This is question 4 to my A2 media evaluation.

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

2. Digital Editing - Premiere Pro:
 Throughout the production of our music video, Premiere Pro has been the foundation to it’s
creation. Without the software we wouldn’t have been able to create the piece we did. It
helped us with our planning and research as we were also able to put together our first focus
group, which helped us establish exactly what to film. Whilst editing each of our focus groups
we used minimal tools as we just placed the clips together in an orderly sequence (this
allowed the discussion to flow freely and truthfully). We used the software to create a
professional looking edit for our main task of creating a music video. The program allowed us
to experiment with different colour filters and lighting options, which created the indie vibe of
the music video we imagined it would have before filming. We corrected the clips which were
filmed under natural light by using the ‘colour balance’ and ‘colour correct’ tools, which
allowed us to make the surroundings of the clips appear much darker than what they were
originally (therefore creating an artificial night time). However we did find difficulties with this
process as each clip was different, and it took time to get the lighting right for each one. As
Premiere Pro offers an array of different tools myself and Katie were able to extend and cut
down clips, allowing us to fit each clip to the beat of the song. We wanted to do this as many
of the music videos we watched and analysed did this perfectly, this alone added to the
professional nature to which they were made. As our music video begins and ends with the
same clip, just at different times, we though a fade to black would also help establish a
present and past effect (as if our protagonists is telling a story). We didn’t use any other
transition effects, however used multiple fast cuts to establish a montage effect. As we
wanted the similarities of both relationships shown through the imagery of the music video,
we thought a split screen with choreographed movements would represent this nicely. We did
also use Premiere Pro to put our animatic storyboard together. The software allowed us to
place each clip to the bit of the song which matched the lyrics , which helped in the long term
as we knew where to place everything when it came to editing the main task.

3. Photoshop
 I used Photoshop for many things throughout this project, the main being to
create my Digipak and Magazine advert. After I took all my images for both
products, I was able to import them onto the software and edit them to look
professional and to conform to the indie genre, I had tried to show through
out this whole project. I began by desaturating all images, leaving me with a
blank base to get creative. As the desaturation made the images quite flat I
decided to use the ‘curve’ and ‘levels’ tool to deepen the black and white
effect, leaving me with deeper shadows. This made the pictures look more
edgy, which I noticed to be a theme throughout an array of indie digipak
covers. I wanted to create a smoke effect, which I began to do by rending
the filter to the ‘cloud’ option and making it’s opacity layer lower (which
faded the harshness of the clouds) I then imported smoke images I
downloaded from the internet in an alternating pattern around my model in
the image. I followed the same step as before and made their opacity much
lower. This created a smoky effect as if the model was walking through
smoke. I did the same technique for my advert. This was probably the most
difficult thing to do as I didn’t want the smoke to over power the original
image, getting the opacity right was a change. When it came to uploading
certain things on to sites like Vimeo and YouTube, I used Photoshop to
create custom thumbnails. This wasn’t a necessary step but made the final
product look more professional.

4. Camera and Equipment
 The camera we used for filming was the Samsung NX1000. We decided to use this
camera over DLSR 3200 as our storyboard showed an array of close ups, and we
felt the Samsung camera would give the best pay off. The camera itself also adjusts
itself to the lighting in which it’s being used. Although some of our clips were edited
to look darker, the majority of the day time, outdoor scenes have been left with this
beautiful muted filter which looks to be edited (simple sepia tones, making our mise-
en-scene look as pretty as it can be. We did however use the DLSR to film both our
focus group clips. As we didn’t need to pick up on lots of detail, which the Samsung
does well, we thought the DLSR would be suitable as it still gives a great picture
quality. I did however find the DLSR more difficult to focus, as if someone moved it
would blur, and there is a whole clip which in not in focus in our first group meeting
video. This is another reason we decided to use the Samsung camera as the manual
focus is good and reliable. In my main task and Preliminary last year there were
times where the camera was unsteady and noisy in the clips. I didn’t wants this to
happen again, as it made the final pieces look less professional, so this time around
I made sure the camera was securely placed onto the tripod and filmed with 5
seconds before and after the clip begun and finished to ensure I could cut away any
movement or noise when it came to editing. We also used the Samsung to capture
behind the scene photographs. We did also use our mobile phones to show
development of our production.

5. Tumblr, YouTube, Slideshare,
Prezi ...
YouTube played a big part in planning and researching for the
production of our music video. It allowed us to look at other music
video’s artist have created to accompany the release of a song. This
was helpful as we could look at the ways indie artist in particular went
about creating something that conformed to their genre. From this we
gathered that many indie videos include dark, muted colours, indie
clothing, an illustrative nature, with some kind of performance. This
allowed us to gather and come up with ideas that we could put in front
of a focus group for their feedback. When it came to distributing our
music video, we used YouTube, by uploading it to our schools channel.
This allowed us to later link it to our coursework blogs. Tumblr was our
main format to distribute our coursework. The blogging site allows
students to share their research, planning and final pieces with both
their teachers and the exam board. To keep my blog interesting I
wanted to use a range of different formats to publish my work.
Slideshare and Prezi helped me develop and present my ideas in a
creative way. I used Prezi whilst researching, and found it to be very
useful as I was able to gather information and lay it out all in one place.
Prezi was also useful when it came to evaluate as I didn’t want to
answer all my question via blog posts. Prezi allowed me to insert clips
and images, and is an easy format to use.

6. The Music Video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S2_zFosU4
This is the final music
video, which was
edited and put
together via Premiere
Pro. The link below
will take you the video
which is uploaded on
the Chew Valley
School YouTube
channel.

7. Digipak and Advert
This is the final Digipak and Advert products. Both were
created using Photoshop, however I did use the Microsoft
PowerPoint software to help group images together and
save them to my documents.