3. Internet
The internet was an extremely useful tool for the research stage. It allowed us
to view different websites for information on music video conventions, use
online presentation/planning software and view media content through
websites like YouTube and Vimeo. Using the internet as our primary source to
research instead of reading books for information impacted the efficiency of
our groups work massively, making it easy for us to find useful media content
quickly and easily. It also impacted our final product as we were able to look at
a wider range of music videos and online resources.
4. Blogger
Blogger was a useful tool for our group to collate research and planning. Blogger
allowed for blog posts to contain embedded links that show content from other
websites such as YouTube or from online presentation software like Prezi and Emaze. It
was a great blogging software for organising blog posts through the use of labels and
archives, allowing other viewers of the blog to easily find content and for our work to be
structured based on the different stages of the media production cycle. We used labels
like: planning, research, textual analysis and evaluation to organise posts. Using blogger
enhanced the quality and representation of our work, it kept our work organised and
made it easy to quickly revise any parts of our plan or research to help with the
production of our own media product.
5. YouTube
YouTube allowed our group to look through a wide variety of professional and
student music videos for analysis. The media site kept all content that we may
need to analyse in one place making it useful for our group to research codes
and conventions of different types of music videos such as: performance,
narrative and conceptual music videos as well as common conventions of
different genres of video, for example hip hop music videos vs rock videos.
YouTube enhanced our groups creativity when approaching music videos,
being able to view how directors approach the creation of different types of
music video made us think more creatively for the production of our own
music video later on in the planning stages.
6. Prezi
Prezi was a simple to use online presentation software, it provides interesting
templates and eye catching animations to go alongside with the slides containing
information. It was an effective tool for presenting our research quickly and simply,
it is a step up from powerpoint based on its ease of use and how simple it was to
put onto our blogs. As it was online an embed link could simply be copied and put
onto the HTML section of blogger which was used to seamlessly integrate the Prezi
presentation onto the blog. This software kept the information that we had
gathered during the research stage clear, concise and organised, it also improved
the quality of our blogs by providing such simple and effective visuals.
7. Emaze
Emaze was a very similar software to Prezi. It was a lot simpler to use and had
minor features that made the appearance and organisation of information on the
presentation a lot clearer. However, a downside to Emaze compared to Prezi is
that it only lets you create a limited number of documents before requiring you to
upgrade. This problem could easily be worked around by setting up multiple email
addresses to use more free accounts, although this is a fix it did slightly hinder our
work as it was time consuming to set up a new account in order to use the
software. Overall the software extremely useful as it allowed the presentation to
be embedded into other sites such as blogger. The limited number of documents
was a small problem that didn’t occur often, but it was still a problem that
hindered the creativity and efficiency of our work slightly.
8. Timetoast
Although we did not use timetoast often, it was an effective tool when showing off
iconic music videos throughout the years. The simple timeline approach that the
software presented us with made it useful to describe why music videos were
iconic in a chronological order that suited the purpose of the task. It enhanced the
quality and interest of our research that was put onto our blogs as it broke up
away from the constant ‘slide’ based presentations that were being put up to
show music video analysis and research into conventions. The technology provided
a creative approach towards research and enhanced the quality of our blogs.
9. Slideshare
Slideshare was a very useful tool for our group when we decided to use software
that could not be directly embedded onto our blogs, software that didn’t have
the function of embedding were PowerPoint and google slides. Slideshare
enhanced our work as it allowed all of our research to converge onto one blog,
without it, embedding of those two softwares would not have been possible and
key information would have been left out from our research.
10. Survey Monkey
Survey monkey was used to make simple questionnaires for audience
members to fill out after viewing our initial ideas for our music video. It
helped us to gain more primary research towards the planning of our music
video to see if people would be interested in watching the video. Although
the software itself would lead to enhance the amount of primary research we
had before constructing our music video, the questionnaires were often not
filled out by many people and were not a very effect source of research for
our group.
12. Storyboard That
Storyboard That is an interactive cartoon based storyboarding system that
allows for a variety of locations, characters and props to be edited within the
program. Although it took some time to use and produce detailed results, the
storyboard that we did produce payed a lot more attention to detail compared
to the classic hand drawn storyboards that we were so familiar with. The
cartoon characters that were used to represent our actors could be simply
dragged in and edited rather than needing to be carefully hand drawn,
reducing the time it takes to create a detailed storyboard. This program
enhanced the communication between us as we were album to clearly see
what shots needed to be taken when it came to the production stage.
13. Studio Binder
Studio binder was a great service for planning exactly what order our
shots need to be taken in. It also provided information into the shot
types and duration. It was useful as it made communication between
us easier, as we were all on the same page with filming and knew
exactly what we needed to do on set. It made the production stage
of our music video a lot smoother and easier as we all knew how the
shots needed to be constructed and filmed.
