Question 3How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

The internet played a big part in the planning and research of my media product. I used the website Youtube to watch music videos belonging to the Hip-Hop genre so that I could see what the genre characteristics include and get ideas to put into my own music video. I got the idea of filming footage of my artist dancing around playfully outside with a friend from Azealia Banks’ ‘212’ as this idea linked with the fun and carefree theme I planned to portray within my own music video. Bresearching music videos on the internet using Google as well as Youtube enabled me to distinguish between codes and conventions of music videos and allowed me to read up on music video theories such as Andrew Goodwins.

Andrew Goodwin

The website blogger allowed me to update my progress as each time I had done more work I posted it on my blog. This was a simple way to organize my ancillary task and allow my work to be easily accessible to my teacher. The comments option also allowed my teacher to easily communicate with me what I had done well and how I could improve any posts.

Me and my group used the program final cut pro to edit our footage in order to create our music video. The tools used most to edit the music video were the blade and trim tools as this allowed us to cut and shorten footage, enabling us to really put the final product together. The wide variety of effects available on final cut pro allowed us to make our video more creative. We did this by using the ‘home video’ effect. We used this effect to make the recordings of our artist appear more personal, creating a feeling that she is inviting the audience into her life. We used the mirror effect in one scene for a professional look as well as the text effect to add lyrics to our video.

I used image editing software Photoshop elements to create my album cover, digipak and album poster.

I felt that by increasing the contrast it would make the image of my artist clearer, enabling her to stand out more on the album cover. I didn’t change the brightness as I felt this was unnecessary

I used the quick selection tool and selection brush to create a selection in which I planned to use the colour replace brush in, to change the colour of my artists dress. The selection brush helped me create small selections in between my artists hair which can be difficult.

By creating a selection before using the colour replacement brush I was able to make sure that I would not accidently change the colour of any parts of the image that I didn’t intend to.

I continued to use the colour replacement brush but this time freehand, to fill in any parts of my artists dress that hadn’t completely changed colour. I also used the brush to change the colour of her lips to match her dress. I altered the colour because I felt that pink is a youthful colour, which is relevant as my product is targeted at teenagers and young adults.

I used the smart brush tool to add the effect ‘dark-sky’ to slightly enhance the background, as I felt that it was too white. I used this effect as I felt that gave it a more bluish hue and I intended to in cooperate more use of the colour blue into my final design.

I also used the colour replacement brush to make my artists eyes blue, as Nicki Minaj is known for always having a bright funky appearance. She is often seen with unnatural make up and different colour hair such as green or purple.

I made the album title blue to match the colour of my artist’s eyes. I felt that because my media product is targeted at both genders the front cover shouldn’t be all pink , as this may discourage males from buying the album. I warped my text into the ‘arc lower’ style as it made my album cover more eye catching and looked funky, matching the vibe of my artist. I also chose this effect as it made the letters bigger towards the centre of the text, drawing attention to my artist who is right underneath.

I still felt that my album title was to plain and didn’t look professional enough, therefore I decided to add another style to the texted called ‘wacky metallic’ as I felt it was a bright, funky and eccentric effect, just like my artist. I also slightly decreased the opacity of the text as I felt by doing this it made my album appear more smooth and put together, however I didn’t decrease it too much as I still wanted the album title to stand out.

I wanted my artist’s name to be subtle in contrast with my album title, however I still wanted to stand out. I did this by making the first letters of her name bold and pink. The colour pink also links to the common knowledge that my artist often refers to herself as ‘Barbie’.

Finally, I used the crop tool to crop my image into a square as this is the typical shape of an album cover. I also added a parental advisory label as within my subculture there is usually language used in some songs that isn’t suitable for children.

I didn’t apply these effects to whole digipak as I wanted the back and inside of the digipak to show a more natural side of my artist so that consumers feel closer to her. I used Photoshop to insert text on the back and inside of the digipak such as the album tracklist. I also used the brush tool to create a signature for my artist, which was another technique aimed at creating a more personal relationship between my artist and consumers.I kept by album poster similar to my album, as this is typical amongst media products.