Evaluation Question 4

How have I used technologies in the research, planning and creation of my products?

As we live in a technological dependent society, where convergence has become integrated into the day to day activities and usage of media technology is at its highest, it has become almost mandatory that different media technologies play a recurring role in all the stages of the development of our three products.

One of the most significant parts of my course is the research and planning as without this my final products would not have been the quality they are. I used several media technologies during the research and planning stage before even starting my three media products. At the beginning of the course we were tasked with creating a presentation that explained our music video idea.  This was beneficial as it gave us the opportunity to present our music video ideas and gain useful feedback. ­Once I had joined a group with Amy and Marc we presented our new idea. My group and I took advantage of the presentation tool Prezi to clearly present our idea to the rest of our class. This was beneficial as it is user friendly software with endless possibilities due to designs, functions and its compatibility with convergence. As the software was so user friendly it allowed us to present in a way that our audience was able to understand our concept.  Prezi was very useful software as its layout can represent how several little ideas can come together to create something much bigger. Another advantage of Prezi is the exciting transitions. Due to this I was able to keep my classmates concentration for longer than I would have been able to with other presentation devices. The following Prezi is the idea my group presented to the class before gaining feedback.

Prezi was an obvious choice when I was doing planning and researching as it was based on adding lots of little bits of data together to sum up to something much bigger, my final music video. However, as well as using Prezi we also chose to use an offline presentation software- Microsoft Office PowerPoint. With the help of online software called SlideShare we were able to view our PowerPoints online, with websites such as Blogger. After we had decided our narrative for our music video we decided to research the convention associated with our genre, Post Hard-core. This information would help shape our ideas and narrative to fit the genre norms. This task was important as without it we may have not made the products appealing for the target audience making them unsuccessful. Using PowerPoint was a better fit for this task than Prezi as its design and simplicity made it easy to record large amounts of information. Unlike my Prezi’s these presentations were not about the look of them or creativity but researching, documenting and understanding the factors, which will shape my band. My group and I were pleased with the information we found together and believe that it had shaped our final media products and the information found can be seen clearly in our products. I created a presentation on the conventions of a music video in general and then a more detailed one about the Post Hard-core music video conventions. I made this presentation to show the kind of artist we had created and the video conventions we had chosen. Throughout my project I constantly referred to these presentations to ensure  I was keeping to the genre conventions.

Throughout the whole project YouTube played a massive part. Not only did we use the online video database to upload our final music video but it also was a huge research tool when discovering similar artists. Not only was YouTube free, but it allowed my music video to reach a global audience. It was also a way of uploading data onto our blog. The first example of the use of YouTube was during the research stage when we were questing students in our school about our music video  idea trying to gain important feedback which would help the development of our music video. Recording the data and uploading it to YouTube became incredibly useful as it allowed me to retain the data and watch it several times over the course of my project so I was able to refer back to it when making my decisions.

In order to make the capturing of footage easier we recorded the clips from our smartphones, a technological device that allowed us to upload the videos to YouTube straight from our hand held devices. An example of this is when we filmed a focus group we had organised to review the first draft of our music video. Like the rest of our recorded feedback we were able review the information at our command. It also meant that we could not filter our results and just see what we wanted to see.

We also made use of the smartphone as a way of organising our band. We used two main technological devices to contact our band, Facebook and our phone messenger. Without these we would not have been efficiently able to contact our band who live on the other side to London to us.  The use of technology helped keep our band committed and allowed them to stay up to date and know what was happening when and where making them as efficient as possible. As a result our band managed to stay committed and managed to be time efficient.

The internet is a media technology. Having access to this and search engines such as Google we were able to partake in detailed research for similar artists and their media products which then will help us to shape our products. In order to find the conventions of our genre we looked into similar bands in the same genre and looked  at how the band are presented- their star image. We also looked into the target audience of these bands and how they view the group.  Due to the internet being so accessible we were able to partake in this task easily getting inspirations for our star image, digipak, website and music video. While we were researching this we also came across a students dissertation focused on the dress and behaviour of the Emo Subculture. This was beneficial as it allowed me to have a deeper insight of my target audience. Below are some of the external sources I took inspiration from.

