Evaluation 4

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

Research

In the beginning when we started our research our main focus was to look at current music videos and what made them so popular. I did this by firstly using Google in order to get hold of the top 40 video charts. After finding these I used other websites such as Wikipedia and BBC, which allowed us to access articles and information about each of the genres so that we could develop a better understanding of the different genres. I then used the well known democratic sites like YouTube and Jamendo.com which not only allowed us to view the videos but also to share with others as part of Web 2.0.  Other social networking sites such as; facebook and twitter, allowed my partner and I to get in contact with our desired artist after listening to their music and choosing the song on sites similar to ReverbNation. We were then able to purchase the song from ITunes in order to use in our video. Once we had decided on a genre, using sites like YouTube and Vimeo helped us to analyse our artist’s videos, with our genre being Dubstep we looked at our artist, Skrillex, carefully and found that he uses alot of outdoor scenes and tracking shots of him as an artist. We then interpreted this into our own video. Furthermore for our ancillary task we used Google images as a way of finding current albums and magazine adverts of the Dubstep genre. I also looked at magazines such as “Spin” and “The Wire” where Skrillex has previously been featured. Finally I did some research into the possible TV channels that commonly show Dubstep music videos and found that MTV Base was the most likely channel to show our video.

Planning

During our planning process we used blogging as a way to track and record our progress as well as using it as a place to store all of our ideas for our music video. This was particularly useful as once we started it enabled us to easily refer to previous ideas and develop them further. Blogging was also useful as it allowed us to display our findings to a larger audience and using social networking enabled us to gain feedback for our ideas and gain permission to use the song via Twitter to avoid any copyright issues. During our time storyboarding we travelled to multiple locations where we used Smartphone’s to take test shots. Once we had chosen our locations we then used Microsoft Word to create a call sheet, using the ‘table’ tool we were able to easily create a table with what actors we needed and what we intended to do on set days of filming. Once again YouTube became a large help with getting tutorials on possible editing techniques to use later on, these included Sin city effect and ‘film look’

Construction

During the construction stages we used Cannon HD cameras to film the main body of our video and a digital Nikon SLR for our still shots. Using these two well developed modern cameras enabled us to gain the best quality possible and ensuring that the video does not end up looking armature or of poor quality which can affect the response of the video. Depending on what style of shot we were after affected what hardware we were going to use. The majority of the time we used a tripod to gain the standard steady shot, however at times we also used the gorilla tripod and steady cam to gain more of the moving shots including the final rotation of our main actor. Once we had our basis of footage we then used an Apple Mac to edit our footage by using a fire wire to import it onto the professional standard software Final Cut Pro 7. This software allowed us import, export and alter footage however we wanted whilst having our music alongside. We had to cut our music down from 5 minutes to 3 ½ we therefore used the razorblade tool to cut each section and then the ‘arrow’ tool to move them together the same tools were applied to the footage. However with the cuts in the footage at parts this required a smoother transition rather than a jump cut, we therefore used the drop down bar to find the cross dissolve effect which made the footage flow more seamlessly between slower sections of the song. Changing the colour in our video was very important as we needed to create a dark edgy effect to fit the conventions of a Dubstep genre, to do this we used Colour Correction 3 way which allowed us to create our own desired effect.

Evaluation

Finally for my evaluation I used as variation of different technologies. I began by using an IPad3 to record my answers to both question one and three. Both questions involved myself and partner discussing the two questions in an informal manner, referring both to our video which is played on the Apple Mac in the background and the different versions of audience feedback. We also used the application IMovie as a way of editing our analysis on the Ipad3, this then made it simpler to upload our footage straight onto YouTube where we could easily copy the video onto our blog. The other two questions however we answered individually, for one question I used Microsoft Word to type up my response. The other I used Microsoft PowerPoint to analyse my ancillary task with the use of text box and clipart, this just made my analysis simple and clear to understand. Finally I used screen shots and photographs as a visual aid to my explanations.