Evaluation question 4:

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

and evaluation stages?

Construction:When it came to constructing all my work together, I used a variety of new media technologies to ensure the quality and production of my product was as professional as possible by using these highly developed programmes. Firstly, I used two main Apple product computers during my whole course being an iMac and a MacBook which helped with my accessibility to the internet and using programs such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro is an advanced piece of software which helps to enable editing videos together to a high standard. When editing all my footage together, it was hard to adjust to the new technology at first as I had never used the programme before. It was the most hardest during my preliminary task when I first experienced and used the application. However, I have expanded a range of new skills since then such as using slow/ fast motion effects, writing text over the video, changing the brightness and contrast to fit with our dark atmospheric theme, and the use of track matte key to display our title sequence right at the beginning. This mainly done by my partner as she was the main editor of the video. Despite this, we both worked together on what editing tools to use to create the piece with as much detail and pursuing tension of our storyline through a variety of mixed media skills within Premiere Pro. Photoshop was again another application used to develop my ancillary tasks which was producing a digipak and poster promoting the album/ video of the song. I was very familiar with Photoshop in contrast to Premiere Pro as I learnt all the skills for that within my AS level when producing my music magazine. Despite this, I challenged my skills to a further extent especially within my digipak by creating vivid movements of my pictures by using different levels of opacity.

iMac

MacBook

When making my products, I used high quality camera to shoot my footage for my music video. I mainly used a Canon EOS 600D and the Canon EOS 1000D to capture all my shots but I sometimes used my own Fujifilm camera X-A2 when one wasn’t available or was in use at school. This enabled me to use a range of long distant shots, close ups, establishing shots, medium close ups and using different angles to capture low and high shots to create an effect on the audience. These cameras are highly advanced within their quality therefore allowing me to shoot to my best potential and to capture as much detail as possible to each shot. I used my own camera for taking my photographs for my ancillary task. This meant I was able to work with different settings and apply different filters to create certain effects onto my pieces. This was the same for when filming my music video. However, I usually had it on the manual or the automatic setting to ensure enough light was coming in to see my videos in excellent, precise detail. I used equipment such as an tripod to ensure my shots were controlled and not shaky.

Fujifilm X-A2Canon EOS 600D

Canon EOS 1000d

Research:During my research, I looked at a variety of information online as since the expansion of Web 2.0, it’s made it easier for me to develop my ideas and creativity by looking at online mediums. For example, YouTube was a massive help to my research stages as it meant I could look at past A2 music videos produced to help expand on my ideas of what I could include as well as looking at the different styles of editing and skills done to fit different genres. As my genre was indie-rock, I looked mainly at these types of videos online to see what codes and conventions I could apply within my work. As my song is by the band Kings Of Leon, my research meant I could go to further development by looking at their past and recent music videos and producing similar outcome within my video. The Kings Of Leon song “Sex on Fire” was one inspiration taken from my research to use in my final product which was the orange/ yellow tinted lights. This is because our song “Closer” portrayed this atmospheric mysterious sound which we wanted to create using dark lighting but with a striking spotlight of one colour which we finalised to orange as we thought it produced this sense of a danger as well as engaging vague details into the main shot such as the singers skin detail and expression which can effect the entire outlook of the music video.

Kings of Leon “Sex on Fire” music video

My video “Closer” by Kings of Leon

As said before, YouTube also inspired my ideas as I looked at a variety of recent A2 music videos produced by students in the past. It meant I could look at a mixture of techniques and skills used to produce certain shots (in terms of filming) and create certain effects (in terms of editing) as well as see what ideas people did for their storylines. I also used survey monkey to get feedback about my song closer and peoples thoughts and feelings about the song and its tone.

Planning:When planning my music video, I had to ensure that there was an easy solution to contact everyone in an organised simple way. Me and my partner created a group chat on Facebook Messenger with all the band members and story line actors/ actresses as it was an easy contact everyone quickly. I also used iMessage (texting with Apple product phones) and normal texting by alerting people about new times to film and when everyone was free in case they missed what was happening on the group chat.We had to book out a vast amount of media equipment when coming to film our band shots and storyline which meant planning what days to do and where. When coming to film our band, we set out to book the drama room at our school and the musical equipment as well as the media lights, camera and tripod. Planning a day to film our band always was a struggle because of recent exams needing to attend the drama room so it meant it was rarely free. However, when we finally came to film, we had a set plan to go meaning we could get on and film all our band footage in order to proceed further within our storyline editing. We made 3 time lapses on my iPad mini which is a special feature on Apple products. We did this when coming to set up our media equipment and musical instruments to show the progression of how we changed the drama room to an atmospheric scene.I also used new media technology when planning where to shoot my scenes for the music video. This was done by taking photographs on my phone (iPhone 5C) to which I uploaded to my blog to present our location shots and scene of our music video.

Facebook messenger

iPhone 5C

iPad mini

Evaluation Within my evaluation, I’ve used different and inventive media technologies to present each of my questions unique. I’ve used e-maze, prezi, slide share (through using power point), and a mixture of collage applications such as wordle to present a few of my ideas through words. These new media technologies has helped me to use new and inventive ways of displaying my work through creative and different approaches. My use of media technologies has expanded further in my course by ensuring all my presentations are uniquely presented and not always using the same format, software of application.