Reflection on Skill development

Jon Black

Research and Planning In planning the filming of the music video my group considered the

casting decisions in consideration of how many people appear in the video, as well as how many people are seen in each shot- then I produced a printout of all the shots in the original video to provide a reference throughout the shoots. This part of the project has been useful to improve planning and time management skills.

The website needed to appeal to the artist’s target audience, so in designing the Wix website in post production, I did some research into how to make a website appeal to a target audience, visiting several websites with information about making a web professional and attractive to users- as well as referencing a similar website for ideas about layout and appropriate colour scheme for the website design, which was then applied in Post production.

Digital Technology: Hardware In filming the video we used a camcorder fixed to a tripod, and a stills

camera was used to collect photography for the Digipack simultaneous to the shoot. The use of two cameras doing production was important, as it allowed flexibility, given that the Digipack images and footage for the video could be taken in the same recording sessions. The filming process helped me develop skills in using the tripod and the camera efficiently in a shoot, which will no doubt be useful in future projects.

The Digital products were created on three adjacent Apple iMacs, one for each product- which made it easy to synchronise and reference the style and aesthetic of the products with each other during the creation process.

Digital Technology: Software To edit and publish the video, Final Cut Express was used in Post

Production. Final Cut Express allows for rendering, which means that playback and amending editing errors was easy and sped up the post production time allocated to the video product.

To create the Digipack CD packaging, Adobe Photoshop CS6 was used during Post Production. It’s an advanced digital image editing software with various content manipulation options, allowing for creativity when creating image products.

The website was created using online website creator “Wix”- which is an online free website creation tool which offers various templates to create an accessible website which can look professional and appeal to the target audience.

Post Production: Video Though I didn’t use the Final Cut Software in

the Post Production, it was used to great effect- and the editing tools and techniques used will be useful in creating video products in future projects. For example, using slow motion in some videos to fully synchronise the video will be incredibly useful in creating my own music video in A2 Media Studies, as accuracy of editing is important in creating a product that feels professional and well crafted.

In addition, using tools like filters (for colouration of footage), overlaying media (the Vevo logo on the bottom left of the screen), and making sure the sound is synched and consistent in the product will all be incredibly useful skills to apply to any future project, but certainly the creation of a music video.

Post Production: Digipack Though I didn’t work on the Digipack

personally, I noticed several skills being used that will be useful to replicate if I need to use the software in future projects. For example the magic eraser tool was used to remove backgrounds from existing images- a skill which I believe will really be useful for future production of promotional images involving multiple layers.

Other tools were also used effectively, like the transformation tool which was used to edit the images to make them the correct length and width- which is important, as products made by Photoshop need to be accurately designed and produced. I will likely use the transformation tool a lot in using Photoshop in the future because of this.

Post Production: Website After researching by looking at tips on how

to make a website appeal to a target audience while maintaining general professionalism, we begun to create the website on Wix. We chose a template that had a fun and pop aesthetic, and chose a background colour to reflect this aesthetic. The links on the website were changed to reference our artist “Treghan Mainor”, and images taken on set by the digipack creators were also added into the website’s gallery section.

Using Wix has developed the skill of being able to adapt to new software, helped by the accessibility of the site and prior experience in using online design software- this will be useful if in future projects a website needs to be created for a product.

Real Media Conventions In creating all three products it was important to consider real media

conventions, to increase professionalism and ultimately appeal more to the target audience.

A key convention of professional music videos that we thought was important to replicate was the accuracy of the shots- making sure that the actors are placed in the right positions in the footage and that the décor, costume and background features are all accurate to the original piece. This will in a way be useful as a transferrable skill as video products will need to be recreated accurately from a storyboard sequence and/or animatic.

Another obvious convention of media products created by professional industries is the level of planning involved prior to the shooting and post production processes, so an obvious skill that needs to be used throughout the A2 Media Coursework project will be to plan effectively and efficiently- to make sure that everything is ready prior to filming.