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

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

2. Research stage

3. YouTube is the home of all music videos. It is a global success in viewing and
sharing music videos and was the first place I looked at when it came to looking at
previous music videos for our research tasks.
YouTube made it very easy to explore the full variety of music videos that the internet has to offer. Whilst doing my
research it actually hit me how powerful YouTube is as a website. It provided me with a source of knowledge and
extensive exploration for music videos. It was particularly important for our chosen genre. This is because the indie
acoustic genre is a very hidden genre and isn’t as exposed on music channels and talked about on the radio as
major pop artists. The meant that a lot of our research was carried out by looking at YouTube, making it a key
technology in the development of my work. We were able to look at other artists’ work and evaluate what they had
done and what had worked as well as finding key conventions that could be used in our own work.
YouTube
recommendations
On the side of the YouTube video, there are always recommendations linked to the
video that you are currently watching. This meant that when we were looking at indie
acoustic videos, other videos which we may not have explored beforehand were
presented to us. This way we were potentially engaging with a lot more videos than
what we could with just our basic knowledge.
Our target audience
YouTube videos also possess the capacity for comments to
be made on the videos. Viewers can comment opinions on
each of the videos. Each person has an account which
actually allowed us to see what kind of people were
watching the particular genre of indie acoustic. For this
reason YouTube helped us not only look at conventions,
but gage a basic idea of who our target audience is.

4. As part of our research, we had to find out as much information abouCt reating our questionnaire
our target audience as possible. This meant constructing a
questionnaire for people to complete online. Last year, in our AS
coursework, we used an online survey called “Survey monkey”.
However, we wanted to find a more advanced online survey creator
because we wanted to be able to include images for participants to
pick and chose elements of album covers and posters. Survey monkey
could also only allow us to ask 10 questions and we felt that this
wasn’t enough to gain a whole idea of the target audience. For this
reason we used an online survey creator called ‘freeonlinesurveys’.
However, after we had began to However this created more problems then it appeared to be solving -we lost the
questionnaire after 10 days of a trial of the website. We had lost around 20 responses but had luckily screenshotted the
questionnaire.We were able to print out the paper version and give it out but this meant that we had to create our own
graphs to sum up the data –something that surveymonkey would have otherwise done for us. At first, we thought that
this would be unnecessarily lengthily to do, however, it made us more aware of our results and also allowed us to
correlate answers with demographics to gain a better understanding of who the target audience were and what they
expect/want in our products.
As an alternative we used Microsoft software to
create graphs and charts so that we could easily
see our results all together and visually see what
the participants had said were their preferences. It
also allowed us to be more familiar with our data.
Instead of just looking at graphs, we made them –
we knew exactly what each graph was made up of,
and also what each person said across the board.

5. iMovieAt the end of our research, we collated all of our subsequent findings and put
them together in the form of a documentary using iMovie. We used ideas of
stop motion (by taking photos and visualising them at a fast pace
chronologically). The stop motion part of our documentary added something
extra to our documentary and enabled us to be creative around the way that
we put across our information. We also used vox pops to quickly quote the
information provided from the interview and focus group. These are just some
of the elements of technology that made up our documentary...
So, what
else?
- Voiceovers were used to anchor the visual element of our results.
We were able to tell the viewer directly rather than them having to
read something and focus on the visuals at the same time.
-We were able to practise with film flares which is an element that
we wished to include in our final products. We used YouTube (as
previously mentioned) to find film filters that we could overlay onto
our videos.We could also play around with the brightness and
contrast of the documentary to give it the feel of the genre. This acted
as a bit of practise, so that we could test what does and doesn’t work
in this way
-Fonts were played around with, so already we begin looking at
different fonts that fitted into our genre.
-Linking visuals to acoustics. This was important because we had to
duck music and make sure that vox pops and videos were in the right
place. This is significant because we would have to ensure that the
acoustics matched the visuals (in terms of performance and the
beginning/ending of the song aligning with the beginning/ending of
the song).
This process allowed us to put together
all of our previous research so that is
could be accessed in one area when it
came to planning. This way we wouldn’t
have to search through unnecessary
information, documents or paperwork.
The process also gave us some sort of
practise because we had to work with
the same elements as we would do in
our music video (and in some cases our
ancillary texts). These include
editing, fonts, colours and
timing.

6. Prezi Prezi is a presentation software that allows you to create an interactive and
unique PowerPoint. I used this website a lot in my research to put together all
of my findings. I particularly found it useful for putting together my video
research for media language. This is because there was a lot of detail to be said
about the concept and could be categorised easily. I was able to scatter my
ideas, but still keep them in an organised way that I could refer to at a later
date when it came to planning. I was able to add images, clips and music.
Wikipe
Wikipedia became a major source of knowledge for our research into record labels. It gadve ia
us listings of artists that belong to each record label and gave us information about each of
these artists and these record labels. We were also able to find out the different types of
record labels and distributors. The website, for this reason was very important because it
allowed to look at which artists of the genre belonged to each record label and what each
record label could offer an artist.

