Evaluation Question 4;How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Mobile phones

During the research and planning stages of our music video, there are many media technologies that we have used. An easy way of taking pictures and a way of communication and organisation between us was with using mobile phones. I used my phone to contact our actor to arrange dates and times of when we were filming. Also with Tom who I was working with, to communicate. I also used my mobile phone to take pictures at each location whenever we didn’t take a camera. I also videoed a short clip when we filmed in the hall at school on my phone which I then uploaded to blogger. Blogger is another thing which I used on my phone, so that while on scene I could look at the storyboarding without having to take it all with us. After taking these images and videos, I used Bluetooth to send the media to a computer which I then uploaded to blogger.

I have used blogger throughout the research, planning and evaluation stages. I used it to record everything that we have done, such as when out filming, editing stages, digipak, magazine advert and our music video. This allowed me to create new posts each time, also being able to edit them if I find something else relevant. This was also good to get easy feedback from my teacher on my work so that he could give me ways in which to improve.This was a good way for us to keep up to date with work, as it’s easy to access whenever internet was available.

This is a screenshot of a comment on my blog from my teacher which I then improved on.

On Blogger, I was able to upload pictures and screen shots and embed videos. This kept it all together and organised for each post and images and videos supported what I was talking about. For example, here is a screenshot of a post I did on an analysis of Kanye West – All of the lights. Writing supported by the video and images.

YouTube has been very useful to us. We have been able to watch music videos from our genre to get some inspiration for our music video. We also was able to upload a preview video onto YouTube to gain some feedback from our audience. Then later on uploaded our finished music video to YouTube to gain more feedback from our audience.

Search Engines

Google was very useful during research and planning. We searched for images to upload to our blog. We also researched images for ideas for our digipak and magazine advertisement. Google also has its own maps, we used this to research the locations which we were going to use, such as where we were taking our establishing shots from in our video.

Prezi

• Prezi is a good website and another way of using multi media throughout my posts on blogger. I have used it on may occasions as a way to display my work. It’s easy to view and clear way to present information.

I used Microsoft PowerPoint for some of my analysis’. I then uploaded these onto my own account on Slideshare. This then allowed me to embed the PowerPoint onto blogger. Using more multi media to present my work.

Still Cameras

Throughout the making of our music video we took many pictures whilst we were out filming. This was so that we could blog it all when we got back to show our progress. Besides using phones, we also used cameras to take images of our first digipak ideas on paper. To take these images we used a Canon Eos 300D camera. We used this camera as it’s quite professional and took our images in good quality.

For research and planning we had to contact our artist. Our only way of really doing this was by Twitter. We contacted Drake to ask for his permission to use his song and re create a music video for it. This was so that we didn’t breach copyright for it. We also used Twitter to share our preview video and final music video to our followers.

Facebook is a site where many of our target audience spend a lot of time on. Because we know this, we posted our preview video onto it for our friends to see and to get feedback from them. We also posted our final music video here too.

Sony Vegas

Sony Vegas is the software that we used to create our music video. We edited different scenes and synced the song to the visual all on Sony Vegas. There are many different effects on here that we could use in our video. We used the timeline to import all of our videos on to and put in relevant cut aways and effects.

Sony Vegas – Tools used withinBlack and White:We used black and white in some parts of our video. This was to meet the conventions of our genre Hip Hop. This effect was easy to apply to particular clips in our video. To do this, I selected the clip I wanted to put into black and white, then went to ‘video FX’ then ‘black and white’ and dragged the effect on to the selected clip.

Sony Vegas – Tools used within

Contrast:On some of our natural high key lighting, we wanted to adjust the contrast to make the subject and the artist become more dominant. We was able to do this on Sony Vegas. Again by using the video FX. After dragging the effect onto the clip you could choose the amount you wanted it to contrast by dragging the cursor left or right.

Sony Vegas – Tools used within

Green Screen:To edit the green screen clips we wanted to use, we had to use the Chroma keyer effect which then allowed us to use any backgrounds that we liked. We had to select the effect, drag it to the clip, then tick the box that said ‘mask only’.

Once we were only looking at the mask, we could get the bright white to be perfectly defined and untick it, revealing the artist which then allowed us to put him on whatever background we wanted.

Sony Vegas – Tools used withinSplit Screen:We created a split screen effect because it was something that we had seen in many other Hip Hop videos. We managed this by creating a new layer and using the ‘event/pan crop’ tool. To select the amount of the image that we wanted to use.

Because we had such a large amount of editing and different effects in our video, every time we went to watch it back, it was lagging. This wasn’t very useful for the amount of editing we had to do as it lost us a lot of time.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft office has many software's which we used. The two that I often used throughout research, planning and evaluation were Microsoft word and PowerPoint. I used PowerPoint to present some of my work. For example, an analysis of Flo Rida’s ‘whistle’ I chose to show on a PowerPoint which I then uploaded to Slideshare to embed onto my blog. I also used Microsoft word. I mainly used this to draft out my posts before publishing them onto blogger. Another thing I used word for was to create tables for shot lists and risk assessments. I was then able to upload these to Slideshare again to embed onto my blog. These were both two software's which I found very useful when researching and planning.

Video CameraThis year we used a HD camera to film the whole music video. This was a Panasonic HDC – SC700. For our music video, a lot of what we filmed worked best in HD because of the lighting. It best captured every flicker of the strobe lighting effect which we used. Also when using green screen, the HD camera picked up the subject more clearly so we could then define the edges of the subject when editing, which allowed use to use any background we wanted to. This camera is also able to take pictures. This was useful whilst we were filming in case we hadn’t got a still camera, as it was better quality than our mobile phones.

Lighting

We used many different kinds of lighting in our music video. A software that we did use for one lighting scene was on champsys PC. Showtec explorers. An effect we used on this was spot/wash 575. This created an atmospheric effect for whilst our actor was performing.

Tripod

A tripod was essential for our filming. If we didn’t use this, all of our shots would be unprofessional and shaky. If there was a part where we didn’t use a tripod it was purposely done to create an atmospheric look. This is a picture of the tripod which we used.

Photoshop CS4

We used Photoshop for our ancillary task two. This was something Tom and I were both familiar with which is why we chose to use this software. On Photoshop, there are many different fonts, texts and styles to chose from. After choosing our fonts and styles we were also able to position them anywhere on the advert that we wanted to. We were also able to layer images on top of the first image on here. This was useful as we wanted to include the image of our digipak and parental advisory logo. Photoshop helped us to create a professional looking finished piece.

IllustratorWe used illustrator for our first ancillary task of creating the digipak. Illustrator included templates which we downloaded. We used these templates so that we could get the correct size which our images had to be. Illustrator, like Photoshop, has many fonts etc to chose from. We wanted to keep the two ancillary tasks linked using brand identity, so we went with the same font on both. The insides however, we used a smaller font and the colour white. This was so that it would stand out against the images in the background.

Barcode generator

This barcode generator website allowed us to create a professional barcode for our products. This is something that our digipak will need on it to make it official which is why we did this.

Evaluation

Throughout the creating of our music video and ancillary tasks, I have used many different technologies for our evaluation. I used blogger to keep record of all the work that I have done. For our evaluation, we posted our music video onto Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for audience feedback. Also created a questionnaire for our target audience using Microsoft word. I have used Slide share to upload presentations onto my blog. As well as prezi. Also, I used the sound booth to make a video voice recording on Sony Vegas for an explanation to one of my evaluation questions.