Evauation Question 4 for media A level

2. The main piece of technology that I used for the construction of my
music video was an Canon eos 600D, due to how good the camera is it
allowed for me to film effectively as I was able to use features such as
such as zoom, flash, HD and creative filters . I also used a tripod
to help me film, which helped massively as it
stopped me having to hand hold it and
therefore I did not have any shaky shots which
were obviously hand-held.
After firstly editing my music video I decided I needed some more shots
but I’d already given the camera back for other groups to use so
therefore I had to use my IPhone 4s camera which although does not
sound professional, its camera megapixel was really good and therefore
came out really clear and you could not tell a difference between the
shots taken during the first filming and shots from the second.
Although, of course if I were to do it again I would have tried to get the
Canon camera back because an IPhone you can’t edit the settings for
lighting etc. whereas a proper camera you can.

3. Another piece of technology I used was iTunes,
I used this to buy the song I was using –
LaserLight by Jessie J. Once I had brought the
song I converted it onto another technology –
Final Cut Pro – the editing software I used for
my music video.
When using Final Cut Pro I took full
advantage of it using editing features such as:
fades, ordering clips and cutting their times,
colour cuts, mirror image, flash cut,
transform and crop, slower and faster motion
and brightener. And that’s only a couple!!

4. Although I had used Final Cut Pro last year for my opening sequence media product,
I still struggled to grasp it as last year I worked in a group so therefore most of the
time If I wasn’t sure how to use the software, someone else in my group would.
Therefore I had to do research on how to use it again to refresh my memory. The
only problem I faced is I obviously picked a dodgy mac as I froze a lot on the
software – which sent me into a panic each time but never crashed so I was lucky –
very lucky!!
For the promotional advert I used Microsoft word to create it.
I use this software all the time and therefore am very
confident when using it. I also did not need to add any special
effects as I was using my album cover as the image on the
advert. I know how to change sizes and move things about on
Microsoft and also change fonts etc. I’m happy with my final
product of the advert as it is exactly what I wanted it to be and
I feel it still captures the essence of the song – fun!! Therefore
If I was to do my advert again, I wouldn’t change anything
about how I did it.

5. MediaMagazine was one of the main Secondary Sources that I used.
This was a really useful source because it
allowed my to access a range of both past and
present magazines and their articles about
music videos. This was also a reliable source
because all the information in the articles had
been published and registered, and they
wouldn’t of had unless it was useful and true
information.
I found smaller sources such as:
 Andy Beckett – ‘Videos go to the Wall’
 Andrew Goodwin's – ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’
But I also found some more useful sources…

6. Suzy Davis
‘a well-known award-
winning music video editor’
The article I read for Suzy was very
useful as it gave an insight into her
transition from an A-Level Media
Studies teacher to becoming the
“editor of a number of the most
acclaimed and inventive music
videos of recent years”. This source
helped me as it made it clear that
when making a music video, the
best thing you can do during filming
is capture lots of angles for all the
shots because it gives you so much
more to work with when it comes
to editing and can make your piece
stronger just with a change of
angle.
Simon Frith
‘Editor of Sound and Vision: A music video reader’
This piece helped me more with my terminology and learning
more about the conventions and trends of a music video. Textual
‘schizophrenia,’ and the post-modern disappearance of reality and
the erosion of authenticity are all contemporary trends when it
comes to music videos.
Pete Fraser
‘Chief Examiner for Media Studies OCR board’
Top Tips
 Shoot the performance minimum of three times, making sure
to get a different set-up each time.
 Lots of Close-ups
 Experiment with different lightings and angles
 Shoot more then you think you need.

7. I made sure to use Media Technologies in my
work. I used lots of Secondary Research in
order to figure out more about music videos
and what is used as a structure. The 3 main
types of music videos are performance,
narrative or concept based. I used Google and
Wikipedia to research what makes a good
music video and I used it to gather information
on music videos as a whole. The problem with
Wikipedia is that anyone can edit answers and
therefore it is not really a reliable source.

8. Another form of research I used was YouTube.
This piece of media technology allowed me to
find old music videos such as Pop-up videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFsK1EcAEtI
Although the problem I found with YouTube was
the copyright and the fact that sometimes I could
not use a video I wanted on my blog so I had to
search more for something else that I could use.

9. My initial way to plan for my music video was
going onto YouTube and playing the song over
and over. I printed the lyrics and when I
listened to the song I wrote down next to
certain lines what I envisioned to happen
during that part. This helped me to figure out
ideologies for the song.
When I had decided on my Location and how I
wanted to work my music video I made a
mood board featuring the common themes I
wanted in my music video.

10. For my Location I was originally going to film at
Maxey Lakes and I had been down to take
pictures of where each scene will happen. But,
after visiting and thinking more and more
about my song, I realised that filming by a Lake
would not fit the song and genre at all
therefore I decided to use the bar in my
Garden that my Dad had just finished building.
This was also an advantage because all my
friends like close so can easily get to mine and
it meant I could set up everything I needed
during the day. I was also able during the day
to write in my notepad where each shot
needed to place and which lighting could use
for it, therefore when my friends arrived in the
evening I had a clear list of which shots I
needed and where people needed to be.

11. For my Evaluation I also used media
technologies. When my music video was
complete, I uploaded it onto YouTube so that
other people could watch it and I could get a
wider variety of feedback. I put my video onto
my Facebook page as well so I could find out
from people who know me personally what
they thought of it. A lot of the comments were
that the video represented me – fun! Other
ways I got Evaluation for my music video
was through Interviews and questionnaires.
I turned these into Pie chart on Microsoft
word to visually represent my feedback.