand out, thus meaning that cutting
the beat is even more effective.
We had to look carefully at cutting to the beat because in the actual
Fireflies video, there is a montage of faster shots that go together with the
beat of the drums in the song. We had to try and make sure that the cuts
to the beat were equal to the actual video. This is because if they are not
in sync with the video, everything would be out of time and delayed
compared with the actual Fireflies music video.
Lip syncing was also another vital thing we had to make sure was in time
in the actual music video. This is because we had to try and get the
miming exact to what the lyrics were saying and exactly when they are
sung. A technique that helped me to lip sync effectively in the video (as I
was acting) was to watch the official Fireflies video a few times before
each shot that we filmed. After this we took a few takes of each shot to
make sure that we had the best take and that the lip syncing was
effectively in place and accurate to the timing of the lyrics.
Performance of the actor (me) was crucial to the effectiveness and
success of our video. This is because we were trying to emulate the video
and make it as similar as we could. The performance in the song include
the movements of the singer, and facial expressions he made, the way he
was playing the piano and every little tiny detail of what he was doing in
the actual music video. YouTube helped us massively with this as we were
able to watch the music video lots of times to ensure that we knew every
detail of how he was moving in the video so that we could try and do
exactly the same, or as near to whilst filming.
As there are so many different elements to the characters performance,
we had an iPad on set and watch every couple of seconds were we would
film a shot three of four times so that we could get every movement
accurate to the video in relation to what the singer is doing. This took
quite a long time to do as we kept watch every few seconds over and over
to make sure that we understood exactly what to do in each shot.
However, this was an effective method because we are happy with the
end product that we have produced.
Mise-en-Scene and Genre
When we were researching our music video, we looked into the different
styles of music that the video could be and did some research in the miseen-scene and how it represents the genre and sub-genre of the music.
Another element that we looked into was intertextuality in the music

Jordan Crookell
video. Fireflies has a mixture of amplification and disjuncture however, I
feel that it is more or a disjuncture music video as themes are not fully
illustrated and the video doesnt really correlate to the lyrics. This meant
that there were no props or toys on set that were used in the official music
video, meaning we could not add them in our music video.
In the official music video Fireflies the mise-en-scene is used effectively
to illustrate and connote the genre and sub-genre of the music. The genre
of the music is indie rock and the sub-genre is indie rock electronic. The
costume is used in the video to demonstrate the indie rock genre
effectively. This is because it is very conventional in an indie rock music
video to see a singer/artist in standard everyday clothes that would be
seen on a day-to-day basis. We can see that the singer is wearing black
jeans and a maroon t-shirt. This would be considered as normal to the
general public and is worn by many people.
As well as this, the location and set is very realistic and conventional in
indie rock music videos. We can see that the singer is in his bedroom with
lots of toys around him and a keyboard that he is playing. Using a natural
and realistic setting and location works really effectively as it adheres to
the conventions of typical indie rock music videos. Adding to the theme of
realism in the music video, the lighting is also kept realistic as we see lots
of lamps and different lights in the that turn on and off during the video.
When we were researching the music video and finding out information
and details about it we looked into intertextuality. However, after
analysing the video we did not actually find any intertextual references or
links to other media texts. Intertextuality is more commonly seen in
amplification videos compared to disjuncture videos so this conformed to
the conventions of a disjuncture video. This is because with disjuncture,
the video has no correlation to the lyrics of the song at all, whereas in
amplification videos some elements are taken from the lyrics, such as a
prop, and turned into a concept. Also, there are conventionally other
elements that are added in by the producer that could link to
intertextuality.