HOW DID YOU USE M

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Media TechnologiesThroughout the course of my media production we used a range of online technologies to efficiently collaborate with each other to improve the end result of our media product. Using such services made it more easier for me and the rest of my team to share information, for example audio, video, text etc.

The technologies we used varies throughout the different stages of the project. For example search engines were used frequently in the planning and research stages of the course whereas more in depth programs such as Premiere was used in the post production stages.

RESEARCH & PL

ANNING

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES USED IN RESEARCH & PLANNING

In the early planning stages of our project it was vital that we built up an image of what the indie rock genre was constructed of. Early evidence of this can be seen by the use of our mood boards which document some key images which we thought appropriately represented the genre.

As you can see by using Google we were able to build up a really comprehensive mood board to display what we thought should be reflected in our music video. Using the search engines also gave us a good stance by looking at what other peoples views were when it came to indie rock. Simply searching indie rock into Google images can help you to explore some new avenues that you had previously not thought of.

Along with using Google for images, we also did some textual research by using Google to find pages on Wikipedia and other neighboring sites. This helped to further reinforce our knowledge of the genre.

Once we knew which genre we were going to target, we had to move onto deciding what artist we wanted to use for our final piece. This is where YouTube came in. YouTube is a fantastic platform for browsing content from all over the world, it certainly helped us decide our chosen artist.

Not only did YouTube allow us to browse a large variety of content, it always allowed us to explore artists discography's. For example if we found an artist whom we loved the style of, we could delve deeper into their musical portfolio to find the perfect song to fit all of our tastes.

We cam across Imagine Dragons, we all felt that the style of music was perfect for the visions that we had for our music video. They are also a very well known artist in their genre.

Music channel played a big part when looking for artists, using YouTube’s music channels it made it easier to find potential artists.

We also used iTunes and Spotify to deeper analyze our chosen song. This proved very useful as it gave us better insight to the meaning behind each lyric used.

Once we had picked Radioactive by Imagine Dragons we each used either iTunes or Spotify to analyze the lyrics from the song. Spotify was especially good for this as they provide on screen lyrics witch each song meaning we could use the sound of the song against the lyrics to make accurate interpretations of what the song was trying to portray.

I actually signed up to Spotify premium so that we could use this service as we found that it far outdid iTunes in terms of functionality.

As we started to gather material and research I needed somewhere to visually display my findings. I used Web 2.0 to use the service ‘Weebly’ to show my media in the online medium.

Weebly is a web design service which allows you to easily create your own website online for free. I would usually create my own website manually however as we had a lot of work to complete this free and easy to use service was ideal.

I wanted to reflect my interests through my website hence the technical front cover image. I separated my website into different sections which consisted of ‘Coursework’, ‘Video Planning’, ‘Music Video’ & ‘Evaluation’. Separating it up into these sections made it easy to find and locate content for me and my teachers.

We needed a platform that we could bring all of our research together, a platform to put ideas into real visualizations. We used programs such as Word, Powerpoint etc.

One key area where we used PowerPoint was to find images from across the internet, using Google, to display them all on one canvas in the form of a mood board. By creating a mood board it helped us to visualize exactly what we thought the indie genre consisted of. In turn this allowed for deeper analysis of the genre.

We used Word to do our lyrical annotations for our lyrics, this helped us break down the key parts of the song. Along with the combination of the moodboard we could start to link lyrics to onscreen action.

We used a range of different equipment in the research and planning stages of our project.Equipment

Non of these technologies would have been accessible without technology such as Laptops & phones. Especially laptops/computers as these featured in each stage of our production.

We ended up using our mobile phones quite a lot, one key use was searching the song during our research and planning to listen to the song or listen to a particular lyric. This provided a fast and effective method to progress out research and planning stage.

Equipment

CONSTRUCTIO

N

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES USED IN RESEARCH & PLANNING

In the construction stage of our project, we used a Song Z7 to capture the bulk footage filmed out on location. This camera was also used for the studio shots as it coped best with the low lighting conditions. The 7Z is a brilliant camera as it has an incredible depth of field when filming giving a professional touch to all footage captured.

