Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research
Blogger was the foundation for researching and planning. Blogger allowed me to post ideas, research I've carried out as well as intertextual references. Blogger was a useful way of receiving further feedback from my tutors and colleagues so that I could make further changes and improvements to my posts. As well as others commenting on my posts I was also able to comment on further blogs, giving them recommendations for improvements. Blogger also allowed me to add labels to my posts. Labels categorize post into groups. For example, I have groups of posts under the labels of: research into target audience, research into music videos, research and planning print productions, planning music video, evaluation and completed productions. By grouping all of my posts into different categories this made it easier to find posts and keep them organized. When creating posts, Blogger automatically saves every few seconds. This is highly beneficial as it means there is little chance in losing any of my work, especially if it stored on the internet it is easy to access. Accessing blogger on the internet makes it easy to update anywhere including on my mobile phone. When uploading posts to my blog I was also able to add pictures from my documents to back up my ideas and research. I was also able to add in links from website such as YouTube to embed videos. I would do this by retrieving the embed code from the video on YouTube and copying it. I would then use the HTML button in blogger in which I would paste my embed code. This way the video would appear in the post. By adding regular posts and case studies this helped me get ideas and concepts for planning my productions.
Soundcloud enabled me to find the unsigned band Jungle Doctors. Soundcloud allows people to listen to music wherever and whenever. It allows you to create a playlist in which you can find music and add it into particular playlists. As well as this, you can like music and this gets added onto a list of all of your 'likes'. Soundcloud lets anyone create an account and upload their music. This means that signed and unsigned artists can upload and share their music with everyone. From using Soundcloud, I found our band Jungle Doctors. I done this by searching 'unsigned British band'. I listened to a few of their songs and grew a sudden interest in them. I thought that their music was very fun and uplifting. After discovering the band, I done some further research and grew a particular liking towards them. From finding the Jungle Doctor's page on Soundcloud, it enabled me to access their fans and followers. This meant I could carry out further research to find similar artists and bands that they may be interested in.
Planning
Not only was blogger a useful social media site for the planning of the productions but other social media websites that were useful for planning was Facebook and Twitter. Both of these websites allow me and my other group member to keep in contact with one another to arrange the shooting of the music video. It also enabled us to share ideas and research that we found. Our unsigned band, Jungle Doctors, also have a Facebook page in which they keep fans and followers up to date with their latest tracks and gigs. They also post photos which advertise to their fan base. Another extremely useful social media website I used was YouTube. YouTube enabled me to carry out efficient research as I could get ideas from other music videos of the same genre. This would enable me to widen my knowledge and give me further ideas. When watching videos on YouTube, it comes up with a list of 'suggested for you'. This list provides suggestions of similar videos/music videos to what I have previously watched. When discussing research in which I have carried out (e.g. music videos I have come across) I could use the videos from YouTube as evidence in my blog posts.
Another website which was significantly useful throughout the research of our productions was the Google search engine. Google enabled me to look for any websites that may be convenient to the making of my music video and print productions. Google gave me access to websites after typing in key words. For example, when typing in 'Indie Pop Fashion' this gave me several websites with images and explanations as to what indie pop fashion is. Another aspect of the Google search engine was the Google images tab. This was the same idea, however, instead of suggesting websites in relation to the key words I entered, it gave me images. This was helpful to me as I could create a post on target audience and their style and use images I had found on Google Images to back up my ideas and use as evidence.
Overall, internet access and online social networking sites were extremely efficient as I wouldn't have been able to retrieve as much information for both my research and planing. I was able to access information from all around the world and gain an understanding on the music industry and my specific genre. Using a range of websites has also widened my knowledge on websites and how to use them.
My mobile phone (iPhone 4) was an essential device that I used throughout the research and planning of our production. The mobile phone was essential for keeping in contact with my other group member, Zoe. Like the social networking sites, we were able to message and ring each other to arrange to meet up to shoot the footage. We were also able to discuss and share ideas for our productions together. The iPhones allow you to send pictures and videos to one another. This is what we did also to share ideas and communicate effectively with one another. My mobile phone also allowed me access to my blogger site. This meant that I was able to update any of my posts wherever I went so if I ever had a sudden idea or thought, I was able to share it onto my blog without being on a computer/laptop. The mobile phone also played as a camera. When shooting our footage for the music video, we took still shots on the iPhone as evidence for the footage. Whilst being at our location and shooting for our music video, if we were unsure of any camera angles or shots that may be important for us to use then we could use the mobile phone to search the internet for this. As well as this, me and Zoe also downloaded the song onto our iPhone's so that we could listen to it out loud as we were filming so that we could remind ourselves of the song. Not only would listening to the song remind us of it but it gave us further ideas that might go well with the music.
