Evaluation Question 4

How did you use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

Construction 

For my Construction stages I used different Media Technologies while creating my main product (music video)

To Film our music video I used my IPhone camera. The camera gave us shots with a good video quality and was portable since it fit easily in my pocket, this allowed me to film without having to carry around expensive equipment or borrow a decent video camera off of someone. To get shots, that needed to be perfectly still, for example our Green Screen/ Mirror segment. I used a small tripod, for a completely different camera, and tied my phone to the tripod with two hair bobbles.

For editing my Video I used a number of platforms. I used Adobe Photoshop for creating stills for our video. In one segment in particular, the VHS segment. My original intention was to create Threshold images and sync them up with the lyrics of the video to crate a stop motion animation. However the Threshold didn't look as good as I wanted it to look. So I looked for something to replace this. I then thought of using distorted VHS effects for the shot. I took images of video distortion and edited them in Photoshop to look like straight lines of distortion. This looked way better than my original plan so I decided to use this instead. 

I also used Photoshop to create a Poster and DigiPack for our music group.

For our poster I wanted to use the same themes as my video so I chose the themes of my VHS segment. I used a blank VHS background, with the play and time codes, usually found on home video cameras. I used the Logo and Title, designed by David on Photoshop, and Inverted the colours using the Invert tool. This followed the distorted theme I wanted. 

For my Digipack I used the same images as my poster, I did this to keep with the same themes as my other Ancillary texts. I got a basic template for a Digipack and used this to place my images which I designed in Photoshop. I edited one image, one of me and David, and removed our faces to keep with the surreal theme of my Video, using the Spot Healing Tool. I also used a Threshold image, of me, which I intended to use for my music video but felt that it didn't look good enough in the end. However I felt as if it suited my Digipack so I eventually found a use for this image.

To put the Video together I used Sony Vegas. with this software I was able to put together our shots, audio and create special effects for our video.

For our VHS segment I placed the stills into Sony Vegas and synced them up with the lyrics of the song. I then placed a moving image of my distortion effect in front of the stills. I then used the Add Noise tool to give the shots a fuzzy, low quality, video effect.

For our video we also used green screen in certain parts. One use of green screen was for our Mirror shot where me and David stood in front of a mirror then covered the mirror in green fabric. Then we edited the shots with the Chroma Keyer tool. Using the Layers of the video we were able to place the two shots together and ended with a shot that looked as though I was Davids reflection. We did have to re take this shot using a tripod and different mirror but the editing process was still the same.

Research

For my research I used different Media Technologies to receive information on how we could create our main product.

YouTube was a platform which we found useful in our research. On YouTube I could look at different styles of music videos from our chosen artist, David Bowie. As well as different music videos with similar styles and themes as what we wanted to convey in our music video.

Using YouTube we were also able to find different video tutorials on how to create the different effects we wanted in our video. Using YouTube videos we could pause and replay the video to follow each step and get used to the editing software. This is how I am now able to make Green Screen videos a lot easier than I could starting this project.

Google Images was useful to my research because I could look at different shots or images to get inspiration and ideas as to what I wanted to create in my music video. The VHS effect I used was an idea given to me looking at images of distorted images on Google. It was also useful for looking at images of key moments in other music videos with similar themes.

Blogger was one of the main platforms we used for our A level, we use blogger to upload our coursework but it was also a reliable source or research. We were linked to a MasterBlog, made by Ms McDonald Holmes, were she would upload work made by previous students, which I would look at to see what I could create using the software's available for us. She would also upload links to tutorials on how to use the editing software provided to us on the blog.

http://a2-chchs-media-17-18.blogspot.co.uk

Wikipedia was a handy source of basic information. While not reliable as a detailed source of information it is useful for receiving the basics. For example the release dates of certain albums as well as basic info on our chosen artist, David Bowie, such as his birthday and the date of his death

Planning

Microsoft Word was a useful tool for creating planning sheets for me and David. One example was the Lyric List that we created. In this list we copied the lyrics of the song, The Man Who Sold The World, and placed boxes next to each section. In these boxes we took notes of what shots we wanted to use for certain lyrics. This was an effective way to keep track of what we were planning, what we had shot and what we needed to shoot in the future. As we finalized our video our Lyric Sheet progressively filled out, showing our development over time.

IMessage is what we used to keep in contact with one another. IMessage allows you to use the internet to send messages to each other, this is how we were able to send screenshots of certain shots or information, such as weather forecasts etc. This helped us keep in contact with each other during our planning stages. We also used Facetime a couple times to show each other what we have planned, in our own time, and make plans for our lessons in school.

Blogger was also handy for our planning stages. Mrs McDonald Holmes updated the MasterBlog frequently with information and kept giving us deadlines for our planning evidence. Keeping us busy with coursework which doubled as planning or research helped ensure that we didn't waste time.

Evaluation

For my evaluation stages I used a number of different media technologies to create my evaluation.

I used Adobe Photoshop to create any images or to save screenshots for my evaluation.

I used a Green screen to film one of my evaluation questions and then edited the video in Sony Vegas.

 

Another technology I used was Prezi to create an online presentation that was intractable. This makes the viewer feel more engaged with the presentation. It was also easy to use however its simplicity makes the document seem unprofessional, in my opinion.