Question 4

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

• During the duration of the project we used a variety of different technologies to present, film and edit our products. In this day and age technology is developing faster than we can keep up so the use of a variety of different technologies is both easy but important. These range from a variety of different things such as editing software such as iMovie or Final cut along with online presentation sites such as prezi or slideshare. The equipment we used to film our video is also included. We used a couple of different cameras such as a Nikon DSLR video camera and a Sony HD video camcorder.

• In regard to research technology is vital and without the access to the internet and websites such as Wikipedia or YouTube we would have struggled. YouTube came into use when researching different artists work which was in the same genre as our chosen artist. This brings me on the the websites we used to search and find unsigned artists to represent. There were a variety o different websites which gave us the information we needed. General Google searches also gave information about the genres and what we should include in our products to attract the audience.

Blogger

• Blogger was an essential piece of technology to help us develop and present our portfolio’s. it allowed us to share and receive feedback on our posts and products. Our online portfolio allowed a virtual timeline which showed our progress as it developed through the different stages. Websites such as prezi and slideshare enabled us to expand on our ideas and present them in an understandable and clear format.

Filming• For filming our performance and narrative we uesd and

experimented wit two different types of camera. A Sony HD video recorder and a Nikon DSLR camera with HD footage capability. From experiment with different lighting conditions it came clear that the Nikon gave the best footage and a clearer picture, with the Sony struggling to cover the appropriate apertures that were needed when filming indoors with a low lighted set. Filming on the Nikon enabled us to experiment with a variety of focuses, zooms and movements. The changes in focus really came into play when in the editing stages and helped produce a smoother transition between clips. Combined with a considerably higher frame rate this gave a much smoother picture and removed any judders when the subject or camera were moving.

• For our editing we used apple based software, iMovie and Final cut express. These two software vary in complexity but deliver a similar product. The ease of being able to upload our raw footage then crop, trip and select the specific footage meant for an easy production. The ability to de-saturate the image and then reduce the frame rate to slow the clips down, especially in the narrative gave an extra emphasis on our video and helped construct a much clearer storyline. With the genre that we chose, and the song we were faced with producing a slower tempo video and much simpler editing, especially in the transitions.

Editing

The use of Web 2.0• The use of web 2.0 on the whole has played an important part. The idea

of web 2.0 that can be seen in David Gauntlets theory is that we are now using the internet in a communal sense as apposed to individually. This can be seen in our work in the area of Facebook. Having this link to Facebook and being able to create a group specifically for feedback on our video and other media products enabled us to expand and progress further on our products than what we would have been able to do without it. We created a group of people who we knew were in our target audience bracket, both age and style and then posted a series of questions and products for them to the deliver feedback. Although we did not receive as much feedback as we would have hoped the feedback we did receive helped us find problem areas and spots that needed to be either changed or tweaked. It was this element of Web 2.0 that was most useful in our project.