Question 4: How did you use Media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the entire process of creating this project we used different Media technologies. In order to start the initial process of creating an actual music video we needed to perform extensive research into target audiences and different theories. We used internet search engines such as Google to look at theories and try and base them on what our audience would be, we also used the website YouTube to view different music videos by several different artists so that we could see how each artist has their own added taste to the video, e.g. How Rihanna uses a consistent pink colour grading on her music video ‘’Only girl in the world’’.

We also had to use the blogging website ‘’blogger’’ for us to show how we progressed throughout the creation progress and for us to put all our research and planning on it. As we had already used blogger last year for our coursework we all knew how to use it and found no problems with it.

Another major part of our video was the use of green screen. As none of us had used the green screen technology before we needed to undergo training on how to use the lighting properly and how to use the cameras properly in order for it to look professional.

During the planning section of our coursework we decided that due to the fact we lived in Blackburn and the connections with Diana Vickers that we had we thought it would be best to ask for permission for us to use her music. We used e-mail to get the permission and then went on to create storyboards.

We used a digital video camera to take individual shots of each scene and then put in altogether in a timeline on final cut express with the backing track. This gave us an idea of what our video was going to look like.

The main programme that we used in our video was Final Cut Express. As none of our group hadn’t used this programme before we thought we should do a tutorial. It took us a long time to eventually understand how to use the programme but I think that by the time we started to edit it we knew it very well.

We also used Photoshop in order for us to create the countdown at the beginning of the video and also to edit our ancillary tasks, without the use of Photoshop our project wouldn’t have been as good as it is now.

We decided to use 3 digital video cameras throughout the filming of our video. This meant that we could then have the same shot in 3 different angles which would therefore result in us being able to shoot the entire video quicker because we had the use of more cameras. However we then realised that we had triple the amount of footage which made it a little confusing when extracting the tapes to know which footage belonged to which camera.

We then went onto Final Cut and went through the entire footage cutting out the bits which were deemed to be un-useable. Then we had to cut each clip into parts which could be useful in our video. As our video was fast paced we needed to have fast cuts between the shots.

The editing process was an extensive process which took the majority of our time to complete. We each took it in turns at editing so we could each put our own touch onto the video, I think this was a good idea because then it wasn’t always one person doing the editing.

We used Photoshop when creating our ancillary tasks and this programme proved to be VERY useful. Without the knowledge we already had of this programme I don’t think our ancillary tasks would have been as effective as they actually are. I think that they look extremely professional and look like they could have been taken from an album of an artist of today already.

Overall, I feel that this coursework has made me realise a lot of things. It made me understand just how hard it actually is to create something like this and then always making sure that everything is

always connecting itself to the brand image and targeting the correct audience. I think this is a good thing as I want to study Media at

University so it means that I know exactly what is needed to produce something of this quality and just how much work and effort it takes.

The project took a lot longer to complete than we thought which meant that we had to book extra workshop times out of college

hours, so if I were to create something like this again I would make sure that I was always sticking to a strict schedule and deadline system to make sure that I do not fall behind. I have enjoyed this

coursework task greatly and think that the final product is just how we wanted it to be.