Q4 How Did you use media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Within the making of this music promo we used websites and social media to find our artist and

compare them to others. For example, The Amazons have their own Facebook page and website

talking about the band, so how they started up and future events they’re lined up for, the access for

the different sources has been useful in the research about the band. Once we found the band we

went through their songs and found ‘Junk Food Forever’ which we knew that we had to choose

because we were thinking of doing something crazy like we did and it paid off. Another website that

we used to help us find bands was unsigned.com which gives us some different possible bands that

we could use to create a music promo for the band.

The equipment used within the process of the creation of the

music video which helped us to create the best quality as possible

because the camera that we used was a high standard camera that

could capture a good image. so the camera we used was a Nikon

DLSR so we knew that the footage that we would get would be a high quality. This helped with the

quality because we could upload the video as a 1080p video. We used the camera to capture

important footage that we used in the editing to create the music video. So we made sure the

lighting in the shot was good before we started recording to make sure the shot wasn’t grainy and it

was good quality footage.

For the editing of the video we used iMovie for the prelim and for the final production we used Final

Cut X so the skills were similar but different with more tools, and editing equipment. So it was a

challenge with the change but we soon pick it up and we found that it was a good programme to use

for this final task since we choose a slower song so we found the editing easier because the lip

syncing was timed to perfection. The device that we edited on was on an Apple MacBook which

contained both editing programmes that we used which was Final Cut X and Photoshop which was

handy because we found using this was easy for the access the work to get more done within an

efficient time.

This screen shot of blogger.com which I have used to publish my work on so an online website to

publish work and keep as a list of what has been done so using this technology has improved my

organisation skills because it displays the work I have completed in a neat format. So for all the

media work that I have complete I have used this programme to display my work because it is good

technology because it is easy to use and it has individual pages for specific bits of work. Another

good thing about this programme is that you can link other items within a post so linking the video

we created into a post for others to see the overall evaluation on the video whilst watching it.

The next screen shot shows the editing programme that we used to help us edit on the final

production compared to last time where we used iMovie we used Final Cut Pro X this year so it was a

change but it worked out ok because we picked a slower song to do. So we had good access to the

programme because a member of the group had it on their Apple MacBook which was good

because they could edit at any time. the software was good because there was lots of tools within

the programme. there was also lots of new technology which helped us with the timing and cutting

to the beat worked really effectively because we could go in deeper for example point of a second

and look at the video. Another reason that we used Final Cut Pro was because it looked more

professional and we were able to do different shots than normal by using Final Cut we were able to

use a panel shot so with two or more shots together which we were unable to do on iMovie.

Putting the video was very important for our team because promoting the video gave us valuable

feedback and information from our audience which could help us find problems with the video. So

from this we would look to make improvements on the video to show the audience we care about

what they think and to just improve the video because as its your video it's hard to criticise. For

example we posted the video onto YouTube when we had finished the reason we did this was

because uploading the video was free, it wouldn't charge our audience to watch it. Also from

YouTube you can share to other social media pages so this was good because we could then share to

either Facebook or Twitter.

Research Tutorial ( Commentary)

Hello and welcome to this tutorial on the research. Where we gather ideas from different music

promos and bands to link to the song we choose which was ‘Junk Food Forever’.

Today I am going to be talking about the research that we did to give our ideas on the final ideas so

we researched lots of different bands on unsigned.com and their styles of music so we learnt from

our prelim not to choose a rap song since we found the editing too hard.

So we researched different indie bands that were available and bands that had good music because

there are bands on unsigned for a reason therefore we needed to make sure that we found a good

song that people would enjoy.

The research that we complete was important because it helped use with ideas because we knew

later in this production we would have ancillaries to complete. So doing research about the digipacks

and posters were important because we learnt about how to make a good piece.

So using all the room on the ancillary with lots of detail with little text to keep it simple. For our

ancillaries we viewed other indie posters and digipacks for inspiration.

Throughout this task we didn’t research on convention that are in most indie rock videos, which we

have learnt because the videos contain main close ups of the instruments the band plays and the

lead singer’s face with the microphone.

Also within a stereotypical indie music video there are random shots of the band members doing

random stuff within the video as a part of an illustrative part for the audiences to split the clip up

with the performance.

We used a Vox Pop to find out information from our audience about the different types of genres

that they liked and what they liked in a music video, this feedback was important because it gave us

a foundation starting point where we expanded on. So from our Vox Pops we found that people

liked the indie genre which was good for our team because we had chosen an indie band. We also

found out from the audience that people liked a mixture of performance and disjuncture so we took

this advice and created a random themed music video with the costumes.

As a group we looked at different websites that we could use for information to link to our music

video and give us information that we might not have used. For example we looked on both the

amazons Facebook and Twitter pages for new video ideas and festival days. We looked on their

official website to see what the band is about.

