1. Question 4
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH,
PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
2. Research and Planning
YouTube –
In my research and development I used YouTube to research
information during my target audience research to understand the age
of the people who are commonly fans of synthpop. YouTube allowed
me to find out that the average age was teens/young adults as a video I
found of a stereotypical synthpop bands revealed that the audience was
full of people within this age range.
I also used YouTube during my research and development to find
student music videos to analyse them in order to better understand
what has worked and not worked in previous students work. YouTube
allowed me to quickly and easily find this work to benefit my own.
3. Research and Development
Prezi –
I have used prezi a number of times throughout my A2 work to create
presentations.
I have used it during my research and development to analyse a number of
different music videos in many genres and ones specifically within the
synthpop genre.
Prezi has allowed me to input links, videos and images easily into my
presentations to support what I have talked about.
During my previous year of using prezi it took me a lot longer to put together
a presentation as I was not used to it. This year I was a lot more efficient and
fast at putting together a presentation.
4. Research and Development
Word and Powerpoint-
I have used both Microsoft Word and Powerpoint during the research
and development of this project.
I have used Word and powerpoint for tables, scripts and research
during the research and development of this project.
As I have been using both of these programs for years it was fast and
easy to use them for my work.
I then used Slideshare to upload the files in order to put them onto my
blog. Slideshare can be difficult to use as it sometimes doesn’t always
upload the file.
5. Research and Devlopment
Blogger -
Blogger has given me a place to upload and share all the work I have
done during this A2 project.
As I used Blogger the previous year for my work I had experience with it.
This made it easier to use this year to upload my work. I became used to
uploading and linking to things like images and videos last year which
made it a lot easier this year.
I did run into the problem of Blogger not publishing my work a couple
of times but it eventually started working again.
Overall I found Blogger very useful in logging all my work as it was easy
to upload and organize my work.
6. Research and Devlopment
Cameras and Movie Studio –
During the research and development of my project I have used both cameras and
movie studio a number of times.
I have used cameras for my target audience interviews and the pitch of my music
video. Using a camera made it a lot easier to log all the information I gained which
allowed me to better use the feedback and information I gained from my target
audience and class peers. I had to make sure during my filming that I framed and
had enough lighting during both of the things I have filmed for my research and
development. I use cameras quite often in both my school work and personal work
so I didn’t find it challenging to use cameras.
I used Movie Studio Platinum a few times to edit together what I had recorded. For
my pitch I only added a titles but for my target audience interview I cut together
the three different interviews I recorded in order of the questions I asked each of
my target audience members. I have used Movie Studio Platinum inside and
outside of school before so I didn’t find it difficult to use.
7. Research and Development
Photoshop and After Effects –
I used Photoshop during the research and development of this project to
create the holographic face to use in my practise edits for the visual effects
of my music video. I have used Photoshop a lot in my school work and
personal work so I didn’t find it difficult top use when creating the
holographic face.
I then used Adobe After Effects to edit the Holographic face I created in
Photoshop into a practise edit to give people an idea of what my music
video would look like when it was completed. I had only used After Effects a
number of times before this project and had not used the features I used to
create this effect before so it took me quite a while to get the tracking face
to work properly.
8. Construction
Camera and Equipment –
During the filming of my music video I used two of my own personal cameras.
To film most of the music video I used a Nikon D5000 that I used a lot of times
previous to filming the music video so I didn’t run into any problems using this
camera. To film the cutaways for my music video I used a Canon 1200D which I
had also used a number of times before so I didn’t run into any problems with
it. As the Canon has a higher resolution I wished I used it for the rest of the
music video as the compression of the final video made it a lower quality as I
rendered to standard definition.
I also used the Canon for the photos for my ancillary tasks. I also used a pop-up
studio and lights to take the photos. I do this for my photography coursework
often so I didn’t run into any problems when taking the photos.
The equipment I used while filming were two rigs. One was a manual steady
cam rig and the other was a hanging rig for the low shots. I had experience with
these rigs while filming things before the music video but I still ran into the
problem of having shaky footage while running with the steady cam rig.
9. Construction
After Effects and Premiere Pro –
I used Adobe After Effects and the software that comes with it called Mocha to
track the faces in the footage for my music video. I tracked the faces, then added
the holographic face I had created in Photoshop during my test shots and finally
stabilized the footage. I had not used After Effects much before I did this editing
and had never used these features. This meant it took me a long time to get
every shot done and I ran into a number of problems that I had to work through.
As I only used basic editing software the previous year I so this was a challenge in
comparison.
After I had edited all the shots in After Effects I imported them into Premiere Pro
to then edit all the shots together. I had not used this software before this editing
so it took me while to become used to it so the editing was a relatively slow
process for a while. I had to use this software as I had to import the edited shots
to another Adobe program otherwise it wouldn’t work. I ran into the problem of
the file not rendering when I was trying to export it. After re-installing the
software it worked but it took a long time to figure it out as I hadn’t used the
software before.
10. Construction
Photoshop –
To create both of my ancillary tasks I used Adobe Photoshop. I used a
number of the different features I have used before whilst doing my
photography coursework. I used gradient maps, masking, the text tool
and a number of others. I didn’t find using Photoshop and these
features difficult and the frame for the digipak made it even easier to
make a professional looking piece of work.
After using Photoshop in the previous year of work it made it easier to
create a professional looking product.
11. Construction
Editing –
Transitions – Last year the transitions I used other than just cutting were fading in and out of
shots. This year I have done the same by fading in and out depending on the pacing of the song
and to emphasize the transition to the chorus or another verse. Learning when to use fade ins and
outs last year helped me use them again effectively this year too.
Effects – I didn’t really use effects last year so I didn’t use anything I leanred last year in using
effects which meant I had to learn a lot this year to create the music video I wanted.
Pacing – Last year I had to focus a lot on pacing as I made a thriller film opening where pacing is
really important. Using what I learnt last year I paid attention to pacing in my work this year to
keep peoples attention and to make the song fit with the visuals.
Colour – I learnt the importance of colour last year to create a tone in my work. Both last year and
this year I used cold blue colour in my work as just like the previous year it worked very well to
promote the kind of tone and feeling I wanted in my music video.
12. Construction Conclusion
Overall I think I was a lot more creative this year compared to my last years
work. By using and experimenting with the holographic faces and type of
narrative I have been a lot more creative with my work as I followed a lot of
conventions and tropes of the thriller genre last year when I have challenged
conventions of synthpop and tried to be original this year.
I also believe my work looks more professional this year. Although my video
looks low resolution this year due to the compression of the render I still
think it looks closer to a professional product compared to my AS work as the
shots and editing I have done makes the video look more like something
professional you would find.
13. Evaluation
During the evaluation questions of my work I have used three different things.
For my first and third questions I have used Prezi. I used Prezi for these
questions I needed to add reference images and videos and Prezi is very useful
for this as I can add them quickly and could play things like videos very easily.
For the second question I recorded myself answering the question with a mic
and edited the audio together in Movie Studio Platinum and also added images
and clips of my music video along with the audio. I chose to do this for the
second question as this needed a lot of different references and specific parts of
the music video so editing it together was best for this question.
For the fourth question I used Powerpoint as I only needed to use images and
not video so I didn’t need to use Prezi.
