Evaluation Question 4

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

and evaluation stage?

Research and Planning• Throughout the research, planning and

construction of our music video we have used various technological devices. One device that played a huge role in the developing of our video is the use of a mobile phone.

• We used the iphone and an android phone to help with the organisation of our music video.

• These helped a lot as we used them for communication between group members helping organise dates and specific times to carry out the filming process.

• Mobile phones also helped to some extent with online research, researching song choices as ideas for our music video. PHOTOS

• They also helped with the finding of research behind the artists, their background and other songs they have recorded.

• Choosing locations was relatively easy with the use of a mobile phone by accessing the internet and going onto Google maps to find locations that would fit in within our music video.

• We also used mobile phones to access Bluetooth to send and receive images that related to our music video, for example the locations, costume, and actors. These were then uploaded onto Blogger from the mobile device.

• In terms of mobiles they were very helpful with the organisation, research and taking screenshots for our music video

• We also used mobile phones to play our song whilst filming in order to follow the lyrics and get the artists to sing the song in sync.

• We also accessed various websites to help with the development of our music video, using websites such as Wordle, Google, Youtube, Blogger and SlideShare.

• Google played a significant role in the research for our music video, with the ability to access various amounts of research that relate to our band. Also the use of Google maps helped a lot with choosing various locations to film for our video and gave us different ideas that from looking at these.

• YouTube played the most important role in the development role in the making of our music video. It allowed us to watch various other music videos gaining ideas from these for our music video and helped to analyse the different conventions that occur in the music videos. From looking at songs by The Black Eyed Peas we found that it is not focused on one specific genre most a number of them, which includes Hip Hop, R&B and Rap. From realising this with the use of YouTube it created a big impact on our music video as to the aspects of who our target audience would be and what conventions we would meet within our video.

• With regards to Blogger, this allowed us to update our work, ideas, locations, script etc onto a online blogging site where we could then write about these and describe the construction, planning and research and evaluation onto a more multimedia based aspect.

• This helped a lot as we were able to keep track of the filming we have done and also the ancillary tasks that were set.

• Blogger was also used to embed videos and pictures from sites such as website to help analyse them easier.

• Microsoft Word and Excel were used on various occasions throughout the planning and research of our music video. We used Microsoft Word to create Target Audience Questionnaires in which we selected participants to answer in order to determine who our target audience would be.

• Microsoft Excel was used to create graphs and pie charts for the analysis of our target audience questionnaire which gave us a detailed analysis of who our target audience would be.

• I have used SlideShare to create slideshows to answer evaluations questions. Using SlideShare gave my Blog more multimedia aspects and gives it a more interesting feel instead of writing up essays to answer these questions.

• We also used a website called DaFont, this gave us access to thousands of different fonts which we could download and experiment with which helped us with the decision of our font for our digipak.

• After searching through this website we found a suitable font that worked well with our images and this font was called Praetorian.

Construction

• During the construction stage of our music video we had access to the MACS.

• On the MACs we were able to use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe After Effects and other software's that created a significantly big impact on the development of our music videos.

Adobe Photoshop

• We used Photoshop to edit images for our digipak and magazine poster. Using Photoshop helped with the development of our digipak with the front cover, inside cover and back cover. We experimented with many different tools within Photoshop and many different images to come up with the final design that would stand out and relate to the music video in terms of the font used and the effects as well. INDUSTRY STANDARD/LOOKS PROFESSIONAL

• Within Photoshop we used many different tools, for example inserting a text and adding a drop shadow to it to make the text stand out more. We increased the brightness and contrast of the image as when we printed it out it was too dark, and increasing these settings made the image clearer and stand out more.

Here this image shows the effects we used for the front cover of our digipak.

DIGIPAK

• For the inside cover we used tools such as the history brush tool, which gave the image colour in specific place where we wanted and the rest leaving it black and white. We used this effect to make the artists stand out more from the location itself and create more importance towards them.

• On the back cover of our digipak we used the clone stamp tool to patch over the time and date that the picture was taken which was imprinted on the image. We thought this would be a problem but after using the clone stamp tool we found it looked exactly the same and didn't not destroy the image in anyway.

The image above is the final image with the clone stamp tool used to remove the time and date that was imprinted on the image.

• We also used Adobe Photoshop to edit and develop our magazine poster, we used many various texts and tools to help with the decision of what would look best, this is the final image.

• We used the history tool to produce a black and white background where the artists are still in colour to promote and give them more power. This process was also repeated for the inside of our album cover.

• We added many different layers which included the record label, iTunes logo, the Black Eyed Peas website, the title and the release date.

• For the process of editing and creating our magazine poster we accessed the layer styles which we then added a drop shadow, gradient overlay and the stroke tool to our text to create the bold and colourful text.

• We also used the brightness/Contrast effect on the image to make the image stand out more and give the locations more detail as we wanted to focus on the location as well as the artists to promote the storyline and the poverty stricken feel.

• Also from the access we had to the MACS we were able to edit our music video on Adobe Premiere Pro, this enabled us to edit the video in much more detail than other programmes such a Movie Maker.

• We have not used many different effects and tools on Adobe Premiere Pro as we wanted the music video to look as simple as possible to promote the artists, lyrics and storyline significantly and therefore creating a more powerful impact. We used basic transitions and speed duration tools to give a smooth effect between each shot and to reduce or increase the speed of various shots to our liking.

• We used the cross dissolve transition at the end of our music to give a clear and steady end to our video and the use of this transition makes the video more effect unlike without the use of the transition, it also makes the video look more professional and look more like a

music video.

The Filming Process

• We used a Panasonic NV-GS500 video camera to carry out the process of filming for our music video. This allowed us to experiment with the different settings and gives the video a more defined effect as the cameras are modern and contain the latest technology.

• Along with this video camera we used a tripod which allowed us to create more steady and still shots allowing us to pan and track without the camera becoming unstable. This created a professional look. Using the tripod made the filming process much easier and gave our shots a better effect. We used the tripod throughout the process of filming although most of our shots were handheld shots without the camera.

• Along with these technological devices we also used a firewire to allow the transfer of footage from the video camera to the MACS which then allowed us to edit these footages.

• We used the Nikon coolpix L23 14 megapixel camera during the reserach and planning stages of our production. Using this allowed us to take pictures of various cast members, locations, and potential ideas for our digipak. We found this technology extremely useful and made the process of editing and producing our music video and digipak much faster and easier.

Evaluation• We used websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Blogger to upload our

music video. This allowed us to obtain feedback from people and tell us what they like and dislike, which makes the evaluation stage of our video easier. It will allow us to write about what we should of made better in the process of making our music video and what we should of included and not included.

• Facebook was used to upload our music video onto the site where friends can then comment on the link and give us positive and negative feedback for the video and we also did this on YouTube.

• We used SlideShare to upload evaluation questions to our Blog to add a more multimedia aspect to it and to make it more interesting. We also used a recording studio to record a audio commentary answering questions for the evaluation stages of our video and the effectiveness of our media products.