1. Question 4
How did you use media
technologies in the construction,
research, planning, and
evaluation stages?

3. bridge camera and video camera
Nikon Coolpix L120 Bridge Camera
This camera was my own personal camera that I chose to use to take
the stills for my digipak and advert, as well as the separate shots for
the animation in my video. I chose to use this camera as it is high
quality at 14 mega pixel, therefore ensuring that the images I got
would be of a high quality. In addition to this it was very practical for
me to be able to use my own camera as it meant I was able to take
images at any time- so if for whatever reason I couldn’t take the
images when I had originally planned, I didn’t have to worry about
booking the camera again. It was always at my disposal and therefore
relieved some of the time pressure, meaning I was able to be “picky”
over my images.

4. Panasonic SD40 Full HD Camcorder
Like the stills camera, I chose to use the camcorder from home
as it would be very practical for me to be able to use one
whenever I needed to without having to worry about booking it
in advance. The full HD element of the camera was again
beneficial as it meant the images were high quality. The
camcorder also would’ve helped with my animation, however
due to my inaptitude with it’s more advanced features, I chose
to do it manually on Premier Pro. This sense of technological
determinism is something I regret as I think the camera wasn’t
used to it’s full capacity, and if I had known how to use it
properly, I may have been able to achieve some more ambitious
shots.

5. smartphone and tablet
iPad
My iPad was invaluable to me in countless ways over this
entire process. I used it continually on all of my shoots and
in the research and planning process.

6. -Twitter and Facebook app
The use of these two apps helped me reap the benefits of 2.0 technologies all
the time as it gave me instant access to my focus group via the Facebook page I
set up to gain feedback. I was able to read comments and reply to them
regardless of where I was. This was particularly beneficial when I was outside
shooting with Kam, as it meant I could check audience feedback to remind
myself what kind of shots I wanted to be taking etc. Twitter also gave me quick
access to Laura and Kam who I often needed to get in contact with about
filming. As the majority of people who use Twitter check it in continually, it
was a very useful method of contacting them both as the majority of the time
they replied almost instantly. I could also upload draft edits of my video to
Facebook where I could receive feedback from my focus group. I definitely
think being able to use interactive 2.0 technologies like Facebook and Twitter
on a portable device like an iPad definitely helped me in this process and I
think my coursework is of a higher standard because of it as being able to
share my work and receive instant feedback was invaluable in making it more
suited to the target audience and focus group.

7. -YouTube app
Like the Facebook and Twitter app, the YouTube app was extremely
helpful to me, particularly in the research and planning section. In
order to create a high quality video and marketing package- research
into existing videos was essential. Again I was able to do this whenever
I wanted to as my iPad is 3G. I did copious amounts of research into
existing products (most of which is on my blog) and YouTube was
obviously the main place I went to to do this. It also helped a lot with
inspiration, as quite often a friend of mine would ask me if I’d seen a
certain video, and if I hadn’t, I’d watch it there and then before I had
time to forget about it. As these friends were mainky part of my focus
group, often the video would have certain elements that would be
suitable for my own, and therefore I was very inspired by a lot of what
I’d seen on YouTube on my iPad.

8. Blogger app
The Blogger app was great in helping me access all of my previous
research and planning when it came to shooting and my evaluation.
Having all of my work at easy access was really helpful as it saved
me the hassle of turning on a desktop or laptop and having to log in
every time. Again the portable element of it was really helpful as I
wasn’t limited to just accessing my Blogger at home. As it was so
easy to access all of my previous work, I think I definitely did use
Blogger more as a result, and therefore kept better tabs on what I
was doing, what I’d achieved, what still needed doing etc. I think my
blog was kept far more up to date as a result of the app and
therefore the standard of my blog and my work in general increased.

9. Weave app
The Weave app is an organisational app that I used religiously
throughout the whole process to ensure I was sticking to time
schedules. I was also able to use push notifications to my advantage,
so even when I wasn’t on Weave, my iPad would notify me of
deadlines and tasks that needed doing. This again was incredibly
useful as I had struggled a lot with time management and coursework
during my AS course, and I definitely think the Weave app made me
more proactive as it showed me how long until deadlines etc. I was
also able to prioritise tasks according to urgency, so I think I was
more time efficient as a result.

10. Overall I think my iPad was one of the most useful pieces of
technology I had available to me over this whole process. It’s
portable design and 3G capabilities made it extremely
practical, whether I wanted to interact with my focus group
via 2.0 apps or if I just needed to play the song loudly
during recording, I 100% think that my work was of a higher
standard because of it as well as far less stressful than it
could have been!

11. Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo
Like the iPad, I was able to access my social media sites on my
smartphone whenever I needed to, to upload work and
read/contribute to the focus group page on Facebook. However
what I couldn’t do on my iPad, which I could do on my
smartphone was ring people- particularly Laura and Kam, as on
the rare occasion they hadn’t replied via Twitter, I could just ring
them instead. My phone was also good in forwarding e-
mails/texts to people I needed to be in contact with. My
smartphone was useful to me in the creation of my coursework,
however the iPad proved slightly more effective as the internet
worked faster and it was easier for me to manage the focus
group page on a bigger screen.

13. Photoshop
Photoshop was very valuable to me in the production stage of
my print work as it enabled me to use advanced technology
in order to achieve a piece of professional looking work that
may not have been achieved on software with less
capabilities. However I do think that my lack of ability to use
the software to it’s full capacity is a shame as it limited much
creativity or experimentation, and therefore if I were to do
this again I would spend more time familiarising myself with
it. With that being said however, I do feel I was more
confident in using the software in comparison to how I was
with my AS coursework and I think my work is better as a
result.