7. planning stage

8. Celtx
I was able to use a high quality software that
enabled us to create a storyboard. High quality
images were imported into the project and placed in
chronological order. This software was extremely
useful because we were able to select the shot of
the image and add a description underneath. We
could also sort the images into scenes which meant
that the organisation of the different parts to the
music video was kept to a high standard. It enabled
us to carefully select shots and be able to start to
envision the music video more and more. It gave us
something to work with and follow when it came to
our filming so that we were completely prepared
and organised for efficient filming.
Pdf files
The software allowed us to save each page of
the storyboard as a PDF file. This meant that we
could easily see the finished product in a
sophisticated layout. The conversion into a PDF
file made the files compatible to be saved on our
phones. This way, the storyboard was easily
accessible and we could use our phones to help
out when filming rather than carrying around
loose pieces of paper.

9. iMovie...
again I was able to use iMovie to upload my images from the storyboard and create a stop motion video. I did this by
increasing the amount of time that the images were shown for. This created a visually moving sequence to suggest
how exactly the music video would look. This was extremely successful as it captured the detail of what the video
would look like and enabled us to see whether some shots were too repetitive or whether we needed a shot to help
tell the story. This meant that somebody else could look through our plans and watch the video and be able to
replicate exactly what we wanted our music video to look like. This is something that I believe consolidates our in
depth planning for the video in all of its detail.
How did it help
us? We were able to notice in this particular sequence that the transition of
the artist moving from a standing to seating position was too fast and she
just appeared to sit down with no idea of movement. Without the use of
the stop motion video we would never have been able to notice this.

10. Organising our
We were able to effectively use and plan our time with the use of
technology. We used when we would be filming
a windows calendar to plan out exactly
able to film and were able to keep up to date
with this through the use of an alarm app. The alarm app enabled
us to set reminders so that we would know with plenty of time
when we had to prepare to film and ensure that our actors were
still free. At this stage we were also able to use weather apps to
check whether it would be possible to film. Our music video was
highly dependant on weather because it was dependent on the
changing seasons and dependent on good weather outside.
Although the rain would have created a cold and dark ambience ,
we were aware that it would
have restricted our filming. It
would have made the clips
dark and therefore grainy and
it would have also meant that
we would have to try to
protect the camera from the
rain. The app enabled us to
plan ahead and realise that
the structure to our music
video had to change, because
of the upcoming bad
weather. This meant that we
would still keep to a deadline
and so in this way this
technology was extremely
useful to us.

11. THE SMALL
DETAILS dafont
We were able to use a website called ‘dafont.com’ in order to pick a
selection of potential fonts to use throughout our products.
The nature of the website allowed us to select a theme in which we wanted our fonts
to follow and could preview what each word/letter would look like in that particular
font. We selected ‘handwritten’ and were able to view thousands of fonts fitting this
criteria because we wanted a quirky and personal feel to our products. We could then
download whichever fonts we wanted, entirely free of charge, and try them out on our
products.
We used an app called ‘polyvore’ to create
moodboards and outfit profiles. Polyvore allowed
us to search for items, such as clothing, fairylights
etc. We were then able to put together the ideas
in a creative way to show what kind of person our
characters are like visually. We added
backgrounds, fonts, and small embellishments to
create It also enabled us to strategically put
together the outfits for each setting so that we
could visualise them and also present them so
that our actors knew exactly what to wear and
when to wear it.

12. THE SMALL DETAILS
We used an app and website called ‘weheartit’ a lot during the planning stages of our
coursework. main ...continued
Weheartit is a simple website used for uploading and reblogging images. The
target audience for this website is teenage girls –matching our target audience. This
meant that a lot of the content was suitable for our coursework, because the majority of
images are based upon photography, books, relationships and fashion. For this reason, we
were able to search for specific items and themes, and use these during our treatment. We
used these images in our treatment to convey the look that we were heading towards. We
were able to use this website/app to look through the images for inspiration and ideas for our
poster/album artwork. We were able to combine our research with these images because
both matched our target audience. Weheartit, for this reason, seemed to be a lot more
insightful in comparison to a search engine like Google Images, because it was catered for our
own target audience and the images were uploaded by the target audience themselves and
are not shown in any particular order (unlike Google who shows the most popular images
towards the top). It was on weheartit that we were able to come up with our idea for the
poster/album artwork.

