A.S, P.P-C, N.B - Evaluation: Question 4

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

We used media technologies to plan as well as produce our final music video. Nellie and I completed a reccie at a local park, so that we could research what sort of shots we wanted to use. We used the DV camera and a tripod so that we could have both handycam and steadycam shots. The shots that we completed were:

• Close ups
• Extreme close ups
• Mid shots
• Panning/establishing shots
• Tracking shots
• High and low angle shots
• POV shots
  

This was a great opportunity to think in more depth about our video, the shots we wanted to use, but also to get familiarise ourselves with the cameras and plan what shots we would like to use.

During the research process of the project, one of the tasks we completed was research into ‘We Media’ and Web 2.0, and how they let the user become more interactive with the Internet and various websites today such as www.facebook.com. Our blog is an example of this, as we used as a collaborative area to discuss ideas and comment on each other’s work throughout the planning and construction.

This is an example of Web 2.0 as it allows our group to interact with each other through the blog. The blog is also another example of Web 2.0 as it allows us to post images and videos up to the blog, from our own sources or from the Internet. We posted images up to the blog, but also video clips for the early stages of research when we were analysing music videos.

We used We Media to upload our preliminary task to http://www.youtube/, a website that allows users from across the world upload videos to share. This let us embed the video onto our blog, but it also allowed other people to look at our idea. Other websites that incorporated We Media are http://www.surveymonkey.com/ and http://www.slideboom.com/ where we uploaded our pitch presentation and also constructed a questionnaire to send out to people via email to gain audience feedback.

Using Adobe Premiere, we constructed an animatic as a group. Firstly we split the track up between the 3 of us and discussed our ideas to ensure that our pictures would look the same and create the right story.

After completing our sections we started to film the images we had drawn.
These were the 3 stages.
-We filmed 3 seconds of each image to make sure we had enough of each shot.
-After this we started to capture the footage we had shot.
-Once this had all been uploaded to Adobe Premiere we needed to edit the images in time with the track, as this would help us plan the final music video much easier and see what type of shots we needed and where.
Here is a short clip of our animatic.



For the animatic we did not use any transitions, just simple cuts as it was only there to show the shots we would use and where. The animatic meant that we could organise ourselves as a group, save a lot of time, it gave us a better indication of how much footage we would need to fill the full 3.30 minutes and finally helped to make a successful video.

When shooting, we used DV cameras.
The challenges we overcame as a group were;
- Making sure that we pressed the button to record rather than stopping the footage being recorded. We found out that when we thought we were recording we had actually been recording the wrong section. When we got back to school and starting capturing on Adobe Premiere we realised what we had done and ensured on our next filming session this would not happen again.
- On our first shoot, we found out that our framing was very poor and needed to be improved. We needed to be more aware, for example think about the rule of thirds and what props were in each shot and if we wanted them there. After this we learnt quickly to be much more aware of our framing and what was in the frame.

Our group had 3 main techniques we needed to consider through-out the editing process, these were;
-Transitions (e.g. dissolves),
- Colour (contrast and brightness)
- Motion

Transitions
Firstly to create more emotion we used lots of different transitions to connote different meanings and feelings. Some of the transitions we used were; cross dissolves, fade in and out and fade to black. The transition used the most was the ‘Cross dissolve’ because as a group we felt that any other dissolves were too harsh for the type of song we were doing whereas this transition was subtle and flowed. The use of the transitions helped convey a message to the audience. The video of the little boy, shows and demonstrates a cross dissolve and how effective it was.

Colour
Was another key aspect of our music video. After designing the advert and digipak it was evident that the colour was a vital part of our theme, therefore we had to make sure that this theme was continued through our music video as well. For example in some shots we would have change the brightness and saturation, to give them a sunny autumn feel. The images shown below shows the colours we were able to include into our music video.

Motion
Finally the last key technique that was important for our group was adding motion, due to some of the shots being too slow and static. For instance when our artist is playing the guitar sitting down we added a pan effect. By doing this do our video it helped our video flow much better, and keep the audience interested. The video below demonstrates one shot which we added movement onto.

Digital Camera
IMAGES TAKEN USING CAMERA
We used a digital camera to take pictures for the digipak and advert. On a few of the shots I took my camera and took pictures for the digipak and advert. Most of the pictures were not used as the lighting was wrong but it helped to give us an idea of what would look good for our digipak and advert. Having a digital camera with us on the shoots was very useful because if we saw a shot that would look good but for some reason couldn’t film it, we could take a picture of it so we could film it at the next shoot. The pictures are of a high quality which is vital for making our digipak and advert look professional.

Adobe Photoshop
SCREENSHOTS OF PHOTOSHOP
I used Adobe Photoshop to design the digipak and advert. For the digipak I used Photoshop to create the leafy effect used on the front cover. I created a few layers with a faded image of some leaves that I took on one of the shoots. I erased some parts so that you can see Ben through the leaves. I adjusted the hue/saturation to give it a warmer, more orange colour which feels more autumnal. For the advert I used the gradient tool to blur the image into the black background. We felt that this was an appealing effect for the advert and draws the reader’s eyes towards the text on the right hand side. For the digipak I feathered a selection and inverted which enabled me to create a black outline to the images which gradually fades in. This makes the images look less ‘stuck on’ and it helps them flow together.

Microsoft Publisher
SCREENSHOTS OF PUBLISHER
We used Microsoft Publisher to put together all the images and text that we edited using Photoshop. It was easier to use Publisher to organise the images rather than Photoshop as you can view cover and inside next to each other. Also, when you print it, the pages are joined together which makes it easier to turn into a digipak.

Survey Monkey
SCREENSHOTS OF SURVEYMONKEY
We used Survey Monkey to create surveys for our initial research and the feedback for our final products. Survey Monkey is a very useful website as it allows you to create the survey, send it out and analyse the results. It can create graphs from your results which are a quick and easy way to explain the results. This was a very useful tool for us to use as it saved us a lot of time.

Brighton Reccie
SCREENSHOTS OF VIDEO
I used a DV camera on a trip to Brighton so that I could record various shots for a practice and also to get some ideas for our actual music video. I captured the following shots:
- MLS panning establishing shot for narrative/performance
- High angle
- Footage for sped up shot of character in crowd
- Performance
- CU for performance
- Low angle performance
- High angle performance
- 360 pan
- Tracking shots of character walking in first person mode of address
- POV handicam shot
- Shot of own design

This practice shoot helped us with our research and planning. We got a better idea of how long it would take to film and how much footage we would actually need to film.