Not only did the internet lend it self as a source of research it also allowed us to complete the legal requirements  when creating a product which contains a piece of media for another company, in our case we needed to get permission to use the song, One Hundred Sleepless Nights.  In order to gain permission we had to go through the process of licensing the song. To do this we emailed a employee at Fearless Records (they signed Pierce The Veil) explaining who we were and why we wanted permission to use the song. Once we had done this and they had replied we were directed to the right person who then created a contracted allowing us to use the song in our music video and upload it to YouTube. Without the internet in this task, the communication flow would have been much slower and we probably would not have been able to receive the email address in the first place.

For the rest of my planning and research I used several different pieces of software for small tasks. The most common ­software we used was Microsoft Word. An example was that the software allowed us to create an organised and clear shooting schedule and prop list to help prepare cast and crew for the shooting day.  The shooting schedule set out both days telling us the plan for the whole day making us as efficient as possible and prepping the band to what they should expect. Although we did not keep to the shooting schedule completely it was good as it gave us some indication of how long we should spend on each aspect. We used Microsoft Word as its features allowed me to create  a chart to make it easier to be viewed.

In order to keep to our shooting schedule, we used Google Maps in order to track how long it would take to get to the location of where we were filming, Leake Street, London.  Using this online navigation tool I was also able to find where I could park on the day of filming.  This free online software allowed my group and I plus the band to be organised as we sent all of the band members the best route to reach the location of filming to ensure they would be on time, so we could start when planned.

After we had finished the initial research and planning, we moved onto the creation of our music video, the most practical media product we would be creating. Due to this, the creation of our music video would only be possible with the use of technology, most of which being film equipment which we learnt to use at the beginning of our course. The first thing we did which included technology in order to create our music video was to create our animatic. After we had created the story board we took a photo of  every frame with our smart phone. After we had finished this we imported all the images onto our school’s new editing software Adobe Premiere Pro. We then imported the song One Hundred Sleepless Nights into the editing software. We then placed each frame in the order as to which it would appear in the music video. The duration of each frame would depend on how long that frame would be in the actual video. Although this task was very simple it turned out very useful as we could see what we needed to change about the music video.

The last thing before the recording of our music video was to set up a photo shoot. We did this shoot in various locations including the location we were planning to film in. As I am an event photographer and cameraman outside of school  we used my own equipment for the photo shoot which included a Sony A99 digital interchangeable lens camera with a Sony M60F external flash. The photos we planned to use for our website and digipak were edited with Adobe Photoshop CS6 at a later date.

The two days of filming finally came. For this task we used a wide range of technological equipment in order our create our video. This included several lights and a professional video camera. We also brought the Sony A99 in case we decided to take more photos on the day. As the filming was possibly the biggest task out of the whole course I was able to use my outside knowledge of the equipment and put it to action on the camera and video camera over the course of the two filming days as I recorded the most in my group for the construction of our music video. As we filmed in different locations I had to constantly adjust the aperture and lenses of the camera for the light to be perfect in location. Without the use of these technologies we would not have been able to construct our music video.

After we had finished shooting all the footage we were left with the task of editing. This is the stage in which the individual shots come together and create our final product. Editing is a very time consuming activity which involves lots of attention, patience and accuracy. As a group we started editing the video together until there was a clear structure. One this had been done, I moved on to editing the photos from the shoot while Marc and Amy edited the last bit of the music video. The editing was completed in the course of a week in which we would undertake regular editing sessions.  After the video was complete I wrote up a conclusion for editing in which I explained what technical decisions my group and I made and how we completed them in the software. This started with adding th song to the software to changing the position of clips in order to make the video’s message more effective and make the video cut to the beat making it run smoothly. An example of this was to add jump cuts at the beginning of the video in order to create the beginning of the narrative quickly, as it portrayed a that the couple had been together for a long period of time.

