Evaluation Question 4

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

Within this response I will be discussing all of the media technologies I have used through my A2 music video coursework, in terms of creating a strong analysis of research and planning.  The most commonly used piece of technology I used was the Apple Mac; this was to cover aspects of research, planning and production. On the apple mac I was able to access the software blogger where I found it remotely easy to use the applications and overall work my way around the programme. To display my work in a portfolio format I used blogger to record all of the work I did to support and explain my findings to support my final music video. To gather together all my research I use online websites such as Google, Wikipedia, artist’s websites and biography pages. To then present my work I was able to upload images onto the page to support my work and show my findings, to further the way I displayed my work I used different sites such as Prezi, Slide share and PowerPoint. The positive thing about using blogger to display my work was that it was all electronically saved somewhere; this meant that if something did happen to my work it could be easily view online. Another advantage of it being accessible online meant that I didn’t need to download a programme to access it from outside of the school environment. Using any device which has internet access meant I was able to work on my blog, this mean my phone, tablet and laptop all gave me to possibility to upload information and update research. Due to the Macs being a preferable newer upgrade and software compared to other PC’s available it meant that the programs didn’t crash and they didn’t lag as much as some Microsoft programs I had used alongside to jot down research. To also record information I uploaded scanned in versions of research I had produced on paper, this was things such as the story board and magazine sketches, the scanned piece when straight to the Mac and then I was able to upload and access the picture file through the Mac software. The negative thing about using the Mac for our coursework purposes meant that we wasn’t given individual log in details, instead it was one log in that the entire school used. This therefore meant that if you moved computers your work wouldn’t be saved on that in particular device, which caused problems when it came to editing on a pc because the same computer needed to be free and accessible to continue editing the video. To edit the music video we used software which was downloaded onto the Mac’s called IMovie, this software was only accessible on the Mac’s which is reasoning for using the Mac computers. Because the software is only available on Mac software it meant we had a disadvantage when it came to working on the editing side of our video outside of school , due to all of us having a Microsoft computer it meant we couldn’t access the video to apply edits and effects.  Due to the Mac software being a recent update with newer features it provided our work with a more professional appearance and also gave us the capability to use different programs to upload our evaluation questions and blog posts. 

 

 

 

The IMovie software is what we used to create our music videos; we used different techniques and effects to produce an interesting and well-structured music video.  In terms of production IMovie was the only software we used to produce the editing side of the music video creation. However during the earlier staged of our research we created a small lip sync practise video, for this we also used IMovie to combine the music and filming clips together and match them up so the final practise looked as professional and realistic as possible. Although within our previous AS media coursework we used IMovie, this year we were using the programme for a different reason and had to make sure the music linked up to the recording clips added. We knew our way around the programme but hadn’t used different features to edit the video before. Due to the software being quite updated we felt we was at a good advantage and used the new features to incorporate into our project, the use of levelling out the unsteady filming and cropping the framing of the image were the two most used editing techniques we used. As it is a more advance software we felt our work would therefore reflect more of a professional look. We also experimented with slowing and quickening the video clips to add more of an interesting effect to what was taking place on the screen. IMovie is good when it comes to sharing your clip to social media, you’re given a lot of different exporting options, and the common ones we used was exporting as a file and uploading the video onto YouTube. By placing it onto YouTube the clip was much easier to them upload onto the blogger site. Overall we used and experimented with a lot more of the techniques and effects available on the IMovie software , although we found that the more advanced edits we did to the clip the bigger the file became, this therefore caused a time consuming when it came to exporting the clip. We found that the only negative thing was that it took a while for the video to export and also sometimes we experienced the programme crashing and then it had to be re-opened; therefore a backup always had to be made. The IMovie software is the only available editing software we had access to, although we did face some problems this was something we just had to work around, and I feel overall our end piece looked interesting and matched our ideas.

 

YouTube is another media technology which we used to our advantage; to produce more advanced types of research and planning we used YouTube to upload our lip sync video, this gained us audiences feedback and the general public could access our music video practise, but also our final pop music video which was uploaded towards the end of the coursework.

We also use YouTube within our research stages, as one of our tasks we had to analysis previous students work ,to do this we used YouTube to search for people work and then watch there music videos to precisely critic and analyse. This came under more of the research aspect because we was able to gain ideas and see what worked and what didn't when it came to previous students work and how they were successful in appealing to the audience and their target market. Looking into stereotypes as well, noticing If they stuck to them or subverted there chosen gender within the video.

To upload the lip sync practise onto YouTube it gave us the ability to them apply the video to a blog post and analysis what worked and what editing skills or ideas we needed to work on. Due to YouTube being a world wide site were people are always uploading new music and video it  meant that this was a good platform to promote the music video and gain feedback onto what people liked within the video. YouTube also gives someone the possibility to then share that video on any type of social media site. When looking into our target research and what they enjoyed doing, a lot of people said that they watched YouTube and work perhaps watch more of YouTube then TV programmes. Another positive about using YouTube is that people are able to give there feedback, however this could come under a negative as well because we obviously didn't want to receive any horrible comments, but perhaps this could help us within the future, if we was to create more music videos; we'd be able to apply them comments to improve our filming skills and have a more positive outlook on producing a music video.

Using a camera within the coursework was another key media technology which we used. It was used for things such as filming, taking photographs of work and then producing photography shoots of the band for our dig packs and magazine advertisement. When using the camera we experimented with different types of camera settings to try and get the right type of effect when it came to using the camera to record. Because everyone within our group knew how to work the camera it meant that when it came to recording sections we all knew how to use and work the functions within the camera, meaning that we wasn't time wasting when it came to using the camera and recoding individual sections so that we all had chance to use the camera. The sections where I used the camera to record was the studio sections, although at times the tripod was set up we did still need to angle and position the camera so that the framing was goof and looked professional. The only negative side of constantly using the camera throughout our work was the fact the majority of the time we were carry the camera around to the location we was heading for. Also the quality on the camera regarding pixels and colour resolution was the best we could achieve, due to the camera being the schools equipment we was restricted to the facilities and predicts they had provided for us. However the camera we was using was a Nikon and we were able to quickly upload the recording onto the mac computer by just placing the SD card into the portable slot, the camera has a good storage capacity which meant we never had to delete files. This allowed us to have a lot of room for re- filming and in away we overfilled just to make sure we had enough clips and angles to fill a 3 minute music video. However we didn't just use the camera for filming, the Nikon was also useful in taking photograph for our magazine advert and dig packs, we took a variety of different close ups and camera angles which came out with a good quality image. By using the camera it could then be easily placed onto the Mac and then uploaded onto the blog software, also because the pictures were a JPEG which meant that they could be edited within Photoshop ,and adjusted in that formation to be airbrushed and placed onto a digi pack layout.

We didn't make any vide recordings for the evaluation questions, because we used a lot of digital media to present our work.