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

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

During our progress in making our music video we used and iMac computer as this product enabled us to use software and programmes that would not have been available on other types of computers.

One of the programmes we were able to use was, Final Cut Express. We used this programme in producing our music video. We were able to edit and capture forage and add transitions in our music video. We used the programme in the planning stage to see what certain ideas would look like before making our final decision. This programme enabled us to use effects, such as transitions and editing speed and adding motions to our music video. It also allows us to change and experiment with different colours such as, sepia and black and white effects and many more. 

At first we used Adobe Premier, however our group had some problems with this software, therefore we used Final cut Pro. Final Cut Pro was quiet difficult to begin with, as we started to get used to it and understand the use of it it became a lot easier when putting our video together. This program allowed us to cut clips using the razor tool, arrange them, add transitions such as additive dissolve, and edit footage. Using this video editing software allowed a lot more advanced video editing

To evaluate my work I mainly used Word Microsoft and PowerPoint. When using PowerPoint I had then then upload the work onto SlideShare which enabled me to embed my work and upload it onto my blogger as widgets which then allows you to go through the slide show on my blog very easily. I found this very useful as it wasn’t very challenging in fact it was very useful throughout our project. 

I used Youtube at certain stages of our research and planning. I also used Youtube to upload our final video and embed the video so that I could upload it onto my blog.

Another very useful programme was Photoshop, which I used to produce my ancillary tasks. Photo shop helped me make my work look more professional as it had a wide range of different ways that I could edit my work until I was pleased with it. I had previously used this programme when doing my AS work therefore I was very familiar with the filters it provided me with when doing my work. 

When filming our music video, we used a video HD camera. This was simple to use as we did get a chance to have some practise of using the camera before beginning to film any shoots for our music video. We tried different angles and shots during the planning stage of making our music video. During our planning work we experimented with the camera to see what worked well and what didn’t, therefore we concluded when using zoom in it made our video look quiet fuzzy so we decided that instead of making a long clip and zooming to have a close up shot, we would make smaller shots however going closer to our performer to get the close up shot we wanted so that it looked clear. In addition to our video camera, we used a tripod which was provided by our school. Having a tripod during our project helped us massively. This was very useful because when we was filming it helped us to have steady straight shots rather then us holding it in our hands which wouldn’t have looked very professional when putting our work together. 

We used a DSLR camera to take photos of our main performer for our ancillary tasks. Using this camera was very useful and it also made our photos very clear as the lens was professional.

As we chose to set our video mainly outside because of our story line, most of our lighting was quiet natural. We chose specific filming times so that we could get the natural lighting we wanted. Other shots such as indoor were mainly flashbacks of our performer which links to our story line. This lighting was indoor lights, which we chose to change into black and white to give a different effect so that our audience knew what our artists flashbacks were. 

By using a combination of many different software and media technologies, this helped my group to achieve a very successful project and to produce a very effective music video.