QUESTION 4:HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

 RESEARCH AND PLANNING

YOUTUBEYouTube was one of the main platforms we used for research and planning process in order to find case studies for gaining our ideas and inspiration into planning our music video. In addition, YouTube allow us to develop our ideas further by looking at other professional artists and how they would use conventional elements in producing their music video. One of the case studies we were mostly inspired from was Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence due to the sad and dark atmosphere. It gave us an idea of how we could set the mood for our music video, since our video is based on conceptual dark-art; therefore, setting the mood would create a huge impact toward our music video. YouTube was also the technology I used to upload our finished music video in order for it to meet the audience, as again it is a significant technology where music and fans meet. Furthermore, we used this technology to upload our rough-cuts and pitch feedback which was very effective and helpful in term of organising my feedback.

GOOGLEGoogle is a search engine which was probably the greatest research source for us, because we could search ideally anything we want to find information about. For example, we used Google in searching Prezi, YouTube and LeytonMediaHub as this were highly needed and used for our project. When I used Google I also came across to Google images which it was a useful technology for researching case studies of an CD digipack to see how an actual digipack look like, which then could lead me gaining some ideas and knowing the formal elements being used, so I know what to features/add when producing my own digipack. In addition, I used Google to research more about theories such as Goodwin’s, Levi-Strauss theory and Postmodernism by giving me a better understanding when applying it to my evaluation in question one. Overall, Google was the main resource we used throughout this project and it had helped me a lot.

TIMETOASTTimeToast is a software which allowed me to organise my time by creating a timeline online to keep in track for every tasks. This helped to see which deadlines I need to meet for each specific task. I also used TimeToast in AS Media Studies, at first it was quite confusing but gradually I’ve began to use it frequently, especially in A2 portfolio as it had helped me to become more organised by recoding each tasks and the date of the deadlines.

MOODLEMoodle is a website in our college that’s only accessed by the students and teachers. It helped me and my group a lot for this project because we managed to get some sources that we needed, for example, call sheets, risk assessment forms, storyboard templates, the treatments and the talent release forms. These were really helpful as it guided and inform us. Moodle also benefit my learning by allowing me to access course documents and guidelines into planning our video and evaluation.

LeytonMediaHub (http://leytonmediahub.blogspot.co.uk/) is a website created by our college media department. This website was really helpful, because we could see work from other students and the previous years, therefore, it helped us to get inspired. We could also see other people music videos and comparing them to find out what other factors in our video could be improved.

LEYTON MEDIA HUB

CONSTRUCTION

DSLR CAMERA We used DLSR Canon 600D to produce and film our video. This camera was one of the most significant and key technologies in the construction process, it was the most useful way of constructing a music video and taking professional photographs for our print products. When shooting our music video tripod became a beneficial equipment, as it prevents shakiness and make sure the camera is still and secure when I am recording a scenes. Furthermore, I had some trouble with the setting when shooting as the lighting was too dark, which lead some scenes get a little grainy when we saw it on the big screen; the causes of bad lighting affected our footage as it doesn’t look proficient therefore, we had to edit some of the footage to make the lighting brighter so the image is much clearer despite our concept give off a dark atmosphere. I believe that the image should be bright and clear so the audience can see the visual much better. I also used DLSR camera when taking photographs for my print products so my images would look high quality and professional. Although I had experience with the DSLR camera from AS Media Studies, but in A2 I believe that my skills have developed and broadened even further as I gained more confidence when I was shooting my video and photos.

LIGHTING Lighting was a significant part of the photography. Although we mainly used natural lighting in our video, however when shooting in the studio we used the photography lighting as the use of lighting allowed us to get the right level of lighting we needed. Since our video concept give off a dark and moody atmosphere, we wanted to use the right amount of lighting to emphasis the mood and to make sure that the image is clear for the audience to see the scene much better. I believe lighting is one of the most important equipment for the construction process, because it allowed me to build on how to work with the lighting in the studio.

