How did you use new media technologies in the

construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

By Emily and Amie A2 Media Studies

(Hardware)

In this question we need to look at the different areas of ‘media technologies’ that

need to be explored…

• Hardware- The equipment used to help create and produce the video. E.g. the apple macs, video cameras and tripod.

• Software- The software used to help produce, edit and present the video. E.g. photoshop, final cut and Prezi.

The Video CameraWe used a Canon Legaria HF R76 to film our video. This had a range of features such as:

This camera, with its twistable screen, helped us to film with ease; we were able to get innovative angles as we could put the camera on the floor and twist the screen up to see the shot.

Although as shown it has features such as the ‘creative footage’ and the ‘record and share’ we were more interested in the quality of the filming. The camera films in HD helping us to achieve high quality shots and making our video look more professional than the average video. The 57x zoom helped us to zoom into key features within the video without compromising the quality of the camera.

The Tripod

The tripod we used was an amazon own brand tripod, but it was lightweight and durable, perfect for bringing to all types of locations for filming. For example we took our tripod to Weston and it really helped us to get shots from loads of different angles, especially high up angles that normally it would be difficult to get.

The tripod was also a help when doing photography, as it helped to ensure the camera was really still and straight, helping us to get a the best images possible for our digiPak.

The CameraWe used this camera to achieve all of the photos we have used in our digipak and advert.The camera has 14.2 megapixels, allowing us to achieve clear, high definition photos.

On the settings in the camera you are able to change the effects of the photos when they are taken. For most of the photos we wanted to keep it on the automatically programmed setting, which didn’t alter the colour or change anything about the picture being taken. However we took a few of he photos in back and white, as this is a convention of the indie genre. As our genre crosses over with pop, we wanted to take most of the photos as colour is a prodiminant feature of this genre. If we took a photo which was in colour and wanted it to be in back and white then we could easily edit it in photoshop, on the other side, if we took a photo in black and white and wanted it to be in colour then we would not be able to do so.

Green Screen and SD CardFor the first shoot of our performance for the video we decided to use a green screen, with the intention of adding the mustard colour we have incorporated into our digipak and advert. When it came to editing this into the video, it didn’t look right and we felt that it didn’t fit with song and the rest of the video.   It worked well, but not for our desired intention

SD card:In both cameras we used (the video camera and the photography camera) there was an SD card; which held the photographs and footage. After we had finished with the cameras we could insert the SD cards into the Apple mac so that it could be transferred.

LightingIn both shoots we did of our performer, we used lights to get the look we wanted. We used two lights and positioned them either side of him to make sure that both side of him were lit and so that a shadow would not cast on one side of his face. Getting the positioning of the lights correct and to look how we wanted it to was trial and error. In the second shoot of our performer, the lights created a shadow of him on the wall behind, this looked effective in our video and worked well to help with the star iconography.

IphoneWe decided to create an instagram page so that we could upload photos to visually show our progress as well as uploading blog posts. We both signed into our instagram on our iPhone’s so that whenever we wanted to upload a photo to our instagram account we could. The iPhone 5, which is the model we used has an 8 megapixel rear camera, allowing the photos we took to be of good quality.

Apple MacWe used a 21.5-inch late 2013 edition of the apple mac to create our music video, advert and digipak.  We also used it to upload blog posts and to keep everything updated.  As this is a fairly new model of the mac it was quick and easy to use.  All of the programs we needed to use were already downloaded and set up on it so it was ready for us to begin.