Final Cut tutorial (Commentary)

This is going to be a quick tutorial on how we edited our music video. Firstly, we are going to

add the music. To do this we need to import the song into the programme, click File –

Import – Media and navigate to your song and select it. Then drag the clip onto the timeline.

Now we are going to do the intro. So to do the intro we need to select our chosen clip and

put it on our timeline. Once we have done that, we then need to crop the clip so that it fits

roughly half the screen, and so that the person is in the centre. Then you use the transition

tool to move it to the left of the screen. We then add our second clip above, on the timeline

and repeat the same thing but put it on the right. We then have to insert this black image

and use the crop and transition tools to make it a small line going down the centre, where

the two clips meet. After this you then trim both clips so that they are the same length.

Then you repeat this method for the two remaining clips. You might have to trim or extend

them more to make sure that it is cutting to the beat. Lastly, we add the text on top. Take

the png image of your text and put it on your timeline above the clips. Use the transition

tool to resize and reposition it.

Next we are going to do the performance part of the video. To do this you add your first clip

to your timeline and trim it to make sure that it is cutting to the beat. You also have to make

sure that the clip is not too quick or too long. Once you do this then you can start adding

more clips in. When you come to the lip syncing, you have to be very careful with your

placement and trimming of the clip. Click this icon to listen to the target clip and use the

audio bar to know when certain words are sung. Then you can adjust them in time with the

song. For the disjuncture scenes, it is the same as performance really. Place the clips where

you want and adjust them to make them in time.

Next, I did the stop motion walking scene. To do this you have to cut the clip in multiple

places. Makes sure that all of the clips are the same length. Once you have all of the clips,

put them in order and it should appear to be a jump cut.

When you have all of our clips in the right places, you might want to improve the colour of

the clips. So you want to open the effects tab and select hue/saturation and vibrancy. Then

go to the inspector panel where you can adjust the video and audio of your clips.

On hue/saturation change the amount to 100 the hue to 355 degrees and leave the rest.

The increase the vibrancy amount to 1.05. If some of your clips are a bit shaky, then click on

stabilisation in inspector and it will make it more stable for you. You can play around with

this to improve the shot.

Another skill that I have improved on is my Photoshop skills, which we used to make our

magazine advert and digipak. Here is a tutorial on how we edited our materials.

Photoshop Tutorial (Commentary)

To make the poster, I made a new document using an A4 page. I then added an orange

background and placed a crumpled paper texture over the top and set it to overlay.

Then I had to cut out the people from their original background. To do this I used the

magnetic and polygonal lasso tool. I cut them out, placed them on the poster and resized

and repositioned them.

To make the text, I used the text tool. I selected this font because it is simple but also it

looks very effective. Then I double clicked the text layer and went to the drop shadow tab.

In this tab I set the blend mode to multiply, I left the opacity at 100% and changed the angle

to 90 degrees. The distance I used was 20 pixels, the spread was 10% and the size was 40

pixels.

I then had to add these logos. To do this I simply inserted them, removed the background

with the magic wand tool and resized and repositioned them.

To make the digipak I found the dimensions online and used them when creating the

document. I then split up the sections with the ruler, so I could use them as guide lines.

To make the background I used the same one from the poster, but I rotated and resized it to

fit the document.

I then added the lyrics by using the text tool and used the drop shadow effect. I set the

blend mode the multiply and the opacity to 22%. I used an angle of 90 degrees, a distance of

13 pixels, a spread of 6% and a size of 29 pixels.

I then copied the titles and actors from the poster and used them on the front cover. To add

the other images of the actors in normal clothes, I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut them

out. I added the band member’s names next to their pictures, using the same drop shadow

effect as the lyrics. To add the signatures, I used a signature maker on the internet and

saved them as a jpeg file. I then inserted this into the digipack.

For the disk holder I used this template found from the internet. I then got an image of a

pizza, put it behind the disk and used the eraser tool to remove the crust outside the lines.

Lastly, I added these simple logos found from the internet.

Planning Tutorial (Commentary)

The very first step of our planning was to get permission for the use of the song we selected. To do

this, we emailed the representatives of The Amazons and they were happy for us to create a promo

for their song, providing we sent them the video before it was listed on YouTube and gave them the

necessary credit in the description. The next step was to assign production roles and create a pre-

production schedule, so each group member knew clearly which tasks they were responsible for. We

then deconstructed the lyrics in order to see what themes were contained within the song, which in

turn enabled us to come up with some initial ideas that were presented to a group of people, who

then gave us feedback. After our idea was settled upon, work on the shot list and storyboard could

begin. We also pitched our idea to gain further feedback, and give us a clearer picture of what we

needed to film. An analysis of the mise-en-scene we wished to include in our promo was also

completed, and along with this so was the location scouting. We then did a risk assessment of these

locations to ensure they were safe to film in. Before we went out to film, a filming schedule was

produced in order to maximise our efficiency and make sure no time was wasted.