Question3 (1)
- 1. How did you use newmediatechnologiesinthe construction and research,planning and evaluationstages? Planning: To beginmyresearchfor thisyear’sproject,Ihad to choose a suitable songtowhichmyvideowould complement. My songchoice inspiredthe directiontowhattype of musicvideoIwouldcreate.The choice of song wasnot simplybasedonchoosingasong I enjoyed,butonseveral otherfactorssuch as genre,beat/flow,lyricsandthe lengthof song.Topickthe perfectchoice,Iuseda range of websites: My frequentlylistenedtoplaylistonYouTube was significantinprovidingsome ideasforwhich songI coulduse.Furthermore,Ichose to examine songswhichI heard/likedalot,thiswasbecause I was familiarwiththem.Withthisknowledge,it wouldhave beeneasiertocreate appropriate ideasfora music video.Duringthese earlystages, a personal favourite of mine was“Radiohead - Creep”,howeverthere were manyissueswith thischoice (itwouldhave requiredamale actor whowe have had to relyon frequently),soafter dismissingthatideawe constantlyresearchedfor the perfectsong. Anotherwebsitewhichhelpedtodecide which songto settle onwas iTunes.Itshomepage includesalistof the top 20 official hitsof that week,broadeninggenresandlookingatpopular songswas useful asIthoughtusinga pop song witha dominatingbeatandcatchy lyricscouldalsobe a good directionformusicvideo. Aftermuchdebate,ourdecisionof choosing MIA’s“Paper Planes”wasinfluencedby researchingfemalerap/urbansongsof the 21st CenturyintoGoogle search. Once we had decidedonthe chosensong,we beganto generate ideasastowhat themeswe wishedto presentinourmusicvideo.Todo this,I useda website calledPinterestwhere youcancreate a board abouta topic of your choice andpinyour favourite picturestoit.Idecidedtocreate a board because itwouldhelptogatherall of my visual ideas,ithelpedme andmypartnerto plan the directionwe were thinkingof goingwithour musicvideo.Duringourresearchandplanningstages,thiswebsite wassignificantinconstantly addingideasasto what wouldlookaestheticallypleasingthe musicvideo.Itenabledme andmy partnerto gain a true understandingonhow ourmusicvideowouldturnout.
- 2. Construction: Duringthe constructionperiod,Ibelieve thatIexcelledinusingavarietyof new technologiesto advance my mediaproduct.Ifoundthat myprojectin ASwas especiallybeneficialforthisprocessas my priorexperience withsoftwaresallowedme toonlyendeavourevenfurtherformymusicvideo. I startedby usingvideostreaming service YouTubetogetaccessto my chosensongin a highquality format.Once I had bookmarkedthislink,we andmypartnerdecidedontype of camerato use for filming. We usedaLumix GF1 whichhas an interchangeable lense.Itshighqualityledourdecision as we were alsothoroughlyimpressedwithits12.1megapixel live MOSsensor.Thisquality contributedtoour mediafootage havingaricherpicture andan overall clearerappearance.Thiswas particularlybeneficial asthe majorityof ourmusicvideo wasfilmedoutside. Furthermore,itoffered a HD movie settingwhichwasbeneficial forusforfilmingourvariedlengthenedshots,italsohada range of othersettingswhichincludedarange of artisticcoloursand filters.Toexplain,we found that if we had filmedonaday where there waslittle natural lighting,these optionsallowedusto experimentandenhance the lightingquality.We hadnoexperience withthiscamerapriortothis project,thiswasbecause we were onlyexposedtothe CanonXA25 duringour ASstudies.Toassist my camerafilming,Ialsousedothercameraequipmentsuchastripodstoachieve stable shotsmost noticeablyforthe narrative of the musicvideo.Importantly, forourtime-lapse scene,we useda gorillagripto attach our cameraonto the busrail sothat we were capture our footage fromthe upstairsof the bus. Thiseffectivelyhelpedusgatherfootage fromalarge amountof area,it wasalso sturdywhich ultimatelyhelpedourfootage tolookmore professional.Furthermore, althoughwe usednatural lightingthroughoutthe majorityof ourfilmingprocess, we alsousedaflashbox to create highkeylightingwhenfilmingshotsforourchorus.This piece of equipmentwasimportant as whenwe filmedinastudio,its limitedlightingrequiredalotof highkeylightingforourfootage to be of a highstandard. Furthermore,duringourconstructionperiod,we alsocreatedanInstagrampage whichcontained imagesandvideosof footage frombehindthe scenesof ourfilmingproject.Usingthisplatformof social mediawasbeneficial