HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

Since my main focus for this project was ensuring the research was done properly to allow the group to adapt a music video which is realistic and contains all essential features of the indie genre the main source research was done via the internet. I used mainly YouTube for the music videos, but also vimeo to look at less popular bands that had videos only available on this platform. This made it simple to analyse the music videos as they were easily accessible and in high quality. When it came to researching theorists and codes and conventions I opted for Google as my main source due to the fact I could easily find whatever I desired quickly and suffiently. This also made sharing useful information on my blog simplistic as anything I needed could be put on my blog either through embedding links or copy and pasting the links of useful information as sources

.In terms of feedback I wasn’t fully reliant on social media sites, as the only one I used was YouTube this is because I wanted to explore more media platforms rather than have all my research come specifically from social media sites. This is where survey websites were useful to me; websites such as stellarsurvey was extremely beneficial for me as they allowed me to offer the audience a choice in what they could share. This was good due to the fact it kept unrealistic ideas presented by audiences out of the equation and allowed me to stick to a range of ideas I was considering and have the audiences choose the best one. This was all extremely beneficial as it allowed all three texts to bloom and become more classified and linked as a cross media campaign.

When actually producing our video technology was essential as our whole video was reliant of the use of cameras as essentially three quarters of our video was a stop motion animation. This meant the usage of cameras and tripod were needed for our production, we needed a camera which had a high number of mega-pixels to ensure our videos image was pristine and in focus. This wasn’t the case for all the shots as we were limited on which days we could film therefore we had to switch cameras and use what was available to us. The best scenes were the ones shot with DSLR cameras as they allowed us to use manual focus therefore, we could experiment with depth of field and various lenses to get a professional look and make sure the men were allows the main focus of the frame. However, we also used more basic digital cameras which did the job but didn’t give the same level of professionalism but due to the huge amount of images taken being over 3,000 we were running out of space on SD’s cards therefore the only way to get the video finished in the time frame we had we needed to switch cameras.

When it came to filming the actual band this made the video much easier as it was just a matter of using a DSLR camera and simply filming, it was within these scenes where there were minimal problems. To give our music video that high level of exposure to emphasis the bright colours of the characters and add an overall upbeat tone to the video we ensured we used lighting to highlight the main focus of the scene. However, since our subjects were only about 6 inches tall using professional lighting would of been useless, therefore we opted for basic desktop lights which worked effectively to brighten the exposure and also make the images more saturated in colour. This saved a lot of time in the editing process of the video as it meant there was no need to individually edit each picture to give them this colourful look. However, this did cause minor problems with shadows due to the fact if someone was near the lighting when moving the characters their shadow was often captured when a photo was taken however; due to the fact pace of the video this isn’t easily recognisable therefore we simply ignored this small issue.

An important part of post production was editing the footage together and for this we used final cut pro due to our growing knowledge in using it and the range of options it allowed us. Final cut was perfect for editing together our stop motion as it allowed us to keep the high quality of the images which stop motion animation apps for example didn’t allow us. It also broke down the images into milliseconds which enabled us to cut down each image to the exact same size, meaning the pace of the video was consistent.

When designing the digipaks and posters I decided to use adobe Photoshop due to it being professional software which gave me the freedom to create whatever I desired with minimal limitations also due to my previous usage of the software I’m also comfortable with using it meaning I didn’t have to go through the process of learning how to use a new software. In terms of choosing the perfect font, I decided to use Dafont due to the fact it offered so many professional fonts and had a search engine which allowed me to search key words which would relate to the band. This made it easy to pick suitable fonts which related to our genre with a professional design and finish. I feel because of the font being so sophisticate it removed the amateur look they previously had as the fonts looked so well constructed. As a whole I am very pleased with the technological development present in the ancillary texts and the usage of professional software as it added a sense of realism to them as a whole.