14. Although I wasn’t as skilled with using Photoshop as I
would’ve liked to have been, some of the features of
Photoshop were useful to me and I was happy using
them. On the back cover of my digipak, I used a drop
shadow effect on the track listings to make the font look
slightly less 2D and dull. I think the font was made far
more interesting by this effect and when I showed my
focus group the “before and after” images of the font
before and after the effect, they much preferred the font
with the effect. Therefore in this instance, technology
definitely improved my product as it made it appeal
more to the target audience.

15. Due to a combination of my inaptitude with Photoshop
and the simplistic style my focus group requested I
didn’t attempt anything too ambitious on Photoshop.
However I often went to tutorials on YouTube in order to
progress my knowledge of the software tools and how to
use them effectively. This is another example of how
YouTube helped me in the production stage, and not just
research and planning.

16. One generic and necessary feature of a print advert, were
reviews- often accompanied by ratings. Therefore I
decided to use Photoshop to create stars to use
alongside quotes. Here’s the link to the site I used to
learn how to do this.
http://damiensymonds.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/how-to-
make-star-shape-in-photoshop.html
As I have already said, my lack of confidence with the
technology did limit my creativity and design to some
extent, I still feel I was more proactive in learning how to
do things than I was last year. I spent more time on
blogs such as these and YouTube tutorials.

17. Premier Pro
At the start of this process I dreaded the editing stage due to
bad past experiences with editing software! Consequently I
do think it restricted my ambitions towards what type of
final product I wanted to achieve. I also think I was further
restricted by the genre of the song, as slow indie music
videos aren’t renowned for spectacular visual effects.
Consequently I do think that I definitely wasted the
opportunity to use software like Premier Pro as various
factors meant I was neither confident nor willing to
experiment more with Premier Pro as I felt it would stray too
far from genre conventions and my realistic capabilities.

18. Although as I mentioned, slower songs aren’t associated with
fast paced or exciting videos- there were still effects that I
needed to include in order to follow some necessary
conventions. One of which was using lots of cross dissolves
and super imposition to create a sense of nostalgia and
distance between individuals. I was able to do this via the
“video transitions” section and within “dissolve” I was able to
click and drag a cross dissolve over to the two clips I wanted
to merge together. Although this was clearly rather simple,
for some shots I wanted more control over the duration and
opacity of the dissolve so had to do it in a more manual way,
moving the play head and changing opacity percentages for
the clips involved.

19. My focus group responded well to this, saying how
it met their expectation of what a music video to a
relatively down beat song would look like. Although
I used plenty of basic cross dissolves, I think I
should have included more of the advanced
transitions that involved the manipulation of
opacity levels etc as they gave the video more of a
professional look.

20. One part of my video that I was particularly pleased
with and my focus group particularly liked was the
Scrabble tile and rose petal animation. Premier Pro
enabled me to do this, as I was able to edit frame
by frame- something that is more difficult on more
basic software like Windows Movie Maker, therefore
more accurate animation was made possible. This
was especially useful with the Scrabble tiles as I
wanted them to spell out the lyrics in time with
when they were sung.

21. As there was limited movement from actual visuals
on screen as I felt it wouldn’t suit the song to have
fast paced movements etc, it was important that i
was able to involve slight camera movement to stop
the video from looking completely stationary.
Premier Pro allowed me to do this, as by zooming
in to the shots slightly, and using the key heads, I
was able to slowly pan across certain shots- giving
the video a sense of flow. Although these
movements are very subtle, I still think being able
to use Premier to achieve this was very important
as otherwise I think the video would’ve been
significantly lacking in camera movement.

22. Premier Pro was essential in creating this, as I
hadn’t really considered this before filming.
Consequently I didn’t use any panning or tracking
etc when shooting, so I had to rely purely on
editing software to achieve this.
When I showed my focus group the video before
and after I’d added this particular post
production effect- the response was unanimous in
its agreeance that the post production version
with slight camera movement was “1000 times
better.”

23. Finally, something that I wanted to achieve but was
unable to due to errors from myself and limits of
the technology was the “Sin City” effect where the
majority of an image is black and white, with just
one or two features in colour. I was inspired to do
this after watching Pleasantville, and I thought it
would work really nicely with the rose petals
animation. My focus group were also very keen on
the idea, so I attempted to recreate the effect on
Premier Pro.

24. Although the tutorial I watched on YouTube on
how to create the effect was very clear and easy to
understand, I was still unable to create the effect
due to the lack of clarity in the colour. Therefore
the petals didn’t look their solid original colour and
instead looked overly patchy. Although the lack of
lighting I used may have been a large factor in this,
I think if I were using a software more advanced
than Premier Pro, I may have been able to edit out
the patches manually, and therefore been able to
successfully create the effect.

25. In conclusion, I think technology did determine the
outcome of my work- however it was due to my
reluctance to experiment too ambitiously with it,
rather than the limits of the technology itself.
However, I do think that the research and planning
of my work was done to a higher and more
extensive standard because of the range of
technology I used- particularly in the way of iPad
apps, and the technological convergence that
tablets enable. Being able to interact with my focus
group via 2.0 technologies improved my knowledge
of what my target audience wanted from a media
product, and I could make a more suitable product
as a result. Despite this, I still think my work could
have been more interesting if I’d taken more time
to learn how to use the software more thoroughly.