Probably the biggest part of technology towards our project was the internet. Without the internet we wouldn't have been able to create a project anywhere near the standard that we have. The internet was very beneficial during our research stages as it allowed us to analyse existing music videos via YouTube which is where we gained most of our ideas and how we learnt about codes and conventions for our chosen genre. It also allowed us to view existing products in relation to our ancillary task which also helped us in creating a suitable product that followed the correct conventions. The internet also gave us access to social networking sites such as Facebook which we used to advertise our products and also use as a tool for feedback.
Without the internet we wouldn't have been able to create our blogs using Blogger! It is a fantastic and easy way for us to display all of our work and the processes we've been through and how our project has developed over time. The easy accessibility to our blogs made it easy for me to look back over my work and know what I needed to do next and where I left off.
Power Point Presentation came in very handy when doing our research and evaluation as it was very easy for posts to become too 'wordy' power point allowed us to make our work look more effective and made us use different ways of displaying our posts. A website that follows on from Power Point is Scribd. Scribd allowed us to upload all of our power point presentations and upload them onto our blog making it easier to view as it uploads as an actual presentation.
One of the main ingredients in our project was the video camera we used to film all of our footage. My partner did most of the filming so unfortunately I wasn't able to use the camera to its full ability as I only controlled it when filming the focus group as I was the one performing in the music video. Before this project I had never used the video cameras as for my AS project I chose to do the print option meaning that I have had little experience using them. Fortunately my partner was very able in doing so and was very helpful to me throughout the experience. The editing software we used to put our music video together was fundamental. My partner was very used to this program whereas I wasn't so some of our time was spent in teaching me how to edit. The program allowed us to crop and chop our footage exactly where we wanted it and also add in special affects such as spotlights to brighten up the shots and things like blending to shots together to create montage affects.
We used digital SLR's to capture all of our ancillary task photos. I had taken a GCSE and AS Level in photography so I was very familiar with this equipment whereas my partner wasn't. I had to teach her how to use the cameras to their maximum potential before she could begin shooting for the ancillary. The SLR's were very affective as they ensured that we had clear crisp photos which were easy to Photoshop and edit.
To edit all of our ancillary task photos we used Photoshop. I am very capable on Photoshop therefore it made this task easy and enjoyable. I was really focused on making sure that our ancillary task followed the conventions of Indie Pop albums, especially Katy Perry's. Photoshop allowed me to create amazing affects with the fonts, change the style of the main photo to a cartoon affect, add in creative background and change the colour of it to suit our scheme, and to work with several different layers to create something that looks really professional.
Most of the technology we used during the project was digital which was a help to us, it made it quicker and easier. When taking the photos for the ancillary tasks we would know straight away if what we had was any good because we could view it instantly on the view finder. The same goes for the music video. When filming we could just play back our footage to see what we think and re-film anything we weren't sure about. The beauty of digital technology was that it stored everything we did therefore by the click of a button we could revisit anything we had previously discarded.
Without Web 2.0 and all of the digital equipment, we would not have been able to create something as great as we have, and it also would have taken a lot, lot longer.
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