Q4

1. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Question Four
Alex Hughes

2. “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it
to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
–Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison, one of the greatest American inventors of all time. The person who
invented the light bulb and the motion picture camera; getting film and photography to
where they are today. He stated that “if something doesn’t do what you planned it to
do, doesn’t mean it’s useless.” Even one of the greatest inventors of all time said that
there can be flaws in almost everything you use, so if one item had a potential
limitation, there was always a way around it. There was a way to fix the problem and
solve the issue and this is exactly what we did with the use of technology throughout
our coursework. If there was one problem we encountered, we would find and work
our way around it to ensure we could continue.

3. RESEARCH
YouTube was the best site to use when researching
upon music videos as the website holds all sorts of music videos
e.g. old videos, fan videos, new videos etc. I could watch
numerous music videos for as long as I needed, as well as this, I
could also research upon ‘vlogs’ (video blogs) which reviewed
albums, songs and general media products themselves.
I would personally say YouTube was a success for my coursework as it allowed me to find the 3
best music videos to analyse for my product research as well as view opinions on them from different
people. It also allowed me to compare videos against each other which was helpful in finding out the
conventions of genres e.g. I could watch an old rock video to compare to a more modern one and spot the
similarities which are the conventions.
There are a variety of different media sites that allow users to watch music videos such as Vevo,
Vimeo and DailyMotion but I personally thought YouTube was much easier to use. The site allows you to
control the video by pausing, playing, fast-forwarding, subtitles, changing the speed and quality and also
having the feature to make the video bigger or full screen. In general, it’s much easier for everyone.

4. Google was also another popular search
Engine that allowed me to find sites or images
for my product research. For example, I had to
research on different digipaks for different genres
and talk about their conventions using the ‘Repertoire
of Elements’. I used Google's Images in particular to search for digipaks that shown
the front and back cover, CD design and inside pages. It was very difficult to find an image with all these
features but with Google, the biggest search page on the internet, I managed to find a variety of different
digipaks. Overall, Google was a success for helping me in product research.
Facebook and Twitter (and overall social media) was another big way to research upon music
videos, magazine adverts and digipaks for my product research. These sort of sites allow users to freely
express their feelings and opinions about anything they want to discuss. Therefore, I took it upon myself
to search these sites for what people thought on certain music videos and get influence from them to
put into my own video. Overall, I think Social Media is the biggest success for the coursework as it allows
me to send the surveys out to
people across the world.
RESEARCH
Instagram
Tumblr

5. RESEARCH
However, for the magazine advert analysis’ within the product research, I found it hard
to use Google Images as well as Google in general to find modern and up-to-date adverts of artists
to this day. When searching for the adverts, a very high number of results came up but
unfortunately were very old adverts of magazines. I wanted recent adverts from popular
magazines e.g. Kerrang!, NME and Q.
As the use of technology and the internet had let me down, I had to come up with an
alternative that allowed me to find what I needed. The only way I could possibly find these recent
music adverts in popular magazines, was by visiting the local supermarket and purchasing the
magazines myself, however luckily, the college has a subscription to the magazines I wanted and I
was able to find the adverts I needed free of charge.

6. RECORD
For the filming and recording process, we used a variety
of different technologies to film, but used mainly one of them. We
used the Canon 1100D to film the majority of the video because of
the high quality and for the adjustable settings which made it much
easier to use. I would say the camera was successful in getting the
majority of the video filmed in high quality resolution. However,
there was a limitation with the Canon as some clips need slow
motion. Therefore, we used a feature on the iPhone 5s which could
film slow motion in 120fps as the Canon could only shoot 30fps. This
enabled us to slow the video down to a suitable speed without the
clips becoming jumpy.

7. RECORD
The second camera we used, alongside the iPhone and Canon, was the Nikon DSLR. The
Nikon was used as a second camera with the Canon so that if the Canon accidentally missed something
we needed, there was a chance the Nikon caught it instead. This was a success as it was used several
times as well as the fact the continuity was continued through the video, rather than reshooting on
other days and there being a chance the characters wore different clothing. As this was a success, there
were also limitations with the Nikon as the camera quality wasn’t as strong as the Canon 1100D which
failed some of the shots.
We usually had the Nikon secured firmly to a tripod
that would film everything as a
long shot, again filming what
the Canon may miss as that
was the ‘up close’ and
handheld camera used for
the majority of the video.

8. EDITING
To edit the video together, we used one software to cut, add basic effects and transitions and
merge clips together. Adobe Premiere Pro allowed us to import all the best clips, rename them and sort
them into folders so we knew which clips went where. It also allowed us to add basic effects such as
Black and White and transitions such as Dip to Black. It was much more successful than using other
software such as iMovie or Final Cut Pro as they were either too basic or too advanced.
Alongside Premiere, we also used Adobe After Effects which allowed us to add more
advanced effects onto the clips such as warp stabiliser, lighting effects and ghosting/echo. Using this
software created a much more professional feel to the video which made it look a lot better.

9. EDITING
As well as the editing the videos, we also had to edit the sound at the start where the song
cuts/fades, the diegetic dialogue is spoken and the song then starts again. At first, we used Audacity,
which is basic software to edit sound for the dialogue but found that we couldn’t reduce the background
or ambience noise because it was too advanced for Audacity. We managed to find an alternative named
Adobe Audition, which luckily allowed us to remove more ambient noise. Even though this was successful
in reducing a small amount of the noise, we couldn’t remove it completely. I think if we were to redo this
bit, it would probably be much easier to use a microphone attached to the camera.

10. EDITING
When actually editing the video and using Premiere, we encountered a few problems when
trying to edit at home. The first problem we encountered was the fact that at college, we had Windows
computers to edit on that had version CS5 of Premiere whereas at home on my Apple Mac, I had CS6.
This wouldn’t allow me to use the same file we edited on at college, at home. Therefore, we had to
export whatever edited file we had at college to a full length video, which did contain gaps that needed
filling over the weekend and then editing in. After we exported the file, we had to import it into the
newer version of Premiere onto my Mac and cut out all the gaps in the video so we knew what to fill.
This was a very long process as it took roughly 10 minutes to export the file from Premiere and roughly 5
minutes to import the file into Premiere on my Mac.
Another problem we encountered was was the actual placing of the files/footage. I imported
all the necessary files for the video onto the New Volume drive in college, forgetting that I may need
these files later on at home when editing there. I realised I had to copy ALL the files onto my 320GB hard
drive which again, took a very long time.

11. For distributing the video, the Internet was the
best way to ‘get the word out’. There were two main sites
that allowed me to share the video and gain views. As
previously mentioned, YouTube was the best option as it has
high and frequent viewers daily which makes it the most popular
sites for video uploads and views. The site was successful as it allowed me to share the video via links to
post onto other sites, mainly social media.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr are the most popular and most used social media sites
to this date, which made me realise it was best to share the video via link onto these sites. It was successful
as I could spread the word about the video and gain more views, as well as this, I could also directly
message the artists or users with the link to ensure they watch it.
DISTRIBUTION
Instagram
Tumblr

12. CONCLUSION
Overall, I personally think that the technology we used in researching, planning,
producing and distributing the video has all been successful in getting the video to
where it is now. I’m extremely pleased with the video and how it looks and believe
that if we were to improve on it, there would only be very minor adjustments. In
terms of technology, the only possible way we could’ve improved on this was by
maybe using a professional camera and microphone (for recording diegetic sound)
so that the video had the highest quality possible. The video was a very enjoyable
experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.