A2 MEDIA EVALUATIONPART 4

CHRISTINA AGUILERA – ‘YOU LOST ME’

ADAM MILLS

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating

stages?

THE USE OF VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE AND HOW I USED IT FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO

Editing Software

iMovie ‘09

The software we used to edit the music video together was iMovie, a program that comes as part of iLife ‘09 on the Apple iMacs.

We used a lot of editing techniques from the program, such as beat marking, video stabilisation, cropping and ken burns.

These all helped our video to look professionally built, and also helped make the editing process much easier, rather than having to reshoot more footage.

iMovie ‘09 – Ken Burns

We used ken burns throughout the video to give some different angles to our shots. By changing each shot into a tracking/panning shot, we were able to give different shots a different aspect.

However, the reason we used ken burns in the first place was a lack of footage in certain areas, and this gave us different options for other sections of the video.

iMovie ‘09 – Beat Marking

By marking the beat using different keyboard shortcuts, we were able to match up our footage transitions to the beat of the music.

This came in very handy, however, was not always spot-on, and once the markers were set it became very difficult to move the footage from them. We did overcome this issue but it did take a lot of our time from us.

iMovie ‘09 – Video Stabilisation

When importing the footage, we were given the option to stabilise the footage. This is where the Mac zooms in on different areas of your footage, and is able to remove the shaky areas through different processes.

We didn’t feel our footage needed it, but once we reviewed it, we decided to go ahead with stabilisation on certain areas, as although the tripod kept the camera steady, the wind rocked some of the takes.

iMovie ‘09 - Cropping

Cropping became a technique that was very helpful to us, in the sense that image stabilisation was needed a lot, and it also helped us gain an extra variety of shots.

Video quality did deteriorate when we used the technique, but if we used the right lighting effects, it worked well in small doses.

iMovie ‘09 - Colourisation

By using colourisation through the Macs, we were able to change some of the footage into black and white, and make sure it looked good using the contrast scales.

This really helped add depth to the flashback scenes, and also tied in across all three projects the B&W theme.

THE USE OF IMAGE EDITING SOFTWARE AND HOW I USED IT FOR MY ANCILLARY

TASKS

Editing Software

Serif PagePlus 11

The software we used to create both ancillary tasks was Serif PagePlus, a desktop editing and publishing program that enables you to create documents and publications.

We were able to manipulate our chosen images, and create different products using different techniques and templates.

By using a professional program, we were able to access the tools that a lot of music designers do in fact use, and this helps create a better finished product.

Serif PagePlus 11 - Digipak

To create the digipak, we had to use a lot of manipulation. We started by building a template, which we then layered images into each panel, and changed the images to what we wanted.

We managed to get everything we wanted on the digipak, and used all the tools that were available to us to make a professional product.

Serif PagePlus 11 - Advert

We used the same images in the advert, but enlarged them. By keeping the majority of the elements the same, we were able to use the same effects on each project.

We left a lot of space and added layers on the image in order to keep each part of the advert separate, and give us the ability to edit each individually.

WHICH CAMERA WE USED TO ACHIEVE THE FOOTAGE NECESSARY FOR OUR MUSIC

VIDEO

Video Cameras

Canon MD205 miniDV• Throughout the

shooting of our video, we used this camera. It is not an HD camera, and takes cassette tape, but was very easy to use.

• However, they are obviously not ‘top of the range’, and we did have issues with the lighting, but we were able to overcome these within the editing process.

• We used these alongside a tripod, which gave stability to our shots.

Canon MD205 miniDV• Although the

battery life wasn’t very long, we were able to capture some good shots by leaving the camera running. The jump cutting we used during one of the flashbacks was created using this effect.

• Also, the use of fast cut montage towards the end was created by leaving the camera running, and editing out the correct footage using iMovie ‘09.

WHICH STILLS CAMERA WE USED FOR THE PHOTOS USED WITHIN THE ANCILLARY

TASKS

Stills Cameras

Olympus mju Mini 760• For the shots used

as a shooting diary, and for the original digipak images, we used this camera.

• The issues we had with it was that the images, when made bigger, were very pixelated, and also very difficult to edit.

• For these reasons, we decided to use a different camera for the new digipak images.

