This is my evaluation of question 4 of my A2 media course.

1. Media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages

2. In the research stage of our music video to help us develop
ideas of our own we took inspiration from other artists. We
used both TV and the internet. We watched TV channels such
as 4music to accumulate ideas for our video. However the
internet enabled us to visit websites such as “YouTube” in
order to view music videos from any artist we searched for and
gain knowledge on what codes and conventions suit the genre
we were aiming for which was pop. We stumbled across the
song Outside by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding through a
recommended video option due to watching previous pop
genre videos. We decided to use the song for our music video
and started to plan. I think YouTube really helped us as it
allowed us to view a large achieve of music videos at the click
of a button and search for whatever music video you to view.
We were also able to use it on our mobile devices such as my
Samsung galaxy S3 smartphone which enabled me to view
while on the go, however its limit is that you must have a
strong internet connection otherwise buffering may occur.

3. Our planning was carried out both on physical and
digital copies for example all the work we did towards
research and planning was then put on an online blog
through the website ”Blogger”. I created my own
account on the blog which enables me to view other
blogs within my media class and gain and develop ideas
which I can manipulate and use in my own music video.
For example someone in my class had gone onto the
band website of the artist which would play the music in
their music video, therefore I decided to do the same.
On the Ellie Goulding website was many more of her
music video which seemed to continue with the pop
genre we were aiming at therefore I used copy and paste
and send the image via Gmail (Google mail) to my
mobile where I then send the image to the rest of my
group on a chat set up on the popular mobile app
WhatsApp which enables large groups to all have a
conversation within a chatroom.

4. When filming we used technology such as
a Canon DSLR which provided much better
video quality than the 1080p HD Sony
camcorder we used last year in our AS
thriller. The camera reacted better to high
intensity light exposure and focused well
on the actresses face when doing panning
shots due to the facial focus feature which
was not an option on last years camera.
However the DSLR we used didn’t have a
zoom option while filming as the lens had
to be manually rotated which would have
jolted the camera. We used lighting
squares while filming, these contain LED’s
which have two settings, low and high. We
used them in a dark room to highlight the
actress and create shadows. The tripod we
used had 3 extendable legs in order to
help us get shots from different angles and
stabilise the DSLR. We used a 8GB memory
card to store the footage on in order to
transfer it between devices.

5. When editing our raw footage we used a piece of software called
adobe premiere pro. It was the same software we used last year in
our AS thriller. Therefore the editing techniques and effects we
learnt were transferable into A2 as we used the same software.
However this year the software was updated which fixed a problem
which kept happening last year which was that the programme kept
freezing and deleting random pieces of work which we had either
added or edited. An example of an effect we used was fade out
which involved 2 characters in shot and one disappearing. We did
this by overlapping video footage and then clicking on the effects
menu and slowly lowering the opacity of on of the images therefore
meaning one of the characters would slowly fade out of shot. We
had trouble with the screen resolution as when the raw footage was
imported it didn’t fit the resolution of the screen so we had to click
fit to frame and then physically drag the image so it fit in the
parameters of the screen on the editing software.

6. Once we had finished editing we
uploaded the music video to
YouTube where it was available to
view by the public. Which is useful
as it allows us to tell how many
people have viewed the video,
how many have liked it and where
in the world they are from,
however we cant gain insight into
the individuals themselves. We
then used websites such as Prezi,
SurveyMonkey and Slideshare to
analyse our work. And Compare it
to previous textual analysis’s made
on other music videos.

7. When creating the CD Digi-pack we
used adobe Photoshop in order to
enhance the image, scale it to size of
the CD cover and then to add text over
the top of the image, even adding a
shadow to the text to make it look 3D.
We imported the image from
photographs we took while out filming
the music video in preparation for the
ancillary tasks.
When creating the website we used Wix
in order to get a template. Wix already
has templates set up, for example we
chose one which was originally made for
a boy band. We then changed the colour
scheme to match that of the CD cover
and HGSC logo. Then we added images
of our artist, information about her and
links to social media websites such as
Facebook , twitter and Instagram.