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Other forms of technology were very helpful in doing smaller research and planning tasks as well as the evaluation. I tried to use a broad range of technologies throughout my blog, such as bubble.us, Voki, Slideshare, glogster and padlet.

Slideshare is a great way to share powerpoints or keynotes. It's simple to use as you just have to upload the file and then it puts the slideshow into an easy to use format.

Voki is a tool that puts typed words into speech. An avatar is chosen to represent the speaker and the voice is customisable. You can even record your own voice to use.

Bubble.us provides an online mind-map. It's also simple to use and was very helpful in the planning process as well as making notes on research.

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Socia media site such as Facebook and Twitter were very helpful when gathering audience feedback. On Facebook the audience could vote using the like button and comment their opinions, criticisms and feedback. I could also post links to questionnaires I created using Survey Monkey. The share feature also allowed my friends and family to share my work for their friends to react to, providing a bigger audience.

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I used Wix to create my website as part of the ancillary tasks. This was a very good piece of technology as it made creating a website simple and creative. I was able to add all the conventions I had found in my research including purchase buttons (iTunes, Amazon etc) and different pages for tours, pictures and other commonly found pages.

I was also able to embed videos and images into the website. This creates synergy between products. Wix was also helpful in that I could make the website look professional without having to study professional techniques such as coding.

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Green screening played a huge role in my video. It was essential to plan the shots carefully in order to have a successful outcome. It is a great skill to have learnt, although it's very easy to make simple mistakes which result in people having holes in their body.

Using Final Cut made green screening very simple. I had to add the Keyer effect and set the parameters of the colour to be turned into a 'green screen'. After this I simply had to drag the background into place.

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A chroma key tutorial on Final Cut Express

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Uploaded by Aidan Standish on 2013-09-20.

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I used my own Sony SLT-A37 rather than the schools camera in the hope for better quality. It was a good idea to use my own camera as I was familiar with how to use it and how to get the best results. However, the quality was compromised when the video failed to export through Final Cut and was slowly degraded through the alternative means of exportation. The camera doesn't feature a strong microphone, although I do have an external microphone I can attach. However this was not neccessary as no sound needed to be recorded, as all the sound would come from the song.

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Having a built in webcam meant that I could make easy recordings of reactions or video logs.

I used the webcam while recording audience reactions to my music video as part of the research process. This meant I could watch back peoples reactions in time with the video.

I also used the webcam to film question 1. I then editing this in iMovie, adding pictures and videos over the top.

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I used a lot of software during this project. Final Cut Pro X got the most use, as I used this during the construction stage to edit my music video. It has so many more features than other programmes like iMovie or the Express version. It also has a much more friendly user interface which I found made a huge impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the construction process.

Final Cut gave me a huge creative scope when planning my idea. Although knowing that nearly anything was possible, I had budget constraints (£0) and ability constraints. This was very much a learn as you go process. Although I'm a fast learner, there are many things that were just too advanced. However I did use many other editing techniques such as green screen.

Photoshop was the main programme I used when creating my digipack. Like Final Cut, it also has many features. I found when using this advanced software that it's often more professional to cut back on the amount of editing techniques and head for a more simple approach. Just because the software was capable didn't mean I was capable of doing a good job. Also using a lot of effects can often come across as gimmicky.

I tended to use iMovie for smaller or more basic video editing tasks, for example Question 1 of the evaluation. iMovie had all the capabilities I needed in a much simpler format than Final Cut. In these circumstances it makes sense to use the simpler editing programme as it's less time consuming and more effective.

YouTube was again very helpful when it came to learning how to use these technologies. I could quickly look up a tutorial for a certain skill or programme, giving me fast access to knowledge.

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Being able to record my computer screen in real time was a very helpful tool. During the planning stage I created a tutorial on how to use chroma key or green screen. I could use a screen recording of the process in Final Cut and record a vocal explanation using the inbuilt microphone.

I actually came to rely on this tool for exporting my music video. After having issues with Final Cut when trying to export, I used a screen recording and then added this to iMovie. From there I added the song and lined it up to match the video. Then I could export this using iMovie and upload it to YouTube.

This tool was also helpful during question 1 of the evaluation. I was able to take a recording of different videos and place these inside my video log. I did this using the 'picture in picture' function in iMovie.

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My MacBook was my complete workspace during this project. I acquired the macro-tech I would need such as Final Cut, Photoshop, iMovie (for simpler video editing tasks), Logic and Adobe InDesign. Having these on my personal computer meant that I could work from home and not need to rely on school iMacs to complete my editing or research tasks. It also meant I had the necessary technology for completing my evaluation, meaning I could use many different technologies.

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By downloading the Blogger app I was able to update my blog from my phone. This was very helpful when constructing the video as I could take shots from filming and post them directly to my blog. It was also helpful when planning as I could take photos of locations and post them to the blog too. This was done through 3G which meant I could access my blog and the internet while on the move.

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1. The Internet: Google, Blogger and YouTube

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1. The Internet: Google, Blogger and YouTube

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It's important to note that the internet is a technology and is absolutely vital to the whole project. Without sources such as Google and YouTube, research and construction would have takes more than twice as long. Google is like an online library of resources, and to find and read this kind of information from books would be extremely time consuming and boring.

Web browsers like Google Chrome allow me to search for keywords, meaning if I came across a very large article I could easily source the helpful part that I needed. This cuts down on wasted time reading unhelpful or wordy articles.

Google also allowed for image searching which is an easy way to spice up a plain text blog post. It's also home to both Blogger and YouTube.

Blogger is where I kept my blog. It's a great technology because it is compatible with all other kinds of technology. This meant I could make interesting blog posts, making use of all the different kinds of micro-tech websites. These included sites such as Voki, Bubble.us, Prezzi, Slideshare, Glogster and Padlet. This could all be embedded using the HTML option.

In regular text blog posts, I could make them more exciting by changing fonts, font size and colours. Adding images was easy and is a good way to help visually describe a point.

Another useful feature of Blogger is being able to use tags. This meant I could keep all my posts organised in their own separate groups. This makes my blog easy to navigate.

YouTube is another bit of macro-tech that was essential to the success of this product. Not only could I use it to view videos but also to upload my own. Before YouTube, music videos were only shown on TV. YouTube allowed me to pick and choose between different videos and analyse videos of my own choice. This was helpful when studying an artist or looking for a specific video.

Videos I uploaded myself could be embedded into my blog, making it cohesive and self contained. By this I mean that I could cut down on external links and keep things central to the blog.

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Technology is a key component to this project. It's been fun to explore new technologies like Final Cut Pro X, but equally fun to expand on older ones like Photoshop.

I am lucky in that I have my own MacBook which has all of the technology I required. This meant I could work at home as well as at school, which is helpful as it gave me more editing hours than other students who relied on school computers.

There are some technologies I used for almost every task, which I'm going to call macro-tech, which include websites such as google and blogger. Other technologies only got one or two uses, such as Voki and bubble.us, which I'm going to call micro-tech.

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