2. RESEARCH
• When I was researching for my music video and print productions, I used a variety of mediums,
most of which are online. I used Youtube, an online video site to look at videos that were in my
chosen genre which was indie. I looked at bands like Arctic Monkeys and The 1975. this website
was vital when it came to putting my initial ideas together. It allowed me to see videos of all
genres and I could watch videos that did and didn’t contain narrative elements. The cons of using
Youtube was that to me, it was slightly distracting as I found myself drifting from what I was
supposed to do to looking at completely irrelevant music videos. Having access to previous year’s
blogs allowed me to see what previous groups had done which allowed me to see how high the
standards were of the coursework. This allowed me to set my expectations high and showed me
how much work I had to put in. this again was distracting as I didn’t want to end up copying
previous people’s work rather than just using it as an influence. SoundCloud was another website
that was vital in my research. This allowed me to find unsigned bands that were of the genre I
wanted to use. This allowed me to be influenced by certain artists and their style of music.
Blogger was the website that was the most prominent in my research section as it allowed me to
record and post my research. The fact that technology has changed to allow me to use this
software made the research element of my work more useful. This meant that I could post and
share my findings and ideas with my group members and exchange ideas.
3. AUDIENCE RESEARCH
• When I was researching my audience, I again, used multiple mediums to extend the result I found.
When I was finding out the opinions of my audience on my CD cover, advert and music video, I
used Survey Monkey. This site only had one negative and that was that you had to pay if you
wanted to ask more than 10 questions and paying wasn’t something that was vital to me. Using
this site made it easy to reach my target audience and get their opinions on my work which
meant I could make alterations to make my work more suitable for my audience. Again, I used
blogger throughout this element as it allowed me to share my findings with classmates but also
allowed people to give me extra feedback where it was needed. It also allowed me to personally
evaluate my work and the findings of my questionnaire. When I closed my questionnaire, I took
my findings and then put them into Microsoft Excel to create graphs that would illustrate my
results to allow me to analyse them. This software allowed me to create bar charts and pie charts
that were easily to read. This meant it easier for me to analyse and draw conclusions from. When
it came to creating my own target audience I used Gov Lite which allowed me to look at similar
bands demographics and create my demographic based on my findings. I then found a website
that allowed me to create an infographic about my own audience. By creating an infographic, It
meant people could easily read and understand who my target audience were. This was difficult
to use and again, I would have to pay if I wanted to edit every single element of the image but this
wasn’t a priority for me and I managed to create an infographic that I needed.
4. PLANNING
• When I was planning my work, I used various sites including Blogger, Prezi and YouTube.
Blogger was the most important of these as it allowed me to put all of my work together
in one place that was easily accessible for me but also my group members and teachers
so they could see my progress in my work. Blogger saved us using paper and writing
essays which meant our work would be safe in one place and not be lost. Prezi is
presentation software that allowed me to put all of my ideas in one place in the form of
mind maps that meant I could ‘jot’ down ideas and still have them to hand every time I
logged onto my blog as I could easier embed them and post them along side my other
work. Youtube was also important for me as it allowed me to research bands, genres and
also allowed me to find online tutorials for Premiere Pro so I knew what to do when it
came to my video edit and editing the pictures for my print productions. Previous blogs
were also helpful as they allowed me to see how other people had planned their work
and the standard of which they did it to. Having this available meant I could see how
other people had gone about their planning and whether I could take inspiration and
advice from their work. Mobile phones were also important in the planning stage as they
allowed us to keep in contact with each other when we weren’t at school or in lessons.
This meant we could discuss ideas and discuss plans for filming.