 

EDITING

FINAL CUT PROFinal Cut Pro was one of the main editing programme we used on the Mac computer to edit our music video. I find editing music video was hard for me, because I have never edited a music video in a professional editing program; however, one of my team member Asia had some experience in editing video on Final Cut Pro, and she taught me the basic skills along with my other team member Abbas as well. Gradually, I felt confident in editing our footage together and I enjoyed fast cutting rates in each scene because the fast cutting rate emphasis the narrative, especially during the forest scene when the character was running because she thought that she saw her lover, but then she realised she was just seeing thing. The fast cutting rates evokes the audience by allow them to interact with the video. I also enjoyed adding special effects such a duplication effects to show how delusional the character were in seeing her lover. I find the duplication effect was the hardest of all effects we’ve done, we had to search and watch tutorial from YouTube in order to apply the effect. Although it was hard and a bit of time wasting but the outcome look great and it suited our narrative. From this programme I learnt how to use shortcut buttons when syncing and rendering footages, in general I believe that my skills increased greatly in editing, synching the visual, adding effects and filters.

PHOTOSHOPPhotoshop was a software that I used to construct my print products. In my AS portfolio I used mainly Photoshop to produce my outcome; therefore I had a great knowledge of the software already. However, in A2 portfolio it allowed me to extend and broaden my skills further on Photoshop in to intermediate level. For my A2 portfolio it allowed me to experiment more technical skills by adding effects and using specific tools in order to make my print products look professional. In addition, Photoshop allowed to me change the brightness and the contrast of the photos as some of the photos was not proficient enough, and allowing me to change the lighting of my photographs made my work look more aesthetically pleasing. I think that Photoshop was a great help in producing my print product and it had definitely expanded my knowledge on Photoshop.

ILLUSTRATORFor illustrator, I mainly used this programme to edit my fonts for the print products, though I find this editing programme is difficult as I am still a beginner at it but I wanted to extend my editing skills further. I managed to find the fonts that was suitable for my prints and in order to do this I had to change the opacity and fill in with colours that would suit the house style of my prints, after I converted the fonts into PNG and transferred onto Photoshop. Overall, I do wish to improve my skills on illustrator as illustrator is a programme that is best for manipulating fonts and this programme would be a great help for me in the future.

EVALUATION TECHNOLOGIES

BLOGGERBlogger is the website that I had to blog and update everything I did in this project, even though I already had experience in using blogger for my AS portfolio I became fully confident with blogging for the A2 portfolio, by blogging every weeks including the research and planning of our ideas, and the development of the production of our products also blogging the different steps that I took which lead up to my final outcome and the evaluation. Blogger also enabled me to embed links from other technologies by copying the embedded code and inserting it on to the ‘HTML’ format. So, when other technologies are displayed on my blog it is easily accessible for the viewers. Blogger have become one of the main sources from getting feedback for my prints products, as blogger is an interactive website which allowed my classmates to comments my products and give me feedback of what I should improve.

 

PREZI Prezi is a technology that I have used throughout the coursework for both individual and group work. I think it is one of the creative technologies that I find comfortable to layout my answer and to organise presentation for my work. Prezi is also easy to access images from Google images, and insert links from YouTube and other several websites. In addition, Prezi helped me to present my ideas orderly yet creatively as it helped me to break down my ideas into different slides and sections, in order for my ideas to be reached out and allow the viewers to understand my intention and ideas; this technology was very useful when presenting our pitch to our classmates.

SLIDESHARESlideshare was a useful website for me, as it allowed me to convert the presentation from PowerPoint onto SlideShare so it connect onto my blog, which would be much accessible for the viewers. This technology also helped me to present my ideas and navigate each slides easily.

WIXWix is technology that I used for the first time in my A2 portfolio. I used this technology for question one because it allows me to create website and illustrate my explanation further and clearer. Although this was a new programme for me to use and in the beginning I did had some difficulties, however, when I was using it I started to enjoy it due to the formation of allowing me to create my own website and present my work in a creative way.