Evaluation Question 4

Throughout the production of the research and planning, the
construction of the music video and ancillary tasks, and the creation
of the evaluations I used a wide range of different media
technologies in order to show my skills and make the evaluations
presentable.
How did you use media
technologies in the
construction, research,
planning and evaluation
stages?

I used Wikipedia a lot as it gave me an insight into my chosen artist. I
used this site to research his music, and the audience feedback he has
had such as reviews and awards, I was also able to see his other song
titles so that I could watch them in order to develop an understanding
of what kind of videos Kendrick usually produces. This was useful as it
allowed us to understand the song lyrics more as we had a broad
understanding of the artist himself. This made our music video better
as our research and planning in evident in the final product as we were
highly influenced by his existing tones and moods of his other music
videos.
Research:
I used YouTube extensively throughout my research stage in order to
gain some general knowledge of the types of videos that are popular
and also gain ideas about the type of video I’d like my own to be.
YouTube is a video social networking host website which allowed me
to access a wide range of videos from all eras and all genres. The only
issue I had with YouTube was trying to use it at school as students are
denied access to YouTube on the computers at school. This proved to
be very inconvenient as it stopped us from developing our initial
research. I overcame this problem by using YouTube on my phone, the
YouTube school account and at home which meant the research was
carried out successfully.

I also carried out extensive research using the well known search engine Google.
This search engine enabled me to research different artists iconography in terms of
their signature mise-en-scene or clothing. This allowed me to discover the recent
trends for a range of genres and the range of ways artists promote their videos.
This search engine was used to research Digipaks of other artists in order to help us
design our own. It also helped us to research various artists image so that we could
create our own one for our model which would fit with the right tone and genre.
Some of the sites we needed were blocked on my school user therefore I had to
use the YouTube account or do the research on my phone or at home. This was
inconvenient at times as some things had to be found out quickly, for example, the
record label information. I had to email them to seek permission for my video,
however, the sites that showed the artists record label were all blocked.

To make our music video we needed a camcorder to film the many different scenes, as a
group we decided to use my FujiFilm FinePix S6500fd digital camera as I am a
photography student therefore we knew the quality of my camera was high and that I
would know how to use it. This was a lot more convenient than borrowing a camera from
school as we would have to book it out and share it with the rest of the groups. As it was
my own camera we were free to film whenever and wherever we needed to. It is a very
large camera with an adjustable lens therefore it wasn’t easy to carry round as we had to
make sure we didn’t break the lens as it is quite delicate. It was easy to film the various
scenes as I knew how to focus on the main feature without ruining the lighting or the
angle. We also used a tripod to keep the camera steady when filming so that the shots
were focussed and professional. The camera was easy to control on the Tripod and
enabled us to change our angles of shots very easily as we could move the tripod up and
down so that the camera could film both high angles shots and low angle shots. These
variations of shots are clear in the bath scenes as the camera is above them when they
are under water and then at a low shot for the hand gripping the side. The major issue
with this camera was a corrupted memory card as we lost our footage twice within the
entire course which set us back and put us under a lot of pressure.
Creating the music video:

Within our group we used Hotmail and WhatsApp to send emails and messages to each
other in order to arrange filming sessions and to gather information on the next shots.
We discussed mise-en-scene and the new ideas we had. This was successful as we had a
group chat we could use to contact everyone at the same time so that everyone was
aware of the plans.
We used Hotmail to email pieces of work as it was hard to get it any other way. This was
useful as it ensured we could always get what we needed fast.

Editing the film:
To create the music video we used Microsoft Serif Movies Plus XS which
enabled us to cut clips into the desired shots, add effects such as blur,
cross-fade and flow motion, import media such as the song, insert
transitions such as panning shot, and add text such as the Vevo sign and
the artists name and song title. These features gave the music video a
professional high quality appearance.
This shows how we trimmed the clips
and selected the best part of the many
shots we took. This made it easier for
us to film as we could keep rolling and
then just remove the bad shots.
This shows how we added a cross fade
so that two different shots would fade
into each other rather than abruptly
changed. This looked very professional.
These are examples of the different things we used
this software for.

