Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The use of media technologies was prominent throughout all of the stages of creating my three media products (Music video, Website and Digipak) as it was important that I was able to learn and develop my knowledge and understanding of the different media technologies as well as being able to showcase my knowledge by using these media technologies is the best way I possibly could. These different media technologies enabled me to create and present professional stages and products throughout my A2 year.

 

The research stages were the first stages of the process as I needed to gain knowledge and a deeper understanding of what I was about to undertake, what I wanted to produce by the end of the year and what would enable my product to be as successful as possible. When doing my research I was firstly looking at the music videos I had liked and analysed why I had liked them. During this stage YouTube was the best media technology that I could of use as there is such a vast range of music videos on the site which not only allowed me to view the music videos I wished but it also allowed me to compare and take note of what other peoples opinion of the video was and why that was there opinion in the comments underneath the video. Due to the fact that I was able to watch this video on the internet meant that I was able to rewind and re-watch the video as many times as I had wished in order for me to thoroughly see the video this feature also allowed me to notice aspects of the video which I would not of previously noticed if I had watched the video on another media format such as the television. During the research stages I also had to look at the different genres in music video and the conventions they feature, I also use YouTube for this for the same reasons as my research for my favourite music videos. The fact that I was able to analyse these videos in such detail meant that I was really able to utilise the functions of the YouTube site in order for me to identify what I would and would not like to feature in my potential music video and what aspects create an excellent professional looking music video. As part of my research it was also important that I had research into different theories and theorist. The internet is so broad that that it was very easy for me to access the relevant knowledge related to the theorist and the theory. Even though the internet is the best media technology I could have used for research of this kind it also contains a lot of unreliable sources such as websites like Wikipedia therefore it was important but also heard for me to find a reliable source for me to base my knowledge and understanding of these theories on. YouTube was also very good as it contains such a variety of videos; I was able to watch people’s tutorials and explanations of how the theory relates to the artist of the music video. I personally think this is an excellent access to information as I can apply the basic knowledge I have learnt to something visual which help me to better my understanding and help me to consider how I wish or should use this theory within my music video. Included into my research was looking at the products that already exist that my group and I intend on producing by the end of the year. Through the help of Google images I was able to see a range of clear example of products that were existing already and I could Identify how popular they were and why they were popular I was able to do this as many of the images that I was looking at were linked to blog sites were by people were able to post their opinions and display similar research as what I was doing. This was excellent for me as I was able to get primary knowledge and opinions which would help me with designs for the ancillary products (Website and Digipak). I personally think that research is one of the most important stages in the process of my group and I creating our products as we are creating for a target audience and it is very important that we have the understanding of what the audience want, what appeals, what is popular and also identifying what is unpopular so we also know what not to include.  Through use of the internet sites I was able to use media technologies in order to develop and gain an understanding on the products I intend on creating.

 

 

 

 

 

