Final Cut Express, Wix, Photoshop, and After Effects were used to construct the music video and accompanying assets. Final Cut Express allowed complex multi-timeline editing and color correction. Wix provided templates to easily create a professional-looking website. Photoshop enabled image editing including color correction and use of custom fonts. After Effects added special effects like animated text replacements. A digital camera and tripod captured footage and photos that were edited in these programs.

1. How did you use new media
technologies in the construction
stage?

2. Final Cut Express was the software we used to edit our music video footage
together. Using a highly advanced piece of software like this was much more
beneficial to us than using a run of the mill video editor such a Window’s Movie
Maker, which would only have allowed us to put footage beside each other and use
novice transitions. Meanwhile, Final Cut allowed us to use:
 Multi-Timeline Editing – This allowed us to quickly cut between multiple clips
using the Razor tool and lowering the opacity of shots. This was highly useful
during the climax of the video, as the beat dropped and the editing pace picked
up drastically, I was able to interchange between clips quickly without having to
add in a new clip every time. I did not use this feature much during the rest of the
video editing however, as most of our shots were narrative based and build up
over time, meaning that there were specific clips I had to use at specific points in
the video.
 Colour Correction, Effects and Adjustments – As our video was an indie
folk/trance video, some editing was in order to ensure that the raw footage met
up to the genre’s conventions. As such, I used the colour correction tool to
desaturate the narrative shots to my liking, draining the vibrancy. I also
experimented with the RGB balance tool to tint the shots certain colours,
however decided against using this in the final product as my audience feedback
had advised me not to overdo effects. Instead, I heightened.

3. Wix was the site used to construct our website from templates provided by the site. Using Wix
ensured that we didn’t have to start coding our website from scratch. The site is user-friendly
and simple in layout, but comes with many complex and interesting functions, so even
complete novice’s such as ourselves could create a professional looking website.
Certain functions of the site were especially valuable when designing our website, such as:
 Image Manipulation – Wix allows its users to insert images onto web pages as edit them as
they please, allowing us to take creative liberties and fool around with the tool before
deciding on what looked best. We used this to adjust saturation levels to match them to the
aesthetic of our other products and to ensure they blended well with the web page. As such,
the website images were adjusted to fit with the digipak’s colour scheme.
 On-site Blog Creation – This feature allowed us to integrate a blog onto our News page
which would update as we posted to the blog. This feature was highly useful, as it was
relatively simple to use and saved us the trouble of creating a blog on a different site and
having to embed it into the website, or attempt to create a blog like structure on Wix from
scratch.
 Store Feature – Wix comes with a software features that allows it’s users to create and
customize an online store to their liking. We were able to use this to add pricing, product
titles, descriptions and refund agreements to the faux merchandise that we designed in
Photoshop, which were used as the product avatars.

4. Photoshop CS6 is the image editing software we used to put together our digipack. Highly advanced, it
is a regularly used piece of software used through professionals throughout the media industry, and
was indispensable when creating out product.
 Image Color Correction – This is just one of the many features we used to edit the photos we had
taken, but it was highly effective. We raised the exposure of the images first, to create an almost
dreamlike air to the photos, which we then perfected by adding field blurs using the Filters option,
to make the image softer and less harsh on the eyes. Originally, we tried out a black and white
aesthetic, but decided against it as we believed it was aesthetically unpleasing and more
alternative rock than indie folk. By using the colour adjustment tool, we were able to tint the photo
with a colour scheme of browns and other light, muted colours, creating the overall aesthetic of an
old photograph.
 Using Custom Fonts – Photoshop also allows use of custom fonts that the users can download
online, which we did from a site called Da Font, which provided access to millions of custom made
fonts which were simple to download. We decided on the King font to use for our band’s logo, and
used this font in other areas such as the website’s heading for continuity purposes.
 Layer Editing – Photoshop’s ability to support multiple layers was absolutely vital in the production
of our digipack. It allowed us to separate images so that adjusting one would not adjust them all,
and in doing so create copies that could be saved. This way, we were able to take creative liberties
and try out different things on images without being worried about editing any other images
accidentally. Similarly, Photoshop’s Undo feature allows its users to do this without worrying about
losing the original image or messing things up permanently, as you can always return to what the
image looked like before the edit.

5. This was used to add certain effects and editing techniques to shots that we
couldn’t access in Final Cut Express.
For instance, the brief whiteboard shot in which the word ‘love’ is written on the
board and then wiped out to be replaced with ‘hate’ was made in After Effects
by layering the love layer on top of the hate layer and animating a wipe effect to
move with the movement of the eraser.
After Effects also allows for layer manipulation such as feathering, which
makes the edges softer and hard lines less noticeable, ensuring that the effect
flows more smoothly and avoids audience attention, seeming more
professional.

6. During the construction phase we used a digital camera recorder to shoot all of
our main footage, and a stills camera to take photographs which we would later
edit in Photoshop to use on the website, digipack, and any faux social media
we were using to promote the band.
Like in my first year coursework, we used a tripod to steady all of the camera’s
shots whilst it was recording, and it was because of my prior experience with
the technology and hardware that I was able to determine the best possible
shots to be used, and knew to take each shot from several different angles to
ensure that we had a wide range to select from when it came time to edit the
footage into a video.