Question Four.

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

Research. Firstly, I will discuss the technologies I

used within the research phase of my project and how they helped shape my final music video.

YouTube. YouTube allowed me to watch professional music

videos, to give me ideas and creativity for my own video. It also allowed me to understand the conventions of a usual music video and how they work. I could also choose my genre and Artists to watch easily.

If I hadn’t of had YouTube to help with this stage of

research I would have had to use MTV’s music video channel. This would have caused problems as I couldn’t pick and choose genres or pause, to allow me to go shot by shot to understand how music videos work.

Google Google gave me access to many areas of the research. I

was able to find Artist’s CD covers, as well as song names. Layouts for the Digipak and advertisement. Also with help using programs such as Photoshop and InDesign if I was struggling with a certain aspect of the software.

If I hadn't had Google to help with such things, I would have had to use books or the television for Artist’s covers and songs, I would have also had to look through software handbooks, or spend a long time trying to find out certain things myself which may have taken a long time.

Facebook Facebook allowed me to talk through ideas

and concepts with my target audience. I was able to ask a lot of people certain questions and receive their feedback easily.

Without facebook I would have had to personally ask family and friends which would have also caused concern for target audience as I wouldn’t have been able to find a lot of people specific to my target audience.

Blogger Blogger has allowed me to post all of my

research planning and final piece in one area which makes it easy to access and reliable.

If I hadn’t of had blogger I wouldn’t have been able to easily jot down ideas anywhere I was if I had a great thought. This would have meant loss of potential good ideas.

Sound Cloud

Sound Cloud allowed me at the very start of this project to focus around a certain genre that I was interested in. I was able to find niche Artist’s who’s songs are creative and original.

This would have proved more difficult If I were just using the television as they regularly show popular artists which I wasn’t interested in.

Planning

Time toast Time toast is an online software which

enabled me to plan the future of my project. This made everything a lot easier as I knew when to start certain aspects of the production and planning stages.

Without this software it would have been much more stressful to have written every single thing I had planned for my project so it helped with time and efficiency.

IPhone With my IPhone I was able to use the

Calendar as well as time toast, so I could easily access what part of the project was up and coming and what I can do in the meantime to prepare for it.

I also used my phone to take pictures of the location to find the best lighting and scenery perfect for pictures and in the video.

Premiere pro practice In class we were able to practice with premiere pro to allow

maximum benefit within the production of the music video. As my technology knowledge grew I knew I would be able to produce a better music video and not let technological determinism power over me. But for me to control ‘it’. I Learnt how to use the echo tool and slow motion tool within editing to create unusual but effective effects on my video.

I would have had to use three machine linear editing if I hadn’t had premiere pro, that would have been much more difficult and time consuming.

Premiere pro continued. In premiere pro I also learned how to

use the speed/duration which meant that I could slow down or speed up certain scenes.

I also used cross dissolve to make the transactions between the clips smooth and not slow paced.

PowerPoint I used PowerPoint within my planning process to

present my ideas to my classmates. This provided a perfect platform for easy to use software that would come across easily to my audience as well as being easy to use.

Without PowerPoint I would have had to come up with notes and talk from ideas in my head, that could have meant messing up or not putting my best ideas forward. It also meant that I could show some basic cuts from a YouTube video which would give the audience a basic idea of what my final piece would look like.

Construction

Photoshop I used Photoshop to allow me to make a professional looking Digipak

and magazine advert. I Learnt how to use free transform tool which allowed me to move things freely and to resize them easily.

I also learnt how to use the Blur and noise tools to allow me to give my model a airbrushed skin look. This made my print productions look more professional and sophisticated.

I feel like in all the areas of creativity software Photoshop is the only one where I truly think that I fully controlled the technology skillfully rather than technological determinism as I have used Photoshop for a long time I can generally make things look how I want them to look. The final piece was what I truly envisaged in my head.

Photoshop - continued.In Photoshop I also learned how to use the eyedropper tool – To find certain colors in things and then use them.

Horizontal type tool- To type horizontally.`Magic Wand tool- to help cut out and move tricky shapes or images.

Custom shape tool- I used this to create the stripes in the background of my music advert

Camera For the camera I used a Nikon D60 single lens

reflect. Using this camera, I learnt how to use manual focus which meant that I could blur the background whilst keeping my model in focus.

I also learnt about ISO exposure which meant that I could stop my pictures from being over exposed or too dark in contrast. I found out that the higher the ISO the higher the noise which caused for a unattractive photograph.

lighting I used two battery powered lights for my lighting with

tripods as I was unable to use electronic lights due to no electricity in my chosen location, this meant that I had to rely on natural lighting as well for a well lit video.

This meant that I had to go out at certain times of the day as it was in winter which caused quite difficult with work and college, so this was quite difficult.

If I were to go this project again I may have found a easier location which meant that I could have made better use of my time and used better more professional lighting.

Video Camera The Panasonic HD allowed me to create a

interesting music video easily. I learnt how to do focus pulls by using the

focus manually. As well as locating the zoom button to give an

interesting twist at the end of my music video. Without this camera I would have had to use

my phone, this would have meant dreadful quality as well as no manual functions which would have meant auto quality and

Evaluation

YouTube YouTube has allowed me to post valuable information

needed for my evaluation such as my directors commentary for question 1, and audience feedback video for question 3.

Without YouTube it would have been difficult to construct my evaluation appropriately without the use of video.

Web 2.0 allowed me to use YouTube to make my own things and send them to friends and teachers to share all together rather than just getting fed information from companies or big industries I was able to broadcast my own information and ideas.

Powtoon Powtoon is a program I have used for

question 2, at first it was quite unusual and difficult to handle, but after a while it was quite easy and beneficial for a different way of presenting information for my evaluation.

Video Video has really helped within my

evaluation as it has shown my audience feedback in a different way, rather than just reading peoples responses we can now watch them!

It also made it easy for me to construct a directors commentary which proves to be more interesting then a bulk of writing on Microsoft.

Thank you.