Canon EOS 1000D• We needed a

camera that took high-quality HD images, and with the correct lighting effects, we managed this very well.

• We used the black and white effect on the camera, and a wide-angle lens in order to capture the images for our ancillary tasks.

• By changing cameras, we were able to gain the images and effects we needed.

HOW WE ACHIEVED THE LIGHTING EFFECTS WITHIN OUR MUSIC VIDEO AND

OUR ANCILLARY TASKS

Light Sources

Lighting

The original plan from the draft storyboard was to use a portable spotlight on the dark stage, but this wasn’t possible, as there was no spotlight available to us.

We sat and thought about how we could replicate the effect in another way, but we couldn’t, so we used a fluorescent strip light on the stage, which gave us an effect which wasn’t as effective, but worked well with the setting.

Lighting

We have had issues with the lighting through the video cameras. They are very low-quality cameras, which minimal settings, and this causes issues with the light filter.

The footage does seem very dark and dull, but we tried some different settings and we have been able to get it to the best we can. It isn’t ideal, but we’ve tried to make the bets of a bad situation.

HOW WE MANAGED TO ACHIEVE AN ONLINE DIARY OF THE THREE PROJECTS

THROUGH BLOGGING

Blogging

Blogger• Throughout the

process of creating all aspects of our project, we have kept an online diary of decisions and choices on our blogs.

• Because HTML is easier and we are able to post other software into these blogs, we chose to use Blogger.

• We were able to tag posts, so we can easily find the separate sections, such as planning, research, the man and ancillary tasks, and the evaluation.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE WE USED ON OUR BLOGS TO FURTHER THE

CAPABILITIES OF OUR DIARIES

Blogging Technology

Flickr• Flick is an image-

hosting website, which has featured heavily across my blog.

• It allows me to post images that I would otherwise be unable to post onto my blog.

• There were a few technical problems with Flickr and it’s coding, but this has all been resolved and now all images on my blog appear.

Google Docs• Google Docs is a

new web-based program available from last year, that allows people to view full documents via the internet.

• It allowed me to embed into my blog my analysis, created on a Word document, rather than scan it in, and make the writing unreadable.

• This way also allowed me to upload multiple pages of documents.

SlideShare• SlideShare is a

website that enables you to embed slideshows into your blog.

• This became very useful when I needed to get a lot of information across in one document. It also made ancillary analysis a lot easier by allowing me to annotate each individual image and not have to post them all separately.

YouTube• The use of YouTube

embedding helped my blog tremendously. By inserting the videos that I analysed, it meant that it was easy to view what had actually been analysed.

• Due to copyright restrictions through the music we used, we were unable to use YouTube to post our music video, but used Blogger’s own video-hosting software.

THE ISSUES FACED THROUGH USING THE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES DURING

CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH, PLANNING AND THE EVALUATION STAGES

Issues

Issues

Throughout the process of completing the project, we’ve had plenty of issues and difficulties.

The first major issue was with the camera, where the light filter would not pick up the right level of light, which led to very dark footage. We were able to overcome this by using some editing effects on iMovie ‘09 to gain the correct level of colour and lighter, brighter images.

Issues

I had an issue with Blogger, whereas a known bug was deleting posts from my blog unexpectedly.

I contacted Blogger, who froze and locked down my blog for 48 hours, to stop the bug, which was successful, however, they were unable to tell me which posts were deleted, so 18 posts has to be re-written.

This wasn’t a problem, however, it did lose me a lot of time as I had to re-type and re-work posts, so I effectively lost 3 days worth of production.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY IF YOU WERE TO DO THE PROJECT AGAIN?

Conclusion

Conclusion

If we were given the opportunity to re-do the project, I would like to change the camera we used to an HD-ready camcorder, as this would automatically make the quality of the footage better.

It would also give us more scope on what we could do with the different settings and editing techniques.

I would also stick to the one idea for the ancillary tasks, and not change halfway – this would have given us more time to perfect and look at different options available to us.

Conclusion

I would also attempt to gain the copyright permission from my artist. Not being able to post our video and projects on the internet has been a very different obstacle to overcome, and we haven’t been able to do some of the things we had planned, like analysing our video on camera, and upload this to YouTube.

However, I am very pleased with the outcome of the projects, and the use of new media technologies throughout.