5. PRODUCTION FOR MUSIC VIDEO AND CD
COVERS
• When filming my music video, on the first day of the shoot, we used a GoPro
Hero. This didn’t work at all as the angle of the shot was too wide and we couldn’t
see what we were filming. This meant we had wasted a large proportion of our
filming time faffing about with a camera that was impractical. We then used a
Cannon 600D which was much more effective. This was a DSLR camera which
meant the quality of the video was much higher and the camera had a screen
that meant we could see what we were shooting and the standard of the clips
were much higher. Alice was able to focus the camera on certain elements of
each shot which again made it look more professional. This camera was quite
difficult to use to get shots that looked as good as ours did in the end which
meant we needed Alice to help us use it. We all used our mobile phones to
contact each other when we were filming which made it a lot easier to get
together when we needed to film. As Norwich is a big place, having mobile
phones meant we were all always together and if we weren’t we knew exactly
where the other person was. Blogger allowed us to post images, rough cuts and
locations online to share with the rest of our group and edit each others work
when it was needed. The internet still played a crucial part in our production
phase as It allowed us to access maps online, contact each other and post images
from the shoot online.
6. POST PRODUCTION FOR MUSIC VIDEO AND
CD COVERS
• After I had finished filming my video and taken photos for my print
productions, I needed to edit these elements to a professional standard.
Firstly, I used Dafont, which is a website that stores typefaces that you can
use for free in your work as long as you’re not making any profit from it. This
website was more helpful for my print productions rather than my music
video as I did not use anything font related in my music video. In my print
production, I chose a variety of fonts and evaluated them to find out which
ones were best for my work. When it came to editing my music video I used
Adobe Premiere Pro. This is video editing software which is easy and free to
use in school. This meant I could make the clips I had taken look professional
as I could edit them into chronological order, according to the narrative of my
video, make the clips shorter and also add any needed after effects that could
enhance the quality of my video. In my opinion, the negative of this software
is the fact that it regularly crashed and sometimes corrupted the video clips.
When it came to editing my print productions, I used Adobe PhotoShop. This
allowed me to put the photos I had previously taken for my print productions,
into software that would allow me to edit them in a professional and smart
manor. This meant that I could aim to make my music video and print
productions to the same standard, hopefully professional and readable.
PhotoShop wasn’t as unreliable as Premiere Pro as it didn’t crash as often but
it was difficult to use in the sense that this was the first time I had used
PhotoShop so this posed as a difficulty for me.
7. USE OF BLOGGER
• Blogger was imperative to my coursework as this was the platform in which
all of my work was carried out and my work was posted publically. Blogger
was so much more reliable than using paper for coursework. It meant that
all of my work was in one place and readily available for me to edit and
share with other people. Blogger also meant my teacher was able to check
my work and give me feedback which meant I could then edit my work in
the areas that my teacher considered weak. This was a time saving
endeavour that meant I could gain constructive criticism and make changes
to my work freely and easily. In my opinion, this also helped me keep up
with deadlines as I could see when all of my classmates were posting
coursework which meant I knew when my interim deadlines were and as a
class, we could all keep up with the amount of work together. In my
experience, this made us also work together as a class as we could remind
each other when our work was due.
8. CONCLUSION
• In conclusion, the availability of technology and having the internet available made this
coursework much more easy to carry out. Having the internet on computer facilities and
my smart phone meant it was easy for me to search for ideas or concepts I was unsure of
online. The internet allowed us to have access to blogger which meant I could easily keep
track of, access and edit my work. Having Adobe software available to edit my video and
print productions allowed me to create work of a much higher standard than may have
previously been available. This was partly down to my access to a high quality camera
too. Having a DSLR camera meant I could effectively capture action in a way that was
focused and clear. This again made it easier to edit as it meant that I already had high
quality footage that just needed putting into place. Some technology was more difficult
to work with than others, the GoPro for example, was something I had never used before
that wasn’t meant for using in the way I intended. This allowed me to unintentionally
gain a wider understanding of equipment I had never used before. In my opinion,
advances in technology have allowed for the increased quality in media studies
coursework. For example, in previous years, there may not have been as apt cameras or
editing software that may have made other peoples work look of a lower standard when
it has entailed the same amount of effort. These advances in technology do people’s
hard work justice and have allowed me to create work that I can be proud of.
