1. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Using my blog I have been able to record all aspects of my research and planning for each of my productions;
the music video, digipak and magazine. For my music video I begun by researching into target audience asking
questionnaires on music and music videos and documenting all results on my blog using Slideshare and
embedding the results onto my blog. Through this I can refer back to these results which later on will help to
make decisions on the target audience and how to aim our video at our chosen audience. I then researched into
the music industry evaluating example music videos, CD covers, and the music channel Viva and CD adverts all
of this was documented on my blog so that I can refer back to it so we can look at how we can make a music
video to appeal to our chosen target audience and also gaining ideas, effects and design style for each of the
productions. Planning for our music video we first selected our song looked at the lyrics and came up with initial
ideas, then following with questionnaires to our target audience documenting the results as well as embedding a
slideshow of our initial storyboard then developed storyboard. More detailed planning went into the video
including the cast, costume, location props, filming schedule and possible shot types we could use and also
looking at example videos of similar genre. Throughout the planning I documented all the research and planning
of our music video evaluating each piece as it was documented. Slideshare allowed me to load various word
documents and presentations that I was able to embed onto my blog which was a quick and easy process to do
and is a better way of viewing those types of documents. Through documenting the information on my blog
throughout the planning and shooting of the music video I was able to refer back to past information to make
sure that our video would appeal to our target audience. The production of my digipak and magazine were
similar looking at examples of each then creating the first drafts using Adobe Photoshop then getting feedback
from the target audience in the form of questionnaires asking for their input then documenting the results on my
blog to view then creating a final draft from the feedback I had received.
For our music video we shot the scenes with a Sony DV camcorder and also the tripod. Throughout the
filming we made use of natural lighting no artificial lighting was needed as the natural lighting was sufficient for
all of the scenes whether it was at the graveyard or in the family home of the mother and daughter. When our
video was then ready to go into post – production we used the editing software Final Cut which is a video editing
application created by Apple Inc. The effects we used in our video included, cross dissolve; which is an effect
where one shot would fade out over anther shot quickly which between some shots it was a better effect than
just cutting from one shot to another it was a smoother transition between the two shots. Another effect we used
using Final Cut was we removed the colour from some of the scenes to show the audience that the scenes were
from the past of the mother and daughter having fun together, so it was clear to the audience which scenes we
present and others hat were set in the past so that the audience can understand the narrative easier. In the
scene of the daughter sitting on her bed looking at past photos of her and mother she throws them off the bed
onto the floor using the effect of reversing this shot, the photos were thrown onto floor then the shot was
reversed where they returned onto the bed and then thrown back onto the floor again and we in this shot we also
changed the speed of it so it was quicker to emphasize how upset the daughter is over her mothers death.
For my print productions (magazine and digipak) the software I used to create both of them was Adobe
Photoshop which is a graphics editing program. The production of my digipak using Adobe I made use of several
effects. Working in the format of a PSD file I used multiple layers to construct the digipak. Using images I took of
Carly from an arranged photo shoot I used a Nikon D200 and begun editing these photos using the cropping
tool, a stamp tool which allowed me to copy other areas of the photo and paste it over another part e.g. the hair
to make it more smooth lined. I also used the background eraser tool which erased everything around Carly’s
figure and then finally changing the brightness and contrast of the image before opening them it into my digipak
file. The lips were another image I took which I cropped then using multiple layers changing the brightness and
contrast, painting the lips red then overlapping these images to create lips then importing it into the my digipak
file. Using multiple layers in my digipak file, I selected a background colour then moved the images around to
where I wanted to place them, then finally adding the text in last, and saving it as a JPEG ready to upload to my
blog. For my magazine advert working in a PSD format, I opened the files of my digipak and the lips then placed
them on my magazine advert. I also made use of shapes as a background which allowed me to fade the colours
using the lighting effects available changing the settings of the angle of the light so that the colours faded into
one another, then finally adding the images of the HMV and itunes logo using the select tool throughout to move
the layers around then saving it as a JPEG ready to upload to my blog.