Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research
Throughout the research stages, I have used a variety of different technologies to expand my knowledge and increase the depth at which I have researched to aid me in looking at music videos, the structure, storyline and how this represents many different groups. The first piece of technology that was essential to my research, was my mac and the iMac’s that were in the classroom. Without these I would not be able to access simple programs such as word, powerpoint or even the internet to help me with my research. Something as simple as my phone was useful in the fact I had access to internet with good signal but also there was the app Blogger which you could download. This meant that I was able to blog from somewhere such as my sofa, quick and easy without the fuss of having to carry around a laptop to discuss the research I had carried out. Blogger, became an essential part of the researching stage of this project as it meant that I could put all of my findings in each place. I could also incorporate other technologies such as Prezi and youtube videos to make my blog much more fun and aesthetically pleasing to look at. Google was an important technology that I used as it helped me explore the History of Music videos and analyse which were considered controversial at the time. Youtube was one of the most significant websites that I used within my research, with an hour of footage being uploaded every second it gave me an extensive library of footage to analyse. All music videos by every available artist is uploaded onto this website which meant I had no trouble finding the most controversial, popular and newest videos to take inspiration from when creating my music video. Survey Monkey, a survey creating website allowed me to expand my knowledge of what my target audience would like to find within a music video. I got detailed responses from over 60 people which gave me a good overview of what to do and what not to do within my music video to make it a success. Social media was an important aspect of my research as it enabled me to release my ideas out into the open and gain audience feedback for it. Twitter and Facebook were useful when I posted my survey onto them to gain knowledge of my audience as it gave me a broad range of people I could contact. Finally, Prezi was an interesting piece of software which I used to put all of my final 3 ideas for my music video into, it works similar to a slideshow but is far more whizzy and you can even go on ‘journeys’ within your presentation.
Planning
Youtube again here was used for initial research to look into various different shots to incorporate into my music video, I wanted to experiment with quirky different shots to make my music video stand out from the rest. Due to our storyline featuring two girls, it made sense to us to use a cover of the original song to make it fit. I found a cover that I liked so decided to use it, when I went to download it off of youtube however it was nowhere to be found. The artist who had posted the cover of the song had decided to take the file down off the internet. This meant that I had to contact her agent, through email who happily obliged to send the mp3 version of the file to use in our coursework. Word was used for the initial shot list and brief planning of what was going to happen throughout the song, we used different colours for the lyrics to distinguish what sections of our music video we planned to put into black and white or colour. Also it gave a brief overview of how much footage and shots we would need to get to fulfill each of the lyric lines as some of them were longer than others and parts of the song was just the piano playing and no lyrics at all. I used google when planning out filming to search for ideal locations but also the weather to make sure that we weren’t going to film on a day when it was raining. I also used pages to create a storyboard for my music video, using photos rather than drawings as my drawing is not really of good quality. I then screenshot this to put on the blog as it wouldn’t read the PDF version of the file.
Construction
During the construction of my music video I used various different technologies to make the most of what was available to me. Filming wise, I didn’t go with the camera’s available to me via the school I went with my home video camera the Panasonic HDC-SD90 which I was already familiar to which meant that I wasn’t going to be wasting time learning how to use to camera and I already knew the best recording settings etc. I used an ordinary tripod that I had from home with extendable legs which enables me to get a variety of shots whilst also having a steady base. Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 was my choice of editing, it definitely was a step up from iMovie, with an increased database full of editing effects and a much larger colour palette this made editing untroublesome. Stitching shots such as the split screen together was made simplistic and effective with this software. There are also extension packs of effects that you can purchase for a small cost. When creating my auxillary tasks, I decided to create a website and a poster. For my poster I used Adobe Photoshop CS4 which was a clever piece of technology with useful software such as layering to make each piece of information individual from the background so you could edit it with real precision. I had to use tools such as the lasso to get the font from my website into my poster to create synergy. This is one of the problems with Photoshop as it doesn’t have every font, however it does have a large amount of them. Wix was the website I used to create my website, it had simplistic templates which could be manipulated to make the website unique to your profession or project. It was simple with the drag and drop options when inputting photos and adding pages to the website. There are all sorts of nifty features such as photo galleries to help make your website look as professional as possible. I also used photoshop to create a logo for my artist, this features throughout the website also.
Evaluation
For the first question of my evaluation I decided to present it in a slideshow, and then post it on slideshare. Slideshows give you the opportunity to put large amounts of information on one page but then also split it up into different pages for different points. You can also incorporate photos to back up your points and there are a large variety of templates you can use to make it aesthetically pleasing. There are also options to make certain bits of texts and photos fly about the place if you really want to. My second question is in a prezi, I like prezis as they are simple to create but also look very professional. I feel that it was a good piece of technology to use when splitting the question into two parts, my poster and my website. There are a variety of fonts to use but also there are an extensive amount of templates you can use to make it very specific to the topic you are talking about. Question 3 is presented in a New Hive, this was a piece of technology that I had never come across. It essentially an interactive board, similar to that of a pinboard that you stick text and photos to, it was very manageable to use and I picked up how to use it very quickly. Its a simple piece of technology that makes something look professional but different. It is also good in the sense you can put alot of information, spread out to make it much easier to read. And finally, this question. Due to the extensive amount of information I decided to put this question into a Podcast. It makes it quicker for me to relay the information to you but also with images to let you know what I’m waffling on about. I’m using iMovie to create this as it does not need to be as complex as my music video was. I’m using my laptop to record this audio, via my webcam and then I’m separating the audio from the video and then just removing the video and inputting photos instead. This makes it simple to record as I do not have to set up a camera, tripod and sit somewhere to film. Instead I’m just chilling in my bed ‘Hi’. So that concludes my evaluation for now, toodle pip!
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