Evaluation Question 4

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

and evaluation stage?

Research & PlanningIn order to complete the brief - A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a

music promo video, together with a cover for it's release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package) and a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package) successfully we had to research in to existing products and study/analyse them to know what makes products such as music videos and packages that come with them such as magazine advertisements and digipaks – what are their conventions.

The first technology which helped us greatly to do this was the internet. Ever developing and

full of a wide range of sources, researching and accessing this information was relatively easy. Understanding the generic conventions of the genre our artist belongs to was vital as we needed to ensure we were aware of what would be expected from the “rock-pop/pop punk” so we could either conform, develop or challenge these conventions. Due to technologies such as YouTube and Google this was really simple and we could research plenty of information such as aspects of the rock-pop/ pop punk genre in seconds resulting in planning being relatively easy as well because once we were aware of generic conventions we could start to plan how we would formulate this in to our own production.

Right: A screen shot of a YouTube video in a post on my blog. Demonstrating how simple processes can become advanced with the aid of technology.

Research & PlanningIn the past we would have probably had to present our work on paper or verbally

but due to technologies developing we were able to create an online blog on www.blogger.com. Creation of this blog allowed me to present my work in more visual, eye pleasing format such as progression of the brief and findings through videos from YouTube, images I had found on Google and ones I had taken myself and record general development. Another visual format I used was Prezi an online presentation creator. This is very interactive as I could use different transitions to move from one piece of information to another making it more interesting to look at then just a still presentation/piece of text and was to import on to my blog as seen below.

Research & Planning In today’s modern world technology is key for communication. Therefore, in order

to get in touch with my partner Gemma and our actors, Kate and Tom I used my mobile and social networking site www.facebook.com to get in contact with them to organise when we would film and to remind them of anything they needed to bring and/or what they needed to wear.

Technological Convergence meant I was also able to access Facebook on my phone as well as on my computer. This made communication issues a lot less likely because If our actors Kate and Tom (my partner Gemma does not have Facebook) could not get in contact with me through a mobile they knew I would soon receive their facebook messages.

When we did not have a camera to hand and we saw a photo opportunity for our blogs having phones with cameras built in was very useful and a lot more portable than a bulky camera.

Research & PlanningWe also used Microsoft Word and Excel to produce questionnaires in order to

know what people expected from products like music videos and to create charts to record this data, as well as creating mind maps to present information such as generic conventions in a different format.

ConstructionConstruction needed to be flawless within this brief as we had to create a professional looking music

video and digipak, magazine advertisement. In order to do this we used a wide range of state of the art equipment and technology.

Here are some images of the items and software which were invaluable to us in the construction stages.

ConstructionFirstly, we would have not been able to create a music video if we were not able

to capture footage. To do this we used a SD “Panasonic NV-GS500B” camera. This was pretty simple to use as we had used it before in our AS year and therefore knew the qualities it possesses such as the digital screen on the side which allowed us to see our footage as we captured it, allowing for successful shots and composition. However, in some of our video we wanted to create some slow motion shots and make sure the framing was the best it could be. Therefore we decided to use the “Panasonic HDC SD700”, this allowed for a quality shot and meant that we didn’t have to use excessive transitions within the editing software to create a slow motion effect making the shot look more professional. While using both cameras a tripod was used to ensure a steady shot.

ConstructionThe editing software we used for the creation of our music video was “Adobe Premiere Pro

CS3”. This allowed us to edit our footage together in a creative manner which would have not been possible if we did not have access to this technology. We were able to speed up footage to hit impact beats, slow footage down to create focus and add transitions such as cross dissolves and fades to add a bit more dimension to our production and aim to give connotations of past events/memories. We also used “After Effects” in post production to ensure our production was the best quality and enhanced it by using transitions and effects which were not available in “Premiere Pro”. Another Adobe programme we used was “Adobe Photoshop CS3”. This was used when importing screenshots of our work in progress on to our blogs’ as well as the key element to the creation of our ancillary tasks – digipak and magazine advertisement. Without this programme we would have not been able to manipulate our work such as adding special effects and improving the quality of the image resulting in a lack of quality and creative focus on our digipak and magazine advertisement.

Premiere Pro CS3 and CS5 (the more advanced version we used in Post Production) was relatively easy to use as we had used the software before in our AS year. As you can see from the screen shot left the audio and footage is simply placed on different layers and then depending if you place the footage above the audio can synchronise together, which meant lip syncing was relatively easy.

