Evaluation - Question 4 (third draft)

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

I used a variety of different media technologies throughout each creative process of my work, in order to develop my skills and gain a wide range of resources.

Lyric Video

Research and Planning
For my research and planning, I gathered a lot of information from the Internet in order to collect both primary and secondary research. I used the Internet (particularly Google and YouTube) to research into the song Sweet Disposition and the band The Temper Trap, to learn more about their music and the correct lyrics. I used YouTube and searched through multiple different lyric videos, and also used Google filters to find a lyrics website, as there is a lot of debate over the official lyrics of the song. By using both of these technologies it allowed me to narrow down and select the correct lyrics, by combining both resources in order to make my final results more reliable. I also looked at their official music video on YouTube to make sure that my ideas were not directly linked to anything in their actual video.
Google was also very useful for finding real-life digipak and magazine advertisement examples, as I could use the specific filters to eliminate any student examples and fan-made artwork.

Filming

Nikon D3100

Canon 550D

When I began to construct my music video, I used both a Nikon D3100 and a Canon 550D to film outside around Nottingham and inside in the media studio. I used the Nikon for the outdoor scenes as it captured the true colours of our surroundings really nicely, whereas I used the Canon inside as it focused really well on my actor's face while he was lip-syncing, and also didn't over-expose his face against the studio lighting, whereas the Nikon did slightly.

Editing

Cropped Footage

Once I had finished filming all my music video footage, I edited it all together on Adobe Premiere Pro software, which I had used previously in AS Media. With this software, I was able to add different transitions and effects into my video, such as fades, colour correction and colour tints. During this process, Izzy and I also discovered how to crop two videos together, in order to create what looks like one video, when in reality it was two separate occasions. We did this with a kitchen scene, where we wanted the two actors to look like they were arguing, however in the shot of Izzy arguing, Tom was looking directly into the camera. To combat this, we found another shot where Tom was looking at Izzy, and instead cropped that footage into the other half of the shot and overlaid it so that the two scenes became one.

Photography and Photoshop

Magazine Advertisement

For my ancillary texts, I used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to edit my photographs and create different effects. I used different tools such as the blurring tool in order to mute the background for my magazine advertisement, and also created a make-up like effect for both my ancillary texts using a variety of brightening and darkening shades on Matt's face to make him look more chiselled. I also used the colour correction tools and played around with the different shades in order to create a reddish tinge on my studio photographs for the inside of my digipak.

Evaluations
For my evaluations, I have again used the Internet to aid my presentations by creating different formats. I have used a variety of online presentation websites such as Emaze, Slideshare, Prezi, Flipsnack, SurveyMonkey and MakeAGif.com in order to make my work more versatile and entertaining, rather than using the same formats for each question.
I have also created a documentary-style montage video of interviews, where I got three different media students to give me their personal opinions on my ancillary texts. I also received some constructive criticism, which was incredibly helpful.
To create my video I used the media studio, and filmed each student against the black back-drop so that the background didn't draw focus from the feedback I received. This also helped when I superimposed different images into the footage, as they all stood out against the black back-drop.

Interview Video

I used the Canon 700D as this camera is touch-screen so is easy to use, and also has a flip-out screen so each student could see themselves as they were speaking, which helped them to look directly into the camera lens rather than at me, creating the effect that they were being filmed by a real cameraman rather than by me.
I then used the studio lighting as well, as this helped the colour in the footage to stand out in better quality than the normal lighting.