3. Blogger Before I began to plan what I was going to do for my project I had to conduct research into existing products. I used the website www.blogger.com to record all my research as well as my planning and evaluation of the final product. The interactive nature of blogger allows complete creative freedom with the way I have presented my findings. This has led to a much more interesting way for the viewer to see what I have found out. With blogger I was able to present annotated images, embed video clips, add photographs and upload presentations with ease. Blogger is an easy site to use and making alterations to posts and adding images to make my points clearer can be done with ease. On the site, it is very easy to post things as you do them, this meant that my entire journey from research to final product was documented and any improvements I made throughout are easily recognisable. I posted draft versions of my storyboard, digipak and final video. The drafts are very different to the final outcomes which shows how we have progressed. Some examples of progression are shown here. Final result
5. Canon Digital Video Camera, Canon stills Camera, Tripod I decided to use my own personal video camera which was High Definition. During our AS project, I found that the footage we shot was sometimes grainy and the quality of mine was much clearer. This was largely due to the fact it was much newer and therefore integrated with the HD feature. It was also much easier to delete unwanted footage and easier to see what we had filmed, as the school’s cameras used a tape instead of being digital. One problem we encountered with the video camera was a very sensitive zoom, meaning that there were a few unsuccessful takes. This was worsened by the cold weather as the zoom button was very small and fiddly to use. We overcome this eventually and managed to get all the shoots smooth in the end. We used a tripod that we borrowed from the technician, as the school tripods were small and often broken or already in use. We found that this tripod was much sturdier and due to the larger size it produced better results as the camera height could be altered very easily. The tripod also allowed us to have very steady footage and we could make the pan shots look smooth and avoid the amateur footage look. We used We also used a stills camera that was HD so we could document the filming process and also take photos for our ancillary tasks. As the camera was good quality, the images were much clearer and the final outcome looked more professional.
7. IMovie To edit the footage we had shot into our music video, we used software called Imovie on an apple MAC. This software gives a professional looking final product, the footage can be manipulated and effects added, it is also easy to use. We started by uploading all the raw footage we had shot, which totalled over an hour in the end, giving us enough footage to use for our two and half minute song. We created a new project and dragged and dropped the successful shots that we wished to used. We trimmed the footage to the correct length and ensured the right footage was in the right place. This is due to our video having a strong relationship between the audio and visuals. We wanted the video to tell the story of the song so this is very important. After doing this roughly initially, we then used the precision editor to make the lip synching perfect. After we had our footage in the right place, we realised that we had some gaps for the instrumentals. We had to leave these blank until we had thought of a solution to the problem. We continued to edit and began adding effects to the footage to create the desired effect we were looking for. We used a dream effect to transform a boring shot of a boy into what looked like a real daydream. We also had to alter the colouration of some shots as the weather had changed the colour things appeared due to us filming on different days. This was done easily with the colourisation editor. After the edit, all the footage appeared the same and the continuity was maintained. We used dissolve transitions throughout the majority of the video which made it flow and seem continuous. At the beginning of the track, the music is jumpy so we reflected this with the editing by using jump cuts and quick shots of things at the station. We also used slowing down and reversing effects in our video, to add different dimensions and interest to it. These were used at appropriate places such as ‘have to start again’ – reverse effect with the marbles. Overall I think we had learnt a lot from AS Media, so were more experienced with using the MAC and could use more effects in more interesting ways this year, making the video seem realistic. ‘Boy whose lost his marbles has found them down the drain’ Slow Motion
8. Serif Photo Plus We used serif photo plus to edit our images for our digipak as we felt after experimenting, they looked too old fashioned, so we wanted to change them so they suited our young target audience better. We played with a number of different effects and eventually chose a filter called diffused glow. This effect enhanced the image and the artist looked more bright faced and young. This was exactly the look we were looking for and we were very pleased with the result. We had to edit the rest of our photos that we were using for the digipak with the same effect to keep the continuity and ensure they all had the same feel. We also used serif photo plus to remove unwanted white space from images, in particular the white space surrounding the Polydor logo on the back of our digipak. Before removing the white space the logo looked like this: and we felt on a grey background this did not look very realistic, so we removed the white and in the end it looked like this:
9. Serif Page Plus We used serif page plus to generate our digipak design and our advertisement. This is because we have had experience with using this software, it is easy to manipulate images and there are many effects and editing techniques offered to us. After we had edited our photos on Photoplus, we began to position them on serif page plus and placed text on top of them. We chose a font that we thought was suitable for the title and used the same one for the album title. This created a brand identity. We were able to make the text slightly transparent and this made the final outcome more aesthetically pleasing. We chose a font that looked like handwriting for the inside of the digipak, where it was meant to look like Jose had written it. This was an effective effect and looked realistic. Also inside, we rotated the images on this page to make it look more random and scrapbook like. We angled the writing on the back of the digipak and used the same font as we had used on the front. This maintained continuity and created a more aesthetic look, than if the text was straight down the path. Page plus was a good piece of software to use as the image an text could be altered and manoeuvred very easily and we could design our digpak to exactly how we wanted it.
11. Slideshare and Flickr I used Slideshare to publish my documents and could then easily upload them Blogger. It has enabled me to easily transfer my work, as you cannot copy and paste large amounts straight into Blogger. When evaluated my work, I created powerpoint slideshows, the use of Slideshare particularly benefitted me here as it added a different medium in which I could display my work, making my blog more interesting. I used Flickr to upload my annotated images as it was easier to then put this on my blog. I believed the annotated images gave a more interesting feel to the way I commentated on the website, CD covers ect. The writing is more broken up, and the person reader the annotations can see exactly the point I was explaining as I have labelled the images to illustrate it. These technologies have improved my blog since my AS level blog as it is now much more varied.
12. Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Movie Maker is a version of Imovie I have on my home computer. This enabled me to produce short video clips. These videos incorporated clips of me commentating on various things, as well as still images, screenshots of my video and even footage from my video. This enabled me to accurately portray what I wanted to and it was a much more interesting way of presenting information, rather than a block of text. During the evaluation sections, I could show the products we made, with my evaluation alongside them. I found this to be a very effective programme.
