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

Music Video

Google Chrome:

I used Google Chrome as it is my most preferred web browser because of its speed and how easy it is to use. Due to the fact I was using this browser, Google instantly became my search engine which I was not to change because I use it on a regular basis. I searched various images and websites to find exactly what I needed during the research and planning stage and well as when we were creating:

- A website I found helpful was the iTunes website. I used this to look at indie/ alternative charts to see what type of music was popular with our target audience. It was a very easy site to use and I found what I needed within seconds.

-Another site I used to find charts was the BBC Radio 1 site, but this wasn’t as helpful as I have stated before in a post.

- I used weheartit.com very often when trying to find inspirational images. It’s a website that consists of just images. You type in what images you want and it displays all of the results of reams of pages.

- YouTube was used regularly when we were looking at other music videos. It is very simple to search for the videos and the majority of the time, the official video is the first option, so you find exactly what you want to watch. You can also do a lot with the videos such as embedding them into your blog and cutting them down on Tube Chop. We also used YouTube to upload our final video onto. By doing this, people from all over the world can view it, which in an ideal world would be brilliant because we could get all sorts of feedback.

- Tube Chop is a site that was used frequently during the research and planning stages when we were analysing existing music videos from artists in our genre. Tube Chop allows you to take a video from YouTube (which was very useful as this is the site we used to find videos) and cut it down to the part that I want. This was a very successful site to use because instead of writing which minutes of the video I am discussing, I could have the exact clip. This made it easier for me and whoever was reading my work.

- I used the BBC Weather site to look at the forecast on days that we were taking photos. It was very easy to find and I could type in the location and was instantly given a forecast.

- We used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for various reasons. The first was so we could contact each other. A group was created on Facebook that included ourselves as well as the band so we could say what dates we were free and what days we were going to do what. Without this group we would have really struggled to confirm days that we were to film, and have spent a lot of money ringing everyone. We also used both of these sites to set up a profile for the band to get themselves ‘fans’ and become recognised. It helped to boost their profile and let everyone in our school know who they were and what they were doing. Lastly, due to Facebook and Twitter being vastly used across the world with over 800 million users combined and the oldest being created in just 2004, with just a simple ‘post’ or ‘tweet’ of our video we could get a huge amount of feedback, even from people that aren’t in our target audience.

- Lastly, a website that we have all used practically everyday is Blogger. On this site we created our group blog and is where we posted all the work we have done. It was used to post about research, inspiration, draft or final products as well as just a few sentences to keep posted on what we were doing. As it is a website it can be accessed anywhere such as at school or home or on Smart Phones such as the iPhone. Therefore, we could post whenever we wanted to and comment on any post if requested to do so by one another.

Animoto

I used Animoto to create our 25 word pitch on. It’s not my favourite site to create videos on, but it’s very simple to use and very easy to display what you want in a reasonably professional manner so I was pleased with how it turned out. However, I would only use it for a small pitch because the time length is limited as well as how many words can be displayed per slide. On the other hand, another advantage of it was I was able to embed it using the HTML code and insert it into a post a put it on our blog.

Sony NEX-5 and Sony NEX-7 (recording)

We were very fortunate in our group when concerning cameras because both Harry and Jess had very similar ones. This meant we could use both when filming, maximising our ability to get the shots we were after. The quality of the image on both were very defined which I hope will add to giving the video a professional look.

Cannon 1000D (still camera)

Jess and Joe also had the same camera. We used these during the beginning stages when we first got the band together and took some band shots. This was very useful because it meant we could have the same image but being taken from different angles to get the best results.

Microsoft Word

I used Microsoft Word for three tasks. The first one was to simply insert the shot sequence on so we could then upload it on to Scribd. The reason for this was so it would be one document you could scroll through instead of uploading each page as an image was taking up a lot of the page on the blog. The second task was to create a questionnaire that was used to get feedback on from our audience when watching the video. It was very easy to create on the program because I could easily adjust the style of font and size so everyone could read it, insert lines so they know where to write as well as simple tick boxes. I found this very easy. The third task was quite similar to this where I created a questionnaire to find out which album cover my target audience most preferred.

Scribd

The benefit of using Microsoft Word is I can then upload the document onto Scribd ‘a web based document sharing site’, and then use the HTML code so I could embed it onto the blog for all to see.

