EVALUATION QUESTION 4 HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

BY STEFANO TOWELL

INTRODUCTION

Technologies have been the backbone of our media coursework this year as they have expanded our potential with creativity as well as innovation out into practice. Since the research stage at the beginning of the year, technology has always been used to its full potential to ensure our production can fulfil our ambitions. A major aspect about technology is that it is so expansive that it can range from editing software that we use in our production to a twitter account we have made for our band. There is so much to discuss in regards to technology, in this presentation I will discuss how it has been used in our research, planning, production and post production stages of our coursework,

RESEARCHOne of the major technologies that helped my group in the researching stage would of

course be the internet. The internet is packed full of information, resources as well as inspiration that we could pick to create a fantastic production in the eye of the audience. Watching music videos produced from famous artists and bands were something that we wanted to aspire to produce something similar as music video particularly published onto YouTube tend to be very popular with viewers attracting millions of views depending on the popularity of the artist. Amateur music video were also on our agenda as we had to think realistically as of course we would want to produce a high quality music video but we had no where near the budget of famous artists and their music videos so amateur band and music video would be something we could maybe rival with and produce something of similar quality. I have linked a post of music video styles which is something that was very beneficial in the research stage including discussing performance, concept and narrative video styles. Music video Styles Blog Post

As filming a music video would be very much different to filming an opening film sequence, we had to research common and effective shots that are generally used in music videos so we went online as a group to find frequently used shots and to put them onto our blogs so we could go back to them when producing our shot list as well as pre production planning.

A lot of the research was actually brainstorming ideas and concepts that we were already familiar with but needed to discuss as a group to get valuable ideas. My group does take great interest in the music industry, music videos in particular as we all watch them online. The fact that we all have that background knowledge makes the process a lot more efficient as well as effective as it would be easier for us to come up with ideas as we were already familiar with what the music industry creates. In fact, the inspiration for our logo goes back to Enter Shikari with it being similar to their CD cover for their album ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’. This shows that our research involved looking at other bands digipaks and posters to get ideas for our own. Our music taste is expansive throughout the group so we can take points and ideas from each member to create a large brainstormed plan. Web tools were used to present our findings and plans onto our blog including applications like Prezi, Slideshare, Soundcloud and Padlet. Using web tools expands our knowledge of the technology but also makes our blogs better aesthetically for people to view.

Researching ideas and concepts made planning which was he next stage a lot easier as we had a blueprint of ideas as well as a starting point when going into creating a music video. The internet was a very beneficial starting point as almost anything an be researched upon with inspirational ideas being able to be captured into developed into something bigger.

PLANNING

Planning being the next stage started to involve more technology into the mix with software a well as equipment starting to be used. Like the research stage, the internet was a large benefactor to this stage as we put a great deal of our planning work into blogger as well as drafting ideas and concepts. Skype conversations with two contacts of our teacher who have expertise in media that would benefit us in capturing our audience.

Our teacher also wanted to get us as a group up to grips with filming so a few preliminary tasks were conducted to test our filing as well as editing skills. Adobe Premiere Pro also came into the mix for the planning stage as an editing task to sync a piece of music and a video clip was made which can be seen by viewing the link. Editing Exercise Blog Post Camera work and editing was coming into the mix as it helped us think of ideas in our planning stage which was very beneficial. Once we had chosen our song(s) for our production, we were set a lip syncing task which involved playing the song with a view of or lips singing the song in time to show that we understood the concept of how it would work in the music video. It was difficult to begin with however we all gave it a go once we got the hang of it and edited the footage with our chosen songs in the background. The blog post is also viewable by clicking on the link. Lip Sync Exercise Blog Post

Going back to the Skype calls we had, they did give us a great understanding of how to capture the audience’s attention and the outline on how to make a comprehensive and impressive music video. The two conversations our class had were on two separate occasions with two separate contact who work in the profession and have great industry knowledge. The simplicity of how it was set up using Skype is worth mentioning it was a form of video conferencing which benefited everyone in the group by using a simple application to make it possible. Technology in our coursework started to emerge further in the planning stage but the production stage is when it really boomed in how effective it was.One of our Skype interviews

with Ian Houghton of Handsome Design.

PRODUCTION

The production stage of the coursework really was when all the technology combined together to help construct the coursework. We as a group were filming shots fro our music video over a period of around 4 weeks with the Conon 700D Camera, a high quality piece of equipment that boosted the look of our music video. Of course we gained our experience with the camera last year when we created our opening film sequences which made production a lot slicker this time around. We would transfer the footage from the camera onto our working PC by inserting the SD card and putting all of our collected footage into out own file organised in a efficient way.

Internet technologies were also at the helm with blogger being updated regularly with information as well as updates from our production being posted. We even went the route of creating a twitter profile for our band ‘Overexposed’ which group member Daniel Bruce did and put onto his blog.

Going back to the production of our music video and how media technologies were involved would bring in the two main programs we used to put together and edit all of our footage to create into the music video. Starting off with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, this was the most important piece of software we used as it had so many features to edit and create a top quality media production. We had experience from last years task so getting into the midst of editing was simple especially after also creating the lip sync exercise as well as the editing task just a few months before.

