Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies inthe construction, research, planning and

evaluating stages?

Many different types of media technologies were used throughout this music video class, especially in the

construction and research tasks. This is because we needed the media resources to introduce us to our task and give us the

right idea of what we needed to create, as well as the evaluation stages. We also relied on hardware to produce our

music video, as well as software to edit it and create our digipak. We were familiar with some of the technologies from

every day use and from our AS tasks. However, some technologies we decided to use were new to us so we had to

adapt to the changes and learn how to use them appropriately and effectively.

Introduction

The InternetWe used the internet a lot in all aspects of our task. In the

planning and research, we used websites such as YouTube and Google to find music videos and websites to analyse so we could start planning what we wanted in our music video. We used websites of a similar genre, such as Rita Ora, as model websites and we used influences such as the photo being the main focus on the home page. As we looked at different videos and websites, we built up an idea of the conventions needed to create our own for the specific genre of R&B. These conventions were things such as the red, black and white theme, and the poses of the pictures being quite serious and sometimes seductive.

YouTube

YouTube was a vital media tool we used as we used it to research many different music videos made by different artists and from a variety of genres, such as R&B and Rock videos. We also used it to upload our lip syncing task, our storyboard and our final music video. YouTube was effective as it helped us to research videos and upload our own. As well as this, we used YouTube to search for tutorials to use software we weren’t too familiar with, such as Premiere. Without YouTube, it would’ve been harder to analyse other music videos and to learn the conventions of them.

The internet was a vital part of our planning and research as well as our production. We used the website www.wix.com to create the website for our music artist. This was a new website and process we had to learn as we have not made websites before. It was hard at first, but once we had researched and looked at loads of actual music artists websites, we used them to influence our website. Wix.com turned into the most important website for us, as it allowed us to create our website to the specific way we wanted it.

We used a website called Prezi to create mind maps and comparisons of different music videos and websites. We also used it to create the star profile, as well as many other parts of the research and evaluation, as it enabled us to round up all of our ideas and show them clearly. We enjoyed using it as it is more interesting than using Powerpoint, and was a new website that we hadn’t used before. It was effective in what we wanted to us it for, which was to see all of our ideas and analysis in one place.

We used Google as our search engine, as we searched for music artists websites, CD covers, how artists present themselves, genre conventions and music videos. Google was important as it sorted the good from the bad, and gave suggestions of links for us to go to, instead of us trying to guess what links were worth going on.

We used the website Surveymonkey.com as our questionnaire. We chose this website over a paper based questionnaire as it allowed us to keep all of the information got from the questionnaires in one place, so we could easily analyse it. Also, it was a better chose as the results are more likely to show a true reflection, as people would be less likely to lie and give false results. This was crucial as we based all of our planning around the questionnaire results.

Social Networks

Social Networks such as Twitter & Facebook were important as it allowed us to add more to our digipak. We used it to try to promote the artist, by making pages fans could 'like'. This showed that we were up to date with the audience we wanted to aim the video at, as teens and young adults are obsessed with social networking and technology. We also used Tumblr to research pictures to inspire us for our digipak.

SOFTWARE

Adobe Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro was our favourite programme in this project. We hadn't been familiar with the software before, so we used YouTube and ‘Premiere for Dummies’ to help us get to grips with what we had to do with it. We used our preliminary task, the Britney Workshop, to make ourselves familiar with the process of editing. Even though we did not get this completed, we at least got the hang of using the software in time for our music video. We used the software for basic cutting, and for placing music on top of the filming we had done. We then went on to use effects such as black & white to make our video fit the conventions of the genre more, and we felt it was relevant to have the ‘memory’ scenes in black & white, to reflect the time difference. We also learnt how to create ‘split screens’, which we used a few times through our editing, some which were later deleted. This was when we used two shots of the same music or of the same thing, and made both shots visible to the audience at the same time. We got this idea from the Beyonce- Countdown video and wanted to use it to show that we could use different types of shot and also to show we could use the editing software well. Premiere was a good software as it allowed us to edit all of our footage and to create and edit the music video until it was of a good enough standard to be submitted. We used 22 minutes of footage and wilted it down to fit with the music we chose.

Word

We used word to make graphs and pie charts for the questionnaire results. This let us show clearly what our questionnaire found and what those who completed the questionnaire wanted from our music video and digipak. We also used it to make to do lists and to do our risk assessments.

Fireworks

We used the media software of Fireworks for our digipak, specifically the album cover and CD. As we had used this software in AS, we were familiar with how to use it to create the media product of our chose. We used it to create 6 different parts of the album cover effectively. We specifically liked it as it allowed us to cut and edit the photographs we had taken. We preferred this software as it was familiar to us and we knew that it would allow us to achieve the album cover that we wanted.

HARDWARE

Still Camera

We have used a still camera to take the pictures for our digipak. This was important as we needed a good quality to make the digipak look professional. The camera we used was effective in this as it produced high quality photographs, that we could stretch and shrink to any size without them pixelating. It also had a good flash which let us take pictures in darker places outside, as well as in cloudy conditions.

Video Camera

The video camera we used for the digipak was also very good. It was a new camera, which allowed us to use a memory card instead of a tape. This was better as it was a quicker way to film. The video camera had a flash built in so we could film at night and it still showed a clear picture. The video camera was useful as it had a long battery life, which meant we could film for hours without worrying about it cutting out. As a hardware, this was the most important part of our A2 task, as it allowed us to film our music video effectively. It also showed the shots we had done clearly by date on the screen of the camera, so we could review and reshoot if needed on the location of the filming, instead of waiting until we had processed it onto Premiere.

Memory Card

We used a memory card for the video camera. This was good as it had a lot of memory, and allowed us to store all of our shots on one card. It also set the filming out clearly by date. This was very helpful compared to the way we have filmed in the past. We used to use a camera that required a tape that saved the filming onto it. However, this was time consuming and was difficult to put onto Premiere quickly. The memory card saved us time as it made the process very quick.

Tripod

The tripod was important as it ensured we used the camera to our full advantage. The tripod meant we could film and the camera would stay steady. This is important as our research showed most videos shots are very steady and still, unless it is representing something from the songs lyrics. We believe that it is important that the shots were steady as otherwise the music video would look very unprofessional- something we wanted to avoid at all costs.

Memory Stick

A memory stick was used to transfer our work from one computer to the other. This was important as we were lucky enough to of got new computers with new software whilst we were editing our footage, so we had to transfer our work from one computer to the other. This was important as it allowed us to do our work on a newer, faster computer with better software, so it allowed us to make our work the best it could be.

iPhone

We used our iPhones to record some practise shots, so we knew what worked and what didn't. We also used it to play the song whilst we were filming, to ensure we were getting the lip sync right all of the time. We also used footage on the phone. The app 'Aviary' was used to edit some of the photographs, and ‘PicStitch’ to make a collage of some of our pictures, in specific for the album cover and for the star profile. The phones were important as it let us do research on the move and it allowed us to plan our next filming by using the weather apps available.