14. Facebook Messenger
Facebook messenger is a tool within the social media network
Facebook. It allowed us to create a group chat where we could plan
dates for filming and discuss how we could improve our work outside
of class time. Using Messenger greatly improved the communication
between us and allowed us to message each other instantly at anytime
from anywhere with a 3G or WiFi signal. Because we could arrange
filming dates and communicate easier, our production stage was a lot
more organised structured, making filming a lot smoother and hassle
free.
16. iPhone Camera
During the construction of our music video, we intended to use a professional Canon
camera to film the footage for the video but we found that it did not operate well in
a low light setting, which would have hindered our work dramatically as our video
relied on low key lighting to pull off it's dark and serious mood. We found that by
using an iPhone it picked up higher quality images in low light settings which allowed
us to continue with our original plan for a music video. Using the iPhone enhanced
the quality of our work as it kept the video looking crisp and clear even in dark
lighting.
17. Wix
Wix is an online web authoring software that gave our group a WYSIWYG
(what you see is what you get) approach towards the design of our band
website. It was very useful for helping us create a cohesive and user friendly
website with quality design. If we had used a HTML programming language
to create the site instead, it would have taken an extremely long time and
would have hindered the speed and accessibility of our work, as none of our
group members are familiar with the language to a proficient standard. Wix
enhanced our workflow as it allowed us to produce a high quality site quickly
and efficiently.
18. Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro was our choice of editing software. Compared to what we had previously used
(iMovie), it provided us with a lot of functionality, ease of use and creative post production
skills. It provided us with a variety of visual effects to use, advanced colour
grading/correction and a timeline that allowed editing to be easier and innovative. The extra
functionality allowed us to create our music video exactly how we wanted. The colour
grading allowed us to follow the lighting conventions of the alt-rock genre we were
following, and the user friendly timeline allowed us to the edit footage so that it cut to the
beat, it also allowed us to easily sync the lyrics with in times with the singing in our footage,
making lip syncing quick and easy. Final Cut Pro enhanced the quality of our work as it
allowed us to produce our music video exactly how we wanted, it ease of use and
functionality made the editing process a lot quicker and easier than it could of been if we
were using iMovie for example.
19. Examples
We used an earthquake effect to on our shots during the chorus to make the screen shake. This gave us
more control over the intensity of the shaky screen, rather than doing it manually and not having much
control.
The cutting tool was used to trim clips and sequence them together so that we could edit to the beat, this is
a common convention of music videos and using Final Cut Pro made the editing much quicker and simple.
Throughout the video there are transitions that cut to the beat of the music.
Colour grading allowed us to change the shadows, midtones and highlights of our footage to get the precise
‘look’ that we wanted. Overall there is a dark red hue over our video that was achieved through precise
editing of colour grading parameters within the software.
20. Photoshop
We used Photoshop to design our digipak. Compared to other photo editing
software that was available, Photoshop provided functionality and a variety of tools
for us to edit the digipak. It allowed us to edit the background of images to include
our red light iconography that we have used in all of the other ancillary texts.
Photoshop also made it possible to crop and edit the photos so that they would fit a
digipak template, using the layers in the software made it so we could add barcodes
and text onto the images to make our digipak look more professional and suitable
for the purpose of releasing music. Photoshop enhanced the quality of our work but
providing us with highly functional tools that allowed for the editing and
manipulation images within a digipak. If we had used software like Paint instead, the
quality and design of our digipak would have been very poor and unprofessional.
21. Examples
We used photoshop to crop photos that we had taken of the band to fit the digipak format. It allowed our
photos to be cropped into a perfect square so that the dimensions would fit the conventions of a digipak.
Once they were cropped they could be put over a template to make the album look professional and
finished.
Similar to Final Cut Pro, colour grading was applied to the photos make them slightly darker, accentuate the
red colours and change the contrast and brightness of each picture. This helped us to create synergy across
our products as all products looked the same, with the same colours and lighting.
23. iMovie
Compared to Final Cut Pro, iMovie lacked functionality. Its timeline for editing footage was a clunky to use
and only allowed one clip after the other, rather than layering clips. It also had limited effects that we could
apply to footage which would not have helped us create the music video that we had planned.
The main reason we chose not to use iMovie is that with software like Final Cut Pro available, it would be a
huge downgrade on both the quality and creativity of our music video.
24. HTML
For our website, we could have chosen to write it using HTML, however this would have been time
consuming. HTML is difficult to learn and although it doesn’t take long to create a basic website, it would
not provide the functionality needed for a professional band website.
Having online sites like Wix available gave our group a ‘what you see is what you get’ approach to making
the website. What we put on screen during the creation stage of the site would end up on the published
site. Having technology like this available speeds up the creation process, which was vital for our group as
we had to dedicate time to other ancillary texts.
25. The Impact of New Digital Technology
Digital technology has a big effect on the quality and amount of media content that is now available.
Software such as Final Cut Pro and Photoshop has made it easier for what would have been audience
members to create their own media products and in turn becoming the producer. This technology has made
it a lot quicker and easier to produce high quality media, there are hundreds of short films on YouTube to
support this. In the past only large production companies with a large budget could make films, now almost
anyone with a camera and editing software can make good content.