Mobile Phone

Throughout filming, we all contacted each other regularly. If it wasn’t done via social network sites, then we would call or text. It was essential that we could contact one another at all times. A good example of this is when we were filming in the forest. Joe was going to be half an hour late due to work commitments which meant he couldn’t convoy with us, and when it came to finding the place by himself he get lost so rang me to give him directions. If we didn’t have communication through phones, Joe would have never been able to find the forest where we were filming. 

Premier Pro

Premier Pro was the software used by Harry to edit the video on. This was chosen because he was more experienced with it than any other. It allowed him to do many things such as speeding up or slowing down clips and creating a split screen. Despite not using the software, I think Harry made the right choice instead of using iMovie or other editing programmes available.

MacBook Pro

If I am to be entirely honest, without Harry’s MacBook, I think we would have struggled to create what we did. Due to it being so small and lightweight, he was able to take it everywhere, from the classroom to the outside filming and not needing a charger. It was used very often when we had forgotten things, such as when I forgot the shot sequence we had to use the MacBook to go online and find it on our blog, or if the speakers ran out of battery, we could use it to play the song on iTunes. It was also very helpful in the sense that all the software and equipment we had worked with a Mac.

iPod

Our iPods were used when we were filming outside, so this was: the forest, the boat, the hill and the car park. We could plug the iPod into the speakers through a cable and we would instantly have sound outside. Despite the sound being quite quiet, it was better than nothing and helped us and the band members know what they were singing and when to sing it.

iTunes

We used iTunes during filming to play the song on when we had access to Harry’s MacBook. This was used when we were filming inside, so this was the barn and the pool. We were able to stop, start and pause the song as well as starting the song from where we wanted. iTunes is a music software that we were all very familiar with so thought this would best to use.

Speakers

Speakers were used throughout the filming stage. It was necessary we used speakers because we had to make sure the lead singer, and band members, knew exactly what they had to sing and time it right. We did struggle with the availability of loud speakers during the draft filming, but when it came to final filming, Jess supplied us with loud computer speakers that could plug into Harry’s MacBook via my iPod cable. This worked much better and helped our lead singer to perform much better.

Digipak

Google Chrome
I used Google Chrome as my internet browser for various websites as it helped me with my research when looking into existing albums and posters:

-I researched band websites to see how they were set out and what band logos were used as well as colours.

-Another website I used was the NME website to find reviews. The reason behind this was I wanted to see what terminology is used in reviews so I could make mine look as professional as possible. The internet was an incredibly useful technology to use throughout the project. Without it I wouldn’t have had half the inspiration and ideas I did.

Sony NEX-5

I also used the Sony NEX-5, which was leant to me by Harry, to take images for my digipak and poster and I was very impressed with how clear the images were. This made them a lot easier to edit on Photoshop.

Photoshop

This program was the one I used most commonly as it was what I created my album and poster on. It allowed me to experiment with various ideas I had, and because of the layers tool, it meant I could change the smallest thing and have two copies. There are many tools that I could use such as changing the colour to black and white to suit my style, contrast and brightness, inserting text and shapes to behind the text as well as duplicating images for each panel on the digipak and deleting sections of layers. As I have stated before, I’m not hugely confident when using Photoshop so I did struggle when using the more difficult tools and had to ask for help. However, I managed to get done wanted and I think I used the program well.

Microsoft PowerPoint

I used this program to display my research into albums and posters. It wasn’t my first choice, but because of how easy it was to access at home and at school as well as being confident when using it, I decided that I would work on this program. It allowed me to display my work in a simple manner but get across my points easily.

Slide Share

Another benefit of using Microsoft PowerPoint meant I was able to upload it onto SlideShare. It is a site that allows you to upload PowerPoints you have created so they can be viewed online. I could then embed this onto the group’s blog so my work could be viewed.

Scanner/ Print

With my original idea for my album cover, I had four different coloured skeletons on the front. Due to my lack of drawing skills, I decided to find an image online of a cartoon style skeleton. I then printed this off at school using their printer as it has much more higher quality than mine at home. I was then able to trace the image changing it slightly to match my own idea more. Once I had done this, using the same school printer, I scanned it and the image was then sent to me via email in a PDF format. This was a much more simple process and more efficient because it meant I had access to the image at school as well as at home by logging on using Remote Desktop. Thus, I was able to create the album cover at home and at school.