Question Four

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

Whilst completing the music promotion brief, I used many different media technologies in order to research, create and edit our final products. Some of the technologies were hardware, but most of it was software. The hardware involved the camera and the Macs and the software included final cut, in design and Photoshop.

When we first began we entered the research stage of the project. This mainly involved using the internet to look up well known artists and their videos, album covers and adverts. For this we used the renowned search engine Google.

We felt Google was the most reliable source of information as it has up to date information, which was useful to us when researching facts and figures for example the UK top 40. Google images also provided us with a range of images when we were looking up album artwork or brand images.

A second media technology I used was Microsoft Word. This was to mainly write essays for example in our Narrative section and all the questionnaires we created. I found this the easiest programme to use and had no difficulty as it’s what I’m most used to. Microsoft word is perfect for presenting work as it allows you to change the font along with its size, colour and style. You can also insert pictures and add bullet points and borders to your work.

Microsoft PowerPoint was also used quite frequently in my research and evaluation. We used it for our audience analysis on ‘The Wanted’ and I used it to create question 2 of my evaluation. Again I had no difficulty using PowerPoint as it is easy to use and was perfect for creating my second question in an easy and presentable way. I was able to change my font colour, size and position whilst adding pictures and video stills to show what I was analysing.

After completing the PowerPoint’s, they needed uploading to the blog. To do this we used the programme ‘Slide Share.’ This was essential as we needed the embed code to convert the files. I used slide share to convert our audience PowerPoint and when uploading my Question 2 to the blog. It’s very simple and easy to use as you just select the file in your documents and then wait for it to upload. Whilst it’s uploading you can create a title and description. I had no problems with slide share.

As the task was to create a music video, it was crucial for me to watch current examples so I could understand the conventions and different techniques used. The best online website to watch videos is YouTube as its quick, easy and free. YouTube allowed us to look into the videos in our chosen genre and also pick the song we were going to use.I used YouTube throughout the entire project, mainly in the research stage and also in evaluation questions one and three. For question one we had to look into real media examples which we found on YouTube and for question three I used it to watch Beyonce and Jessie J’s videos and upload them to Prezi. I had no trouble using YouTube as it’s very easy to use. You simply type in what you’re looking for and it appears in seconds. There is a huge choice so you’re guaranteed to find what you need.

In order to record the information we found in our research and planning we needed a blog. For this we used the website blogger, which allowed us to create our own page with a background and font colour. I felt this was good as we were able to personalise it just how we liked, allowing creativity. I think this is one of the most important media technologies we used because our blog now contains 5 months work from introducing ourselves to the finished piece. It allowed us to upload PowerPoint’s and Prezi’s through embed codes, YouTube videos, photos and publish posts analysing videos and artists. As I had used it for last year’s coursework, I found blogger very easy to use. There is nothing to difficult as adding posts and uploading videos is made very simple.

Most of our work was done on the IMacs. These are perfect for this type of project as they contain lots of different programmes for you to edit and fix your work on. The most important programme is Final Cut which is what we edited our entire video on. We had practice with it when experimenting before the real editing took place. I found the Macs a little difficult at first as I am used to Windows but after a few lessons I understood how they worked. I feel they are a great foundation for the coursework as they allow lots of creativity and for my skills to develop over time through the many programmes available.

We filmed our video using a video camera and tripod in the studio. I used one last year so was quite familiar with it but we had tutorials before we filmed our video. We filmed Gabbie to test the green screen. The tripod was easy to adjust once we’d had a bit of practice with it. On the day of filming we used our storyboard and filmed small parts of the song in different shots. We made sure we got plenty of shots so we had lots to work with. The HD camera was perfect for creating an authentic, professional video. On our first day of filming, a lot of time was

taken up with trying to figure out how it worked but after a few tries we understood how to use it. I feel my skills definitely developed over time with the frequent camera use.

Another example of hardware we used was a digital camera. This was an essential piece of equipment as we needed photos for our ancillary task. We took lots of shots as Franki dressed as a girl and a boy for the front cover, back cover, inserts and adverts. We also used it to take pictures of the studio and studio equipment to show where we were filming and what we’d be using. I found the camera very easy to use and experienced no difficulty as most people have one of their own.

Transferring our pictures onto the Mac was quick and simple. We used a firewire which meant all we had to do was plug the camera in and copy them into our folder. This meant once we’d taken our pictures we could use the firewire and then get straight into editing them with Photoshop and In Design. I had no trouble with the firewire.