During the editing phase, we created two versions  of the music video, the first draft and the official video. The first draft was shown to focus group. They feedback we received from the group and our teacher helped us create the official music video in which there are several noticeable changes which made the video more watchable. I can confidently say I am happy with the final product and am proud to be apart of my group that created it.

  

My digipak was by far the most enjoyable product to make as I was already confident with the editing software, Adobe Photoshop CS6 due to my outside hobbies and my other A level subjects.  Without technology my digipak would not be close to the quality my final product has turned out to be. My digipak was made with the creation of different technologies coming together to make a professional looking product.

As the shoot was in London and not in a studio I was unable to use studio lighting which may have made the portraits look more professional. As I had not decided my design for my digipak when I did the shoot, I tool several photos of the whole bands and several portraits of each band member. As we different locations, I was constantly changing my aperture, shutter speed and lens in order to get the most professional shots. For the shoot I used my some of my own equipment including a Sony A99 digital interchangeable lens camera with a Sony M60F external flash and 3 different sized lenses.

Once I had taken all the photos and uploaded them into my laptop, I use Adobe Bridge, in order to view and organise my image. This offline organisational software was very beneficial as it allowed me to see thumbnails of all the photos and separated the ones I had already edited. As I had not yet designed my digipak I edited the best photos by importing them into Adobe Photoshop CS6 in which I enhances the colours by adjusting the colour levels, changing the brightness and contrast and play with the background lighting. I was able to do this as the professional software allowed my to be precise and edit pixel by pixel if it was needed.

After looking at more digipaks, I came up with the idea of drawing the front cover of my digipak. Although this did not use any technology I scanned in the completed image and improved it using Photoshop CS6. Below is the before and after of the front cover of my digipak and the images of the band I decided to include in my digipak.

After

After

After

     After

 After

With the use of Google I was able to add I was able to complete my digipak as I was able to find font websites, where I could find the perfect font for my band which would fit my genre. This task alone took a long period of time as certain fonts made my digipak look like the front page of a child’s book as it was a cartoon drawing.

Google also helped create my digipak as I could use the image search to get an image of a barcode to stick on my digipak to make it look professional. As well as this I was able to find other digipaks to I could see what was written for their copyright information.

Once I had finished creating this product I was very pleased with the result, as I believed it looked, stylish, professional and exciting to the eye.

When I shrunk the image the colours darkened. The larger versions of the front and back cover are the correct colours.

My final product I had to create was my website. In order to create this I used an online website design software, Wix. This


web design tool is very user friendly and included features to help you create a professional website which suites all your needs. For my website I chose not to use on of the templates the software offered but decided to create my own layout giving more creative control. As I designed the layout of my website I was able to relate it to similar products I had researched in order to make sure it fitted my genre and would appeal to my target audience.

Over time, the layout of my website did not change, however my background did. In the first draft of my website I used a slate black background as I felt the dark colour would fit the Post Hard-core genre.  Later on I decided to change this as I used the back cover of my digipak as my website background in order to make all my media products relate. As these were also dark colours it fit in just as well as the slate back background.

Throughout the whole of my website technology was used. On each page there was access buttons to social networking sites to follow the band further. This is an example of hyperlinking and convergence as it was information spread between different media platforms. Following this, there was a ‘recent tweets” column in which the band’s most recent tweets appeared on the page linking  Twitter with my website. As technology has advanced so much in recent years, my website was also able to include my digipak and official music video.

As an extra to my website I decided to make a “store” page in which band merchandise would be sold. Using the website www.4imprint.co.uk I was able to personalise  T-shirts, vest Posters and Cases. Without technology I would not have been able to publicise or create these items.

Below is a commentary of my music video summarising the different technologies used in the creation of my media products.

In conclusion, I believe that I have used media technology through the process from research to the creation of my final products and everything in-between. Due to the advanced technological world we live in, it is so easy to become a prosumer and create professional looking products and share it globally.