1. By Alice Ellie and Emily

2. To edit our video we used Adobe Premier
Pro. We decided to use this software as it is
more advanced than the ones we have
previously used, for example Serif and
iMovie. Although we had never used this
software before and had to spend some
time learning to use it correctly, we
decided this programme would be the best
to use because it would help us to achieve
a more professional finish to our video as
well as providing more advanced editing
techniques which were not available on
iMovie or Serif, for example a wider variety
of ways to adjust the lighting and colour of
the shots.

3. For our blog, we used WordPress. We chose to use WordPress because it has a
professional, but simple and effective aesthetic to it and the wide variety of themes
allowed us to design the blog to accurately reflect our artist and her genre. WordPress
also allowed us to add more specific touches to the design, for example the picture of
our artist as the background and tagline below the artists name which helped to give
the blog a more personal feel and create a connection between our artist and her
audience. The tag line also gave us an opportunity to reflect our artist through speech
and give the blog some of her personality. WordPress is also simple to use and edit as
well as allowing us to embed other forms of media, for example PowerPoint, YouTube
video’s, Slideshare and Sound Cloud. This helped to make our blog more interactive
and visually appealing to the audience.

4. YouTube was the main software we used to do our research. YouTube allowed us to view videos from
any genre at any time. We were also able to watch tutorial videos for Adobe Premier Pro when we
were learning to use it and tutorials on how to set up and correctly use the steady-cam we used to
film most of our video. We also used YouTube to look at A2 music videos from previous year groups
which allowed us to learn from their mistakes and get ideas on how to improve our own. Also the
comments on YouTube videos meant that we were able to get feedback from other students and our
target audience, and see what people thought of videos from our genre, what appealed to them
and what they didn’t like. The feedback from the public meant that they were completely honest
and we could hear the opinion of people who were not involved in the making of the video, or
media students which gave us a more accurate idea of how the video would be received by our
target audience.

5. To design our digipack and advertisement we
used Adobe Photoshop CS6. This software allowed
us to create the design exactly as we wanted it.
The features on Photoshop CS6 meant we could
adjust the lighting and colouring on our images,
as well as add the layers of out of focus fairy
lights, we could also edit each one individually to
create the theme we wanted without distracting
or spoiling the main image. For example we
slightly faded out the lights that were over the
face of our artist, in order to ensure her image
was the main focus of the design. Photoshop also
has a good selection of fonts, as well as a tool
which enables you to alter the font by hand,
which we did by stretching out the curls on the
first letter of each word to add a feminine touch
to the overall feel of our artists name and logo.
This also helped to reflect the genre of her
music. The crop tool on Photoshop meant that we
were able to neatly refine our images and paste
them onto the background once we were happy
with them. To inject more contrast and feeling
into the look of our design we used Photoshop to
alter the lighting and brightness of the colours
within the main image and background, this
helped to bring the picture to life and reflect our
artists personality and musical genre.

6. Google has been the main software we used
to conduct our research. The main example
of this is google images, which we used to
search for images of other artists from our
indie/folk genre in order to get ideas for
the dress sense and overall look of the
artists. We also searched for the
promotional material and digipacks of other
artists to get inspiration for our own and
make sure that our design was similar to
those of other artists within our genre. This
is where we got the idea of layering the
lights over the image of our artist, after
seeing a similar design from the singer Ellie
Goulding. Google was useful right from the
beginning of the process when we were
deciding how to design our blog, as we
could use Google to look at the websites of
artists similar to ours and gain a clearer
idea of how the artist reflected and
promoted themselves and their music
through the visuals of their website.
Throughout this process we have used
Microsoft Word in several ways. In the
beginning when planning our shots and what
props we would need, we used word to list
what shots we needed and what props we
needed for each shot. This ensured that we
did not forget anything important and we had
exactly what we needed for each shot. We
also used Word to plan what we needed to
get done each day we filmed or edited. This
meant that we would always be on schedule
and we would not spend too long on each
shot or run out of time. In order to take
screen shots of our work, to track our
process, we used Word to paste and save the
images.This was a quick and easy way to
document our work as well as making our
blog more visually appealing. In the early
stages of designing our digipack and
advertisement we used Microsoft Word to
find a font style which we thought most
suited our artist and our genre.

7. Using BrainShark to display our research made it clearer and easier to read, it meant
we could display all our feedback on one page, focusing on the main points whilst
dividing it into categories such as ‘camera work’ and ‘repeating motifs’. The concise
and clear way in which BrainShark displays information means that it is easy to
understand and quick to read. It is also has more effect and is more memorable than
reading a block of writing. We could also add images to help illustrate the meaning of
what we had written, this makes the information quicker and easier to absorb. The neat
and comprehensible structure of the BrainShark means that as well as being easy to
read and understand it helps to give our blog a tidy and professional feel.

8. By using Wordle on our blog, it
allowed us to collect all the
main points from our feedback
and research into one place,
this meant it was easier for us
to remind ourselves of what
we needed to do to ensure we
were doing all the right things
to appeal to our target
audience and reflect the genre
of our artist and song. We
could also quickly and easily
refer back to the Wordle’s to
see what we needed to do to
improve at each stage. The
colourful designs available
when designing a Wordle
meant that we could
additionally add to the
aesthetics of our blog, making
the information easy to read
and more attractive to look at
than a written post. The bright
colours also helps to
differentiate the information
from the rest of the blog.

9. We used SoundCloud several times
throughout the process, firstly to
record feedback from our teachers
and also to record a phone call to a
lighting specialist who gave us advice
and tips on filming in our different
locations. Recording these and using
SoundCloud to embed them onto our
blog meant that we could listen to
them limitless times, pause them and
take in everything that was said. This
was especially helpful in terms of the
phone call as it meant that we could
listen back to it afterwards and take
detailed notes without missing
anything that was said, whereas it
would have been harder to take notes
as the call was happening. It was also
helpful being able to listen again to
the feedback as it meant we could
refer back to it and use it to improve
other parts of our work. Using a
recording of someone speaking their
feedback rather than writing it down
meant that the speaker was able to go
into more detail and describe exactly
what they meant, rather than writing,
which is often, less thorough and can
be a bit vague.

10. Power Point provided us with a way to present our research, feedback and planning.
The nature of Power point meant that we could display lots of information in one
place rather than writing a long written post. We could also include pictures and
annotate the slide with arrows or specific picture placement to better illustrate our
point. Using Slide Share to embed our Power Points on the blog meant that our blog
became more interactive and a large amount of information could be viewed in one
place. The visual aspect of Power Point meant that we could use it to illustate and
compare our digipack and promotional poster to those of other artists. This helped us
to ensure that we were accuratley reflecting our artists genre. For example, the
image on the right where we compared our own design to Ellie Goulding’s.