13. Paint
Paint was an extremely useful tool in the planning stage the coursework. It allowed us to make rough plans and
work with our ideas without committing to layouts, colours etc. We used paint to create several plans for our
poster/album artwork. It was the plans that enabled us to see which would be most effective as an album cover and
advertising poster. The use of paint allowed us to experiment with layout and colour on a basic level. We used
former images taken for the storyboard and manipulated them to fit into several designs. This enabled us to
visualise our plans on a more realistic level and allowed us to notice what did and didn’t work within each design.
This allowed us to make the decision to continue with the polaroid idea. This quick plan also enabled the creating
side of the digipack a lot more of a quicker process because we had already experimented with layouts and colours
and could use our plans successfully to create an improved replica.

14. PRODUCTION
stage

15. Camera and tripod
“With 16.2 megapixels, a swivel Vari-Angle LCD
monitor, full HD movie capabilities, new EFFECTS
Mode and new HDR setting, you hold the power and
performance to capture beautiful moments and the
freedom to get creative.”
We understood that we needed good clips to be able to
work with because even if the editing of the clips was
perfect, the overall quality of the music video would not
be as good as it could be. For this reason, we ensured that
the camera we used was specialised in film making so
that the footage would be high quality. The camera we
used was a Nikon D1500. This enabled us to create a high
quality finish. We were also able to focus and blur details,
which was conventional to our genre by pressing the
shutter release button halfway to lock the focus to exactly
how we wanted it. The high quality allowed us to crop and
zoom when it came to post-production without making
the clips decrease in quality. We were also able to
manipulate the white balance so that the lighting and
colours were of a high quality so that we had high quality
clips to work with. The playback feature on the camera
allowed us to check the footage that we had shot so that
we knew whether it was good enough before it came to
the editing stage. We also used the camera to take the
images for our digipack. This meant that we could work
with high quality images. We were able to focus on the
foreground of the polaroid and blur the background of
the park which in itself created a nice effect.
We also used a standard tripod. We were then able to
film particular sequences steadily when it came to shots
that focused on the action, rather than a camera
movement. We were then able to take the camera off the
tripod for more up close, action following shots. The
tripod allowed for steady clips.

16. Post-PRODUCTION
stage

17. Imovie and all of its
Although we may not have had access to the highest quality video editing
software, iMovie was practical didn’t rely on complex effects, features
for what we needed. Our music video
the plan was simple and quirky. We were
able to cut clips precisely, rearrange them and stabilise each clip. The
concept of a music video highly relies on the editing of clips. iMovie
allowed us to precisely edit the clips in most ways that we wanted to
create montages, maintain continuity and fade to/from black/white. We
were also able to slow down some of the clips to create a slow motion
effect that was so conventional to our music genre. We were able to
chose the rate of slow motion so that it was subtle and not too obvious.
We used this in the ‘walking home’ scene to highlight the emotion and
chaotic nature of the part of the narrative.
We were also able to edit the audio affect of the song that we would use
as a radio playing in the background. The newer version of iMovie
allowed us to edit the beginning song to sound like a radio in the
background of the introduction. We altered with sound waves and
frequencies, a sound equaliser and added a telephone audio effect to
create a realistic effect.
The colours of our clips were highly considered because it was so key to
our genre. Pastel colours are conventional to the genre, and so we edited
our clips to have a slight tint to them. We didn’t want to make it too
obvious so that it looked fake, but the slight tint of colour created a ‘cute’
feel to the clips. We were also able to emphasise this ambience with the
use of film filters and flares. We used YouTube to convert a visual clip of a
film filter and add them as an overlay onto the clip on iMovie. We was
able to increase or decrease the transparency of the film filters to add a
very subtle change in colour.

18. Creating our digipack
After narrowing down the images taken, we had three images to
work from. Our idea of taking a photo of the polaroid of Auria
seemed problematic in practise. This is because the quality of
the polaroid image of Auria was way too dark and blurred. We
wanted to establish a relationship between the audience and the
artist through a close up and direct gaze. Neither of these were
shown in the polaroid. We were then able to take a separate
photo of the artist that we could edit into the polaroid frame. We
were able to do this with the use of the app ‘iPiccy’. We had
previously tried to edit the images on pixlr, and photoshop but
neither gave us the needed tools. We could crop and rotate the
photo onto the former image and layer it. We were also able to
use a blurring tool to smooth the edges of the image so that it
wasn’t so obvious that it was a manipulated image. We then
used the app to edit the filters of the image to create a
consistent package of the two joined images. We increased the
brightness and lowered the contrast of the back, middle and
front images and added a photo filter that was unique to the
software.

19. Creating our digipack...
We were then able to use our images to add the text of the titles and song names.
Because of the high quality images, powerpoint. Powerpoint enabled us continued
we were able to use a simple Microsoft software –
to quickly add text and position it exactly where
we wanted it to be. We did not need highly sophisticated software to do so because the
majority of the work had already been done on the images. We simply just added and
rearranged the text to create our final product. In this case, even the simplest of
technologies worked best for our piece.

20. evaluation stage