How did you us media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? - Part 3

When shooting the production I was able to develop my skills that I have learnt during the making of my Foundation production where I learnt how to position the camera for a successful camera shot that would draw the audience’s eyes to the right part of the shot, considering the golden mean and the rule of thirds.

Rule of Thirds

Golden Mean

Rule of Third

As well as my shooting skills I have also been able to develop the skills used when editing the video, as the editing this time around had to be to the tempo of the music as well as the shots to be synced to the music when lip-syncing needs to be achieved.

When using the software on the Apple Mac’s such as iMovie and Photoshop I was able to develop skills that were developed by using the software using a trial and error technique to learn the software I was using. Although I never used Photoshop entirely to complete my final versions of the ancillary tasks, the background of the photo of the card used on the Magazine Advert was edited out on Photoshop but finished off in Adobe Fireworks. However I felt that I could achieve the effect I wanted on Picnik that I had previously used and was confident using for the completion of the Digipak.

To edit the pictures for the Digipak the specific effects that I used were “Tint” which is a Colour affect and to make sure I have the right colour of white for the background so all of the Digipak panels had similar shades of white, and once together to make sure all panels fit together despite the slightly different shade of white I inserted a white matte effect to the image.

During the shooting and editing of the music video there were some technical issues that we came across. For example when filming the narrative clips from inside the house, extra lighting was required as the shots were poorly lit with the natural light available. This was easily overcome as we planned for extra lighting to be brought the setting, so this was used when the shot were too low lit. Also whist editing we came across a problem with the sound from the video footage as when we exported the completed video we become aware of some of the clips still having the background sound playing, and when making sure that all of the clips were muted, the sound still played. This has affected some of the performance scenes as the track we played during filming can be heard whist the clip is muted so we are unsure how it can still be heard. This wasn’t the easiest thing to overcome as the reason it was playing wasn’t because it wasn’t muted, as the clips were muted, so all the sound had to be detached from each clip then deleted to make sure none of the sound from the clips is present.

When the completed production is finished exhibiting them on online sites such as YouTube and Facebook is beneficial for receiving feedback from the audience, and as YouTube is widely accessible it is beneficial to get feedback from a large range of people that could be located anywhere in the world. Although Facebook also has similar benefits, unlike YouTube exhibiting it Facebook would only allow people that you are friends with to access the Video and provide feedback so YouTube would be the better place to exhibit the production as a simple link could be shared on the social network site Facebook to direct friends to the Video on YouTube thanks to technology enabling peoples online accounts on sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and Hotmail to be linked.

How did you us media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? - Part 2

The videos that have given some inspiration are:
Kelly Clarkson – Never Again

Pink – Please Don’t Leave Me

Maroon 5 – This Love

As well as viewing professional music videos of a similar genre on YouTube I also came across a version of The Colours “Tonight I Let You Go” that was created by previous Media Studies students from a College I Nottingham. After watching it has enabled me to see how these Media students approached their production and I have been able to criticise their production in order to know what to look out for, making sure that I don’t make the same errors. Without the access of YouTube I wouldn’t have been provided with a previous production of the same song at the same amateur level to critique in order to help my approach to my production, as for example one error I felt would need addressing were the lighting issues there was with the performance shots so when approaching my own production the lighting was considered so we didn’t have the same error occur.

There has been a range of technologies that have been used when creating the production. One technology that has been used throughout the production is a blog on www.blogger.com where we are able to digitally document our findings and progress while constructing the production.

Other technologies that have been used are

Video Cameras: these were used when we were recording the footage for the music video, then this footage was imported straight to the Apple Macs for editing.

Cameras: these were used to take photographs for both ancillary tasks; the Digipak and the Magazine Advert.

Apple Mac + Software: We used an Apple Mac to edit our footage for our promo, with the use of iMovie and Final Cut Express. As well as editing the photo used on the magazine advert on Photoshop Elements.

The Internet: This was widely used to edit the pictures used in the ancillary tasks as well as locating the fonts used in these products too. The main sites used included: www.picnik.com, an online picture editing site where the images used in the Digipak were edited in addition to http://www.dafont.com/, an online collection of fonts where the fonts used in both ancillary task were sourced from. Whist other sites such as http://www.facebook.com/, http://www.youtube.com/ and http://www.tumblr.com/ were also used mainly I the audience feedback stages of the production, and to exhibition the promo we created.

Software: In addition to the software that was used on the Apple Macs I also made use of Adobe Fireworks which I used to add and position the text.

How did you us media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? - Part 1

Throughout the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of the advanced production a range of media technologies were used. So we could overcome copyright issues which stopped us from using music from signed bands the website www.unsigned.com enabled us to search through unsigned bands, listen to their music, read a biography about them and it also provided the contact details of the band.

After searching through the possible song choices, I came across The Colours. With the contact details and band website being provided on their profile on www.unsigned.com it enabled us to research around the band using social network sites that are linked to from there band website and also enable us to contact them for permission to use their song. By using the web presence the band had on various social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter we were able to research and identify who the band were as well as the genre of songs they cover. It was possible to also contact the band via these sites however to ensure that we were coming across as professional as we don’t know the band we felt it would be more beneficial to email them to the email address they provide on their

www.unsigned.com profile.

The Colours web presence has helped us find out information about the band without having to contact the band and ask them about who they are. They have their own website as well as a presence on social networking which makes use of the new media technologies that are available in today’s world. [Make the point that new media allows unsigned bands to gain exposure without having a large budget like a signed band]
We were able to access information about the band via their Band Website, Unsigned, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace

YouTube is another media technology that I have made use of, as it has enabled me to research music videos that have been already created professionally for artist such as Maroon 5, Pink and Kelly Clarkson that cover the same genre as The Colours. By watching these music videos it enabled me to identify the common conventions that are used in videos doe this genre of song which gave me inspiration when producing my own music video which it comes to considering the camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and the representation of the band members and characters that may be in the video.