The document discusses the various technologies the author used during different stages of their media production project. In the research stage, the author used a voice recorder and Facebook to get audience feedback on initial ideas. In planning, the author used Adobe Photoshop, Timetoast, and cameras to practice shots. During production, the author used Nikon and Panasonic cameras along with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro for editing. Technologies like magnetic lasso, lighting effects, and cross fades were utilized. For evaluation, the author leveraged Publisher, video cameras, Premiere Pro, YouTube, Slideshare, and Blogger.

1. By Bhav Sohal

2. For the research stage, I used a voice recorder to
record my audience feedback, and used a social
networking website called Facebook. Both of these
technologies allowed me to get insight into my target
audience's opinions on my initial ideas, what I could
possibly do, and their opinions on a video I researched
in the same genre as my video. This was helpful as I was
able to listen back to my audience's opinions/read their
opinions and analyse them allowing me to possibly
improve my ideas. As this feedback influenced what I
planned, the audience was active.
In kpop, a genre convention for girl groups is the theme of entrapment.
In order to research into other videos in my genre, I used the website
Google in order to find about other kpop girl groups, and I also used the
website YouTube to look up specific videos of theirs and I could choose
what I wanted to watch because of media 2.0 and how the audience can
contribute to the media, so the media is passive here. I paused the two
videos at certain points in order to get stills so I could go through the
video shot by shot in order to analyse these shots and the video so that I
could be influenced by some of these ideas, and spot kpop conventions.
(Refer to screencast for how I took these stills and found videos). Without
YouTube I would not be able to research into videos into the same genre
well and pick up kpop conventions.

3. Also, in this stage I used various images from google, which showed the previous
art work of the group which allowed me to determine recurrent visual themes and
what allowed them to create a house style for themselves. I looked at the colours
that they used, the fonts, their layout types etc to determine what I would want in
my digipak, without such technologies as google I would not have been able to
find such images and would not be able to recreate their brand image, which
would make my digipak and poster look completely different from their original
artwork and difficult for the target audience to recognise.

4. In the planning stage I used a variety of different
technologies. One of these technologies was Adobe
Photoshop, I used this program to practice a front cover
which you can see on the left. I used tools such as the
filters to increase certain colours and reduce other
colours to create the overall reddish effect. I thought that
it worked pretty well. I used a default font for this
practice, and feel that the font here was weak but I have
developed my photoshop skills as shown by my font use
in my digipak.
I also used timetoast twice in order to organise the
dates that I was going to do certain things for my
production. I had made a timetoast for my print
production and for my video production. This helped
me alot because it allowed me to be very organised,
and allocate time appropriately so that I had a good
amount of time left to edit my digipak/poster and my
video. If we didn't have such tools, we would struggle
to plan things very well, and could possibly forget and
therefore there would not be much time left.

5. For practice in this stage, I used a camera to take photos (nikon d60) and I also used
a video camera for a shot practice. I used the camera to take photos of the locations
I was going to use for my video locations. However, I didn't end up using the
locations I took photos of, however from these photos I was able to get audience
feedback and my audience seemed to enjoy these locations.I used a panasonic HD
video camera to film a shot practice of which I use pull focus, this allowed me to be
more prepared for my shooting, as a pull focus is an element I wished to put in the
video from being inspired by Secrets Talk That (a video I analysed during the
research stage). I believe that with such practice it let my shots be easier to take,
and less time consuming on wondering how to figure it out.

6. In this stage I also used a Nikon D60 DSLR camera, and a Panasonic HD
video camera. I used the Nikon to take photos for my digipak and poster,
here I manipulated the camera settings and put the camera on manual
focus from auto so I was more in control and therefore this part of my work
wasn't heavily technologically deterministic, I believe I had control of the
camera and I did what I intended to do to take my photos. I also changed
the exposure with the camera, and adjusted the level so that just the right
amount of brightness would be absorbed. I also changed the setting from
auto to portrait when taking pictures of the models to get a shallow depth
of field and a wider apature.
For the Panasonic HD video camera I was also able to
manipulate the settings, and therefore I could switch the
camera settings so that it was on manual focus in order to do a
pull focus shot, and this allowed for a shallow depth of field. So
that it would allow a transition from one shot to another. I was
also able to use zoom efficiently as I was able to zoom in whilst
filming a shot. Without such settings on the DSLR or video
camera, my video would not have looked as professional, and
would have not looked like a music video.

7. For the editing process of the construction stage, two
of the main programs I used were Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Premiere Pro. In Adobe Photoshop, I used
many tools to manipulate the images I had took with
the DSLR camera. One such tool I used was the
magnetic lasso tool, a tool I used quite alot to cut
images from their backgrounds. This tool was rather
hard to get used to but it was very helpful to make
images look more professional. Another tool in
Photoshop I used was the gradient effect for my text,
and the shadow effect for my font, to create the
blending in look and so that my font would stand out
from my black background. I also thought using the
shadow effect worked well with the title of my album,
and contributed to the text standing out against the
background. A tool which I used alot during the print
production process was the ellipse and gradient tool
effect, not only was I able to past images over these
gradient circles, I believe the gradient circles I created
worked well with the gradient text as it created a brand
image for the audience to recognise. In this area, it was
very technologically deterministic as Photoshop
presented me such tools, and my original ideas were
changed after practicing with them. Getting a font from
dafont.com was helpful here as it allowed me to have
more of a choice of fonts, if I wasn't able to get such
fonts we would still be using letraset, when one had to
rub fonts onto paper, and couldn't practice.
In Adobe Premiere Pro, I also used a large number
of tools to create effects for my music video. One
effect I used was the lighting effects to adjust the
brightness of the shots, and the contrast. The
lighting effects also enabled me to make alot of my
shots more exposed, and washed out, which was
the effect I was going for. Without this tool, my
shots would look rather bland and dull, and
wouldn't match the song, and the conventions of
kpop. I also decided to use cross fades in parts of
my video to swiftly transition from one shot to the
next, especially during the climax, I paired this with
slow motion, and this allowed me to empthasize
this point in the video. One thing which I did not do
however, was create a preset for the video, so that
it could be applied to many shots and therefore I
used alot more time editing than I could have done,
if I was to do another video in the future, I would
ensure that I use presets.
Below this presentation, I have included various
screencasts to show all of the tools and effects I
have described here.

8. During this evaluation stage, I used a range of different
technologies. I used Publisher for question 2, which was very
useful as it allowed me present various ideas on seperate
pages, and point to such ideas. I used a video camera twice,
for question 1 I used it to record my voice over, which helped
me because it made the sound quality better. For question 1 I
once again used Adobe Premiere Pro and this time I was able
to use different screenshots, images and skiwed down clips to
demonstrate my ideas, it was very helpful that I could create a
new sequence as it allowed me to copy clips from the video
very easily. The second time I used the camera was to record
my evaluation was allowed me to get all my target audience
members in the shot and allowed them to voice their opinions.
I was once again able to use Youtube to upload these videos,
and here media 2.0 allowed me to make this video and publish
this online for others to see. Using slideshare was useful as it
let me put this powerpoint onto the web, and so that I could
embed it into my blog. Blogger was very helpful through this
stage and the other stages as it allowed me to showcase my
work throughout the coursework stages and would let me add
little thoughts or ideas for my video.