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

We first used media technologies when we were researching what genre we wanted to pursue so we researched many different genres to discover how they differentiated from one another. During our research we watched a lot of current videos that were in the genre that we wanted to create. We also researched album covers and magazine adverts we did this with Google which allowed us to find a more extensive range, thanks to this research we were able to create a unique idea that had the professional qualities that would be needed for real digipaks and magazine adverts.

When researching into the music video we used popular websites such as YouTube, these enabled us to look at thousands of videos in different genres to get an idea of how certain genres appeal to there target audiences. After deciding which song we wanted to use YouTube provided us with the ability to look at other videos in the same genre and by the same artist. We were able to look at the style that is expected of a Kreayshawns music videos as well as general r‘n’b videos.

When planning each task we were required to do, we posted our ideas onto our blog and then added more posts as our ideas developed. For example when creating the CD we had several different ideas that helped us move on to our final piece. Also when planning the music video we used Google maps to find suitable locations that would look the most effective in our genre of music video.

The construction of each of that tasks was probably the most difficult part of the project. Most of the video was created using a camcorder and a tripod, as we felt this would be most suited for the video we wanted to create. We also used the studio equipment in order to create our performance shots, we had much more ideas for the studio but most of them we were unable to get round to. In the studio we used the professional cameras and lighting as well as some filters. We were also able to use the mixing desk to have a range of shots for different parts of the video.

To edit the footage we had shot we used the program ‘final cut pro’ and we also did some editing on ‘motion’ We had hours of footage to choose from and decided which were best for certain parts was a very time consuming task, the clips were cut down using a razor took which allowed us to precisely cut them for the gaps we wanted them to fill. After we chose each clip and decided where it would go we had to make sure the lips were synced correctly which was very difficult because you couldn’t be out by a second. Once we had composed the rough timeline we were able to add effects. For the close up of the lips we changed the hue and brightness to make it look more like a stereotypical r’n’b video. We also edited the brightness and contrast on several different shots when the colours didn’t quite fit in. We then used motion to make the studio clips look more professional. We were able to add spotlights and change the colours of them, we also made the colours change throughout clips as it made them look more effective, the reason we had to add spotlights was because the background of the shots appears quite gray and we wanted it to look better.

When constructing the CD panels we used a digital still camera to take images of the main star and some background images. We then used ‘Adobe Photoshop’ as this would allow us to edit the images effectively. We first had to crop the images to the size of 12cm by 12cm, next the saturation and brightness of some of the panels was slightly altered to make the image brighter. Photoshop allowed us to insert text into the image, the text was changed to a suitable font and the colour was also changed so it would fit in with the house style of the group. We also used a digital stills camera and Photoshop when creating/editing the music advertisement. Within Photoshop this time creating the advertisement was a lot more complex, using many of the tools within Photoshop such as the 'lasso' tool and the 'feathering' tool, we had to crop many selected areas of different photos and blend them all into one we also used a lot of different filters. After doing this text was then added to advertisement; including logos and a web-link.

We also used technology in the evaluation stage as we did some audience research on Facebook and YouTube. We also used a camcorder and tripod to record interviews of audience members that had watched our video.

A media technology, which allowed us to focus on the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages, was the use of the blog. Through most stages we were able to write and upload screenshots, providing a detailed diary account of what we had done in and out of lesson and provided evidence to show how we created each aspect.

Without the use of such variety of technology our project would have been much less successful as they played a large role in every aspect of the project.