1. H O W D I D Y O U U S E M E D I A
T E C H N O L O G I E S I N T H E
C O N S T R U C T I O N ,
R E S E A R C H , P L A N N I N G
A N D E V A L U AT I O N
S TA G E S ?
4. WORDPRESS
At the start of the year in A2 media we again like last year made a blog to record what we are doing through
the process of making the music video. The blog will then hold all of my past work and display them creatively
as if it were a timeline of the whole process that also allows me to upload any sort of media. As already briefly
mentioned as I had used WordPress previously I was very confident how to create a good portfolio of work
effectively. WordPress is one of the only software's that I have used throughout all four of the stages of making
the music video. I have kept using WordPress as I think that it displays work well and captures the essence of
my project with themes and the use of accessible documents through the site, not only on my account but
when referring to past works as well.
Personally I think that Wordpress has been most effective in the Research and Planning stages of the project as
this is where I was using it to developing the initial plans and ideas for the music video as well as deciding on
Genre and Artist. WordPress was beneficial during this time as it would allow me to look at the previous stages
that I had followed to get a certain idea. An example of my decision making on my blog during the Research
and Planning stages was my lyric analysis. Once I had decided that I wanted to take on a Taylor Swift song I
then did an analysis of ‘Wildest Dreams’ and ‘New Romantics’ lyrics and scanned them into WordPress. This
then allowed me to make a clear decision further on in the process as I had both scanned items next to each
other which then made it easier to see which I had more ideas about.
5. A large part of my A2 project was keeping a blog in which I showed my journey and development
of the music video. As a class in the first year of media studies we had decided to use WordPress.
When using WordPress it was very simple to use and I could also flaunt my create nature when
designing the blog page - which also introduces the topic of music videos. Overall WordPress was
useful for a number of reasons for example as I wanted many images of things I had done or things
I had scanned in when planning like my storyboard, WordPress made this very easy to embed these
images into my posts to give evidence of my work. As mentioned WordPress was also a good site
because it let me transfer documents over from Microsoft word easily. And if I were to create
something on prezi or find something on You Tube that would enhance my research it was easy to
apply. Another thing I also found useful about WordPress is that it is very easy to update and as my
ideas were changing or I wanted to give an update I could easily have access to the account to
then have the option to add and update what I had previously written.
And by having these features on there this then has allowed me to present all of my posts in a way that
also reflects my Genre of music and a way in which is easy to read and interact with. The simplicity of
WordPress now has also allowed me to expand on my skills when editing a post which means for a
better outcome and allows me to express myself creatively though the post. I would also have to say that
I have taken far more risks on WordPress in comparison to last year, by using many software's that I
haven’t used before and linking them to WordPress (Prezi) allowing me to push myself further in terms
of skill.
To conclude I think that the use of WordPress throughout A2 media has been very useful as it allows me
to present the blog how I want and do this very efficiently., which helps if I would want to refer back to a
certain task. And also allows me very easy access as because it is on the internet it allows me to access
from both college and home and this then helps me improve the blog very easily with any time I have
7. YOU TUBE
When in the Research and Planning stages of the A2 project I used You Tube to look at
other examples of music video’s that had been done in the past to then set myself
certain expectations when making the video. It also helped me gain knowledge of grades
from the past that were given to music videos and gave me ideas of what techniques I
could use to gain marks. As well as this then main use of You Tube was to look at
already existing Pop genre video’s. Because I chose ‘Wildest Dreams’ before the
announcement came that it was going to be a single and the music video was released
(which I have previously written about) I could not look at the video for inspiration. So
this then gave me the access to analyse such videos as Lily Alan’s ‘Hard Out Here’ as it
has a message that partly wanted to portray in my music video, so the use of You Tube
was to help me create an idea of the conventions I could follow and how I could possibly
interest my target market.
8. GOOGLE
I have used Google in all four areas in the A2 unit. To get to many sites that I had also
used while researching I had to go through the Google search engine. This then gave me
access to many different sites in which I could get information such as copyright laws
and helped me find out what I could do to make my video more emotive such as how to
set up a lighting shot or the right angle. I mainly accessed this information at school on
a Toshiba laptop or Philips computer, however as the school network has many firewalls
Google was also available to me through my iPhone 5S as I have access to internet data.