This screen shot shows how we used Photoshop to manipulate and experiment with the images we used on our ancillary tasks. This screen shot gives particular reference to the history-brush tool which we decided not to use as we thought it took away focus from the image.

Construction

Within some of our video we manipulated the speed/duration of some of our shots. Mostly by slowing the footage down to create focus and catch the viewers attention but sometimes to reverse shots (such as the rose scene) to emphasise different emotions and in some cases we made the shot faster (wrecking the room out of anger).

Rose scene.

Wrecking room

Construction

As our music video was very much about the break down of a relationship we used the dip to black/white tool to emphasise flashbacks particularly (dip to white) to bring a sense of lost happy moments to the audiences attention and to make transition from shot/scene to another smoother (dip to black) giving our production a sense of professional awareness.

Construction

Some of the footage we filmed was a bit exposed and bright or in some cases rather dull. Due to this we tried to improve this footage and make it look more professional by using the brightness and contrast and also gamma tools to get the desired appearance we wanted for our footage. This meant that if we were happy with the shot .i.e. the composition but not necessarily the colour/appearance of it we could easily change it via said tools.

Construction

Cross dissolve is a transition we were very familiar with as we both used it regularly in our AS productions. We decided to use this transition in our music video as we felt it worked effectively at linking the narrative back to the performance footage which is mainly linked by lyrics anyway, so we felt this transition emphasised this more so.

Construction

A dissolve transition we hadn't used previously but decided to use in our music video was an additive dissolve. We used this to create an ellipsis of time. This was most effectively used on our mobile phone shot – we decided to use this dissolve her as the viewer most probably already knows the process of sending a text so therefore showing the full length of footage was not necessary.

Construction

As mentioned earlier the other software we used was Photoshop. We used this programme to create our digipak and magazine advertisement. This was a great piece of software to use as it gave us access to a variety of fonts, colours and effects to present our genre (rock-pop/pop punk) effectively. These features would probably not have been available to us if we had used a less advanced software like Microsoft Word or Paint for example which would have probably affected the quality of our final product/s.

Construction

During the creation of or digipak and magazine advertisement we felt that some features did not stand out as much as we would have liked them to; for example the spine of our digipak and the quotes on our advertisement. Due to this we decided to use the bevel and emboss tool to enhance this text by creating a shadow behind it which we could increase or decrease to suit how intense we wanted the shadow to be.

Construction

A key element within our production was the use of lighting. Due to the bleak message of our song/music video (a break down of relationship) we used low-key lighting within the main narrative (the puppet scene) and in some performance shots to emphasise and create a mood of sadness and also for the photo of Tom on our digipak to present him as an evil/bad character. This was created via a spotlight and flood light either pointing down or up depending on the shot.

Construction

As well as using creative suites generator websites discovered on Google were also useful as during the creation of our ancillary tasks we had ensure we were meeting the conventions of existing products. Therefore, we had to use websites to create some of these elements such as a barcode and QR code. All of these programmes and websites were accessed on the Apple Imac available to us in school. Without this advanced computer the construction stage, in fact all stages would have been made incredible difficult because the technology would have been mediocre and not advanced.

Construction

Due to convergence we were able to play the song we are creating the music video for while we filmed Kate (our artist figure) on my phone. This ensured that Kate knew the lyrics and pitch of the song with confidence resulting in a successful lip sync. We also took photos on our phones while on location but for the majority of photographs we used my SLR “Canon EOS 300D” camera to ensure quality.

Evaluation

Similar to the research and planning stages I have used Blogger as my format to complete my evaluation questions. However, as the spec from OCR states that use of ICT and technical skills are taken in to consideration I have used technologies within my blog, particularly my evaluation to make it more appealing.

- Use of Microsoft PowerPoint to create this visual presentation and Slide Share in order to post it on to my blog.

- An audio recording to give one of my answers (Question 2) in an audio/voice format instead of the usual text format.

- Integrated in to my answers are YouTube clips to try and demonstrate what I am trying to say and to make my posts more visually pleasing.

Evaluation

In order to answer question 3 we had to get audience feedback. To do this we posted our video on to YouTube and Facebook as many people who use these websites (teenagers) are who we were aiming our video at and therefore by collecting data/results from them we would be able to measure our success efficiently.

Evaluation

As well as getting feedback from YouTube and Facebook we also created some questionnaires on Microsoft Word – one about our music video and one about our ancillary tasks. We decided to create these questionnaires because we felt by asking people direct questions in the form of these questionnaires we would be able to collect the data we required efficiently. Once we collected this data we created bar charts on Microsoft Excel to give our data a visual form and making it easy to compare.