Evaluation Question 4 - Draft

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.