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| Taken from iPhone |
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| Taken from iPhone |
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| Memory Card |
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| Memory Stick |
Another essential electronic was the memory card and memory stick that I used for storing all of my documents and footage on. The memory card was stored into the camera used to shoot the footage and in the camera used to take the stills. This was important as all of the footage and pictures I captured were stored onto this, allowing me to transfer everything to computer where I could add it to my computer. After adding the footage and pictures to my computer I was then able to put the still onto my blog and write about them and upload the footage onto the editing software for the music video. The memory stick was also vital for storing still image on, both from the internet and from my camera. I used the memory stick almost like a back up of the memory card. This was so that important footage was not misplaced or lost. The memory stick contained all of my work and allows me to plug in an access both at home and at school.
Construction
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| Canon Video Camera |
The video camera played a huge part in the construction of our productions. The video camera that I used was the Canon Legria HF R26 as it was compatible with the school's editing software (Abode Premiere Pro). The video camera allows you to focus in on the aspects of mise-en-scene. This makes a clear visual of the location, especially as a feature of the camera is full HD image. The Canon video camera also has 28x Advanced Zoom. This meant that we were able to capture shots for our music video which my have been further away. As the video camera was portable we were able to take it anywhere, such as the beach.
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| Nikon Digital SLR Camera |
For the still images we used a Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera. This was to capture shots of the location in which we filmed in and for our print productions. This camera was particularly good as, like the video camera, it has a zoom option. This allowed us to capture shots that may have been far away. It was particularly good for capturing shots for our print productions as the camera produced crisp and high quality pictures. This enabled us to have good quality, vivid colored images. The camera also allowed us to chose an effect. This was to make our shots looks more interesting. Some of the filter effects included: warm, cool, vibrant, vivid and more. Each of these made the shots a lot more vibrant and appealing.
The next step after collecting all of our footage was to upload it onto a computer. From here, the footage would then be uploaded onto a software called Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. This was a program which allows you to piece together footage/images to create a film. It was a simple layout meaning it was simple to understand and use. There is a timeline at the bottom in which it allows you to drag and drop footage where you can then shorten it, speed it up or slow it down. Once the footage was on the timeline, I was then able to drag and drop effects onto it. Once the footage was on the timeline, I could piece them together to create our music video. Not only could I add footage to the timeline but I could add audio (in this case, 'Boat Song' by Jungle Doctors). Next to the timeline are a range of tools of transitions. Tools I found myself using regularly was a razor tool. This allowed me to split or delete a small part of a clip. Another tool I used was the slip tool. This changed the timing of a clip without changing the length of the clip. Above the timeline is two screens displayed. The screen to the left shows a preview of the footage before I decide to add it to my timeline. This was good as I could compare and decide on footage which looked best. The screen to the right showed a preview of what I had created on the timeline so far. This was beneficial as I could see what I had created so far. One of the transitions that I used was fade to black. This was a slightly dramatic transition and I used mostly when changing location. Another transition which I used throughout the making of the music video was cross fade. This was so that the shots moved from one to another smoothly. Thirdly, match-on-action was another common transition that we often used. We used this when the shots were cutting from one to another at a fast pace to make it in sync with the music.
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| Adobe Permiere Pro |
For the print productions I used the Nikon camera (DSLR D1300). This was so that I could get high quality photographs. I took the majority of the shots for my print productions at the locations in which I shot the footage for the music video. After taking these shots, I then added them to Adobe Photoshop CS4 where I could adjust and edit them to make them into print productions. The Nikon DSLR D1300 allowed me to take high quality, crisp photographs. This was beneficial for me as my photographs could look professional and be at a good quality. Like the Adobe Premiere Pro, it was very simple to use. However, I had to learn new skills and techniques to work with some of the particular editing tools. Firstly, I had to get to grips on how to resize my images to the correct size. This was done by copying the photograph I wanted to use onto a template which our teacher had provided for us. One tool I frequently used was the RGB curve tool to adjust the contrasts and brightness of the photographs. I done this for all of my print productions (digipak and magazine advert) as it made them appear a lot more bolder and appealing to the eye. For my digipak I wanted the photographs to appear as circles. To do this I used the selection tool but changed it from the shape of a square to a circle. This allowed me to then select the image I wanted in a circle form. From this I could copy and paste this circled image onto my blank template.
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| Panel 3 |
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| Adobe Photoshop |
To conclude, technologies have a played a major part in the research, planning and construction of both our music video and print productions. Not only have social networking sites such as Blogger allowed me upload photos, videos and posts so that I can gain feedback but without software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Abode Photoshop, I wouldn't have been able to have created my final production. Some of the technologies I used I was not completely familiar with to start with. However, after using them for a while I got to learn the skills and methods.