inallowingmassaudiencestoview ourprogressandlearnmore about our project.Also,asitis a modernand popularappintoday’ssociety(especiallyamongst adolescentsandyoungpeople),itwasan easy wayto promote andadvertise our musicvideo. The creationof myblogon Bloggerhelpedtoorganise anyprogressmakingnotes I made duringour creatingprocess.Ihad alsousedthislastyear forour Thriller Opening,therefore me andmypartnerwasted notime settingablogup once again.Creatingthisonline type journalwaseffectiveinincorporatingmodernday technologyintoourprojectashavingour notesonline once againallowed anyone toviewourprojectat the touchof a click,thuspopularisingit.It
- 3. successfullyallowedustodocumentourwhole processfromresearchtoproductionandofferedus waysto uploadnotjust photos,butmindmapsandvideos.Ultimately,itprovideduswithavariety of waysto creativelydisplayour notes. Once we had recordedall of our footage,we uploadedourcontent ontoApple Macs in orderto use the software Final CutProX. After havinguseditfor our Thriller openingforourAS studies,we were at great advantage andwere able to quicklybeginediting.With FinalCut Pro X,we were able to increase the speedtocreate our time-lapseseen at the beginningof the video,as well asdecrease the speed.We constantlyused toolssuchas the blade tool andtrim to accuratelyget smoothcuts betweenshots. With some practise,we were able to produce some brillianton-beat-editingskillswhichsuccessfullylinedupouractor’slip-synchingto the lyricsof the songeffectively. Furthermore,we alsoeditedthe footage backwardsasdepictedin the verylast scene of our piece.Symbolically,thiseditcontrastedagainstthe beginningof ourmusic video(the time lapse withinourfirst10 seconds) butthiswasoverall includedtorepresentthatthe character was goinghome andthat herjourneyhadcome to an end.Fundamentally,ouruse of these toolshelpedtoeffectivelycreate aninterestingandoriginal musicvideo.If there were ever any issues,forexample havingfootage thatwastoodark, Final CutPro X allowedustochange the aestheticsof ourmediaproductbyadjustingthe colourscheme of shots.We wouldlookthrough filtersbutthenindividuallymanipulate the contrastandsaturationof certainshotswhichcouldhave beenimprovedtogeta close matchin colourgrade. Magazine advert and Digipack: The picture usedon myancillarytextwastakenon a CanonEOS 1200d where we conductedawhole photoshootdedicatedtocollectingpromotionalimagesof ouractor,thisequipmentallowedusto geta goodqualityimage inlowlightsituations. Tocreate the magazine and Digipack,mypartner and I usedphotoeditingsoftwareAdobe PhotoshopCS6. Me and my partnerwere completelynew to thissoftware,aswe onlyhad little practise withitbeforehand.Toproduce ourrecordlabel,we usedthe logofromthe CamdenTube sign whichfeaturesinourmusicvideo,thusreinforcingone of our majorthemesinour product.We constructedthisby puttinglayersof colouroverthe tube sign to conceal the lettersandthenusedthe brushtool whichpaintedagraffiti like pattern.With this,we coveredthe edgesof the signto make itlooklike arecord label.Ibelieve thatusingphotoshopfor thisprocesshelpedourmagazine adverttoappearmore efficientbecause itallowedusto manipulate ourphotowithavarietyof toolsdesignedforthispurpose.
- 4. Evaluation: The internetwasusedtomy full advantage asI aimedtouse all typesof social networkingtoexploit our mediaproject.Me and mypartner firstuploadedourfinal piece toYoutube whereanyone was able to viewandcommentonour content,we furtheredthe viewsonourvideobysharingiton social networkingsitessuchasFacebookandvia our Whatsappgroupchats. The people we converse withthe moston these platforms, representandfitthe criteriaof ourtarget audience. Therefore these methodswere effectiveinexploitingourproductto whowe wishedtoattract. Doingthis allowedme toreceive feedbackonmymediaproduct. I thenwantedtoreach an evenwideraudienceandreceive somecriticism fromstrangers,therefore IcreatedaSurvey.The surveyconsistedof a seriesof questionsandwasmade throughSurveyMonkey.Iaimedtogain an understandingonwhatviewersthoughtaboutmine andmypartner's final product.Iparticularlychose touse thiswebsite tocreate my surveyas it hada resultstrackingfeature thatautomaticallypouredall of mydata intopresentable barchartsso I couldeasilysee abreakdownof all of the data that I had collected.