During the planning of my products the use of media technologies that I was using was expanding as all of the processes where becoming specific to the products and there were certain media technologies I needed to use in order to display the choices and decisions we were undertaking as a group. The first stage in the planning was the basic ideas; for this is I had used a media technology called ‘bubbl.us’ which would enable me to display all of my potential ideas into a brainstorm format. This was very good for what I was trying to show as the site would give me a basic brain storm which I was able to expand on in whichever way I had chosen to. On this site I had the ability to separate my ideas into sections and then split these into smaller sections if I had wished to. I personally think that this media format way very helpful for me to use as I was able to display my ideas in a much more creative and interactive way. For many of the planning stages such as colour scheme ideas and design sketches I used another programme that was very similar to ‘bubbl.us’ called ‘Prezi’ this programme had a variety of templates I could use in order to display any information I wished to post onto my blog. On this site I was able to upload videos and pictures as well as text and for my planning stages this was perfected as it allowed me to display potential ideas in an attractive way whilst also being able to link other products such as images and pictures which I am unable to do on ‘bubbl.us’. The display of this programme allowed me to change the style and background of my presentation as well as editing the format and the order in which I was able to display my information which gave me freedom which a lot of other sites such as ‘bubbl.us’ do not do as they are much more restricting. There were also other important stages in the planning such as fonts and a site called ‘Da font’ provided a large variety of fonts split into different styles for example when designing the Digipak my group and I either wanted to use a cartoon or graffiti style font on this website I was able to click these sub-links which would lead me to a series of other specific styles. This site gave my group and I a large choice which meant that we were able to visualise and analyse the best option for use before choosing and option that was the most suitable for us. One of the stages of planning the music video product was my taking a genre specific music video and analysing the features that make it Hip Hop (our chosen genre) and the aspects and techniques we wished to adopt and include within our music video. We did this by watching the video repeatedly on YouTube and making the analysis, we then had to perform this analysis in front of a green screen whereby we filmed our analysis and then edited it using the programme final cut express. These media technologies allowed me to edit the shots by placing them into an order that worked best with the song, I then had to remove the green screen background and then place the video behind us in the scenes. This meant that we were discussing the music video whilst it was playing behind us, this form media technology allowed me to cut out the shots that I did not wish to include using the cut tool, I was able to remove the green screen in the background using the Chroma keyer where by it was take remove everything in the scene that was green and then our bodies would remain in the shot. From there I had to place the video behind us by adding it as an extra layer underneath the video. This media technology allowed me to use my basic knowledge of the programme from my AS year as well as develop the new skill of Chroma keyer which would benefit me in the development of the music video. I also used this programme for the lip syncing tests which was also included in the planning stages however it was simpler to do as all I had to do was cut the shots that were unable to be used and then ordering the scenes in the same order as the song. I then had to place the song underneath as a sound layer and then cut and move the scenes slightly so that they are in sync with the song. When choosing the song we had to make sure that it was not copyrighted so that we could have full access to the song, for this I had used a site that contained only non-copyrighted music. This website was very useful as it contained a large variety of genres from drum and bass, to pop and Hip Hop, this meant that we weren’t restricted in our choice. This media technology was not only very good for what we were creating but it was also could to have knowledge of as a media student alone as it provides such access to a wide range of different music which could potentially be used as non-diegetic sound in other products such as a short film clip.     

During the construction of our media products the media technologies were much more specific as they were used for making the specific products (Music video, Website and Digipak). For the construction of the music video we firstly had to film the product, the media technology used for this was a professional HD camera and tripod, this meant that when we was filming we could get a clear and accurate image and we could also get a variety of shots, in a simple manner without any disruption of a shaking hand. The use of the HD camera was very easy as the cassette the video was being filmed on to needed no setting up therefore when we wanted to film all we had to do was to press record. When we wanted to look back at what we had previously filmed we had to stop recording and then click the play button and rewind all the way the beginning of the scene to check that we had filmed the correct shot and everything was just how we wanted it to be. Whenever we wanted to record again and keep the footage we had previously recorded we had to fast forward to the end of the footage otherwise we would record over the previous recording and loose our work, even though this was fairly time consuming it was important as it wanted to make sure we had filmed all of the correct scenes and shot types but it was also important that we didn’t lose any work. Once all of the footage had been filmed for the music video the program final cut express pro was used in order to construct the music video into something professional. The first stage was to cut the footage that needed to be discarded as it could not be used, this was very simple as all I had to do was playback the foot on the program and then cut where it was most appropriate. I then had to insert our chosen song as a sound layer and then order the footage so the rapping was in sync with the song and the shots were placed in a way that the video would not become boring and each shot was different, just as it would be in a real music video. After the scenes were in sync and in order with the song I then had to edit the scene according to how we had planned to do so on our storyboard and as group. On some of the scenes I had put a black and white filter and then increased the speed to unrealistically fast as this shot had featured our artist moving extremely slow. This meant that our artist would stand out and still appear to be alone and moving very slowly against everyone else in the scene who were moving extremely fast. After this edit was complete I then had to slow to down a scene to extremely slow, this was a simple process as all I had to was decrease the speed of the shot. After this all that was remaining to edit was the blue screen scenes, with these scenes I used the Chroma keyer to identify and then remove all of the blue in the scenes with was simply the background. I then attempted to so feather the edges so that there wouldn’t be a clear distinction between the where the background use to be wasn’t so evident, once I felt that it was of t6he best quality it could be I then went on to add a background to these scenes. Throughout our other products there was a common theme of a smoky background therefore I felt as though it was appropriate to add a smoky background to the video in order to create a link and flow between the website, the music video and the Digipak. I did this by selecting a smoky background from YouTube that I thought would look the best, I downloaded this video and then added it in as a layer underneath the main music video in order for it show in the background rather than on top of the original scenes. I then had to export the video using QuickTime conversion as this would allow the video to be viewed like a regular video and be in the correct format whereby it is able to be uploaded to YouTube and my blog. During the making of the music video final cut express was the prominent media technology used as it had all of the features to create a professional looking music video which I was able to do. I was responsible for constructing the music video using the final cut express program even though this was a lot of responsibility I was able to use previous basic knowledge, which meant that I was the person most able in the group to construct the video whilst the other members in the group were responsible for the website and Digipak whereby they had more experience, skill and knowledge using those programs and creating/developing those products. For the construction of the Digipak once again the Photoshop program was the main media technology used in its creation as it had contained many features and gave a lot of freedom whereby the template was made and all there was left to do was to design and add images and texts to the actual template. This was fairly simple as that had to be done was the import of the images and texts however this program allowed the additions to be edited in a variety of ways, for example blurring out the background involved the background being drawn around and selected whilst the artist remained in the original state, then the highlighted background was blurred simply by clicking the blur button. This appears to be very easy however the selection of the background required accuracy therefore it became time consuming as the original state of the artist was manually drawn around on the computer in order to differentiate between the artist and the background. The creation of the Digipak process was done by a member of my group called Georgina who was able to gain basic knowledge and develop skills of the program which enabled her to create a genre specific and professional looking Digipak. The construction for the website was carried out by the other member in the group called Gianni and the process was very similar to the construction of the Digipak however the program called Wix was used instead of Photoshop. The Wix website gave a series of templates which one was selected as it gave a basic structure of what the website will be like then everything was able to be developed around the basic template, for example a background could be inserted, images and videos could be posted, text could be added and other links/tabs could be added to the page in order for our website to be specific to what we wish to create.

