1. How did you use media
technologies in the construction
and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Throughout my advanced portfolio, I used a
range of media technologies to enhance
aesthetics, experimentation, creativity and
understanding of these technologies.
2. During my research, the Internet was key in attaining secondary
data which disclosed conventions of media products (genre
specific music videos) and helped build the foundation of my
whole portfolio. All images that were not taken by me were
taken from the Internet by searching buzzwords into search
engines such as 'Google'. With Web 2.0 offering many
application and networks, I used many of these to discover and
present information in a number of ways.
3. When looking at pre-existing videos to depict, I used the streaming site YouTube.
Youtube includes content from prosumers - including record labels - which is
accessible around the world via the web. YouTube helped me discover music videos
from many genres; enabling me to understand how they vary. YouTube was also used
to distribute vodcasts we had completed during planning for our pitch, initial ideas
and storyboard. However YouTube was not used to distribute our music video as
they're are copyright ground the video breached. As YouTube has been a means of
illegal downloading since the rise in digital downloading in the early noughties, record
labels and artists have taken it upon themselves to block the opportunity of illegal
consumption and distribute their videos on YouTube through owned, restricted
channels (i.e. Vevo, owned by Sony and Universal). As our song was commercial and
owned by Sony, it faced this fate. For this reason, we distributed our video on the less
popular site, Vimeo and felt as though promotion would aid recognition.
4. Today social networking is a part of many people's everyday life,
and my market research discovered that it is one of the top ways
in which audiences gear of new music videos. We therefore used
Twitter to promote the music video and the artists' album so
audiences could hear it via Twitter and spread the word. Twitter
was also used when contacting the artist, as we know that Twitter
is the resort for connecting with fans, with artist making constant
use of it.
5. A lot of my research included getting ideas from audiences of music videos
and R&B music. We seeked this information by producing surveys through the
site 'Survey Monkey'. The site allowed us to create many types of questions -
we used multi choice questions when collecting quantitative questions and
commentary questions for detailed information. This information lead us to
how we storyboarded the video and how we planned the products as we
aimed to gratify the audience. The Internet also contains sites which have
lyrics to songs and I found 'Drunk texting' lyrics on MetroLyrics, enabling me
to analyse the lyrics while dismissing the instrumental of the song and
depicting the words intensely.
6. I used Microsoft PowerPoint widely for creating presentations for my pitch
and question 4 of my evaluation. The PowerPoints were a mode of
summarising information and presenting it in a way which is aesthetically
appealing look through and engage in. I also used PowerPoints to create the
moodboards for the R&B genre and our music video. I have always used this
to group images together by selecting all images and using the tool 'save as a
picture'. I used this as it allows me to place pictures in discretionary places
and I was able to be creative with placement. For example, I made the mood
board for R&B so that it followed a timeline; panning from pictures from the
90s to the present day.
7. During planning, I also used the application ShowMe using an iPad to identify
and describe audience profiles. The applications allowed me to add pictures,
annotate and voice over. The ShowMe allowed me to have analytical
discussion about who potential audience members will be as the images
acted as triggers to new ideas. For example, the image of a young woman
cued what I understood would be her common activities and what she music
she favoured.
8. When constructing we used hardware technology to film and edit the
productions. We used a Canon camera (E05, 60D) which we familiarised ourselves
with enough to experiment with. For example when filming, I liked the appearance of
effecting the focus to blur out. This was done at the end of the video and acted as a
closing curtain. Artificial lighting was used in some of the house scenes to compliment
to existing lighting yet we were unable to use the lighting for scenes outside. It
brightened the video, making it appear more professional. The biggest software for
construction was 'Final Cut Pro' which we used to edit our music video. We were able
to create many features, we planned based on research to make the video
representative of the R&B genre. The distinct features such as the change in pace, the
prism effect and transition were created on Final Cut Pro. The application allowed us
to experiment with features on Final Cut Pro that we may not have thought of before
to create visuals that were aesthetics. Photoshop was also important in constructing
our digipak and advert.
9. The use of photoshop helped me understand the processes in
creating an enhancing picture. For the front cover of the digipak
we created layers in which we could effect each layer differently,
making the backdrop of the image high in lighting and blurred
and the artist brightened but a solid image.
10. The process of my coursework was documented on the blogging
site weebly. On here I presented information in a neat layout
which included links to navigate users on my blog and condense
text. Some navigations included creating mini slideshows and
this was useful when including several pictures in a section. The
site implemented codes to include platforms from other sites.
This helped in research, planning and evaluation.
