YouTube, Prezi, Scribd, SlideShare, iMovie, Photoshop, and social media were used at various stages of planning, constructing, and evaluating a music video project. YouTube was used for research, inspiration, and sharing work. Prezi and presentation tools allowed for organizing information. Photoshop skills like cloning were used for image editing. iMovie enabled editing techniques like overlays. Social media like Facebook spread awareness of the finished video. Various online platforms facilitated sharing work and gaining influence from other creations.

1. Evaluation Question 4
‘How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation stages’

2. 1.
Youtube was a useful web resource that allowed me to upload videos that I had edited from iMovie. This website was very easy to
learn/use and its simplicity is highlighted through only having to click and drag from my desktop to upload a video. Youtube enabled
me to share my videos with others in my group so they could have a copy for their blogs just by copying the embedded code.
Youtube was very helpful for our group as we could watch similar music videos from different artists. This meant we could gain
inspiration from other resources in particular with the slow-motion effect in Alt-J’s music video, ‘Breezeblocks’. During the research
process for potential music video concepts, we had never heard of Breezeblocks however we typed in ‘murder music videos’ on
youtube and Breezeblocks came up. It was Youtube’s recommendations that helped us find our main influence. Youtube has millions
of videos and never run out of recommendations and so when we looked at one music video, another one would be suggested.
Youtube pays close attention to what types of videos you watch so that it can give you other related videos to what you are browsing.
This meant that when looking at Breezlebocks, Psycho the film was also recommended and this helped influence us further because
we began incorporating closeups and harsh angels in our murder sequence to create violent atmosphere for our audience. Psycho
never has one continuous shot and it was through the process of continually cutting to different angles and objects such as the
radiator with blood, that allowed us to entice our audience. I continually used Youtube in the research, planning and evaluation
stages and the fact that I could embed these videos directly to my blog, meant that I could demonstrate the procedures that our
group went through to create our final product.
The slow motion reverse effect in Alt-J’s video was very similar
to ours in the way we constructed our music video. On
youtube, I watched a video of the director of Alt-J’s video
explaining that he shot the murder in normal time then
reversed it all during the editing stages. We then used this
helpful advice in our video and this saved us from trying to
work backwards which would have delayed our shooting time.
Through finding psycho on youtube, this meant we
gained ideas into representing our character in the
murder scene. We used similar closeups from psycho
in our murder sequence as can be seen on the right.

3. 2. Prezi, Scribd and slideshare
Prezi is another powerful media platform that I used primarily in
presenting different parts of my coursework. Prezi is an innovative
software that allows its user to create well organised and detailed
presentations through using different templates. I used Prezi in presenting
many music video analysis’s. A unique feature of Prezi is setting a
designated path for the powerpoint to follow meaning a person viewing
my presentations can see the information in the correct order. Like with
scribd and youtube, I could embed prezi documents onto my blog so that
I could keep them all together and could show my work.
Scribd was another online platform which I used when uploading pdf
documents. Not only did I upload documents, but I also browsed
other scribd pages that people had submitted for planning of their A2
music videos. This allowed me to gain insight into the ways in which
our group could plan our video. I also gained influence from how
other people presented their coursework and from this I started using
more often, other new media technologies such as keynote and
pages on my macbook as alternative methods
Slideshare was another tool I used to upload my coursework to my blog. Some
parts of Keynote on a macbook are not compatible with online sites such as
blogger and so slideshare allowed me to get over this problem. I was able to
convert powerpoints into pdf and could embed the presentations onto my blog.
Like with scribd, slide hare contains thousands of presentations that are made
public. This came in handy, especially during research as many film makers
upload regular on tips and tricks into how to shoot certain images. An example of
this is from Simon Perry who makes short films online. He uploaded a very useful
powerpoint on what makes an effective film and here I learnt different techniques
such as considering pace of a moving image

4. IMovie
I used iMovie when editing practise videos, behind the scenes
footage and even for some of the real footage involved in our
music video. I movie was useful as I could click and drag
footage from my seagate hard-rive straight to the editing dock.
iMovie was particularly useful when editing the mirror sequence
as it has an inbuilt green/blue screen. This meant that I could
overlay two separate videos to play at the same time creating
the man in the mirror effect. iMovie was paticulary useful when
we needed to make scenes of the couples happiness brighter
through trying out different exposure/contrast levels.
The anti-shakiness icon was used in
the editing process when shaky
footage was causing issues with how
the video appeared. This icon
stabilised footage and I could even
increase the amount of stabilisation I
wanted from the footage. This
resulted in a smooth flowing edit.
Here I learnt how to
overlay to clips over
one another. This
was essential for the
error sequence to
create the split
personality effect
Throughout the
construction process,
I learnt how to adjust
the exposure/
contrast levels to
create the dark
atmosphere.
Originally, the footage
was too light however
through decreasing
exposure levels using
the exposure slider,
this meant we
achieved the
preferred footage.

5. 4. Photoshop
Photoshop was used in the stages of the digipack development.
Photoshop was a complex editing software that I learnt through
watching various videos about the basics of layering images and
creating layering effects such as the glowing edges which created
a disclosure look for the male.
The key skill that I have learnt whilst using photoshop was the ‘Clone Stamp’ icon. This unique
feature allows a user to clone colours from one part of an image and move this selected colour to
another section of that photo. Through selecting the area of the image that I wanted to clone, I
pressed the ALT button and this allowed me to obtain the exact colour from that specific area. This
feature is very useful when editing images, particularly if you want to remove any unwanted objects
that were present during the shoot. An example of this is the mirror legs. From the very beginning of
the course, mirror legs have proven tricky to hide during filming. We had this problem when editing
the image however with the clone icon, we copied areas of darkness from the top half the image
and duplicated this onto the legs. This allowed us to disguise the legs completely leaving a more
realistic, refined front cover for our digipack
Mirror legs and
tape on the floor
can be see
By copying the black from
the upper half of the image,
the chair legs and the
unwanted items are no long
visible
The area of black that
we used to duplicate

6. 5. Social media
Our main use of social media was through Facebook to promote our
video to our target audience. I learnt various different techniques to
virtually ‘spread the word’ to friends, family and we even branched out
further to the general public. Facebook was useful because we were
able to make posts public and private at the same time ensuring that
both friends and anonymous users were aware of the upcoming
release of our music video.
We created a Facebook page which gave a a brief summary of what our
music video is about and some artist information. Facebook is referred to as
being a ‘digital word of mouth’ because it allows our target audience to share
certain information about our music video with friends and family. This is turn
creates a snowball effect of others gradually becoming more aware of our
music video that is on the market. Facebook was a useful skill that I have
learnt and something that was critical in our promotion of the music video
because it is quick, easy to use and allowed the required information to be
spread