Q4 – HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND

EVALUATION STAGES

BLOGGER• Online website, Blogger enabled our group to work in an organised , efficient and

effective manner throughout the production of our music video.• The core use of blogger was to create a multi-media portfolio for our production in

order to maintain clear organisation, effectively meet task deadlines and collaborate effectively

• As a group we used blogger effectively to illustrate our concept development.• Blogger ensured that we could consistently post project updates throughout the course

of the construction of our media products, with the useful tool of the comment facility we could give each group member critical feedback on the majority of posts and tell them how specific areas could be improved.

• Additionally it allowed us to embed videos and images to demonstrate primary and secondary research. Blogger portfolio and comments

facility

FACEBOOK

We created a facebook group in order to retrieve audience feedback quickly and accurately from respondents amongst our target audience who are new millennials and are all associated with being technophiles.

Due to the vast incline in the pluralistic media landscape web 2.0 application can be consumed on a frequent basis amongst positive technology determinists from almost anywhere due to the extremely popular Facebook app which is accessible to all smart phones.

Hence we decided to create a questionnaire on Facebook and post it into a private group of 30 friends aged between 16-18.

Due to the ease of distribution, presentation and data collection of the survey on Facebook it proved to be an extremely successful format, enabling us to obtain all of the audience feedback from all 30 people within 3 days, meaning we could effectively take everything into consideration and move on with our production.

YOUTUBE

YouTube Our final product was uploaded onto YouTube where it is

open to being viewed by anyone in the world. YouTube was also extremely useful when carrying out

research and applying technical analysis to other videos from the dance genre, providing much inspiration contributing to the production of our finished product.

YouTube has been used persistently throughout our production as we uploaded our, animatic, Brighton preliminary task, two rough cuts and our final piece onto it.

Uploading the rough cuts were particularly effective in enabling people to leave comments and give guidance onto how we could improve it.

Our YouTube channel showing our videos and comment facilities

Prezi• Prezi is a further example of Web 2.0 which has been heavily used

throughout production .• It is an online presentation tool which was used for the pitch and

digipak analysis enabling us to give a clear and illustrative presentation to a large group through the ease of embeddingvideo links and images from google, whilst applying appropriate animation to route the presentation in a stylistic manor.

• I used Prezi in frequent planning and research tasks to clearly de-code media texts such as the digipak and other music videos from the dance genre.

Analysis of the rear pane of the ministry of sound

digipak & an overview of our pitch presentation

CAMERA AND EQUIPMENT We used 2 cameras throughout the filming of our music video production. For our first shoot in London we used the canon legriaHFR66 which had an

enhanced zoom, however we could only shoot at 25 f/s therefore when footage was slowed down we lost resolution. However the xoom still enabled us to achieve exemplary shots such as the establishing shot at Southbank.

For our second shoot we used the Canon sx50 which we could use to shoot at 50 f/s which looked exceptional when slowed down.

In addition to the camera we also used some very effective pieces of equipment such as the tripod which enabled stability throughout all of our shots and the cam frame which was sufficiently used when filming the party sequence at the end of our video as we could generate movement and shoot from a variety of angles and distances whilst still maintaining stability.

ANIMATIC

We originally storyboarded our video onto paper then effectively transformed the stills into an animatic.

We filmed each picture on the storyboard for the duration which we had planned the shot to take when filming our music video.

Using the adobe software; Premiere we quickly transported the footage onto a timeline, editing each clip to effectively correspond with our track in order to give our audience a clear viewing of our narrative.

The construction of our animatic inspired the development of our concept with the mask idea which is present throughout our narrative. Additionally after watching the animatic back we instantly realised we needed at least another 50 shots in order to achieve the appropriate fast cutting rate which is regularly associated with dance music.

We didn’t face any particular problems when producing our animatic. The main challenge was to produce accurately drawn pictures using our limited artistic skills.

Link to the animatic -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVktyOvVX44

PREMIERE AND AFTER AFFECTS• We used a combination of adobe premiere elements 9.0 and adobe after

effects to edit our music video. • Adobe premiere elements was predominantly used throughout the editing

process, with specific clips from the video being edited in more sincere detail to achieve a more technically excellent advanced production.

• However we faced various challenges throughout the editing process due to regular crashing on premiere and a buffered playback as the programme could not run smoothly due to our very fast cutting rate.

• However we managed to overcome these challenges through high levels of patience and regularly exporting rough cuts so we could clearly watch our footage back without it buffering.

• Via the use of these 2 software's we were able to effectively edit our final piece to an outstanding standard which I and the group were all proud of.

ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 9.0Editing technique 1 – Cutting rate to match the beat of the song

• As you can see from the timeline above the cutting rate is incredibly fast with a cut at 6 frames per second in some sequences. This required careful listening and accurate cutting to appropriately match the cut to the beat of the song.

• It was important to execute a fast cutting rate which was in time to the beat as it is a well-recognised convention of music videos within the dance genre.

6 Cuts in 1 second

Editing technique 2 – Time stretch

• There were scenarios throughout our music video where we made the decision to slow down footage which we had shot at 50 frames per second, or speed up certain clips, such as the upward panning shot in Southbank.

• In order to effectively do this we had to select the specific clip which we wanted to either slow down or speed up and select the time stretch tool and then manually enter the speed at which we wanted the clip to play.

• This was a relatively easy process, however selecting the right speed was often a trial and error process where we had to view the clip in at least 5 different tempos before we made a firm decision on which was appropriate.

In this instance we increased the speed of the selected shot to 150%

Editing technique 3 – Strobe (white flash)

• In order for our final party scene to have an increased sense of verisimilitude we decided to implement a strobe effect over the footage.

• This was done by simply inputting a white frame into the timeline over the top of our original footage then making it quickly fade in then back out to create the strobe like effect.

• This was a very quick, easy and effective method of improving the reality of the sequence.

White frame placed over the top of our video footage

Video with the strobe effect

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS• Adobe After Effects was extremely

important to our music video in order to achieve technical excellence in editing.

• The 'Rotobrush' was the main tool we used, it was used mostly for the black and white shots where I am made to be the only character in colour walking through a busy section of Southbank.

•  This challenging effect was achieved by using the rotobrush tool to isolate myself in the composition layer and then changing the colour scheme for the background to black and white.

• It was a very time consuming process as each frame must first be checked to see if the rotobrush outline was accurate, as often it gets confused by people or objects which interfere by walking in front of me.

• We were extremely satisfied with the end product we produced.

The screenshot below shows the process of cutting round the outline of my body to separate it from the back ground so a black and white filter could be applied, allowing me to remain in colour

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP• Adobe Photoshop CS3 was primarily used for the

production of our print work. On the software, tasks varied from using the magic wand tool to select and cut out the silhouette of my face and place against a blank background (the front and back panes of the digital), to utilising the cut out filter to create the cartoon like effect on myself in order to achieve the specific carton effect which we had initially planned. Additionally we manipulated the saturation until the colour scheme was matched throughout the finished piece.

• The main challenges throughout using Adobe Premiere was trying to saturate each image to the same level in order to achieve a consistent colour scheme throughout the Digipak. In terms of the magazine advertisement the toughest challenge was creating a clear reading path which we believed to be effective and appropriate to successfully market the product.

• To the right is our finished magazine advertisement and digipak.