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

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the duration of this project, there were several issues and challenges that I had to overcome; one of them being my own incompetence and what I mean by that is I didn’t have the knowledge to be able to complete this task when I first started so I admittedly have been learning as I went along.

I had to expand my knowledge and skills in new media technologies and programs as well as strengthen my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop I was familiar with from studying AS level media studies and AS level graphic design.

Once we had recorded our initial footage we were able to preview it on the camera; first thing we all realized was that the shots were shaky and weren’t that great. So we used a tripod in order to stabilize the footage we were taking so  began to re-record. Whilst we were doing this we consistently compared the footage to real media products (music videos) and realised some shots were only good for a few seconds, what i mean by this is that some shots would only work well for specific parts of the song because it matches the music and the lyrics well.

Research for music videos

In the beginning we used YouTube as a research tool to look at and analyse different music videos for our music genre. We then had a deeper understanding as to what this project demanded and understood it would be no easy task to complete.

We used the internet to look up music videos that we could potentially use for this project for this stage we used Vevo which is a media sharing websites that allow you to upload video’s and stream them.

Once we had confirmed a song choice we had to begin creating a music video and we began by recording test footage on a camera (Cannon 340HS) which allowed us to record all the footage we needed in high definition with a maximum of 1080p which is full HD, with this powerful camera at our disposal we began recording shots for our music video.

We then dove deeper into research for our music video and we began to do so by looking at specific directors such as “Director X” who had directed several Hip-hop and R&B songs for artists such as “Jay-Z, Sean Paul, R-Kelly, and Drake” and much, much more. Researching his fast editing techniques as well as his evident use of natural lighting only helped influence the way in which we would approach creating the narrative structure of our song choice.

One draw back was the time of year we were filming we wanted to use natural lighting for our video but the academic year starts in september onwards so we were in winter so sunny days were few and far between and day light wasn't around for very long.

so to compensate for this we had to use artificial lighting to improve the lighting in our shots. because these lights are not portable we had to use the green screen where we could change the background to whatever we needed for that particular scene. 

Construction of music video

In the construction stage of our music video we used several program such as Final Cut Pro X, which is a movie-editing program that not only let us place footage and mix it around. But it allowed us to edit them intricately by adding filter effects such as, crisp contrast, keyer, cold steel, flash intro as well as text manipulation.

Using Final Cut Pro X pushed me to the limit as I had never even uploaded a video before. So it was a daunting task considering the scope and depth the program allowed us to edit. To come to grips with it, I read books on the program as well as a combination of YouTube tutorials. After about a week, I considered my self a pro.

I began using editing techniques such as cross cuts and fades, which are evidently seen in music video of the hip hop/R&B genre. I also used the Keyer technique over the green screen to be able to include a variety of backgrounds to make the music video more interesting.
I also used the crisp contrast technique to improve the quality of the footage as some scenes were darker and lower in quality in comparison to others.

Adobe After Effects was a program  that allowed us to be very creative it allowed us to manipulate the text adding outer glows to them as well as animating the text that appears in our music video, it was also helpful in colorizing the backgrounds of our music video in particular scenes where we used a green screen.

To upload the video and Gain feedback Social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook were evidently helpful. As the site allow you to share media publicly and allows them to comment on them.

 

The feedback was very helpful as it informed me what was not working in our music video as well as what was good about it. It also allowed us to engage with our target audience about the project and the feedback was very insightful and a great stepping-stone towards our final product. Twitter and Facebook are tools which can be used for adverting our music video as it allows me to share content with my targeted audience, as well as the general public which overall promotes public awareness of my music video.

Research magazine and DigiPak

In terms of research for the magazine advert and DigiPak I used real examples of media product; from physically analyzing a real DigiPak from my own personal collection to the Internet and surveys that compare DigiPak to traditional plastic CD cases. This was useful as it gave me an insight into the advantages and disadvantages of DigiPaks.

In addition I used my I pad which is a tablet that allows me to read magazines online rather than have to physically go into a shop and buy one this was useful as it allowed me to quickly browse through hundreds of examples that either had a direct link to our targeted audience or had no link what so ever but it was helpful because it informed me as to what elements I should include in my magazine advert and what was inappropriate for a magazine advert.

Construction of DigiPak and magazine

Photoshop wasn’t so helpful in the construction of the music video but was invaluable in the construction stages of the magazine advert and DigiPak.

