How did you use media
technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Me, Alfie
and Will used several media technologies in order to construct our media
product. For the construction and research stages, I had used the search
engine, Google, in order to research existing media products to help us with
the creation of our own media products. It was crucial for us to research
existing media products as otherwise, the media products which we were creating
may not have fit in with the genre of music we were aiming to merge in to.
Blogger helped with the construction
and research stages of our media product as we were able to store all of our
research on to our blogs in order to show the progressions which we have made.
If we didn't use Blogger to store the research and information which we had found,
then the research and construction stage would've been harder to complete as we
may have struggled to find the information that we had found from the lesson
before. I had already had experience using Blogger in order to store all of my
existing work on there from AS Level Media Studies which allowed meet be more
familiar with the technologies I was using. However, as I was using Blogger, it
had meant that I had to link a google account to the Blogger in order to
prevent losing my work and being able to log on to my Blogger account whenever
I wanted to. Blogger allowed me to store my completed work on the website which
can be viewed by anyone who visits my Blogger page. However, I was able to save
unfinished work as a draft which allowed me to edit it without anyone being
able to see my unfinished work.
In order to create the final media
product, we had to use software which would allow us to do this. We were able
to experiment with two different software’s to see which one suited us best.
The first draft music video was iMovie which was created on my MacBook. This
had allowed me to be able to edit the video whenever I wished to as I could use
my laptop. However, the other draft music videos were attempted on software
called Final Cut Pro X which was the same layout as iMovie, but we wouldn't be
able to edit the video when we wished as it was on the school iMac's. I
personally preferred using the iMovie software as I had gained experience using
it after making several draft music videos on my ow laptop but my other two
group members preferred Final Cut Pro X. Originally, we were all going to make
our own music videos as we had different interpretations to how we wanted to
video to look but instead, we all contributed for the final media product and
had made separate drafts where we would be able to use our own creative minds
in order to link the song with the actions of the band members. There were
advantages being able to work off my MacBook which is why we had chosen to use
the software, iMovie over Final Cut Pro X.
Another media technology which we had
used was YouTube. In order for us to make a successful music video within the
genre of music that we have collectively chosen, YouTube had allowed us to do
this as we were able to research existing media products in order forms to get
inspiration on the genre which we are making our media product on. We were able
to watch the original music video for the song which we had chosen to make a
new music video for which was Jamie T - Sticks 'n' Stones. If we didn't use
YouTube in order to research the genre, we may have made a music video which
didn't fit in with he genre that we wanted to create. This could've led to an
audience not being satisfied with the product we had created. YouTube also
allowed us to store the media products which we had made on to a safe area
where they can be viewed by the public but also doesn't risk being
deleted.
iTunes was a media technology which we
had used when purchasing the official Sticks ‘n’ Stones song in order for the
song to be placed in the iMovie software for us to be able to make the lip
synching fit in with the lyrics of the song. Purchasing the song had made it
easier than using an MP3 converter which could’ve allowed us to put the song in
to the iMovie software for free, we didn’t want to risk there being any
problems with lyrics or any intro noise which may be included within the official
music video. Purchasing the song helped with the post production editing as we
are able to link the background noise of the song which helped us perform good
lip synching when recording the artists singing in the filming locations which
we had chosen.
The camera which we used to record the music
video was a Nikon D7000. This had allowed us to take better quality videos
making our music video high quality. On top of that, the lens was a Nikkor
55200 which allowed us to focus in and out on certain features within the
shots. This had allowed the audience to know what the focus was for that
particular shot. We also tried using a tripod which was with the camera, but it
made the shots too still making certain shots look boring and uninteresting
compared to when we filmed without the tripod. Due to the camera being good
quality, it had made it easier for us when coming to post production as we didn’t
have to alter the lighting of the shots as the camera self-adjusted depending
on factors which may have affected the outcome of certain shots.
I used Adobe Photoshop when creating
the ancillary texts such as the digipak and the advert for when our digipak
will be released. Photoshop allowed us to edit our media products as well using
the templates from the internet in order to create our digipak. Photoshop was
important to me as otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to create the media
products which I needed to and therefore wouldn’t have been able to complete
the coursework. In order to make the digipak, I used a website which gave me a
template to use when designing the aesthetics of my digipak. As I had already
researched all the information which I needed to know, I was able to create/attempt
digipak drafts in order to then be able to receive feedback on how I am able to
improve it to help it to fit in with the genre we had chosen to focus our media
products on, Indie.
