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

My research at A2 level required me to investigate  the forms and conventions of music videos and those of the R&B genre specifically, along with the forms and conventions of digipaks and album adverts. Akin to my AS level coursework, I used video sharing site YouTube to view my videos; however, my use of Microsoft Office PowerPoint became more prominent at A2 - this was because I felt that by presenting my work visually, with screenshots from the video and colourful slides  I would be able to present my findings in way that would be more effective than just copying tables from Word onto Blogger and writing posts, which was what I mostly did at AS.
I created surveys in Microsoft Office Word at both AS and A2 as a way of gathering information and views on the form and genre of film openings and music videos, respectively - this was done by creating boxes and adding text, before handing them out to students and processing the results in Excel - the reason why I decided to do this, rather than use Microsoft Forms or Survey Monkey, was because I could guarantee that I would receive responses quickly if I created them on the word processor and distribute them by hand, rather than create them online and email them to students.

Part of the table I created on Word and uploaded on Blogger after watching the opening of Spectre (2015) as part of my AS coursework 

Some of the PowerPoint presentations that I uploaded onto Slideshare as a way of visually presenting my research. From left: Institutional research, the analysis of 'No Scrubs' and 'Way Back' by TLC.

From left: Presentations of the analysis of 'No Limit' by Usher, an early analysis of 'Way Back' by TLC (from A2) and a questionnaire presentation (from A2).

For my planning and subsequent construction of my music video, I used Microsoft Office Word to type up my ideas for this main product as well as arrange images (which I sourced from Google Images) draw tables and text to create storyboards that would visualise my ideas and provide guidance when creating my video. The final visual was filmed with both a Nikon D3100 and Canon 70D DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras - these were used to take stills of the sky, figures &landscapes and film the live-action dance sequences, which would later be put together in Wondershare Filmora. I found that this program was different to iMovie (which I used to make my film opening at AS) as it provided more styles of titles, overlays and transitions, which I was able to experiment with when assembling the footage, particularly with the stop-motion sequences, thus adding different dimensions to the visual and making it more interesting.

For my digipak, I would use the Nikon D3100 again, this time to take photos of the sky, signpost and trees. These were photographed in the JPEG format, then uploaded onto my laptop and brightened & resized through the picture editing program Picasa, where I added additional text. Similarly, the Canon D70 was used to photograph the artist's image, the paper-letter arrangement and the pair of trees for the digipak, albeit in the RAW format - unlike JPEG, this allowed me to have more control over aspects of processing such as lighting and colour, which were adjusted using Digital Photo Professional and converted to JPEG. By doing this, I reduced the size of the file and thus made it easier to manage - I would not have been able to record and edit photos this way if I used a compact digital camera. This part of the A2 coursework was very different to what I had done at AS, since the latter didn't require me to create print products and use these pieces of software; creating the advert and digipak enabled me to use them for the first time.

For my evaluation at A2, I used PowerPoint to present the ways in which I had conformed to or challenged the forms & conventions of real media products, writing about the conventions of R&B music videos, digipaks and album adverts and exploring how these compared to my own products, with screenshots and images from YouTube and my blog serving as evidence/visual representations. This would be uploaded onto slideshow sharing website Slideshare, allowing for visual viewing and attachment to my blog. The next question, which looked at the combination of the three products and the effectiveness of this, was presented through Prezi - unlike PowerPoint, this online site enabled me to zoom in/out and move forward and backwards between text and images, enabling an effective presentation of how the products link together and the different media theories regarding audience and representation that could be applied to them. This was the same reason for me choosing to create my mind map that initially explored the ways in which I used media technologies throughout my coursework. When receiving audience feedback on my three products, I decided to use Microsoft Forms to create the surveys and email them through email service Outlook in order to get feedback and opinions on what they admired; I ensured that I would receive responses by texting some recipients and phoning others to inform them of what I had sent to them. Furthermore, I was also able to view result in graph form without having to process it myself, since this was done automatically by the site.

A sample of the result section of my survey on Microsoft Forms.

A sample of the survey that I distributed to my respondents via email

After receiving eleven results over three days, I took screenshots of the graphs of the results and put them onto Microsoft  PowerPoint, where I created a slideshow to analyse the results and responses across each of the questions, and also present my findings in a way that allowed me to insert, crop and arrange my screenshots easily, while also enabling me to provide a creative and visual method of showcasing both text and graphics. Along with the presentation's subsequent upload onto slideshow sharing website Slideshare, these were examples of how I used media technologies in evaluating my coursework.

A screenshot of the audience feedback presentation on Slideshare