2. Lighting kit
• The lighting kit was a very key part of our technology
for making our final music video. The lighting kit
helped us to add atmosphere and give a professional
feel to our shots. Lighting is a key part of the mise-en-
scene, and so we used the kit for a lot of our
shots, especially when we were filming in the studio. At
first we only used one lighting kit when we were doing
trial shots. After looking back over the footage, we
realised the lighting was not bright enough, and
shadows could be seen on the backdrop for the studio
shots. To solve this problem we used another two
lighting kits, a total of 3, to light the studio shots
properly.
3. Tripod
• The tripod helped give a professional feel; to our
Music Video as we could use it to hold the
camera steady and keep it in the same position.
As the studio shots are filmed with many
different outfits, it was very important to keep
the camera in the exact same spot, which the
tripod allowed us to with ease. After seeing that
some of our shots were unsteady as we had held
the camera ourselves, we realised that we
needed to use the tripod in most circumstances
to keep the shot steady, consequently improving
our final music video.
4. SLR Camera
• This year we chose to use a SLR camera due to the
quality that we would be able to film in and the final
footage would be in a very detailed way. With the SLR
camera we were given the chance to work with a lense
as well to make the quality of the footage even better.
To add to all of this the camera filmed in High
Definition(HD) which made our video to look even
more professional. The transferring to the Apple Mac
was an easy procedure due to all the footage being
stored on the SD card which allowed us to just slot it in
to the side of the Mac. With the use of the same type
of camera every time we shot some footage it allowed
us to keep the same quality of image without there
being a change in definition.
6. Photoshop
We used Photoshop to complete our Digipak and our Advert as we
thought it would give the best finish and effect for our audience.
We used many tools ranging from the eraser tool to more complex
tools such as the magnetic lasso tool. This allowed us to follow the
line of our image and then the tool would cut out the outline. This
helped us a lot as it saved a lot of time as it’ll attach straight to the
line we draw over. The lasso tool gave a crisp finish and made our
product look more professional. The use of layers on Photoshop
gave a 3D effect making the image of LUNA come out towards the
audience compared to white background. We used a variety of
colours which we kept the same throughout our whole coursework.
This was easily done on the software we used as we could just take
the co-ordinates for the colours and insert into both the digipak
and the advert. This allowed us to make sure that our collective
identity was consistent and continuity came across well.
7. iMovie
• iMovie was our biggest asset this year as we
not only completed our dailies, but our rough
cut as well as our final video on this software.
The use of the cutting and the cropping of
images allowed us to make our videos of a
high level. We were proud of our video as we
synced the song with the images on the
screen making all of the lyrics relate to the
images. For example, the use of lip syncing
and images correlating with the images make
the video more professional than if they
weren’t related.
8. iMessage
• IMessage helped with the communication
aspect of our coursework, allowing us to
contact each other easily and schedule times
to meet up for either filming or editing.
IMessage was also a big help when contacting
our Actor and Actress Alex and Zara, allowing
us to message and organise times and dates
for shooting, making the whole process a lot
more organised
9. Youtube
• YouTube was very helpful for the research aspect
to our Music Video. YouTube allowed us to easily
locate other music videos within our genre, such
as Katy Perry’s Music Video ‘Roar’, and many
others, to get a feel for the pop genre. Once we
got a feel for the pop genre, and saw how other
artists made their music videos, and what
conventions we could see, we were able to draft
our own music video. Watching the other Music
Videos on YouTube also helped with inspiration
and ideas for our own Music Video.
10. Casting Call
• Casting Call is a website where employers can
post adverts for actors to apply to for certain
roles needed. Casting Call was a major aspect n
our music video as it helped us to find one of our
main actors ‘Alex’, who starred as the boyfriend in
our music video. Casting Call allowed us to save
time by posting a simple add on the website and
waiting for a response from a professional or
amateur actor, rather than having to go around
asking people individually whether they would
feature in our music video. In total, it made the
process of organising our music video and lot
easier and more efficient.
11. SD Card
• This was an essential storage device that we used
in our camera when filming all of the footage for
our music video. We then transferred this footage
onto the mac computers so we could begin the
editing process. We encountered a problem with
our SD card as we ran out of memory. To ensure
this did not happen again when filming we took
multiple SD cards when we filmed again. This was
an essential piece of hardware technology that
we used during the construction process of our
media coursework.
12. Wordpress
• We used Wordpress as our blog software to display all of our
coursework throughout our AS and A2 coursework. Wordpress
allowed us to present all of our research, planning, audience
feedback, communication, evaluation and our use of new
technologies. This was an essential medium we used to
demonstrate all of our work in pre-production, production, and
post-production during our music video stage. Additionally, we
uploaded all of the essential audience feedback we received from
each stage of our coursework. This helped us tremendously to fully
incoporate the feedback to help us progress towards our final
media coursework. Wordpress also allowed us to put links on our
blog and embed our work from other software websites. Wordpress
helped us lay out our work in a neat and efficient manner, as we
were able to tag and categorize each of our posts. This made
reflecting on our previous work a lot easier and effectively.
13. Spiderscribe
• We used Spiderscribe in the evaluation stage
of our media studies coursework. We found
this to be an effective way to lay out our work
and allowed us to critically evaulate our work
in a proficient manner. As we used arrows to
indicate the types of feedback we
received, this made all of our work
categorised.
14. Wordle
• Wordle was a new software we used to
convey all of our feedback that we received.
We took words from all of our
feedback, putting it onto Wordle allowing us
to show not only our positive but also
negative feedback that we received in a
contemporary way. This also gave our
audience members something eye catching to
look at instead of us just writing down our
feedback.
15. My Brainshark
• We used mybrainshark to upload powerpoints
and then add in a voiceover over the top of
each powerpoint slide. This was extremely
useful when trying to fully convey all of the
information as we were able to elaborate on
all of ideas during the voiceover. Therefore we
were more concise and analytical about our
work. This was an essential piece of software
throughout each of the stages of our Media
Studies coursework.
16. SlideShare
• We used slideshare many times during our
coursework allowing us to create
presentations on powerpoint and upload
them to our blog. This allows us to portray the
work we had completed by the use of this
technology. We used this for not only our
ideas but for our treatment at the beginning
to pitch our idea to our peers and receive
some feedback.
