Evaluation Question 4.

1. (4) How did you use new media
technologies in the research,
planning, construction and
evaluation stage of your project?

2. Whilst creating and producing my product, I used a
varied range of technologies, programmes and
online search engines and websites in order to
generate the best music video I could. It was
important for me, to make my product be as realistic
and respectable by actual music videos as possible,
so I did a lot of research before I even started to
plane out my own product.

3. For my research, I used a varied amount of
search engines such as: Google, Safari and
Bing in order to access the sites such as
YouTube and Wikipedia so I could look at other
artists music videos and history so I could get
an idea of what I wanted to do for my own
product. Search engines are a key thing for us
to use during the research stage as it provides
us with a lot of sites which we can use in order
to gather information about moulding our own
videos together, but also current artists too.

4. YouTube is also very important during the research process, as
this this our main access point where we can watch, study and
analyse other artists music videos. It gives us a vast amount of
range too because literally every you could ever need is on
there which is handy for us because it allows us to explore and
find out what we want to create as well. This is also where I
upload my finished product as well, so it is important that I knew
how it all worked. As well as this, Vimeo and Vevo are also a
good source in order to get access to the music videos.
However with vimeo there is not always all the content you
need and on Vevo as well the only artists which are on there are
signed to Universal Music Group, so overall I prefer to use
YouTube due to the seen to be endless content and choice.
Also, because I was interested in a more diverse music type for
my product, this again drew me to YouTube.

5. I also regularly use the ‘VLE’ its learning centre,
where I upload all my progresses and keep it all
up to date with what I’m doing in terms of my
media coursework. I like doing it on this service
because we used it last year and I am familiar
with it. I tried using Word Press for a short
period of time, but I found it to be un organised
and not how I would like to work, so I got
straight back on the VLE and that is definitely
what I prefer. It is also a great way to keep all
my work together and I can go back, change
and see it all too.

6. In terms of presentation of my work, I often use Prezi and
SlideShare to do so. I find that by presenting my work in
this way, it is much more creative and the audience are
able to read it at there own pace and its not all just in one
block of writing. This able’s me to make my work look a lot
more fun and interesting. It is also way more visual for the
audience too, as well as being extremely user friendly.
Overall, I have done a lot of Prezi’s because I think that
they look a lot more presentable, and it is quite easy to do.
However for the work where I would like to put more useful
information, I think using the SlideShare was handy
because it is easier to see and it is clear too, whereas Prezi
for me is sometimes quite hard to fit in all the information I
would like to.

7. Obviously one of the main pieces of technology I use is the
DSLR camera. As we used these last year, I have already
required knowledge on how to use the camera, so when it
came down to filming this time, it wasn’t such a task as I
knew how to set everything to how I wanted it. It is always
important for me for all my shots to be very in focus so the
audience can see what’s going fully, however for some of my
music video, when we went out it was raining which caused
this to blur some of the material, but overall I think this
worked to my advantage as it made the footage look a lot
more creepy which I enjoyed because it meant in the editing
stage I wouldn’t have to add that much to it. I used a tripod
as well which meant that all my clips were aligned and
overall looked more professional.

8. For editing, we primarily use the iMacs, which is an apple
based computer. We used these last year, with all the
programmes on it so it wasn’t so hard to get back into. I
also have my own mac at home so this time I was able to
do work out of the class room, which made my life a lot
easier and made my work load feel like a lot less. I think
using the iMac so often has given me more confidence
with the programmes on it as well, so I was able to
create my product a lot faster, because I knew what I
wanted to do, and how to do it mostly. I also used the PC
in order to create power points as again this for me is a
good visual learner and I am able to use this programme
well.

9. The main programme on the iMac which I used was obviously
iMovie. As we had previously used this for our main task last year
as well, it wasn’t as hard to use anymore and I knew more or less
everything I needed to in order to create a good steady clip to clip
film. However, I had never done a lip synced video before. So
before I did my main product, I decided it would be best to do a
practise lip sync video. iMovie worked well with this and I found it
quite simple yet frustrating at times. I think this programme for
video editing is very user friendly and I understand how most
things work, which worked to my advantage when creating my
actual music video. Also as a practise before we did our main
product, we did a green screen task as well, which we again
edited in iMovie. It was very simple to do and I liked the way it
looked and the result I got, however for my own music video I
thought the use of it would be too much and make it look quite un-
natural, so in the end I decided it would be best not to put it in.

10. For the editing of my digipak, I used Photoshop and
Literoom. As a photography student, I knew quite a lot of
how to work this programme because we use it almost
every week. I found this stage quite challenging because
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, however I knew I
wanted to link it back to my music video. With literoom,
this is much more simple to use just for editing the
saturation,exposure etc. of a photo, so before I was to
edit the titles onto my product, I did this so for the most
part, all my digipak photo colours matched. Overall, this
worked well for me because I managed to create both of
my pieces using my artist in the same outfit so it
automatically allowed all my pieces, including my music
video to all link well together.

11. iTunes was also another programme I had to use in order to
create my music video. I downloaded a few tracks which I was
contemplating using. The 3 tracks I selected were Lana Del Rey –
Money, Power, Glory. Marina and the Diamonds – Teen Idle, and
obviously the track I ended up choosing which is Florence and the
Machine’s Girl With One Eye. iTunes is very user friendly and
allows you to preview tracks before you fully buy them. This helps
as well for research because you can listen to tracks which are
similar to the one you are working on and try and gather idea’s just
from the lyrics alone. Even though iTunes didn’t overly impact my
whole music video with research or anything, it did provide me
with the song I was using with my main task and therefore was a
key programme whilst forming my product.

12. Overall, all of the technologies, programmes and online search
engines and websites have helped me complete my product
well. I have been able to research fully into other artists music
video’s and analyse them and then incorporate their idea’s into
my own, which is what I wanted. With iMovie as well, this gave
me the freedom to create whatever I wanted and with my
knowledge of the programme I think I have been able to do
this well, and create an end product which I am proud of.