I had never used this programme before my A2 media course, therefore I was
unfamiliar with the different features. Nevertheless Marie was quite confident
using this software which enabled us to create a successful music video as Marie
was aware of how to use the various editing tools. We underwent a trial and error
process for some of the techniques as we would try new effects and then gather as
a group to determine the success of the various editing technique. We found
successful features which worked well with our tone, for example; the slow motion,
the blur and the cross fade. We encountered only small problems when using this
software such as insufficient user space on our computers therefore we created a
folder in the shared area so that we could access it as a group and share all of the
work. The major problem we encountered was the accessibility as we couldn’t use
this software at home therefore we had to stay after school and use our free
lessons to edit the music video.

Constructing the ancillary tasks:
One of the main pieces of technology we used to construct our ancillary tasks was a
professional camera. We used the same camera which we used for the music video as I
knew how to use it and the quality had been established. I used my FujiFilm FinePix
S6500fd digital camera to take the photographs for all of the ancillary tasks. I was the
one that took all of the ancillary task images. I managed to capture every set of shots at
high quality without any pixelated areas, this was successful as the highly controlled
lighting meant that my professional camera couldn’t focus without needing the flash
which would ruin my eerie lighting. Therefore I used my IPhone as I was able to control
the focus and lighting easily. The quality was not corrupted in any way and the images in
comparison actually worked better on an IPhone rather than a digital camera.

I used Adobe Illustrator to create the actual CD. This was one of the hardest ancillary
tasks as I had to create the circle area for the disk and keep editing it to make it look
realistic as the circle had to be perfect in order to be recognised as a CD disc. Once I
had created the disc template I started to create two more circles for the middle
area, this was difficult as I had to get them perfectly matched. I then added my
image, this was done using the ‘place’ tool I then altered the scale to fit to the CD
how I wanted it. I then started to add text and the logos. The hardest part of this
was adding the text around the rim of the CD as I had to create an exact replica of
the discs circle and then make it slightly smaller, I then had to alter the text settings
to follow the path of my circle so that it would travel around the whole CD.
I used Paint to create the CD holder as I had to create a template therefore I
uploaded an image into paint and then drew over it to create a professional
design that looked realistic. This then enabled me to remove the white
background so that it was just an outline and the place it over my CD holder
so that it gave the effect of the 3D case without the CD in place.
I used InDesign for the font research as this was the easiest software to
use for this task as we could try many different fonts and choose by
looking at them all at the same time to see which ones stand out. After
choosing the font we decided to use it on the whole Digipak so that it
visually relates.

To construct our ancillary tasks we used Adobe Photoshop to edit our photographs. This
involved changing the saturation of the fire images to make it look like smoke instead.
We also edited the image for our front cover by making it black and white yet turning the
wine bottle red so that it stood out. I was very familiar with using Photoshop as I am a
photography student and I used it in AS media, therefore I was confident and
comfortable with the various features. We used Photoshop to create all of our ancillary
tasks apart from the CD itself. We used photoshop as I was familiar with this programme
and could create everything we wanted on there. Using Photoshop enabled us to save
each feature to a new ‘layer’ so that each part of the product could be edited or
removed without affecting the other features on the product.

These are some of the tools we used for all of the ancillary tasks.

Blogger was the main program me and my group used to publish the
various amount of work we produced such as research, planning,
production and evaluations. I used Blogger for my AS coursework
therefore I knew how to use it and was confident about using all of
the features. Nevertheless I still experience some problems. For
example, creating pages; my pages wouldn’t load therefore I had to
change all of my pages to posts which was very time consuming, it
also didn’t look as organised. I also had trouble placing the photos in
the areas I wanted them, I overcome this by constantly adding extra
space before uploading the images so that they had room to be
placed in the areas I wanted them.
Presenting and evaluating my coursework

I have also used Microsoft PowerPoint during my evaluation
questions and my research as I would create images on the
slides and then group them together and save them as one
large image to make it easier to upload into Blogger. I also used
PowerPoint to create slide shares for my blog as they are easily
uploaded onto blogs and splits my work into the correct pages
to separate the many different focuses.
I used Microsoft Word for an evaluation question. I used a
Word document to write the answer and then I uploaded
the document into Scribd I could then embed the code of
this product and place it on my blog. This was successful as
it grouped together a lot of writing and transformed it into
a media technology rather than ordinary written text.

