Media evaltion part 1 - queston

1. How did you use media technologies in the
research, planning and construction or your
media product.
By Richard Maguire

2. In order to gain information on the music industry in hip-hop and rap ,I used search engines such as Google , where we typed “hip-
hop , rap artists” and found various websites showing us different well known hip-hop rap artists , such as famous celebrities as
“2pac (dead) , lil „Wayne , 50cent ,Kanye west and Akon, after finding these artists we goggled their names and found websites
dedicated to each of these artists with their video performances and details of their lifestyle and career defining moments.
After finding some links on these websites to YouTube , I found it of prior importance to such artists via YouTube and look at
audience feedback to see what artists are getting positive feedback and why there getting it via their video uploads and how some
artists are getting negative feedback and what are they doing in their video to contribute toward this.
After doing this I was able to understand the hip-hop rap genre of music and try find a capable struggling artist trying to make it big ,
and found the artist named „question999‟ - you can see the artist via this MySpace link http://www.myspace.com/question999
By doing all this I was able to contribute towards the creation of a controlled media product.

3. We used a variety of different technologies in the making
of the music video , such as the key equipment of the digital camera ,
we did various practice exercises to develop our key camera shooting skills,
We attempted all different camera motions such as pan and zoom in/out
Shots ,we made these camera shots more stable by using a tripod to make
Sure the camera didn‟t move a lot causing blurs in the filming or miss
Key filming clips.
Zoom in
On the day of the filming we had brought one digital camera and a tripod ,
We overcame the difficulties of not having multiple cameras and tripods for
More varied shots by keep repeating the same shot in different angles and framing Zoom
Styles to make sure the shots could be used in the music video editing stage for a
Complete product.
out
We Filmed in Various locations around Neasden and Willesden as these are
Suburbs of London and tend to have gangs, mostly working class people , and
A high rate of poverty , i.e. “church road” has its own well known gang. In Neasden
We used the bridge setting to symbolise poverty and a socio-economic inequality,
And Willesden we used a graveyard setting to symbolise death as the song relates to
Violence and “shanking” which ends in a violent death – usually gang related.

4. To Construct our Music video we first developed key digital technology skills by using „final cut pro‟ an apple editing programme that allows you
to edit clips into a music video by various different techniques , such as an easy technique called an „ assembly edit‟ where you just put clips
together without any graphics put or etc.
Whilst creating the music video , we learned the editing skills first , as these skills were
Vital towards the finished constructions of the music video, these skills were very
Difficult to learn at first and I needed the help of various people who had prior
Knowledge of this programme ( such as the media technician –TJ , and fellow media
Btec/A level students) but after some weeks I learned the basic skills to create a music
Video and within weeks after that tried to develop the skills needed to add graphical
Abilities to the music video but failed .
As I couldn‟t understand how they actually
Worked .
Whilst editing the music video we found that the lyrics were not in sync with the sound track or performance of anyone in the music video ,
So we had to edit the lyrics with the sound track first and then use the lyrics with specific performances to create an effective music video, we did
this by moving the moving certain sections back or fourth of the timeline with the track timeline.
Whilst editing we found how to use certain added visual effects as quick one second shots in-between the lyrics soundtrack and the edited clips to
go quick in and out shots for an effective illustration of the lyrics meanings, this effect was used several times throughout the music video but still
was the minority of shots.

5. There were two Designing software's used in the creation of the
CD Cover and Magazine Advert , called Adobe Photoshop and adobe
in-design.
I used Photoshop to enhance the quality and style of the magazine
advert and cd cover via removing all the un-necessary pieces of the
image as „background‟, so all that‟s left is the image to be used for the
cd cover or magazine advert.
After using Photoshop I used the design software called in-design , where
it enabled me to construct the cd cover and magazine advert via putting all
the bits and pieces together as image, texting and background.
The Photoshop programme was generally difficult to use even with AS Media
experience using it , however in-design became easier to use at A2 as I was able
to grasp more abilities , however with these problems , I was able to overcome them
to create the cd cover and advert.
The photos we took were in a dark lit place so a lot of editing was needed to turn them
into useable material for the cd cover and advert – such as making the images brightness #
Go up , making the images sharper to remove pixel straining.