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

evaluation stages?

Evaluation: Part Four

Research

When doing the research for my music video and ancillary tasks, I relied majority on the use of the internet. Using search engines like Google to help me expand my knowledge of my genre - future garage - and help me become aware of the typical genre conventions of the genre. Once I understood the genre in more depth, I went onto YouTube to show me examples of music videos within the genre, with this I was able to jot down quick notes on my phone in order to see a pattern / notice key iconography.

For research for the audience side of my media project, I of course had to come into contact with my targeted audience first hand. I took to social media such as Twitter and Facebook to post a questionnaire that I made using GoogleForms, this application enables people with the link to select questions and then automatically collate it into a spreadsheet for me. This helped majorly with my research as all I had to do was examine the spreadsheet.

Planning

Firstly, we started to plan the construction of our media product using just a pen and paper. Jotting down ideas that sprung into mind when we thought of our genre, locations to film and ideas we’d like to capture. Once we done this, we took to a computer to research things such as locations and how to get there using Google and Google Maps. As well as keeping a blog using Blogger, I was able to keep a log of ideas we thought of together for future reference. Blogger was a great help with the entire planning of the media products as it was a place to express our ideas and put it into words.

Google Calendar application was great in the planning stage of our media product. Just like how we used logger, we was able to events to each date so we know where we are going, what time we are going and what we will be doing.

Evaluation

With the evaluation stage, blogger was the best way to document us evaluating our work since this was the place where we’ve documented all our ideas and work. Using different modes of putting my words across - I used an application called Prezi to offer a unique and fun way of evaluating my work. Secondly, using a powerpoint as it enables me to use separate slides to focus on specific topics. Finally, soundcloud to upload a voice note of me evaluating.

Construction - Canon DSLR

I used a Canon DSLR with all of my media products as I had to take photos for my digipak and poster, as well as film the actual music video. Using a DSLR camera rather than your standard digital camera enables me to get the best quality photos and footage due to its good specifications. It was very simple to use since I got experience from using one in my first year of my qualification. With the camera’s unique settings of allowing us to edit the ISO (lighting) and brightness of the camera, we could easily capture dark / light scenes more easily.

With using a DSLR camera the tripod and SD card usage - these two technologies helped with making our camera shots less shaky and far more steady and professional. The SD card helped us to save footage and transfer it to the iMac to begin editing.

Construction - VHS Camcorder

We wanted to use an old VHS camcorder we found in our media’s department to capture that typical VHS feel. Once we put in the cassette and charged the camera, and test shot, we discovered that the camera’s filming format was going unrecognised by the iMacs. Therefore we was unable to use this camera for shooting.

Construction - iPhoneWe used my iPhone 6 to film some parts of the music video as it allowed us to get point of view and handheld shots. Since the camera on the iPhone is as good as a DSLR we was able to use this without making each shot look different.

Since it’s a smartphone, we was able to download a VHS camera application on my phone. As a compromise from the failing to use an actual VHS camera.This made recording look like a vintage VHS camcorder, which was an effect we wanted to go for.

Editing - Photoshop

Since photoshop is for images, I used this application for my digipak needs. Photoshop is a powerful tool which enables you to manipulate and edit photos in a fun and innovative way. Although I wouldn’t call myself a photoshop expert, I wouldn’t say I was limited at all in the process of creating my digipak and poster. From previous experiences, I was aware of tools such as the wind and noise effect, uses of colourisation and how it manipulates the colour of the photo as well as using fonts that I downloaded from Dafont.

In the future, I would like to expand my skills of photoshop in order to make my work extra complex and unique. For this I could use YouTube to watch tutorials etc.

Editing - Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is also powerful software that helped us in post-production. Luckily the application has made its usage as simple as possible - putting things like transitions and filters under named tabs. This helped us in the process of editing our footage. We didn’t really struggle with using Final Cut Pro as we have previous experience using this application, we are aware of certain tools like speeding up, cutting, adjusting the colourisation of the footage etc.

However, when we wanted to put .gifs onto the music video we wasn’t too sure of how to do so. Therefore we used YouTube to show us how to do so.