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Research: First of all, the research section of the creative process

had a diversity of technologies used as it was important to

present content and information I had gathered in

different mediums. The majority of which revolved

around online and website based information which was

useful for referencing to when creating thinking about the

creation of my products as they were easy access meaning

I could get to them from the classroom as well as at

home. Many of the websites I had used before so I was

confident in being able to use them professionally and I

easily understood how they work.

Formats I used for research included:

Blogger

YouTube

Social Networks/ Forums

Online Survey Software

Blogger - was a huge part of the entire course as it was

the platform that I used to present all of my work

meaning I had to know how to get the best out of the

software and how to use it to promote my work

effectively. Being specific to the research aspect, I used it

to embed videos from YouTube as well as images and

hyper-links from other website which were relevant to my

research for examples links to my artists Facebook page

or merchandise store as well as visuals such as examples

of music videos which I had researched and images or

screenshots of the bands/ artists to convey the style of my

genre. I could use the features of the blog such as the

fully customisable layout to portray an image which I

thought best represented an advert for the Mojokings, this

was done through buttons as the side, custom made

headers and backgrounds.

Introduction: For my A2 coursework I made sure that I used a variety of media platforms/ technologies to aid me in all the stages of the

creative process. I will justify and explain my use of technologies under the categories of 'Research', 'Planning',

'Construction' and 'Evaluation.

I wanted each piece to look different and stand out to make the

posts appealing and also to show the experience and

understanding I had of the technology. To do this in my posts I

used a mixture of different formats such as the main feature of

the embedded video but with carefully selected screenshots

and accompanying images which helped explain my point

about what was typical, what worked and how it suited the

look of that band. A good example of this was my post on the

video analysis of The Graveyard Johnnys song Dead

Transmission where I spoke about how concept videos were

different for the genre and showed screenshots of where these

elements were shown in the footage as well as taking about

synergy throughout their products and then giving sourced

images & screenshots of their t-shirts, CD, other merchandise

and their website and how it clearly references the video. To

get the videos I had to find the embedded option on YouTube

and then simply paste it in to the HTML option on Blogger

and paste it. With the images I had to save and capture those

previously and then upload them to Blogger and insert them

that way.

Social Media - sites helped me a lot in gaining

information about my artist (the Mojokings) and also

their audience. In my initial research I used research

from the Mojokings Facebook page to find out about

them and to see what sort of things their fans post and

the bands that they are interested in, this was aided by

looking at upcoming gigs via their social media and

looking at like-minded bands they have played with

such as The Brains and The Creepshow which are

very popular Psychobilly artists. The content posted

on these platforms helped me to furthermore gain a

feel for the style and the look of the band from seeing

their promotional pictures and existing merchandise.

In addition, I used Facebook to contact the

Mojokings about using them for my project.

Online Surveys -

YouTube - helped me massively in my research as it allowed me to view and analyse real media products by bands/ artists who

were already producing content for the Psychobilly genre. To find content on their website I simply had to search the artist's

name in the search bar and if they had any music videos they would appear, for example "The Brains" and I found their video

"Misery". The usefulness of YouTube is that other videos related to the artists or similar bands are suggested down the side

which allowed me to further explore the genre and what is typical for the Psychobilly style.

This website FreeOnlineSurveys.com helped me

a lot during my research stage. It is a free online

program which allows to you make professional

looking surveys and distribute them online to as

many people as you wish. I used it to acquire

feedback from fans of the Mojokings about their

viewing habits, opinions and tastes on music

videos as well as what they thought looked a

good CD cover. The quality of my feedback was

down to the technological capabilities which I

exploited from this website, first of all being

online it meant I could reach a wide range fans

and I managed to contact the Mojokings who

kindly posted the linked to the survey on their

Facebook page assuring my responses were from

genuine fans. Secondly, the professionalism of

the program allowed me to create my survey so

that it reflected the bands image as well as being

interesting and interactive with the people filling

it in with drop down menus and also star-based

rating (ranking) questions which was not

available on alternative websites. All I had to do

was create an account and chose the question

style I wanted, then fill in the content of the

question and responses myself.

Forums – were the final place where I got information from.

This was specifically about technology as I used them to look at

reviews and ratings for the camera which I would use eventually

use for filming my music video. It was useful as I could see

footage from the camera as well as get feedback from owners of

the product to see if it was suitable for what I wanted to use (i.e.

in low-key lighting). NOTE: I also used social media (above) to

get information and recommendations about this camera by

contacting known Psychobilly artists such as members of The

Brains & The Graveyard Johnnys.

Planning:

Similarly, I used a range of

technologies when it came to the

planning stages of my

production. I aimed to use new

platforms for each stage to

ensure that there was variety in

my work, keeping it creative and

interesting. Examples of new

technologies used for this section

include Pintrest, Intsagram,

Publisher and Prezi.

