HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH, PLANNING

AND EVALUATION STAGES?

CAMERAS AND TEST SHOOTING.

BEFORE CREATING OUR MEDIA PRODUCT, WE WERE AWARE THAT WE WERE GOING TO BE USING A LOT OF TECHNOLOGIES WHILE CONSTRUCTING OUR MUSIC VIDEO AND DIGIPACK. TO GET OURSELVES PREPARED FOR FILMING, ME AND THE GROUP TOOK SOME TIME PRACTICING USING THE A CANNON ESO 1110 D DSLR. WE FILMED A DIFFERENT RANGE OF TEST SHOTS USING A CAMERA FRAME SO THAT THE FOOTAGE ISN’T SHAKY WHILE FILMING. WE ALSO DECIDED TO KEEP THE CAMERA ON MANUAL FOCUS SO THAT WE COULD SHARPLY FOCUS ON THE CENTRAL OBJECT AND CHANGE THE DEPTH OF FIELD EASILY. THIS EXERCISE HELPED US MAKE FILMING MORE CONSISTENT AND SIMPLER TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T USED THAT CAMERA BEFORE.

STUDIO. WHILE FILMING THE SCENES IN THE STUDIO (THE BAND AND PHOTO-SHOOT SCENES) WE HAVE USED A RANGE OF LIGHT THAT WOULD MAKE OUR MUSIC VIDEO LOOK MORE PROFESSIONAL AND REALISTIC. BEHIND THE BAND WE PUT COLOURED LIGHT SO THE BACKGROUND WOULD NOT BE TOO PLAIN. EVEN THOUGH THE MUSIC VIDEO ENDED UP BEING BLACK AND WHITE, THE SHADE IN THE BACKGROUND WAS DIFFERENT TONE WHICH MADE THE SCENE LOOK MORE APPEALING AND PROFESSIONAL. WE ALSO USED A LOT OF LIGHTS IN THE PHOTO-SHOOT SCENES TO LIT JEMMA UP CORRECTLY, WHICH MADE THE SCENE LOOK LIKE A REAL PHOTO-SHOOT. TO CAPTURE DIFFERENT RANGE OF SHOTS THAT COULD INTEREST THE AUDIENCE, WE ALSO USED A CRANE. THIS ALLOWED US TO FILM A WIDE, HIGH ANGLE SHOTS AND CAPTURE ALL OF THE BAND MEMBERS IN A MOVING ACTION.

OKAY MAGAZINE

IN OUR ORIGINAL PLAN, WE WERE GOING TO INCLUDE A SCENE WHERE A MAGAZINE IS DROPPED SHOWING THE ‘OKAY’ MAGAZINE WITH THE CELEBRITY (JEMMA) ON THE FRONT COVER. TO PRODUCE THIS MAGAZINE COVER I LOOKED FOR AN IDEA FIRST. I FOUND A FRONT COVER OF AN ’OK’ MAGAZINE ON GOOGLE AND THEN USED PHOTOSHOP TO CONSTRUCT SIMILAR VERSION. I USED A MARGUEE TOOL TO CREATE MY BOXES AND THE FILLED THEM IN WITH BRIGHT EYE-CATCHY COLOURS. I ALSO USED A TYPE TOOL TO CREATE THE TITLE ‘OKAY’ FONT. LASTLY IN THE LAST LAYER, I INSERTED A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT THE PHOTO-SHOOT OF JEMMA AND I CHANGED THE BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST. THERE WAS ALSO A SHADOW IN THE CORNER SO I USED A CLONE TOOL, WHICH HELPED ME ELIMINATE THE SHADOW. HOWEVER, THE GROUP AND ME DECIDED NOT TO USE THIS SCENE AFTER ALL, SO THIS MAGAZINE COVER DIDN’T END UP BEING USED.

CONVERTINGAFTER FINISHING FILMING OUR MUSIC VIDEO, THE GROUP AND ME CONVERTED ALL OF THE FOOTAGE INTO A MORE APPROPRIATE FORMAT THAT WOULD HELP MAKE OUR EDITING QUICKER. WE USED A SOFTWARE CALLED ‘MPEG STREAMCLIP’ WHICH MADE THE CONVERTING FOR US, ALL WE HAD TO DO IS MAKE THE DIMENSIONS OF THE FOOTAGE CORRECT (16:9), CHANGE THE FORMAT INTO APPLE PRO RESS AND ALSO MAKE THE QUALITY AT 100%. CONVERTING MADE OUT FOOTAGE THE RIGHT FORMAT, WHICH MAKES THE EDITING QUICKER AND EASIER AS THERE IS LESS RENDERING AND THE TIMELINE WORKS FASTER.