We used social networking sites to display our music video on YouTube, Facebook and
Instagram as our target audience commonly use these social networking sites therefore
we would be able to analyse our success. People were able to leave comments instantly
which is easy for people to do and easy for me to retrieve.

I used slide share as the large amount of text I wanted to feature would of looked ordinary
on a blog and boring to read, therefore by creating slides and uploading them onto slide
share it enables them to look attractive and use more technologies to broadcast my wide
range of skills. I had to do this at home as it is blocked on the school user, this wasn’t a
problem as I could save my PowerPoint to key and quickly upload it at home as it is easy to
do.
I used Gif’s to create a mini slide show of images rather than
uploading them separately. A gif allows the images to switch back
and forth from the amount uploaded. These were great for
highlighting my research influences and my final product. This
media technology improved my evaluations as they visually
answered the question without hardly any text. I was able to select
the order of the images so the research came before my product, I
could also alter the speed of transitions and the size of the image.
The only downfall was the varying quality as some were stretched
to all be the same size. This wasn’t too much of a problem as they
were still clear in what they represented.

I created a detailed piece of work that involved a lot of text on a
Microsoft Word document. I then uploaded it onto Scribd which
enabled me to upload my word document on my blog. This is an
example of technological convergence as I would normally type
the text out, yet now I can upload it.
I used Prezi to create virtual mind maps that can be enlarged
and clearly read. The virtual Prezi allows you to flip back and
forth between text boxes. This is a technological way to upload
something similar to a PowerPoint. It is visually successful as it
uses new media technologies and it can be used to show a
journey of ideas as you can choose what order it goes in. I didn’t
have any problems with Prezi as it was fast and easy to do.
I used Glogster to visually show our make-up research as it uses
large images and arrows with a small amount of text to present
the information. As make-up is visible I thought this was best to
use as it would make the images the main focus. This was simple
and straight forward to use and looked visibly successful.

How I did Evaluation Question 1
I created a PowerPoint developing
Andrew Goodwin’s theory. I then
uploaded it unto slide share and
embedded it into Blogger. This is a
technological way of adding slides into a
blog which are better to read than just
text on a post.
I then got all of the images I needed together by referring back to
my research and my own music video. I then put the images into
make a gif and created moving images to visually show the
influence.
I then created a word document of my text and
uploaded it in Scribd I then embedded this into Blogger
and created a technological text box.
I also used images that had been cropped on PowerPoint
and grouped together into one single image. This visually
represented the links and influence to real media products.

I used Google search engine to find images of Digipaks and
then I went on YouTube and watched the artists videos to
determine a link between the two which related to my own.
I used PowerPoint to group together
the slides full of comparisons so that I
could upload them as one single image
which is easier than trying to create it
on another programme.
I then uploaded each image individually on Prezi, I created
new frames so that each image got its own transition. This
allowed the image to be very large so that it can be
studied. The Prezi works well with this evaluation as it is
the visual links that answer the question not masses of
text.

I used print screens from Facebook and Instagram to
show my audience feedback I then analysed the
comments and put them into individual Prezi’s so that
they could be analysed in detail and separated into the
correct order.
I then filmed my mum watching my video and
answering questions, she also did this for my ancillary
tasks. I then uploaded them onto my computer,
however, they wouldn’t upload onto Blogger as the file
was wrong. Therefore I had to download Freemake
Video Converter and upload each video and change it
in (.avi) I then had to upload them onto YouTube
individually which was very time consuming s each
one took on average 45 minutes. I then embedded the
videos into Blogger.

I did this Evaluation Question as a PowerPoint and then uploaded it onto slide share to
embed onto my Blog. This allows me to write a lot of text yet keep it all organised and
efficient. Using slide share makes it more readable as it looks attractive and well
presented.

Evaluation Question 4

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