Evaluation Question 4

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

When researching the genre for my music video I used YouTube to look at clips of other folk music videos. YouTube allowed me to access many videos so that I could analyse them in full detail. It helped me gain inspiration and gather ideas from other video, so that I could use aspects in my own video. YouTube helped me observe clips and then embed them on my blog if I believed they were inspiring, helpful, and perfect for my genre of music video. Once embedded onto my blog I could analyse them thoroughly and then apply knowledge of the genre when making my bands products. The ease and time efficiency of this search engine was very reassuring as I knew I could rely on finding examples of real media products on this. As well as this I could get inspiration and ideas off other media students, who did the same project as me, and uploaded some of their own products and final pieces.

                                                    

As you can see above it is simple to embed a video from YouTube and onto my blog. This is a video I took a lot of inspiration from in my final product, as it is a folk video and it is evident in this that it has the same representations I have in my video, this being nature and youth.

                                                

                                                                            

When conducting further research I also tended to use Microsoft PowerPoint a lot to show what I have achieved by researching a certain thing. It is very informative software and is simple to use. It allowed me to present my work successfully with ease, whilst looking professional, and better than just embedding it onto my blog. However, I realised my blog became too informative and formal, and there was not enough interactivity, and so I used the sites pontoon and prize. They are both very similar to PowerPoint, but prezi uses much better looking designs and transitions, and powtoon is very exciting with the use of gifs, music and transitions, Also to make my blog more interactive I did voice over’s in my research pieces by using the microphone app on my iPhone 6. The voice over also give my blog viewers a better insight into what I am like, and how I can successfully express myself in different ways.

                                                            

                                                       

My iPhone 6 became a very handy tool throughout my media coursework. For my research I used it for voice recording, pictures, videos and emails, and it was the perfect aid in doing work whilst out and about. I recorded my lip sync on my phone as well as my summer project and both were successful. My iPhone 6 was quick and easy to use, and it was great for when I wanted to capture something visually that was linked to my course and could fit in with my folk products. For example, when I was on holiday in Mexico and Wales I took images of the nature, as well as time lapses, which would then go on to be used in my products. I used my iPhone experimentally and practice my camera skills. The images I took could be easily and transferred to a computer or laptop whereby I could quickly review, analyse and edit my photos and my idea, experimenting with composition, camera angles and location.

Here is a time lapse video and some pictures taken from my iPhone 6:

When filming the music video I used a Sony Xperia and GoPro camera. The quality of the Sony camera was superior to any other smart phone, and offers different focus techniques. Most of the shots were clear and true to the real life image as this was needed to represent our video as showing the beauty of nature like other folk music videos do. I also attached the phone to a selfie stick for high shots, crane shots and wide shots. It is a very effective tool when wanting to do various shots. The GoPro was successful in shots that moved quickly, as it is still clear, and gives the audience a feeling that they are part of the video. Whilst filming fellow group member Boj used a penny board, I came up with the idea that this penny board could be used for another productive purpose. When needing to do smooth tracking shots I used the penny board. With help from others one of us would stand on the board holding the cameras and someone else would gently move the board in the direction intended to go, performing a perfect and successful tracking shot. We did this as a group, and also with the help of group A member, who made o an easy process for us.

All the editing for my media products was done on the school apple Mac computers, mainly because it included more software that I had at home on my laptop. I came across many problems in completing my work, the main one being the storage space. Many of the computers did not have enough storage and so certain software’s ran slowly or crashed excessively, causing time difficulties. A major problem was on Sony Vegas video editing software) whereby it kept on crashing or would not render videos. Only one computer had a large amount of storage and power and so I had to complete the whole music video on this. I had to use my time very efficiently as the other members of my class were also editing theory video. However, with these problems I still managed to complete my music video successfully.

Sony Vegas became exceedingly important software when doing editing for my music video. It allowed me to upload my videos and edit them, which the use of transitions, cuts, colours etc. It also allowed me to add the song into the video so it could combine with the videos and images I had taken.

As well as using Sony Vegas, I used Adobe in Design to create the bands CD Packaging. This was software very new to me and so it took me a while to get used to it. Once I got the grip of the process of the software, I designed our packaging product successfully making it look extremely professional. This software was important for my precision. The measurements for the packaging had to be perfect, because if they were off then the packaging would not fold properly when printed out, and so this software allowed me to work out and put in the perfect measurements for my packaging.

Finally, Adobe Photoshop was the software used to make the tour poster. This was software that I predominately used at AS Level, when making a magazine cover. It is perfect for editing and creating images and so doing a poster on this software was successful. On this software I could change the size of images, edit the colour, the backgrounds, and add in text and fonts. Therefore, it was easy and quick to complete a poster on this, making it stand out and look appealing, but also making it look as professional as a real media product.