Connor Crosby was selected main editor due to his experience and ease at using the program. The positives for using this program is that it is expansive, relatively simple to use as well as a professional program to create a high quality piece of work even though it has caused us a few minor problems regarding lagging and speed when rendering the videos. Adobe Photoshop was also used when editing photos as well as editing parts of the music video which came in very handy especially when waiting to incorporate our band logo into some of the audience shots. It was also used for creating out digipak and magazine poster which was very beneficial as we believe we created them to a high standard. Of course it helped having someone experience being main editor but we all felt that after the editing process we had all learnt some valuable skills.

Here are some images of media technology being used to create and edit our ancillary tasks including the digipak, magazine poster and promotional poster. Programs including Adobe Photoshop were used to manipulate images and text to customise them to our band. We used the same font as The 1975 so with the aid of Photoshop, we could select the text we wanted to spell the words we wanted including Overexposed and the date of the album debut. Without the use of this media technology, this would not be able to achieve so we are pleased that it was available for us to use.

USING MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN DIGIPAK

USING MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN MUSIC VIDEOAs mentioned before, media technologies including Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop were used heavily in the production stage to create out music video. Editing and adding effects on the clips we imported was very easy and trouble free meaning we were able to power through the editing stage of production while at the mean time keeping a high standard. Text such as the hashtag and the words at the start of the song were easy to create as well as colour match. We used Adobe Photoshop to create the bands logo and incorporate it into Premiere Pro where the music video was being edited. Connor our main editor found both programs easy to operate with the support of myself, Daniel and James.

Also mentioned before was the Twitter profile that James created gives the audience information about future events as well as tweeting the hashtag #SGIM which will help promote the song on a social media platform. We believed having a hashtag will get people talking about the song as its easy to remember. Another feature involving media technologies mixing with social media is the QR code we created which allows views to scan it (it is found on the magazine poster) and it will direct them straight to Daniel’s blog as he has done extra work to promote and create a name for the band. We thought including these extra features will show interest in wanting to get the band up and running as well as being more realistic.

POST PRODUCTION

Post production eased slightly on the amount of technology we used however it was more concentrated and more dense on the internet side. We made more regular posts to Blogger about post production analysis as well as our ancillary tasks. I found in particular that the Blogger layout was very beneficial in its organisation and aesthetical features which can be altered in its design. I have nothing negative to comment on Blogger as it has always been helpful and I am glad that I was able to publish my work using this internet application.

Of course audience feedback would involve media technologies a we had to show our production on the editing software in pre cut and finished versions filing the analysis and reaction. Both times we were easily able to assemble a group of peers as well as the teacher to make comments as well as their own opinions on our work which was very beneficial as we would then further improve our work based on what they said as they are a portion of the audience we are targeting. The footage was again recorded on the Canon 700D and uploaded and edited on Adobe Premiere Pro to make matters smoother. Our Pre cut audience feedback video can be seen by clicking on this link; Pre Cut Audience feedback Blog Post. Soundcloud was also used to evaluate our work as we found it a more spontaneous way of presenting our work. Its an easy application to use where sound can be recorded and embedded onto our blogs making a good web tool to use.

As mentioned before, web tools were very useful in the planning and research of our coursework, as well as to shape our coursework on the blog. There were many that I used throughout the course, some being online and some external programs. Beginning with the online web tools, programs such as Prezi and slideshare were very beneficial as they project the work in a much more appealing manor that simply writing on the blog. Prezi has many different templates to choose from and forms a presentation where different slides go in different shapes to form a presentation which can be easily guided through when completed. Slideshare is similar however it used Microsoft PowerPoint to create the presentation and then creates a copy that can be viewed online. These two in particular were my favourites to used however there were more such as Pinterest and Sound cloud that helped me structure my blog. Pinterest is great for posts containing a lot of images as you can pin up an image and discuss underneath it which makes it very simple for the viewer. Sound cloud was beneficial and was used particularly in narration videos such as Evaluation question 2 where we narrated over images of our production which created a professional presentation.

Other web tools such as the Adobe products, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop were beneficial in the editing and construction of our pop promo as we could create a professional looking product with their assist. Photoshop was used when manipulating images to put into our production such as our logo as well as our ancillary tasks where we created the poster and digipak to go alongside our video. It is a very useful and eventually simple program to use after some practice. After effects was used not on the same scale as Photoshop however it helped with adding that extra special touch to the images we edited on Photoshop which contributed to the outcome. Lastly Premiere Pro was used to construct the video in editing which we all had experience from AS. This program was fantastic to use as it didn’t pose so much of a challenge to use but it has helped us create a professional looking video. Our soundtrack was also incorporated into Premiere Pro where we cut the three songs and made smooth transitions between all three. We thought it would be easier to manage our video this way as we could make adjustments without having to switch programs.

Web tools

CONCLUSION TO QUESTION

Overall I believe that the media technology that was available for us to use was very beneficial and worth while us using as it structure our work to achieve a high quality production which I myself and the rest of my group are very proud of. From the editing software to Blogger itself, it has all been very efficient for us to use and complete our work with. It was all a learning curve but since we gained some valuable experience from last years coursework, it was easier for us to settle into this task as most of the technology to use was familiar to all of us.