For their music video project, the student used various media technologies at different stages: In the initial research stage, they used their school iMacs and websites like Wikipedia, YouTube, and Lyricsmania to research music videos and the chosen artist. They later acquired a Macbook to do most of the work. For planning, they used Microsoft Word to storyboard and plan ancillary tasks. For filming, they used a Canon digital camera over a video camera for its compact size. Footage was transferred to the Mac via SD card. In post-production, they used iMovie to upload clips, add music/effects, though it took time to learn. Photographs were taken on

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

2. For the initial research I used the iMacs at school to browse the internet for the
information needed.
I used websites such as Wikipedia, NME, Lyricsmania and Youtube to research the
history of music videos, to watch through existing music videos made by various
directors, different styles of video - which were narrative, concept and performance to
select potential songs, and research my chosen artist, song and lyrics.
At the end of October I acquired my own Macbook and did the majority of my work on
it, as I found having everything in one place was much more simple and allowed me to
work on my project at home and at school without any of the difficulties that come
with transferring work via USB sticks and emails.

3. In the planning stages I used Microsoft Word for the rough storyboarding of my video. I also
used this program to produce the rough plans for the ancillary tasks, as it is simple, easy to
use and quickly and efficiently produces what I needed.

4. For the filming of my video I used a Canon PowerShot A2300 16.0 MP digital camera with 5x
zoom. I chose to use this camera over a video camera as it is compact and convenient to
carry around with me at all times, which is what I needed to film the scenes for my video.
The image quality of this camera is superb – 16.0 MB is more than enough for high quality
shots. The footage was saved to an SD card in the camera, and transferred to the Mac via
the card reader slot in the side of the computer. This proved to be a lot quicker and more
convenient and efficient than using a video camera, as the entire process was cable free.

5. For the post production stage of creating my video, I used iMovie. This project was my first
experience of using the program, and so it took me a while to get the hang of it. Uploading the
clips, adding music, cutting the clips and adding transitional effects in was fairly
straightforward, however it took me a long time to figure out how to move the start of the
song to a later part of the video in order for me to add the sound effects I desired in the
opening scene. To resolve this, I searched how to do it on Google, to find that a few people had
experienced the same problem, and so there was a spectra of answers to help me sort out the
problem quickly.
I used tools such as the stabiliser to smooth out bumps and jerky movements in my footage. I
tried out various different effects, settling for the ‘bleach bypass’ filter to alter the colours. I
have used a sliding fade effect in the opening scene to resemble the person person waking up
and their eyes opening. Throughout and towards the end of my video I have used cross fade
transitional effects. The final transition is a fade to white effect, which works really well as the
final clip is a tracking shot towards the end of a tunnel with a bright light coming in at the end.
The fading of this clip to an entirely white frame represents the idea of there being a light at
the end of the tunnel, and a sense of relief after the chaotic journey to this point.
The sound effects in the opening scene, of the alarm clock and then the disorientated feel of a
drone sound show the confused sort of feeling when the person wakes up surrounded by the
remains of the drug fuelled night before.

6. For the ancillary tasks, the photograph I used was taken on an iPod touch and edited on the
photo editing app Instagram. I created the rough draft of my digipak and poster using
Photoshop. I then discovered a free photo editing website called Pixlr, which has similar filters
and effects to Instagram but is available on laptops and desktop computers rather than just on
mobile devices. This helped me to create a much more professional looking digipak and
promotion poster compared with my first draft.

7. For the evaluation I have used a presentation format uploaded onto slide share to be
viewed online. In this presentation, which you are watching now, I have included
various different transitional effects and added a music track.
I also recorded footage of myself answering one of the questions verbally, filmed
with the webcam built into my Macbook, edited on iMovie and uploaded to
Youtube, and the other two questions have been typed up in a traditional format on
Microsoft word and has then been copied and pasted straight onto my blog.

8. Throughout the project I have uploaded all of my work onto the blog website Tumblr. I
had no previous experience of using the site and at first it was difficult to maneuver but
I soon got the hang of it and overcame the difficulties.
Overall I feel that I have learnt a lot from the technologies – hardware and software that
I have used throughout this project. I have developed skills using programs I had not
used before such as iMovie, and I improved on my skills using the programs that I had
used before such as Photoshop, compared with when I used them during my AS
magazine project.