evaluation question 4

1. EVALUATION
QUESTION 4
HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?

2. HARDWARE

3. Nikon camera
I used the camera mainly for the digipak and photos for the websites, by using a
proper camera and not a phone it meant that the quality of the images would
better, which would mean that they look more professional on the finished
products as the images won’t be blurry and they won’t be as pixelated if they are
expanded on the products. For the roughcut digipak because I was taking
pictures at home I used my Nikon camera, so when I was using a camera at
college I chose to use a Nikon camera as the functions were familiar to me. The
reason why I used a camera at college was to film some of the performance at
college, so as I was familiar with this product I knew how good it was when
combined with lights in a studio and natural lights. As this piece of hardware
was only going to be used for performance sections it meant that I didn’t have to
test the quality of the image when it would be moving, as idealy the quality
would be better for taking still images.

4. JVC video camera
This piece of hardware was used to film the narrative sections of the music
video, the reason why I used this camera is because it is the one I have at home
so I knew how to use it better than I did using a Nikon camera for filming. This
product was used in the planning and construction stages of my products. The
video camera was used for the test shots so that I could test the image quality
linking in with what is in the frame and how smooth the zoom transition is as
this camera movement would be used in the music video. Then for the
construction stages because of the test shots I used this camera to film the
narrative as I knew how good the quality of the clips would be and how the
camera works with natural lighting by seeing what the lens will focus on
because of the lights. These were two things that would have needed to work
together well because all of the narrative sequences were shot outside where
you can’t alter lightening to work with the camera better.

5. Tripod
To improve the smoothness of the shots that were going to be
used across all three products in the construction stage I used
a Tripod for the Nikon and JVC as it would avoid blurry
images due to movement and shaky shots in the music video.
An advantage of using a tripod was getting high angle shots
for the music video, I did this using the tripod as I attached the
camera and lifted up the tripod meaning that I could include
high angle shots in the video and they would be sturdy.

6. imac
An imac was used as this is the type of computer that is used at college.
The advantage of using a mac rather than a PC at college is that they
support Premiere Pro better resulting in the program running faster
which was useful when I was constructing together the music video. By
using a mac for all 4 stages it meant that I would have to use software
and online tools on one computer so the mac would have to able to
support specific features, which it did as I was able to use Google
Chrome for all 4 stages, as the program runs fast, and that I could use
Premiere Pro and Photoshop efficiently and that they had the features
that I need to use because the digipak and video were constructed on the
mac at college. Also because it was used through all of the stages it
meant that it would need to have a high amount of storage available
because of how much would be downloaded and saved on the computer.

7. Mobile
I used my mobile phone to take behind the scene photos and
videos that I could put on my blog to show the progress in
making the products. So on my phone the three platforms that
I used were the Camera, which meant I could take pictures,
videos and timelapses, Snapchat, so that I could show people
where the location is e.g. South Park and finally imovie so that
I could put together the pictures and videos to make a behind
the scenes video to put on my blog.

8. SOFTWARE

9. Photoshop
This particular piece of software was used in the construction stage for the digipak and the
merchandise to go on the website. The good things about using photoshop to make the digipak is
that I was familiar with the software, it is available on the virtual desktop so that I could practice
and edit at home and finally it allows me to manipulate images with a wide range of tools. At the
start of the year as a practice we made and digipak using a image and titles from a random
generator, so this was good practice for layouts and seeing what tools would work best with the
theme of the digipak. When I was making the final digipak I used tools that I was comfortable with
so that I wouldn’t do something out of my comfort zone resulting in the digipak not looking as good
as it could be. The three main tools that I used to make the digipak were the magnetic cut out tool,
which meant that I could select specific parts of the image to be visible on the product,
brightness/contrast adjustments, so that I could make the images look darker making them more
noticeable and links them with the theme more, layers, which allowed me to place the images of
the performer over the text for the three panels it also allowed me to place multiple layers over
the background colour on the back panel, and finally the text tool, this was the tool I used the most
in photoshop when I was creating the digipak as it meant that I could add text to all of the panels, I
also used the warp tool for the text which allowed me to add make the text on the CD fill the space
as I made it go around the centre circle.

10. Premiere Pro
This specific piece of software was used in both the planning and construction stages of the
course. In the planning stage I used premiere pro to make the animatic to get a rough idea
of what the music video would look like as the visuals of the storyboard is present. To do this
I inserted the images of each frame and either increased or decreased the amount of time it
is on screen by using time stretch. Then for the construction stage premiere pro was used to
make the rough cut and final product. The main tool that I used in the construction stage
was the colour tool so that I could change the brightness/contrast as well as the saturation
so that the video would link in better with the theme that is present across all of the
products and the narrative of the music video. The most important tool that I used was the
razor cutter tool so that I could shorten clips and cut out anything that I don’t want in the
video.
But if I had more time to practice different effects to include in the music video I would try
to include a flashback effect that would be used for the narrative because then there would
be a clearer difference between past and present.

11. imovie
By having imovie on my phone it meant that I could create
behind the scenes videos to put on my blog from the footage
and images that were taken on my phone. Whilst on location.
The advantage of having this software on my phone also
meant that all of the clips and images would be together so I
wouldn’t have to upload every image and video taken
separately on my blog. I was able to add voice overs explaining
what was going on and music in the background when the
pictures are on screen. So this was mainly used in the
construction stages because by making these videos it would
show the progress made in making the music video.

12. Screencastify
I used screencastify in both the research and evaluation
stages. The reason why I used it in these two stages is because
it is more efficient as I don’t have to type up everything that I
want to say. Instead I can include images or videos to support
the points that I am going to make and present them on
screen whilst I talk over explaining what I found or the
reasons why I made the product that way.

13. FILE MANAGEMENT

14. File management is where is where you keep specific pieces of work that link together in one folder. An example
would be keeping school work separate by having a folder of each subject and the splitting it up in modules
which makes it more efficient finding work. As I would be downloading and saving a lot of files for all 4 stages I
would say that file management is important because it makes it easier finding documents or pictures as they
aren’t all scattered around in one file which will take time to find one document. So by creating sub-folders it will
make file explorer or finder easier to navigate yourself around. Also if you don’t know where you have saved it
and it is in a file that doesn't link with the work you are looking for you might accidentally delete it without
releasing and if it hasn’t been backed up it can’t come back. Finally if you are trying to look for a piece of work it
is important to have appropriate names for the files because if the name doesn’t relate to any documents you
might think that it isn’t useful if you can’t remember what you have put in the file in the past.

15. JPEG & PNG
Description: JPG files are used when saving photographs
because a smoother look is created. Also it is a popular file
type to use on websites and the reason for this is because a
small amount of data will be used.
Image Quality: When JPEG is used in photoshop you have an
option on whether to save it from 0-12 and the reason for this
is because when it is compressed to a smaller file size the
quality of the image will decrease.
File Size:: 6MB
Used: This file format was used for the pictures taken for the
digipak and website as the images will be good quality which
is important as the images would need to be clear when they
are advertising a product or the artist. Also because JPEGs
have a relatively small file size it means that when the images
are used during the construction of the products the file size
doesn’t rapidly increase.
Description: A PNG file allows you to have an image on a
transparent background which would allow you to place it on
top of coloured background or other images without have a
solid background colour to the original image.
Image Quality: The image quality is high because the file size
can be reduced by using lossless compression so the quality of
the image is still high.
File Size: 4.2KB
Used: As this file type supports a transparent background I
used this file type when I was making the merchandise to go
on the website, this is because on the website I didn’t want
white or black boxes behind the merchandise as it would
make the products harder to see and won’t fit in as well with
the house style created.