I also continued using technologies like Blogger further in order to present my work and

continue updating the look of portfolio keeping up with the bands style and themes

popular from my audience research. In addition, I further utilised the creativity and style

of blogger in my planning to create a magazine analysis where I used scanned in images

and uploaded images from online collated together to act as a visual aid with the write-

up of the advert analyses. Its diverseness in terms of being an open-source program

meant I could bring in content such as embedded videos, images and PowerPoints etc.

from other websites, it allowed me to make my blog much more interactive and

interesting for the planning stages.

I kept on using YouTube and watching videos from Psychobilly artists to better my

knowledge of the genres forms and conventions, this was especially key for planning

my music video as I could see real life examples.

These programs and media platforms helped me greatly in the planning process especially in presenting my posts

creatively. I used ccreative media platforms such as Instagram & Pinterest for inspiration on my music video and

to present genre conventions in the form of a mood-board. The images were sourced from Pinterest and Instagram

by using their easy search tools similar to Google I could see photos that artists had posted from their Instagram

pages as well as searching general themes and bands on Pinterest which then gives me related images to a topic,

for example Psychobilly. Pinterest is a website where people can save and Pin photos related to a topic and save

them to their own Boards, for example a board about the Psychobilly music or classic cars. All photos under that

heading are linked to that specific title. It is good for finding inspiration and seeing images which are linked. One

thing I found out was the clear image from the bands was the Psychobilly clothes style and the heavy influence of

the double bass, this was something which I used in my music video as well as the use of low key lighting. With

regard to my digipak it further confirmed my ideas for using a female character/ star motif. Instagram is an

online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its you to take pictures and

videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as that you can then share them through a

variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Finally, once I had

collected the images I used for inspiration I then used Microsoft Publisher to arrange, crop and place the images

in a collage/ mood-board format. I could freely arrange the images and edit them in the program then lastly save

them in the file format I desired (image). By using a mood-board it provided a much more visual representation of

the music genre which is sometimes better presented than simply writing about the forms and styles you can

actually see them and imagine ideas for your own production. These were all images related to the Psychobilly

genre or photos of bands similar to the Mojokings. Later on in my planning stages I used a storyboard to piece

together the performance / shots I was going to film for my music video, this was done simply on paper, however

to use a different form of media technology I presented it using a program called Prezi which is a form of Power-

Point-style presentation software. I scanned the storyboard in to the PC and then uploaded them to a Mojokings

themed presentation.

In the construction part of my overall project I made the most of both physical media and digital media in terms of the

technology I used. This was shown in my main production and ancillary texts. By using new and professional

technologies it helped to push my creative ideas and make my texts unique to a high quality.

When filming the Mojokings for my music video I used a Nikon

D3200 DSLR camera. It was used throughout my production also

being used to shoot the photos on my ancillary texts. I decided to use

this camera as it gave me a lot of control over different aspects of my

filming and shooting, such as the option for manual focus meaning I

could have shots go from a clear shot of the double bass and then

slowly blur out of focus as the bass is being moved towards and away

from the camera. An additional quality of this piece of technology was

its ability to film in 1080p meaning that my footage was to a

professional standard and it had a clear, crisp look to all shots when

desired. The reason I picked this camera specifically is because I

knew it worked well under low light conditions with its big lens it was

capable of filming fast action shots of the Mojokings under minimal

light as well as flashing lights from the stage. Constantly with the

colour change it kept up with the band. With having manual controls,

it meant that I could be more precise with my shot types.

In addition to the camera I used a backup

iPad which was recording the entire

performance from the side. This was done to

ensure that if the worst happened and my

camera did break which couldn’t be fixed I

did have some form of backup with footage

from that. Whilst I did not use and clips from

the iPad it was still a different form of

technology used to film the Mojokings.

To edit my music video, I used Final Cut as it is a

professional piece of software and I had previous

experience with how it works and how to make

the best of its effects etc. from using it last year

with my thriller. It offered a range of features

allowing me to adjust and manipulate my footage

precisely, for example adding the vintage style

look to my shots which was done by altering RGB

levels. It also let me experiment with other

options such as the brightness and contrast which

I lowered to make my video seem more of the

typical Psychobilly video.

Continuing with Final Cut, it gave me the free

reign to create special effects which were a

unique feature to my music video alone. This

was done through their advanced use of filters

whereby I could change levels of thing like

static, clarity and contrast; this combined with

the blue filter gave me the iconic effects used

to emphasise parts of the song in my music

video. I then just had to apply those filters to

the desired shot (or part of shot) to then give

the blue ‘out of control/ bad TV’ style visual

effect.

I used Final Cut for both my rough cut and

final production as by practicing on it gave me

further knowledge of the software but also it

meant that when it came to tweaking my first

draft it was easier since it was already on that

program. When saving and uploading my

footage it gave me loads of different options

including different audio compressions and

video quality. I decided to use the top quality

options since I had filmed in HD, this did take

longer to render and convert however the

overall product was to a much higher standard.

