Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research…Our task was to create a music video as well as a digipak cover and a poster advertisement. This is how we used media technologies during our research stage.

YouTube

We used YouTube to search through many different song and music videos. This is how we found the song Lifehouse - ‘Halfway Gone’ by looking at the alternatives to the songs we were originally looking at. YouTube was also used to look at real media conventions that real music videos had used t gain inspiration for our own music video. Furthermore, YouTube was used to find tutorials to help with the editing process during Final Cut as there were ideas that we were not 100% sure of how to carry out.

Wikipedia

We used Wikipedia to research about the genre ‘Pop Rock’. This helped us to understand everything about this genre and why this type of genre was given to the song we chose. Wikipedia also helped me to research into existing products, such as digipaks and posters which helped massively when creating our ancillary tasks.

Google

Google is the search engine which I used throughout the research process because it always came out with the best results. It helped in finding images from existing media materials and websites with the important information which I needed when researching conventions.

Digipak…I looked into previous digipaks which already existing to gain inspiration towards ideas for our own. Using the internet I also researched into the connection between the music videos, digipaks and poster advertisements.

Our DigipakExisting Digipaks

Poster Advertisement…When creating our poster advertisement we had to consider the similarities of the digipak too. This would then create a sense of house style for that particular song.

Existing Posters Our Poster

Hardware…

Camera

The camera was used throughout the filming stage of the coursework so we could capture the filming crew in action. It was also used to take photos for our ancillary tasks.

Sony Handy CamThe Sony handy cam was used throughout the filming process to film all of our footage for the music video. It was also used with a tripod to keep the camera steady and therefore the footage would remain straight.

Apple Mac ComputerThe Apple Mac computer contain all of the software for us to edit our footage and create out music video. It also allowed us to create our ancillary tasks.

Software…Blogger

Blogger was used to display my entire coursework on a blog. I was able to update my blog by posting new posts.

Final Cut ExpressFinal cut express was used to edit the music video. I allowed me to use many tools to edit the shots, including, transitions, adding music, video filters and adding texts to the shots.

PhotoshopPhotoshop was used to create both the ancillary tasks, the advertisement poster and the digipak. We added all of the images that we were going to use in the program and then edited them using the tools available.

FacebookOnce our video was completed we uploaded the final cut onto Facebook to gain feedback from friends and family. This enabled us to view comments and opinions of people who were not media students.

VimeoTo be able to upload our rough cut or our final cut onto blogger, we firstly had to create a Vimeo account and upload it via this.

Editing the Poster…

Changing the colour of the image.

Creating a clouds effect for the background.

Adding a drop shadow to the image.

The Poster…

The Digipak…

Editing the Music Video…

Adding soft edges to the dream sequence.

Adding an MTV sign to the beginning shot to add realism to the music video.

Reversing a shot to suit the music video.

Editing the Music Video…

Desaturating a shot to create a past effect.

Adding a cross dissolve transition to make the sequence flow.Editing the brightness

and contrast of a shot.

Evaluation…

I have used a range of ICT skills throughout the coursework which was vital in the research, planning and evaluation stages.

In the evaluation stage I used the following media some of which I have and have not mentioned yet:

• Facebook to get feedback on the final cut of the music video.• Slideshare to upload this PowerPoint presentation onto blogger.• Slide to upload slideshows I have made onto blogger.• Scroll bar HTML• Drop down menu HTML• Scribd to upload word documents onto blogger.