The student used various new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation of their music video project. For filming, they used a Panasonic HDC-SD60 video camera and tripod to capture high definition footage. iMovie was used for video editing, applying effects like transitions, filters and split screens. For ancillary tasks like the CD case, PhotoScape and Serif PagePlus were utilized to design layouts and images. Their research and planning process involved using a Blogger site to document decisions, alongside integrating tools like SlideShare, Flickr and YouTube. PowerPoint and iMovie were employed to present their evaluation responses creatively. Some difficulties encountered included software limitations and not having the right equipment,

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

2. In the construction stage of my music video I used a range of new media technologies, including: My Panasonic HDC-SD60 video camera to film my music video. As this is an HD camera I was able to take high definition shots in order for my music video to look more realistic and give it a professional look. As the camera is small and compact, I was able to set up different shots that I wouldn't have been able to do with a larger camera, such as the Facebook scene: I also used a tripod, which was particularly useful to keep shots steady and to be able to get some high angle shots.

3. I also used iMovie as my editing software. This was a piece of software I have used before and was familiar with, which was an advantage when using tools for editing.

4. Editing Effects I was able to use transitions such as 'cross blur' to create smooth transitions, 'fade to black' for the beginning and ending and 'fade to white' for the flash effects. I also used colour filters for all the of scenes, using: A 'dream' filter for the spinning shot to give it a more angelic, supernatural look which gave more impact and went with the soft music leading up to the end of the shot. A 'vignette' filter for the lip syncing scenes in order to make my artist stand out more. And a 'black and white' filter for the expectations/reality scenes to show that they were flashbacks.

5. I also used 'split clip' for that shot and split it into 3 parts, speeding up each shot more and more, making the first clip 70% speed, the second 160% speed and the third 250% speed so that the spinning sped up with the music. Another effect I used was a split screen effect in order to show the same situation with 2 different outcomes: This was a challenge as certain ones (such as the Facebook scene) had to be perfectly in sync with each other, however this was overcome by making sure my actress did each scene one after the other in exactly the same place and careful editing. I made it clear to the audience what these were by using titles to put the text "Expectations" and "Reality" on each side.

6. Construction of ancillary tasks New media technology used to create my ancillary tasks were Serif Page Plus, Sugar and PhotoScape. I used PhotoScape to organise the inside panel pictures on my digipak and use effects on them. For example, I arranged the photos on the inside left panel into a template so that images were layered, so the lyrics where at the back, layered by the black and white stills from the music video, which were then layered over the top by a still from the video in colour. These were separated by white lines to give it a split screen effect which is my star image motif.

7. I also used PhotoScape to make the images black and white and to also use a blur effect on the edges of them, to make the middle picture stand out even more. On the right side panel I used a similar template that wasn't split into sections and used a white background on the bottom layer, layered by a picture I took of some trees/leaves which was layered on top by a white box with the bands "thank you's" in it.

8. I then put these images in Serif to connect them to make the inside panels connected by the spine. I also used Serif to make my front and back cover, using the box tools, line tools, fonts and colours.

9. The main front cover image was created in Sugar (an image makeover program). As I was unable to splice two images of the separate halves of Katie's face together, I decided to use just one picture of her whole face and edit the right side to make it look happier and then placed a line in the middle to create a split screen effect. In detail, I used the blend tool to make it look like she was smiling, and make up tools to give her false eyelashes, eyeliner and a slightly green eye shadow to emphasise that this was the 'beautiful' side.

10. To create the front cover image in the first place though, I used the still image setting on my HD video camera to take the picture. I felt this was better than using a normal digital camera as it would make the image more professional looking being HD. Over 100 images were taken for the front cover.

11. Research and Planning For research and planning I used www.Blogger.com as online diary to track my progress with my coursework and document any decisions made, changes to my storyboard, shooting schedule, post research findings and document the planning stages of my work. I was able to change the layout and colours of my blog to the house colours for my music video after creating my storyboard in order to make my blog look more creative and to give the whole project a theme.

12. Software I Used Within My Blog Slideshare Flickr YouTube I also used YouTube embedded videos to give examples of things I had found through research and Blogger's video uploaded so I could give an example of the scene I took my inspiration from in (500) Days of Summer. Slideshare was used to post my PowerPoint presentations of picture slideshows Flickr was used to post my pictures so that they were a bigger size on the main post without anyone having to click them to make them bigger

13. New Media Technologies Used In My Evaluation I decided to present my answers to the 4 questions in 2 different formats to make it more creative. PowerPoint Video Filming and Editing For 2 of the questions I have used PowerPoint. This was because I thought it would be a creative way of presenting my answers to the questions. I have tried to make this effective by including lots of pictures to illustrate my answers and using effects such as arrows to make points. I have also used the house colours from my music video and ancillary tasks in my PowerPoint’s to keep it with the theme. For 1 other question I have I filmed myself answering question 3 and discussed my target audience feedback, then I imported this into iMovie to add transitions and titles. For question 1 I made a video on iMovie of my answers using titles for them and illustrating them with clips from my music video. Again, I felt this would be a more creative way of showcasing my answers rather than just writing them out.

14. Difficulties encountered with new media technologies and what I would do next time Difficulties I encountered whilst filming and editing my video included not being able to use a split screen effect on the iMovie I already had, which meant getting in touch with Apple themselves and inquiring how I would be able to achieve this effect. I eventually was informed that the effect could be achieved on iMovie 11, and therefore had to purchase that to overcome this issue.

15. The split screen that I achieved wasn't exactly the look I was going for, as I had hoped there would be a black line in the middle to separate the two video clips however I had to work with what I had. I found through researching this problem that this would have been possible on Final Cut Pro which I would probably use next time, however at present this was not possible to for me to use as it was too much money to buy and I knew no one who had it in order to borrow it.

16. Whilst filming I wanted to create some dramatic high angles and low angles with my tripod. However the tripod would not go high enough for a noticeable very high angle or low enough for a dramatic low angle. Next time I would probably enlist the help of a friend to help me create the low angle, as I could not use the camera without a tripod because my hands would shake and it would have made the shot shaky. Regarding the high angle I would probably stand the tripod on a box to make it higher, however at the time I did not have one readily available.

17. Regarding editing software, I was unable to use transitions going into the split screen shots or coming out of them, which was very limiting as I had hoped to use some kind of transition to emphasise that they were flashbacks. Instead of the normal boxes for the transitions there were transparent grey boxes that wouldn’t work when played. This was just how the software was made and I found after inquiring whether there was anything I could do to fix it there wasn't. Hopefully the next iMovie update will have resolved this issue.