 

During the construction of the evaluation it was very important to make sure that all of the information was there and it had to be presented well. Therefore the main media technology used for this was Microsoft word as this allowed be to write all of the information that I wished to be presented in my evaluation. For each of the questions I would use a different format to present the evaluation which meant that a new media technology would be used. For the evaluation question one I used the media technology of Prezi in order to present my answer. This is because I was able to showcase a large amount of writing, which could potentially look of putting to read, in a much more attractive and interactive format. This was very important as the evaluation is very intense and contains so much writing that the only way to project the information yet make it interesting to read is through the presentation of the answer. I also used a program called Glogster for question two which once again allowed me to showcase a large amount of information and images in a more attractive and enticing way. The most interesting way I was able to construct and answer the evaluation questions was for question three whereby  I created a news report to translate my answer to the question. The first construction process of this answer was finding out and gathering the audience feedback. The media technology I used for this was survey monkey; this allowed me to create an online survey regarding what people thought about the 3 products my group and I had produced. The audience would answer the survey anonymously which meant that as a group we was able to get honest feedback. We also created a shot video whereby we asked people on camera what they thought about our products, we did this so not only were we able to see a response to our products but so we were able to interact with our target audience and find out their opinions/feedback. After the feedback had been gathered we then had to relate this into an answer to the question, we did this by creating a news report where we were able to respond to the question and then showcase how we came to those conclusions through our video and background image of the example survey. This was done through using the green screen to record the clip of my actual response to the video, and then all of the videos were gathered and placed in the appropriate places on final cut express. this was very simple as the footage didn’t needed to be edited much apart from the green screen scenes where by I used the Chroma keyer once again in order to remove the background, I then placed a news format background behind me in the correct position so it appeared that I was in the news room, then the answer was able to be presented as though it was being presented on the news. This question had involved the most media technologies (survey monkey, HD camera, final cut express) as it had contained much more of a process for the presentation to be as interesting as possible.

 

Overall I can conclude that the use of media technologies throughout the research, planning, construction and evaluation was were different as some were simpler to use than others however because there was such a large variety of media technologies used throughout all of these stages I was able to use existing knowledge, develop and expand on previous skills as well as be introduced and learn how to use media technologies that will be used in the professional business. I have been able to gain an understanding into the large amount of media technologies that go into the research, planning and construction of the media products which is valuable for me as this is some knowledge on what I will be using in university and later on in a career.