Evaluation Question 4‘How did you use new media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and evaluation stages’

1. Youtube was a useful web resource that allowed me to upload videos that I had edited from iMovie. This website was very easy to

learn/use and its simplicity is highlighted through only having to click and drag from my desktop to upload a video. Youtube enabled me to share my videos with others in my group so they could have a copy for their blogs just by copying the embedded code. Youtube was very helpful for our group as we could watch similar music videos from different artists. This meant we could gain

inspiration from other resources in particular with the slow-motion effect in Alt-J’s music video, ‘Breezeblocks’. During the research process for potential music video concepts, we had never heard of Breezeblocks however we typed in ‘murder music videos’ on

youtube and Breezeblocks came up. It was Youtube’s recommendations that helped us find our main influence. Youtube has millions of videos and never run out of recommendations and so when we looked at one music video, another one would be suggested.

Youtube pays close attention to what types of videos you watch so that it can give you other related videos to what you are browsing. This meant that when looking at Breezlebocks, Psycho the film was also recommended and this helped influence us further because we began incorporating closeups and harsh angels in our murder sequence to create violent atmosphere for our audience. Psycho

never has one continuous shot and it was through the process of continually cutting to different angles and objects such as the radiator with blood, that allowed us to entice our audience. I continually used Youtube in the research, planning and evaluation

stages and the fact that I could embed these videos directly to my blog, meant that I could demonstrate the procedures that our group went through to create our final product.

The slow motion reverse effect in Alt-J’s video was very similar to ours in the way we constructed our music video. On

youtube, I watched a video of the director of Alt-J’s video explaining that he shot the murder in normal time then

reversed it all during the editing stages. We then used this helpful advice in our video and this saved us from trying to

work backwards which would have delayed our shooting time.

Through finding psycho on youtube, this meant we gained ideas into representing our character in the

murder scene. We used similar closeups from psycho in our murder sequence as can be seen on the right.

2. Prezi, Scribd and slidesharePrezi is another powerful media platform that I used primarily in

presenting different parts of my coursework. Prezi is an innovative software that allows its user to create well organised and detailed

presentations through using different templates. I used Prezi in presenting many music video analysis’s. A unique feature of Prezi is setting a

designated path for the powerpoint to follow meaning a person viewing my presentations can see the information in the correct order. Like with

scribd and youtube, I could embed prezi documents onto my blog so that I could keep them all together and could show my work.

Scribd was another online platform which I used when uploading pdf documents. Not only did I upload documents, but I also browsed

other scribd pages that people had submitted for planning of their A2 music videos. This allowed me to gain insight into the ways in which

our group could plan our video. I also gained influence from how other people presented their coursework and from this I started using

more often, other new media technologies such as keynote and pages on my macbook as alternative methods

Slideshare was another tool I used to upload my coursework to my blog. Some parts of Keynote on a macbook are not compatible with online sites such as blogger and so slideshare allowed me to get over this problem. I was able to

convert powerpoints into pdf and could embed the presentations onto my blog. Like with scribd, slide hare contains thousands of presentations that are made

public. This came in handy, especially during research as many film makers upload regular on tips and tricks into how to shoot certain images. An example of this is from Simon Perry who makes short films online. He uploaded a very useful powerpoint on what makes an effective film and here I learnt different techniques

such as considering pace of a moving image

IMovieI used iMovie when editing practise videos, behind the scenes footage and even for some of the real footage involved in our

music video. I movie was useful as I could click and drag footage from my seagate hard-rive straight to the editing dock. iMovie was particularly useful when editing the mirror sequence

as it has an inbuilt green/blue screen. This meant that I could overlay two separate videos to play at the same time creating the man in the mirror effect. iMovie was paticulary useful when we needed to make scenes of the couples happiness brighter

through trying out different exposure/contrast levels.

The anti-shakiness icon was used in the editing process when shaky

footage was causing issues with how the video appeared. This icon

stabilised footage and I could even increase the amount of stabilisation I

wanted from the footage. This resulted in a smooth flowing edit.

Here I learnt how to overlay to clips over

one another. This was essential for the

error sequence to create the split

personality effect

Throughout the construction process, I learnt how to adjust

the exposure/ contrast levels to create the dark

atmosphere. Originally, the footage was too light however through decreasing

exposure levels using the exposure slider,

this meant we achieved the

preferred footage.

4. PhotoshopPhotoshop was used in the stages of the digipack development. Photoshop was a complex editing software that I learnt through

watching various videos about the basics of layering images and creating layering effects such as the glowing edges which created

a disclosure look for the male.

The key skill that I have learnt whilst using photoshop was the ‘Clone Stamp’ icon. This unique feature allows a user to clone colours from one part of an image and move this selected colour to

another section of that photo. Through selecting the area of the image that I wanted to clone, I pressed the ALT button and this allowed me to obtain the exact colour from that specific area. This feature is very useful when editing images, particularly if you want to remove any unwanted objects that were present during the shoot. An example of this is the mirror legs. From the very beginning of the course, mirror legs have proven tricky to hide during filming. We had this problem when editing

the image however with the clone icon, we copied areas of darkness from the top half the image and duplicated this onto the legs. This allowed us to disguise the legs completely leaving a more

realistic, refined front cover for our digipack

Mirror legs and tape on the floor

can be see

By copying the black from the upper half of the image,

the chair legs and the unwanted items are no long

visible

The area of black that we used to duplicate

5. Social media

Our main use of social media was through Facebook to promote our video to our target audience. I learnt various different techniques to

virtually ‘spread the word’ to friends, family and we even branched out further to the general public. Facebook was useful because we were able to make posts public and private at the same time ensuring that

both friends and anonymous users were aware of the upcoming release of our music video.

We created a Facebook page which gave a a brief summary of what our music video is about and some artist information. Facebook is referred to as being a ‘digital word of mouth’ because it allows our target audience to share certain information about our music video with friends and family. This is turn

creates a snowball effect of others gradually becoming more aware of our music video that is on the market. Facebook was a useful skill that I have learnt and something that was critical in our promotion of the music video because it is quick, easy to use and allowed the required information to be

spread