Question 4 - Evaluation

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

I think I used different technologies in a very versatile way that helps my workflow as well as helped me research a lot more useful themes for my project.

Almost all of my work was finished within photoshop at home on an Asus laptop, with the exception of using Large screen display Imac for drafts and blogs.  I used a range of cameras for filming footage and taking display shots. I used two phone cameras, one on a Samsung Galaxy S5 (16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels) and one on an LG G3 (13 MP, 4160 x 3120 pixels). The proper footage cameras were a Canon Legria HFR56 and a Canon HV30 to do the major footage. Both in different situations.

The Hv30 filmed our live performance footage and the HFR56 filmed our in house footage, overall the in house footage had a better outcome but that's because the camera was a newer make, however using the two different cameras did help me gain construction of better shot angles and good use of dynamics with the second camera.

I used a lot of internet resources such as other peoples blogs, youtube for tutorials and things like deviant art for references. This helped with planning loads because it meant that I could decide on different themes for my digipak and music video work on the fly whilst on my mobile devices and saving different resources.
The internet also helped me evaluate my work via the usage of social media to get feedback of proper event promoters and my friends who are into the same music that I was promoting.

Here are some of the tutorials I ended up looking at for help with Adobe after Effects editing - 



and a link to one of the final videos I produced after learning the techniques - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWQw4cRW1sc



























Software wise I used a lot of different things, some of the software didn't even go into my final products but it went a lot into my learning process and therefore helped me develop myself as a media student.

For image editing I used Adobe Photoshop (CS5, CC), G.I.M.P, and Adobe Illustrator.


I already knew most of the techniques from all of these pieces of software so there isn't much to write apart from I wish I had a tiny bit more time to come up with a few more experimental designs that were perhaps related to more promotional aspects of this project.

For video editing I used Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, and Apple Imovie.


Comparing both the actual softwares together I must admit I did laugh a bit because when I taught myself to use the design flow in Adobe After Effects, though lengthy and sometimes tiresome, things were more specific and the outcome was way more enjoyable and the results felt more gratifying than the basic system that is implemented in Apple's Imovie. (to the right)

Adobe allowed me to learn a lot of different techniques like cross software usage of photoshop files and things like adobe Bridge (a software specifically for bridging adobe files to each other piece of adobe software).

I decided, though it was unspecific and hard to get precise results, to use Apple Imovie since I had more current access and usage since it was accessible along with my actual footage files, whereas adobe After Effects I had to do everything from scratch which was more time consuming.

For presenting work and piecing together good editing streams I used Prezi, and Deviantart.

and for social research and feedback I used Tumblr, Facebook, and Deviantart.

Deviantart was useful to get collective feedback which was more directed at the art than the music, this was helpful because it let me get an authentic check as to whether the quality of my work was up to standards, rather than just the standalone theory of the piece fitting the music.


It was amazing to learn how to use Prezi (an online slideshow software) this was because not only did it introduce me to new software and help me make a very good collective area of my produced work. It also allowed me to really get invigorated to do more presentations again since they seemed more visually lively rather than dull!













Overall to reference my work I used my main social groups, including the music fans, and close friends who are into similar music. This helped them to provide more specific information to what I'd like to develop on and be more specific for the audience.



One thing I would've liked to have used technology more appropriately for would be in terms of software changeability, I wasn't prepared for the idea of going through so many different editing programs, and therefore I didn't make saves of many different layers or stills that would've been useful in other programs (rather than having to create them all over again).

I think I would've decided on a more strict branding across all social media platforms aswell, perhaps tried to learn even more things like inside of facebook "music promotion apps" but I think I may also have liked to try out different sites like Myspace, just to see the difference in presentation!