EDITING

TO EDIT OUR MUSIC VIDEO, WE HAVE USED FINAL CUT PRO. ME AND SABAA USED THIS SOFTWARE BEFORE, SO WE DECIDED TO EDIT THIS VIDEO BY OURSELVES. FIRSTLY, WE INSERTED ALL OF OUR FOOTAGE INTO DIFFERENT BINS (FOLDERS), WHICH MADE FINDING FOOTAGE MUCH EASIER AND FASTER. WE THEN TRIMMED OUR FOOTAGE USING THE ‘MARK IN AND OUT’ TOOLS, WHICH HIGHLIGHTED THE RIGHT FRAGMENT OF THE SHOT WE NEEDED. AFTER UPLOADING OUR FOOTAGE INTO THE TIMELINE WE MADE THEM BLACK AND WHITE BY ADDING A ‘COLOUR CORRECTOR’ EFFECT AND REDUCING THE SATURATION. WE DID THIS INDIVIDUALLY AND NOT WHILE EXPORTING BECAUSE WE STILL WERE NOT SURE IF WE WANTED TO MAKE ALL OF THE MUSIC VIDEO BLACK AND WHITE OR ONLY CERTAIN SCENES. SOME OF THE SHOTS WE WANTED TO MAKE SLOW MOTION SO THAT THEY FLOW WITH THE RHYTHM. WE DID THIS BY CHANGING THE DURATION SPEED INTO 80% OR SOMETIMES LOWER. ALSO, SOME OF THE SHOTS WERE PLANNED TO BE FAST MOTION SHOTS. WE ALSO DID THIS BY INCREASING THE PERCENTAGE, SOME INTO 1000% AND SOME LOWER. BECAUSE WE WANTED ADD AN OVERLAY OVER ANOTHER SHOT, WE CREATED A TRACK ON TOP OF IT, THEN WE DRAGGED THE SHOT ON TOP OF THE OTHER AND CHANGED ITS OPACITY IN THE MOTION SETTING. WE ALSO WANTED TO MAKE THE OPACITY INCREASE AND DECREASE (E.G. THE SHOT WITH THE LIP SINGING OVER SABAA) SO I USED KEYFRAMES TO CONSTRUCT THIS EFFECT. WE ALSO WANTED TO MAKE ALL OF THE SHOTS CUT TO THE BEAT SO IT WOULD FOLLOW ANDREW GOODWINS THEORY. WE DID THIS BY USING THE BLAZE/RAZOR TOOL AND ALSO BY USING THE ‘WHISTLE’ TOOL SO THEY WOULD CUT TO THE BEAT. THE FOOTAGE WE FILMED HAD AUDIO SUPPORTING IT SO WE UNLINK THE AUDIO BY PRESSING ‘COMMAND AND L’ SO WE COULD DELETE THE AUDIO OFF THE FOOTAGE.

EXPORTING, WEBSITES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS.

WE EXPORTED THE MUSIC VIDEO INTO QUICKTIME PLAYER AND THEN WE UPLOADED IT INTO ‘NEWTON ST BAND’ YOUTUBE CHANNEL. WE THEN SHARED THE MUSIC VIDEO ON DIFFERENT SOCIAL NETWORKS SUCH AS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. WE GOT SOME GOOD FEEDBACK FROM THERE AND IT GAVE US AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET MORE VIEWS. WE ALSO USED A SOFTWARE CALLED ‘GOOGLE DOCKS FORM’ WHICH ALLOWED US TO CREATE A SURVEY FOR PEOPLE TO FILL OUT AND GIVE US FEEDBACK. OUR TEACHER USED GMAIL TO SEND THE SURVEY LINK TO MEDIA STUDIES STUDENTS SO WE COULD GET A WIDER RESPONSE FROM AUDIENCE.

ALL OF OUR RESEARCH, DIGIPACKS, ANALYSIS, PLANNING AND MANY MORE WERE POSTED ON THE WORDPRESS BLOG WHICH MADE EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE AND MADE IT EASIER TO OUTLINE WHO DID WHAT AND WHEN. WE ALSO USED A WEBSITE CALLED SLIDE SHARE WHEN UPLOADING ANY POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, THIS WEBSITE CREATED THE PRESENTATION INTO A FORMAT THAT WOULD LET US VIEW IT IN WORDPRESS.

DIGIPACKS AND PHOTOSHOP.

WHILE I WAS MAKING THE DIGIPACK I HAD AN IDEA OF COLLIDING BUILDING AND PORTRAITS TOGETHER, TO DO THIS I USED PHOTOSHOP. FIRST I GOT A PHOTOGRAPH OF MY FRIEND’S SIDE OF THE FACE AND THEN I OUTLINED IT USING THE PEN TOOL. IN A SEPARATE DOCUMENT I MADE A COLLAGE OF BUILDING THEN I INSERTED A PATH WITH THE OUTLINE OF THE FACE. I DELETED ANYTHING THAT WAS IN THE OUTLINE SHAPE AND THAT IS HOW I GOT THE FACE OUTLINE ON THE BUILDINGS. IN THE BACKGROUND I USED TEXTURES OF BRICK WALLS AND I MADE THE OPACITY LOWER SO IT WOULDN’T BE TOO OVER POWERING. I WANTED TO MAKE THE DIGIPACK HAVE AN ‘URBAN’ LOOK AND MAKE IT RELATE TO A CITY, WHICH LINKS WITH THE MUSIC VIDEO AND THE LYRICS OF THE SONG. WHEN MAKING THE MAGAZINE ADVERT I ALSO WANTED TO MAKE THE MAGAZINE HAVE DIFFERENT LAYERS AND TEXTURES, WHICH WOULD RESEMBLE AN INNER CITY, LOOK. FOR THE FONTS WE USED A WEBSITE CALLED ‘DATFONT’ WHICH ALLOWED US TO GET A FONT THAT WAS ALREADY CREATED FOR US. ALSO I USED GRADING TOOLS AND THE ERASER TO MAKE THE PHOTOGRAPH OF IZZIE BLEND WITH THE BACKGROUND.