Google was also a good search engine when planning such things as my digipak, it
helped me look for track names on Taylor Swift’s recent album so I could then apply
them to the album cover, I also had to get links so I could apply them onto the back of
my digipak.
10. FILMING USING IPHONE 5S AND CANON
70D
Over the summer when filming I used a variation of cameras. For example I used both camera’s to
film in all locations however when I was in Canada filming very short shots I used my iPhone as it
was very simple and quick for my to use in order to capture the scene that I wanted. Where as I
used the Canon 70D for more complex longer scenes like the protagonist miming the lyrics,
capturing intricate details of her when walking and also to get a good quality of footage when
filming in the dark as an iPhone would not be able to do this because it does not have a specialist
lens like the 70D does and does not have the ability to capture in 4K. I also used the Canon 70D
when taking the imaged for the advert and digipak for the same reason when filming in the dark,
as it will turn out a better quality and enables me to capture an image better without very many
restraints like the iPhone.
Smaller things that I could critique myself on is the fact that I can tell the difference between
quality in shots throughout the music video as the iPhone’s shots are less stable than the Canons
and picture quality is not the same. I also want to critique my lack of the use of a tripod as this then
may have enabled me to get far better shots and maybe then I could have used more footage that
I had taken, but in some cases over the day’s in which I gathered all of the footage the environment
was not suitable so it would have been easier to film in hand and also during car journeys as it
would have been shaky non the less.
12. PREMIER ELEMENTS/PHOTOSHOP
I found editing to be one of my personal strengths in this unit of work and I chose to use Premier
elements to highlight this. As last year we had used Premier Elements but on a much smaller scale
I had knowledge of how to use the software to my advantage. As I also use this software out of
lesson as well I also knew how to push my skills further as I had gained other skills that allowed me
to make the music video far more effective with things like lighting tools and my now precise use
of the timeline which allowed me to make the lip syncing very precise in every frame of the video.
When editing the video together I took far larger risks with my footage as I had more to work with
and I also had a much larger time frame in which I had to fill. An example of a risk that I took was at
the very start of the editing process in which I was matching the beats of the song to the video
footage very closely and can also be see in various other places throughout the video. To do this I
had to start using the timeline very accurately as if I were to use the scene line like last year things
may have been out of place or inaccurate.
Another large risk I took is when I was making sure that all of my scenes were visible to the
consumer. To this I could not use Premier Elements features as they were not advanced enough. So
I then for the first time used Photoshop’s video editing feature to lighten up many of my scenes
and this then made the footage look far more effective as we can see all of the protagonists
features while miming the lyrics.
13. I also used Photoshop for the additional ancillary tasks. I had a very minor advantage of
also doing a Photography A level which gave me more advance skills at altering an
image to my advantage.
Overall I have done 3 different versions of my advert however have linked them with my
digipak by developing my ideas over the time I started filming. I have not altered any of
the images used colour wise or put a filter on them which made the ancillary tasks very
easy. However in my last draft of the ancillary tasks I decided to put a white boarder
around all of the separate images that I have put on the digipak and also applied it to
the advert as well for another way of recognition and also another way of linking both
projects together
15. SLIDE SHARE
SlideShare is a very useful software used for when a PowerPoint is needed to be viewed
online. SlideShare can also be useful for when a PowerPoint is used very broadly as then
everyone has access to watch many of the slides. I have used this feature not just only to
share my own PowerPoints and share my own personal views but also in my Planning
and Research stage in which I was looking for other opinions to then further develop my
own ideas and to also help influence other ones. This is because SlideShare is very
largely popular with students and if they had reviously done a music video this can then
help spread other ideas from other people in terms of techniques or original view points.
I have also used slideshare to upload my own PowerPoints but then link them onto
WordPress, this then helps me use my time more efficiently and is a lot more simple than
uploading the PowerPoint straight onto Wordpress.
