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

2.  I used a variety of technologies in the
research, planning, production and post - production stages in
my main task and the ancillary tasks. At the beginning stages
of my work, I got started with researching artists on
YouTube, a video sharing website, to help me get inspiration
and ideas when looking at their music videos.
 This enabled me to research into how acoustic music videos
are shot and what the general characteristics are, and
whether as a director and creator, I wanted to conform to
these characteristics or challenge them.

3.  After looking at influences such as Ben Howard and Xavier
Rudd, I print screened stills from their music videos and pasted
them into Microsoft Word and then saved the images as a jpeg
file onto my desktop.

4.  This allowed me to then post them on my portfolio on
Blogger, an internet site where all my planning production and
evaluation stages are posted and ordered. Using this method
allowed me to evaluate music videos and the shots they
used, evaluating whether I liked them or not, and sometimes
sparking of f an idea for my own ideas for my video. Blogging
all of my thoughts and research, allowed me to look back at
what I had done in the planning stages, making sure no ideas
were lost in the process.

5.  When a general idea for my music video was written and story
boarded, I then turned to Google, the most commonly used
search engine, to research lighting ideas for my video, and
also delving into the type of location I wanted for my video.
From this research I found that using a sepia tone created the
look I had imagined when writing my story board. The sepia
tone connotes a more authentic image, and also one of
warmth and happiness. I think this relates well back to the
Acoustic/Pop genre as a whole, as it connotes easy
listening, and therefore easy viewing (not too much going
on, or in your face styles). Using Google images helped me
then to portray to readers what I wanted to create when
blogging about my ideas on Blogger.

6.  I also used Bubble.us as a way to present my research onto
my blogger profile. Although this proved quite confusing to
use, and when loaded onto blogger, the layout moved
around, the Thought bubble was still intact and of fered a
dif ferent way of viewing my thoughts and ideas. Showing the
variety of ways I am able to present information and making
my blog more aesthetically pleasing and interesting.

7.  I then turned to Wikipedia and begun my research into Music
Labels for my artist. Wikipedia enabled me to gather
information about labels, what kinds of artist they signed and
their typical chosen genre. I began by typing in an acoustic
artist and then clicking on the links to their record label. The
best thing about using Wikipedia was the fact that when you
were on one page, there was always links to similar record
label, enabling me to extend my research and view a variety of
records labels, evaluating them and deciding if they fitted
with my artist. This helped me to choose an appropriate
record label.

8.  After choosing my record label, I moved onto researching
designs for my digipak. Here I used Google again for
possible templates. I used Google images to research into
artist’s digipak and create inspiration for my own. From this
research I was able to view a variety of styles creating
inspiration and ideas for my own work. I particularly like the
digipaks that had one image stretched across the inside
panels, however I decided against this in my production
stage.

9.  I then used a Canon 1100D to take pictures at my location for
my video and also to experiment with lighting. I played with
the settings trying to capture streams of light from the sun
and experiment with how the camera worked with or against
the sun.

10.  I then used these images for
my digipak and edited them in
Adobe Photoshop to change
the lighting and crop some
images to fit with on my
template. I also used Picnik , a
site that is easy to use when
editing images and adding
text on top. This helped me
greatly as I am not very good
at working Photoshop and this
easy use website enabled me
to do this.

11.  On the other hand, I had
problems with the website as
when you saved a finished
product I couldn’t go back to
it and edit it should I need to,
meaning I had to recreate
panels a few times when
feedback showed me that I
had made some mistakes.
This ate up a lot of my time;
however, the easy use of
picnic enabled me to create
the effects I wanted. When I
was finally happy with my
images, I saved these images
as Jpegs, and transferred
them into Photoshop on top
of my template, creating my
digipak .

12.  I then began my production stages of my music video. I used
a Panasonic Digital Video camera to shoot. This camera
proved easy to use, but didn’t create as good a quality crisp
image as the Canon 600D, which other students used. Also
when capturing the footage back at the computer, it proved
quite dif ficult using an older camera with a tape as the
connection kept being lost, not downloading all the footage I
had. This also used a lot of time, but eventually it was done
and I was able to begin my editing. During the shoot, I also
used an I-pod which has my track downloaded on to it via I -
tunes to help my actor get in time with the lip -syncing. This
saved time when filming as we were able to get everything
crisp and done quickly as we knew the lip syncing fitted well.

13.  After shooting my footage I used Adobe Premier Pro to edit
my footage together. At first I found this dif ficult to
use, there were a lot of buttons and shortcuts all of which I
didn’t know what they did. However throughout the
production stages I learnt more about what I can do on the
programme, and how I can use these shortcuts to save time
and get my work done quickly and ef ficiently but still
maintaining skill in doing so.