As well as Adobe Photoshop I used Adobe Illustrator to improve our DigiPak and magazine advert, Adobe Photoshop is a program that works in pixels and is great for image manipulation where illustrator is useful is that it works in vectors therefore giving you a higher quality image but cannot be used to the extent Adobe Photoshop can.

In photoshop i used various techniques such as the "Duo tone" feature which allowed me to make the colour on the Digipak red without loosing any detail in the photographs.

Adobe photoshop also enabled me to cut away the backgrounds from my photographs which was a key element in the construction of my Magazine advert and Digipak.

Adobe Illustratore was extremely helpful in the construction of the logo for our record label, i used the "Live Trace" technique which sharpened the text and removed and smoothed out any pixelated edges. the "live paint" technique was helpful as it enabled me to be very accurate with the colour choice of the logo allowing me to change the colour of any section of i. which helped the design of the record label logo link in with the Digipak and magazine advert.

The photos for both the magazine advert and DigiPak were taken from the same camera that we used to create our music video. The high quality photographic capacity of the Cannon 340HS camera was a life saver as the quality of the photograph is what brought the designs of both the Digipak and magazine advert to life.

In terms of feedback we used our mobile phones to record videos of our target audience commenting on our DigiPak and magazine advert the advantage of this was we were able to quickly post the video on our blogs.

The planning stage

In the planning stages of our project we used a website called Blogger which allows you to create posts of any media content, text, images, videos e.c.t the reasons this was helpful was that it allowed us view the dates we were making posts so it was easy to see if we were on schedule to completing our task. it also allowed me to hold everything together rather than paper which can easily be damaged or lost.

We made a production schedule using Microsoft Excel, which is a program that lets you create spreadsheets in chronological order; I created this right at the beginning of the project so we wouldn’t be overwhelmed with work and most importantly to make sure we would meet our deadline.

We also used our mobile phones to plan days we were going to shoot. There are numerous text messages between me and members of my group showing us talking about re-shoots and organizing days to record and what materials we need.

Evaluation stage

The evaluation stage was extremely stressful as the question we were asked required us to go into extreme depth about why we chose to do the most minor of things in the research, production and planning stages of our music video, magazine advert and DigiPak and how they related to our demographic through denotations and subliminal connotations be it color scheme, design style or typographic style.

What was positive about the evaluation stage is that it allowed me to look over the media products we had created with a critical and objective mind, what I mean is it gave me the opportunity to intricately compare and contrast the relationship between our media product and real media products and wether or not they work as promotional materials for our record label.

The image of the record label you see was created by a combination of creative techniques from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. i created the design by creating four elongated rectangles and distorting them whilst changing the colour to red and black; this was done to match my magazine advert and Digipak.
the symbols, Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts and Spades are shapes created using the shape tool on photoshop. the text was downloaded from a website called www.Dafont.com which is a website that has an entire library of typography for me to use.

i then took the design to Adobe illustrator and smoothed and sharpend the pixelated edges as well as intensify the colours.

This project expanded my knowledge of media as a whole and was enjoyable when the media products were finalized I couldn’t help but feel proud, another positive about the evaluation stage was it allowed me to see weather my media products conformed to, develop or challenged media theories such as the male gaze, which we challenged through our scenes in our music video; as well as how our products in particular the music video conformed to the media theory created by Todorov who says that all media has a beginning, middle and end where there is Equilibrium in the beginning disequilibrium in the middle and the native returns to equilibrium in the end which is a theory that applies to our music video.

 

Roland Barthez also has a media theory that applies to our music video, which is of enigma, and action codes where the enigma code is what the audience expects to happen and the action codes occur when the action has already occurred. elements from his theory are apparent in our music video particularly in scenes of male actor 1 and our female actress are together. The enigma code is you expect them to hug and the action codes take place once they have hugged.

The last theory that applies to our music video is Stuart halls Reception theory, because we have challenged the representation of women in music videos we are inevitable going to receive different reading from our audience some will have a preferred reading (like the music video) a negative reading (dislike the music video) or a negotiated reading where they are in conflict about weather or not they like or dislike the music video.

In conclusion I enjoyed this project although stressful at time I had to work in a group which in some cases was beneficial but nerve wrecking as I had to rely on other people which has an ultimate impact on my grade.