Jessica Knights used a variety of new media technologies throughout the planning, research, construction, and evaluation of her music video project. She used blogs to plan and share research, YouTube to watch examples and tutorials, Photoshop and Final Cut Express for editing, and social media to promote the work. Video equipment like cameras, tripods, and a green screen were also vital for filming the music video.

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

2. We used a variety of new technologies and
software throughout the planning, researching,
constructing and evaluation stages of our Music
video project. A large percentage of the
technologies we used multiple times and were
vital in completing our final products.

3. During the process of
planning and making our
music video and ancillary
products we used Blogger
to record our research and
ideas. This enabled us to
embed examples of music
videos from YouTube
which can easily be seen
by the viewer of the blog
and helped to look more
professional.

4. We used YouTube to watch examples of
professional and student music videos which
enabled us to analyse and generate ideas for our
own music video.

5. • Furthermore, Youtube was extremely helpful
as a vital learning tool as we watched lots of
final cut tutorials, which enabled us to create
many of the dominant features in our music
video.
• For instance we learnt how to use colour
corrector, as well as how to change the Green
screen background. This allowed us to use our
Andy Warhol influence and ideas in our video
which became highly significant in the
outcome of our project.

6. This is the Final Cut Express Green Screen Tutorial
which helped us create our music video….
http://youtu.be/liQlc7cVriM

7. This is the Colour Corrector Tutorial that enabled
us to use our Andy Warhol influence and ideas….
http://youtu.be/dYJ2YN2lhzc

8. We also used Youtube to upload our preliminary
tasks as well as the rough cut and final version
of our music video. This enabled us to share our
work and embed onto our blog.
Rough Cut: Final Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb
=5qHvTm5VRJw&feature=plcp AhZdi7X_U&feature=plcp

9. By using YouTube to upload our films it allowed
us to get peer feedback which was really helpful
when improving our rough cut.
Here is our Peer review feedback for our rough cut and final version. We watched the videos from YouTube,
and write down answers which we uploaded onto the blog…

10. During the making of my
evaluation (for Question 2) I
used the internet software,
Prezi to help present my ideas
in an interesting way in terms
of use of technology. Prezi is
also extremely helpful as it
enables you to embed YouTube
Videos as well as photos to
further develop the Prezi
presentation and look more
engaging and professional. The
only annoying thing is that the
program is American so the
spell checker picks up words
like ‘colour’.

11. Photoshop
• We used Photoshop a lot when creating our
ancillary tasks.
• We were able to create the exact layout
• Furthermore by using Photoshop to edit our
photos allowed the quality of the photos to be
the best as possible.
• Also, using Photoshop allowed lots
of editing options (e.g cropping,
filters, contrast, adding text etc.) for
our digipak and magazine advert.

12. This is a screen grab of using
Photoshop to make our Digipak…

13. • Here are some examples of before and after editing
(using Photoshop) of Leksi the main female artist.
Original Photo Edited version
Using Photoshop made my photos for the Digipak look more
professional. In this photo I cropped the image down to size,
to enable all the main focus onto the artist. Furthermore, the
direct address of the artist in relation to the camera in this
image also helps to do this.

14. In addition, I used Photoshop to label the conventions used in both
my magazine advert and Album Digipak that I used in Question 1.
Using Photoshop was extremely helpful as I could locate the arrows
and textboxes easily and situate them to the places that worked
best. Also Photoshop allowed the Photos to be kept in good quality.
For both of these I used Photoshop version CS5:

15. Final Cut Express
Without the Final cut express software we
would be unable to produce and create our
music video.
When editing both our preliminary task and final
music video opening we used the editing
software FinalCut. Although we did have some
experience of using this software we
have definitely developed our skills.

16. Here is a screen grab of how we used Final Cut
Express to make our Andy Warhol ideas using
Split screen and colour corrector.

17. Furthermore, from watching a YouTube tutorial
and learning how to change the background for
the Green Screen, we were able to practice the
techniques to use in our music video.
Here is a screen grab and link to
the tutorial that was very helpful
when making our music video.
http://youtu.be/liQlc7cVriM

18. We also used Final cut for Question 3 of the
Evaluation, which we made as a group. We used
the peer review feedback already on our blog
from when we watched our music video in class
on YouTube to help script. We also filmed peer
reviews of our ancillary tasks and got Qualitative
feedback which we then made a video on Final
cut.

19. • When creating our blog we ran out of memory
space for uploading photos. Therefore, we had
to upload our photos onto Flickr and embed
onto our blog. Using flickr was a life saver as
without this software we could not upload
anymore photos to finish the presentation and
journey of our blog and creation of our
products.

20. Examples of our screen grabs on Flickr…

21. Google was our main search engine that we
used for researching and finding examples of
ancillary products as well as the backgrounds for
our Green screen.

22. We also used Facebook to
research for our
‘Consumption post’ to see
how modern artists
communicate about
performances and
information that their
audiences might be
interested in.

23. We used Twitter to contact Rita Ora the artist of the
song ‘Love and War’ (which is the song that we chose
to use for our music video). We left a tweet to Rita Ora
letting her know that we were going to use her song, in
cased she objected for copyright and legal reasons.

24. Microsoft Word
I also used Microsoft Word to draft my Question 1 of my
evaluation, without having to upload to the Blog. Also, this is
helpful as you can then easily transfer and copy and paste onto
the blog.
In addition, we also used
word to write and type up
our script, which we read
aloud and recorded. This
was then used as a
voiceover in our Final cut
video for Question 3 of the
Evaluation.

25. Microsoft PowerPoint
We used PowerPoint to share our ideas and present them in an
interesting and engaging way. At the beginning of the project we
made a PowerPoint Presentation about Queen.
In addition, making this
PowerPoint is very
helpful as I can easily
write my own ideas, and
embed links and photos
to make it more
appealing to watch.

26. We used a variety of
equipment…
Other than computer and internet software we
used a range of technological equipment and
not just digital formats when creating our three
products.

27. Apple Software
We used an Apple Mac
Computer throughout
each stage of the
course. We primarily
used Finalcut, Blogger
and YouTube.

28. Video Camera
We used a video camera to film our entire
music video, the rough cut and final version. We
also used this to film some Ancillary feedback.

29. DSLR Camera
When taking still images
for our Ancillary products
and taking photos of
filming our music video,
we used my Nikon D3100,
which was an essential
technology.
We used the images and
edited using Photoshop.

30. 18mm-55mm Nikon Lens
• When taking the photos
of Leksi for our Digipak
and magazine advert as
well as taking photos
when filming the actual
music video I used a
standard 18mm – 55mm
lens for my Nikon DSLR as
it is the best lens to use
for Portraits.

31. Here are some of the Photos we took
during the filming session…

32. Here are some of the photos which I
took for the Ancillary Tasks . . .

33. Tripod
Using the tripod enabled us
to film a professional quality
video without it being shaky
enabling a stable image.

34. Green Screen
This was the first time any of us had used the Green Screen so
we relied on YouTube tutorials and experimentation to create
our music video. We relied on the Green Screen a lot
throughout creating our music video, as we wanted a variety
of backgrounds and using Green screen made this possible.
Furthermore, using this
technique allowed
scope and areas for
change as we could
experiment and see
which background
worked best using
genre conventions and
our own ideas as a
guide.