Arfa Shah 4739

I used Youtube in order to analyse 5 music videos for my research. YouTube allowed me to play, replay, pause and screen grab various moments of music videos so that I could highlight various codes and conventions and analyse the affect of the codes and conventions, the relationship between lyrics and visuals and the genre characteristics. Also, through YouTube, Hannah uploaded the first cut and final cut of our music video. By using YouTube's embed option for each music video, I was able to embed my work to Facebook which made it easier for people on my Facebook to view and comment on my final music video. Also, I was able to embed our final music video onto my planning/construction blog which made it easier for me to access my work anytime through Blogger.

I used Slideshare to upload my PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft World documents. By uploading my work onto Slideshare I found it easier to transfer my work onto my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs because I only had to copy and paste in the embed code. Slideshare made it easier for me to transfer my work and make my work look more visually appealing. For example in my planning blog I created my group’s timetable of frees using PowerPoint and then I uploaded it onto Slideshare and then copied and pasted the embed code onto Blogger; this saved a lot of time and allowed me to concentrate on more lengthy tasks.

Blogger allowed me to create posts that detailed my findings for my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs and it also allowed me to post my film schedules, pictures and final products etc. By allowing me to create posts, I found it easier to cross-reference my work and go from post to post without any difficulty. Using Blogger, I embedded pictures, videos and various documents and this made it easier for me because I could access all of my work through one location rather than going through various files on my computer to find them.

I used PowerPoint as a means to convey my analysis on my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs. I used PowerPoint to lay out my research of music videos, codes and conventions, magazine research, album research, timetable of frees etc. PowerPoint allowed me to create a clear layout of my work by allowing me to insert pictures, texts and arrows to make my work appear more clear. PowerPoint is also an example of how I used different technologies to convey my work. Rather than always posting my work, I used PowerPoint to add variety to my research and to make my blog look more attractive

Once I took photos for our digipak and magazine advertisement, Leon and I set about editing the digipak pictures on Adobe Photoshop whilst Hannah edited 2 photos for our magazine advertisement. Using Adobe, we began to construct our digipak and Leon and I edited 4 photos using various tools. Leon edited the back cover of the digipak and I edited the front cover. Once we completed both of the outside covers, me, Leon and Hannah met up after school and finished the inside left and began work on the inside right. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to change the size, colour, saturation and brightness of the image. It also allowed me to add texts such as the copyright notice and introduction of the band along with the band’s signature using the “hand of sean” font I downloaded from dafont.com.

I used dafont to find the right font for the band’s digipak cover and magazine advertisement. As I was researching the font, I kept on showing them to my group and eventually we narrowed it down to 4 fonts and ended up choosing “planet estyle” as our font. Dafont allowed me to research a wide range of fonts to make our ancillary tasks look more appealing rather than choosing the basic fonts on Adobe. By choosing the “planet estyle” and “hand of sean” fonts, our products are different, dynamic and more attractive.

Through Facebook, I was able to access my target audience directly and ask them for their opinions. On Facebook I posted my group’s first edit and final edit of our music video, the magazine advertisement and digipak and asked for feedback. From the feedback on Facebook, we made many improvements to all of our products. For example, for the first edit of our music video many people commented on the stability of the camera, Hannah took that on board and tried her best to stabilise the camera on iMovie for our final edit of the music video.

We used a Samsung digital camera throughout the whole process of making our music video and ancilliary tasks in order to display pictures of us planning and constructing all 3 products. For example there are pictures of me doing the storyboard, finding the font, measuring the drum kit and door and taking the photos for our digipak and magazine advertisement. Leon took all of the above pictures as he was the group’s photographer.

For the digipak and magazine advertisement, I used a professional Canon camera. This was the first time I ever used a professional camera and I only had an hour to practise with it before the actual shooting because the camera was borrowed from my media teacher and we only had access to it on the actual day of the shooting. The camera was key in producing visually appealing pictures for our digipak and magazine advertisement and after editing the pictures I uploaded them onto my planning blog with feedback from Facebook.

We used a professional HD video camera to film both performance and narrative elements of our music video. The professional HD camera helped us produce a music video that was of a higher quality and by using it we learned more about different camera forms and different functions of a HD camera. The professional HD camera helped in constructing our music video and by actually creating a music video, we were able to edit and upload the contents on to YouTube, Facebook and Blogger.