1. By Sarah Smith Q4: how did you use media technologies in the construction, research and evaluation stages?

2. Throughout our whole project Media technologies has been vastly important to us as a group, from the early researching to our evaluations. First of all we began to use the technology of the internet site ‘Blogger’. With this we were able to display and upload a mixture of Medias, such as Videos, Powerpoints, Photographs and various others; allowing us to display our work or research in a creative and eye-catching way. I believe that this way works very well, as it is less time consuming at points and allows the work to be visually stimulating to the reader, rather than bland and essay-like.

3. Research Stage Whilst carrying out research, the Internet played a key part in using Media technologies. In order to research Music Videos, we used Youtube, as the videos are clear and could be embedded onto our Blog, again making it much more visual. With this we were able to write up our research and analysis of the videos next to them. Although I believe this use of technology was a good idea, we were challenged with the problem that some of our Music Videos did not within the columns of our Blog. We decided that this may be due to our Layout and background, chosen at Pyzam.com I personally also found that the odd Music Video could not be embedded onto our Blog, due to the ownership rights. I had this problem when analysing the Music Video ‘Lily Allen’ – ‘Smile’.

4. Another way of researching was to use the search engine Google, allowing us to find information on various topics, such as Genre and Artists. We also found the website Wikipedia very helpful in order to gather research. We also used the website Billboard.com, allowing us to research information of the most popular Genre’s of the last Decade. From Billboard.com we were able to create a graph, showing the information we gathered using Microsoft Word.

5. We also chose to use the hosting website, Slideshare.com in order to upload the Powerpoint created by Sam, using Microsoft Powerpoint. By doing this the text is much easier to read, along with the visuals included. The only problem that arose whilst choosing to use this, was whilst the Powerpoint was converted over to Slideshare, some of the fonts were changed into much more simple ones. Although this did not change any of the information, we felt the presentation was effected negatively.

6. Another technology used throughout the process of research was a stills camera. Throughout filming we used Sam’s camera, being a Lumix DMC-FX60 in order to capture props, costumes and ourselves filming. This allowed us as a group to show how we worked and to make it much clearer to the reader what props or costumes we included.

7. Planning Stage In our planning stage we experimented with different Media technologies, such FinalCut Express and Green Screening as we wanted to use this within our Music Video. Attempting our Green Screen shots, we chose to use, key, fill and back lights to light Taylor (our subject), and we lit our background separately in order to prevent shadows. We chose to use the Canon MD235 Video Camera when filming our Green Screen. Finally we used the software QuicktimeConversion and uploaded our footage onto our Blog. Next we used the software FinalCut Express in order to capture our footage. Attempting to remove the green background we used the Chromakeyer colour picker. We then used Google Images to find a BBC News background and imported this. As a group we found creating a successful Green Screen shot very time consuming, finding it difficult to remove the full Green Screen background without effecting our subject.

8. Construction Stage In order to film our Music Video, using the song ‘Oh No!’ by ‘Marina and the Diamonds’, again we chose to use the Canon MD235 Video Camera, as it was easy to assemble and carry whilst on location. As we chose to shoot in so many different locations we had to create our own lighting. To do so, we all gathered as many lamps from home as possible to try to create clear and crisp lighting. Although I believe this worked well indoors, we had difficulty when filming outside at night time. This was due to interfering garden and garage lights.

9. Attempting the Green Screening in our research part of the project, we decided to include it within our Music Video. As we were aware of the lighting we needed to use from last time, we found it easy to film for our video. Next we captured our footage onto FinalCut Express, found on the college Apple Macs. After this we sent our song ‘Oh No!’ to the Apple Mac, through bluetooth on Sam’s phone. With all of this we were able to start editing. We used the razor tool a lot throughout to cut down clips and line up the lyrics to Taylor lip-syncing. Another technique we decided to include whilst editing was the speeding up and slowing down of certain clips, as well as reversing one clip. Once happy with all of our lip syncing, we decided to add in two Split Screens within the Music Video. We did so by putting our chosen edited clips onto seperate timelines and changing the size of each, so they equally fit together in four sections.

10. When filling our Green Screen shots, we used the same BBC News backdrop from our experimenting and imported a new image of the weather again from Google Images. Using the same skills we had learnt in the researching part of our project, we were able to create Taylor and the weather background using the Chromakeyer tool. With our Music Video complete, we again used QuickTime conversion, converting it into a QuickTime move. Once our video was converted we were able to upload it to the college’s Youtube account.

11. In order to complete our Ancillary Task we first of all took photographs of Taylor again on using Sam’s Lumix DMC-FX60. We chose to do in the college’s photo shoot studio, against a white backdrop. We took our knowlegde of lighting from using Green Screen, using Fill and Back lights, creating no shadows. After the photoshoot we had more than enough photographs to choose from, uploading what we thought best, to the Apple Mac computer we were using in college. Whilst editing the photographs, we soon learnt how to manipulate the images in order for them to look much more professional. To make the images look professional we increased the contrast and brightness. When deciding on the middle inside panel of the Digipak we used 3 images of Taylor jumping at 3 different stages. To merge them together, we used the fading eraser, blur, as well as the colour picker.

12. We chose to create our own symbols of rubies in order to match the name of our artist. To do so we used Adobe Illustrator, drawing the outline. We again used the Internet throughout our Ancillary Task to download our font ‘Brushtip Travis’ from the website Dafont.com, we used the font within both products. We font this helpful as we felt we needed to find a font that suited our Brand Image.

13. Evaluation Stage Within my evaluation stage I have used various Media Technologies in order to create a visually pleasing presentation to each question. For question one, we decided to create a Directors Commentary as a group, together we answered the question speaking to the camera whilst showing visually our work we had created. For this question many technologies were used. First of all we edited 2 Music Videos, the ‘Noisettes’ and our own, on FinalCut Express. We also created 3 PowerPoints, explaining our answers visually using Microsoft Powerpoint. To film the PowerPoints on screen and us speaking we used again the Canon MD235. Finally we uploaded our footage to FinalCut Express, editing our Directors Commentary to its final product. We then converted using QuickTime Convesion and uploading it to the colleges Youtube account.

14. I decided to create PowerPoint presentations for questions 2,3 and 4. Within these PowerPoints I included various pictures of both Ancillary Tasks, unedited photographs and location shots. As well as this I chose to include print screen shots of our Music Video and various others used throughout our project, such as the ‘Noisettes’ and ‘Adele’. I decided to chose Microsoft PowerPoint as a way to present my work as I believe it is much more interesting visually, as I can include images and videos. As well as this I believe I can show much clearer what I have achieved within my work and how I managed to create both pieces. Although I have used Microsoft PowerPoint for all 3 questions I chose to upload question 2 and 3 upon the website Slideshare and then chose to upload question 4 upon Scribd.com. I chose to do this in order to give a variety to my question answers and presentation.

15. Overall I believe as a group and individually we have used a good range of Media Technologies throughout every stage of our Project. I also believe that the use of these technologies have helped us thoroughly in order to show our work visually, research in detail and also construct together our Projects.