Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

Construction

During the construction of my music video we borrowed an HD video camera to record most of our footage, and for other parts of it I used my own video camera. Using the camera was fairly easy because we have used them previously in other work, but the fact that we were able to use an HD camera for most of this project was an advantage because we were able to learn about something new and slightly different and although we were not able to edit the footage in HD, the filming looked better on the camera, so made it more interesting to film. The cameras allow us to review all of our raw footage that we have filmed. I think this is a useful feature, because we can easily rewind or fast forward to any part of the recordings and this helped us to get new ideas or decide that we needed to film something again in order to improve the shots. It also allows us to easily delete any clip that we no longer wish to use. We didn't delete many of our clips just in case we decided we wanted to use it once we have put it on the computer and reviewed it on a bigger screen. While filming, we used a tripod for some of our shots which we needed to be at a certain angle.

For example, for this shot we needed to get as much as we good into it, so we positioned the tripod and camera so that we could see all the band's bodies and instruments and the tripod helped us to keep this position still and accurate.

We edited our footage on Adobe Premiere Pro. We had previously used Adobe Premiere, but we decided to use Premiere Pro because we wanted to try something new, as we wanted to experience a different program and we thought that it would help us to improve our technology skills and learning skills. We were able to import all of our footage from both cameras onto this program, and view the clips individually, which helped us to decide which parts we wanted to put into the time line and use as part of our final video. Premiere Pro allowed us to crop each clip into a very small size and put them next to each other so that each shot cut very quickly from one to another at the beat of the music which made the editing very fast paced which helped keep up the rhythm of the music. 

At the beginning and the end of our music video we used a fade in effect and a fade out effect, because we thought that this helped to build up the music at the beginning. At the end we cropped the track slightly shorter and we thought that if we had the video fade out as well then this would be more effective than the last shot turning straight to black because it would be to abrupt and sudden, and it sort of goes with the music as it slows down towards the end.

I used my own bridge camera when photographing ideas for my panels and when creating my print productions I used Photoshop to edit my photographs in many ways. Photoshop allowed me to crop my photos into the correct dimensions for my album panels, and also I was able to put text onto my panels including the name of the band, name of the album, the song titles etc. To find the fonts I wanted to use for my print production and my advertisement I went onto Dafont.com which showed me a range of fonts in all different styles which was very useful and allowed me to download them.I also adjusted the contrast levels and slightly changed the colours of some of my images to enhance the colouring and improve the overall look of the photograph. To show my editing on photoshop I screen shotted stages, and saved them as pictures and posted them onto to the blog to help show how I got to my final outcome of my panels. For one of my ideas, I put my screen shots into a PowerPoint presentation and added notes to explain what I did. Then I uploaded this presentation onto Slideshare so that I was able to copy the embed code and post it onto my blog. I think Photoshop is a technology which offers new opportunities for creativity because of all the features which allow you to create a range of different art. It allows unsigned bands to promote their own music, and this is becoming easier and easier by the proliferation of technology.

Research

When trying to find an unsigned band to promote, there was a list of websites I went on which were quite helpful, but hard to find in the indie genre I wanted to work with. In the end we decided to choose a band that we already knew of called 'Tell it to the Marines'. We first heard of them through networks like Facebook and Myspace and saw them play locally a few time, so we thought it would be interesting to create a music video with the music of a band that we already knew and liked the sound of. By looking through their Myspace page and Facebook page, we are able to see the type of people who are interested in their music through their friends list and comments which are left on the page. It is clear that most of the audience are teenagers or young adults, ranging between the ages from about 16-24.

We researched a lot of music videos on Youtube which were also in the rock and indie genre. This helped us to get an idea of how to construct our own music video using the correct genre characteristics. Some of the videos I researched and analysed included Your Song by Ellie Goulding and Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People.






Many of the conventions and themes used in the video definitely inspired us to use the same sort of methods in the production of our music video, creating a sense of freedom and love for life.

To research ideas for the album cover, I found many different CDs in the same indie/rock genre and analysed three of them and put them onto my blog. This helped me to understand how to design and create the layout of my own front cover. I also looked in music magazines to get lots of different ideas and inspiration to help influence my own ideas, and also get an idea of how the are advertised in posters and magazines which was useful research into my advertisement.

Planning

When planning our music video, we created storyboards which included drawings of certain shots we wanted to use. Next to these drawings we wrote down the props which would be within the shot and the camera angle and the lighting which would be used. We also created a shot list to put onto our blogs, which included all the shots in our video that we were planning to use, this was helpful during the making of our video because we could go back and refer to what we wanted to do and when.

To help us to plan our music video we watched many videos in the indie/rock genre expecially on the NME and Kerrang! music channels; these were useful to help us plan what kind of editing and filming is commonly used in videos of this specific genre. When planning my panels for my album, I sketched many ideas to help to decide on the shots I wanted for each four panels. I also took a range of photographs which I thought I may use, then decided on four final designs when comparing them and asking for other people's opinions. I looked in music magazines, such as NME and Q to plan ideas for my advertisement. For example, the size and the layout.