How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. How did you use media
technologies in the
construction, research,
planning and evaluation
stages?

2. Research stage
Tumblr-
In research I used a lot of Tumblr in order to blog my process in the research
and planning process. This would involve me blogging frequently on the site
in order to allow my progress to be racked and displayed clearly. We used
Tumblr as we had to use some sort of blogging platform as that’s how our
work is marked. The good thing about using Tumblr is that it supports so
many file types and makes it so easy to paste links, add images to your work
and upload videos which is made easy by the bar at the top of each blog.

3. Google-
Google was a key part of our research stage as it allowed us together
all the information we needed about music videos, music video
theories and the common conventions of each genre of music videos.
This is what allowed us to choose what sort of music videos to create
ourselves as sites like YouTube allowed us to view music videos made by
professionals in order to gather inspiration. As well as being a key part
in the research stage it also had a bug part in all stages as it allowed us
to upload our film to YouTube as well as giving access to prezi and
tumblr which our key parts of the evaluation and planning stages.

4. Hardware-
In order to access a lot of this software we also needed sufficient
hardware to do this. This includes things link mobile phones and iPads
in order to access Tumblr on to go and be able to constantly update my
blog wherever I was. I also used Pc’s a great deal in class and out in
order to gather information on music videos and conventions and then
use this information and condense it into a blog or PowerPoint which all
involved the use of a computer.

5. Production/editing
Cameras-
Digital Cameras in order to shoot the actual footage itself. In filming
we used a Nikon D3200 with an adjustable 18-55mm lens which meant
we could get the highest quality footage possible to ensure for a better
overall product. This was a significant step up from the camera we
used last year which is important as we were really looking to up the
quality of our work this year in order to create a more mature piece
with more complex shots like pull focus shots. The lens itself was also
an improvement as it allowed for a greater depth of field by blurring
the background and focusing on the actors face by adjusting the
aperture settings.

6. Adobe Photoshop-
This was my chosen choice of photo editing software in order to
help me edit the images and create the digipak and digipak advert.
This was relatively tricky as I had little experience with using the
software so I relied on using another site, YouTube in order to gain
some knowledge for myself. The software allowed me to edit the
saturation levels, the filter and the contrast in order to get the
effect that I wanted to match the music video. After creating my
digipak I had gained an average level of knowledge of the software
which made the task of creating the advert a lot of easier.

7. The end result…

8. Adobe Premier Pro-
This was our chosen choice of video editing software as we had
experience of using it the year before and hence had a decent
knowledge of the ins and outs of the software. We used this to create
the main task itself as well as editing our two focus groups down
however it was the main task which took up a bulk of the time. With
the software we went with more basic editing using the razor tool a lot
along with a single dip to black effect in the leaves being kicked shot.
We also used just one edit for the sound as we added an exponential
fade onto the end of the track. We felt tough that this simple use of
editing related quite nicely to the slow pace of the music video as
quick cuts with lots of effects wouldn’t really suit it. We did however
choose to add a black and white filter to all of the shots in order to
help us conform to the common conventions of acoustic/folk style
music.

9. Evaluation
Prezi-
This was used in the evaluation stage in order to help answer one of
the evaluation questions in a more stylish manner. Again, I had
experience of using the site from last year as well as using it now and
then in the planning process so I didn’t find it too challenging to use. It
is a step up from PowerPoint as it gives a more mature feel to a
presentation. It is also incredibly easy to import pictures and video
links compared to trying to do the same with PowerPoint and its vast
choice of layouts means it is easy to pick a layout which suited the
question I was answering. Doing this really allows you to elaborate on
your point and get the message across in a simplistic and easy to follow
manner.

10. Digital audio recorders-
Finally, we used Microsoft's Sound recorder in order to record our
voiceovers for our directors commentary. This was done fairly easily by
simply plugging our microphones into the computer and talking over
our music video while using the sound recorder to record our
microphone input. We then just had to import the audio into premier
Pro and match it up with the visuals of the music video.