Whilst in the studio we used the equipment provided in order to get the lighting perfect. This was essential as we were creating a studio based video. The various lighting equipment helped to balance the light and shadow perfectly and allowed us to move the equipment round till it was just right. At first I struggled getting the lights in the right place whilst being out of shot but after a while we understood the perfect places for them.

After filming our video it needed to be edited. For this we used the programme Final Cut. I thought I would struggle with it but I found it surprisingly easy. You are given 99 tracks so there’s plenty of room to add your footage without messing up the work you’ve already edited. You were also able to lock a layer once you were done with it which ensured your editing would stay the way you left it. This meant we could experiment with different clips and add and delete stuff at ease. We transferred all our footage using a hard drive and then imported it all into final cut. As we had chosen a very fast paced song we needed our editing to match which meant a lot of cutting and trimming using the razor tool. We had lots of 5/6 minute clips where we only needed a couple of seconds from it so we just selected what we needed and dragged it into a new track.An advantage of Final Cut is the various editing techniques you can use. We used effects such as split screening sometimes with two clips and other times with four, at the start for example.

Another effect we used was the one where we gave our artist and the dancers ‘halos’ and changed the colour. This was easy to do and created a nice effect which changed with the beat. Effects such as this reinforced the creativity and allowed my skills to develop throughout the editing process.

Final Cut also allowed us to colour correct the entire video. This enabled us to remove the green bits created by the green screen by using the chroma keyer.

We used PhotoShop to edit our photos for our ancillary tasks. After inserting the picture, we were able to cut it out and then edit it. I used tools such as the pen tool and the crop tool. For the album cover, I chose two pictures of Franki one dressed in the girl’s clothes and the other dressed in the boy’s clothes. I knew they had to be similar as they needed to fit together. I then cut them both our carefully and began to edit them. I felt as I was using coloured backgrounds they would look authentic if they were black and white. I simply went to ‘Effects’ and chose the black and white option. The backgrounds we created were also done on PhotoShop. I googled ‘PhotoShop brushes’ and downloaded the ones I felt were appropriate for our video. I then added them to the PhotoShop pallet and played around with them till I found the ones I felt worked.

With most of our images we cut them out on PhotoShop and then imported them into In Design by saving them as a JPEG.

Personally I found Photoshop very difficult to use. I did the PhotoShop refresher a few times and still couldn’t quite grasp it. After many goes I eventually got the hang of it but found it the hardest technology to use.

In Design was very helpful to us. I had never used it before so I decided to have a refresher before I started which didn’t really help but after I’d had a few goes it became easier each lesson. I found it much easier than Photoshop and again feel my skills developed through time. I tried to use a bit of

everything including the swatches which allowed me to play around with colour and the different fonts on offer. We created the ‘Franki’ font on our front cover using In Design as we thought the font looked like a signature. We added the two hearts over the ‘I’ using PhotoShop.

I used the box tool when creating the album cover. I made a box, filled it in and then took the opacity right down so you were able to see an image behind it. I then cropped each image in half and placed them together.

We also used In Design to create some of the more difficult backgrounds. We got our idea for these backgrounds from Christina Aguilera’s video ‘Candyman.’ We liked her background so much we decided to try and create them ourselves. We chose the different shades of pink for the girls and blue

for the boys.

It took awhile but we felt it worked better than just a plain block colour background.

For question three of my evaluation I used Prezi. I had never heard or used this programme before and was baffled by it when I first logged in. I found it difficult however after a few tries I finally got the hang of it. It doesn’t offer as much colour/font variety than programmes like PowerPoint but it does allow

you to create ‘paths’ which link each slide together so the whole presentation is all on one big page. I put my Prezi presentation on the blog using the embed code.

In conclusion i feel that we have had success with our video and ancillary products. Our aim was to create a typical pop genre video and artist which we have done as shown in our audience feedback. I thoroughly enjoyed filming the video although it was time consuming. Standing behind the camera and directing Franki what do was really fun and then picking different shots and angles was also enjoyable. Editing the video was also time consuming however I feel that looking at the finished product it was all worth it. In Design and PhotoShop were sometimes challenging, but after a while they became easy to use for our ancillary tasks. I feel we reinforced the brand image of being ‘young, fun and lively’ throughout the entire project through mise-en-scene, cinematography, colour and editing. That was another one of our aims which I feel we’ve fulfilled successfully. Our audience feedback was very positive with few improvements advised which I am very pleased with and can be used as proof that our project was a success. I feel that me and my two friends worked very well together and had no disagreements. We all used our media talents and combined them to work at the best of our ability. Although stressful at times, I feel our hard work has paid off and I’m delighted with our finished video and ancillary tasks.