We also used a Cannon 600D for shots which required more hand held action, for example running over muddy or slippy terrain. The cannon was brilliant for these types of shots as it was light weight and not as big and bulky as the Z7 however didn’t have the same depth of field as the 7Z. This did however increase the variety of shots we could capture. The Cannon was also used to take the still pictures for our digital package.Equipment

We didn’t just want to use an average tripod as commonly you can see the juttery motion when panning or tilting. Instead we opted to use the Manfrotto Tripod which uses pressurized air to slowly pan and tilt giving a beautiful smooth motion to shots.

In addition to our tripod, we enlisted the help of the steady-cam to help out in shows such as the running shot featured in our video. The steady cam aided in making the action shots more seamless and less armature.

Equipment

When it came to filming the studio shots we wanted to do something really special. We wanted to create a smoky gloomy type of environment that made it seem as if Aaron was in another world entirely. To do this we used a Smoke Machine which turned a special chemical into thick smoke to fill the room.

To colour this smoke to reflect key lyrics we used RGB LED uplighters. We could configure the RGB in any way we wanted which gave us an amazing amount of customization in colour along with specific tones of the colour.

Equipment

Once I had filmed and sorted out all of our footage, I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to start editing together our footage. I made key use of the Folders inside Premiere to group content together making it much easier to construct a coherent timeline. Premiere was very useful in allowing me to precisely match up clips what I had filmed with the timings of the song. This is where our lyrical timings came into great use.

I also used Adobe Photoshop to construct out digital package, using Photoshop gave me great control over what I could create allowing me to carry out complex processes such as layer masking.

Equipment

Premiere CS6 is one of the few non-liner editing programs out there. It is part of the Adobe CS6 creative suit which is great as it contains all possible Adobe programs that we could need to create our final piece.Premiere supports multiple video formats including .MT2 which quite a few high end camera record in. Premiere is also integrated with Adobe Photoshop meaning Photoshop files can be placed directly into Premiere. Furthermore you can edit the files in Photoshop and the changes will be reflected in Premiere making editing seamless.

Equipment

More about premiere

Inside Premiere

This is the media bin. Here all of the content in the project is stored. As you can see I have sorted out my bin into different folders to make it easier to see which content is located where.

When creating the video I also used the bin to individually name each track which again made it much easier to drag and drop the content into it’s correct place.

This is the video timeline, here you can see all the active content being displayed on the screen. In CS6 the timeline is incredible useful as it allows you to expand layers such as the green audio layer which made it much easier to sync tracks up with the cuts of the video. The timeline also allows you to visually apple opacity control along with volume control of the tracks.

This is the effects panel, it is where all of the special effects you apply to items on the timeline can be configured. I used the effects panel to create effects such as the echo effect viewed at the start of the video. One of the big advantages of this panel is it allows you to accurately edit each individual part of an effect making them completely tailored to your needs.I used the special effect panel to:

• Apply colour correction• The addition of visual effects• Configure tracking motion • Customize decibel levels

EVALUATI

ON

Production of Question1

I used the studio again to film my answer to Question 1 of my media evaluation. Again I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 as I found it to be the best program for what I wanted to achieve. In the past I have used Adobe After Effects CS6 however this is much more complex to use and would be unnecessary to use for what I wanted to produce.

I decided to use Chroma Key for my evaluation which involved filming in front on a green screen then using the Chroma Key plugin built into Premiere to remove the green background which works extremely efficiently. Inside the studio I used a variety of lighting techniques to get the best balanced lighting whilst filming which contributed to the excellent execution of the green screen work.

Green Screen

Social MediaI utilized web 2.0 by using Facebook and Twitter as means to share my survey with friends to gain audience feedback. I also posted the main video on Facebook which allowed my friends to view the video and leave comments if they needed to. Sharing it through Facebook & Twitter also allowed my friends to share it to their friends which expanded the reach of my media product. I was able to keep people aware of my videos presence by posting regular updates about the video and where you can find it. I found that using both platforms helped because not everything uses both services therefore I was covering both bases by using both networks.

I posted my final product to YouTube as it was a globally know platform where people could view, like and leave feedback on the video. This screenshot was taken in the first week of upload and it already had 125 views by it being shared through Web 2.0 which proved to be effective.

I wanted to display my evaluation questions in a format which would entice people to carry on reading. There would be no point in just writing 4 questions of plain text as this would leave them in complete boredom.I decided to use services such as Prezi & Slidesharealong with video based media to display my answer for the questions. I also used Survey Monkey to collect data to aid my evaluation.