A crucial part of editing was

reliant on the technology of the

computer I used. The Apple

Macs are high spec and were

easily capable of coping with the

HD footage and most important

it was these PC’s that had access

to the software of Final Cut

which is exclusive to the Apple

OSX platform.

The Macs were also good because they have large HD screens which meant

I was able to edit in the best quality possible (same quality as my camera

footage). They were also very fast which was useful since I didn't have to

wait for ages for the clips to render, it saved a lot of construction time as

oppose to using standard Windows computers.

When creating graphics for my music video, I relied heavily on digital

technology with programs such as Adobe Photoshop when it came to editing

images and creating animation frames which would work with the style of

the footage. The images I created were for the beginning and end of the

video displaying the song title in a classic 1950’s style TV frame, this was to

reference the genres roots.

When creating my ancillary texts, I used a wide range of media technologies taking the best parts from each in order to form

the adventurous stylistic look I wanted for the Mojokings. Two of the most important programs I used in this process was

Microsoft Power-Point, which I used for placing basic images together and I used the text tool to make the title of the album

"Whatever Happened To Rock 'N' Roll?". The font used is 'TrueCrimes' which is a 1950's poster/ comic style font which

links back to the roots of the genre. The text was then manipulated to make it central and emphasise the middle of the

sentence. The second program I used was an online tool called PIXLR photo editor. Since I created my anciliary texts at

home I didn’t have access to anything like Photoshop however this program proved much better. I used to it drain the colour

from the images to make it black and white, then I used a filter to give a blue tint to the whole image. After it was tinted I

then emphasised this by increasing the vibrancy of the blue while also turning up the contrast to make the black shadows

stand out (this also made the text and sleeves on the t-shirt appear the pure contrasting black). Finally, I used a whitening

tool to change the t-shirt from blue to a bright pure white colour. I finally used a border tool to create a ripped-paper edge to

the image. I did this to extract key themes from the Psychobilly genre and also with the tinting making something fresh.

Evaluation:

To continue with my want to use different

forms of media technologies, for my

evaluation section I used a different format

for each question I answered. This included

web based programs and PC software:

Q1 – Written Blogpost (Blogger)

Q2 – Directors Commentary (Final Cut)

Q3 – Slideshare (Power-Point)

Q4 – Poster/ flow chart diagram (Word)

FINAL CUT

Like throughout Blogger was used for all my evaluation questions

to present my evaluation questions as its diversity allowed me to

upload my work in many different formats and have it embedded

into my posts. For Question 1 specifically it proved useful as it was

good for the simple essay style format I was looking for and I

utilised the technological capabilities of this service to use both the

textual information but also pair it with images I had uploaded as

well as a short clip and links from YouTube, keeping the post

interactive for the viewer. It was most appropriate because of the

sheer size of the content I had written meaning it would be far too

wordy to have as a PowerPoint and it would be too busy for a mind

map or a video. It wouldn’t hold the interest as well. The only issue

however with blogger is that on occasion the formatting of the

program isn’t brilliant and how you se things on the post isn’t how

it appears when you upload it, specifically images and captions.

This means I spent a bit of time playing around with it trying to get

thing correctly aligned.

For the second question I used final cut for my director’s

commentary. Initially I had planned to do this at home using

Windows Movie Maker however I soon decided to move to final

cut using it at college as it was actually easier and more

professional in terms of the transitions I could make but most

potently I could overlap images and audio which was something I

couldn’t on Windows. It was also easier to trim clips and add

sections make faster cuts in Final Cut. The only downside is that

this took longer since it had to be done in class time but overall it

produced a better looking product.

My third question was a PowerPoint

presentation which a rather simple piece of

technology but compared to something like

Blogger it allowed me to be much more creative

in the way I presented my answer. It was good

in illustrating the link between what I was

writing in the answer as well as providing

stimulating visuals which related to the text, for

example talking about my focus group I had

photos of some of the most influential people.

When talking about typical conventions for the

genre I could the images and the style/ layout of

the presentation to show pictures which

supported my points. it was easy to customise

the overall design of the presentation to make it

reflect my ancillary texts and my Blogger

design. The only downside again was formatting

when I uploaded the PowerPoint to Slideshare

to be able to get it on my blog it changed the

positioning of some of the text and images. Also

if I were to add any slide transitions these would

not be carried over to Slidehare

For my final question I decided to use Microsoft Word in creating a poster/ flow chart

style piece of work. This was to have a good combination between text (content like a

blog post) but with also a good design which reflects the Mojokings style and carefully

acquired screenshots. Photoshop would have been better for creating a poster/ chart

like this however since this work was done at home it was creatively what I decided to

use as the best mixture of design and content. It was also a platform that I hadn’t used

for a while so I fancied a challenge getting back used to this creative extent.