Evaluation Question 4

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

From planning and researching at the initial stages of producing my music video, right through to shooting it and finally editing and evaluating the finished product, I have used a large variety of media technologies to assist my work. The first thing I did when considering my A2 Media production was create a blog using blogger.com. This would allow me to log all of my progress and ideas digitally throughout the course, which I found was an efficient way to keep all of my production notes together in an easily accessible way.  I split my blog into sections by using labels such as ‘Research’ and ‘Production Diary’, allowing me to access the information I need quickly. I found that using a blog throughout the progression of my coursework was beneficial in many ways, for example being able to view other people’s blogs for ideas and inspiration, and also the ability of having an ‘Inspirations’ page where I could log different music videos and images that stimulated the ideas for my work.

Before beginning to shoot my music video, I researched into the different digital equipments that would be needed. This included different lighting such as spotlights and fill lights, tripods and cranes for different camera shots and perspectives, cameras for shooting in HD and shallow focus, and equipment such as autocue and vision mixers to assist the production and editing. I decided to use the bright fill lights as I was shooting in a woodland setting at night, so maximum lighting was necessary. I chose to shoot at night time using the lights as it cast shadows in the background of the shots, making the environment look mysterious. I also used a tripod to steady my stationary shots and a steady cam for the shots where I used movement, ensuring that they were not shaky. To shoot, I used a Canon 550D camera, which allowed me to shoot in high definition and shallow focus. Using high definition ensured that the quality of my final product was professional-looking, and I used a cinematic shutter speed to increase this. Using a 50mm lens with an aperture of 1.8 allowed me to shoot in shallow focus, which enabled me to blur the background of the shot, giving it a softer, delicate finish. This was also useful in the shots where I wanted to blur the appearance of the fairy lights, making them blow up bigger, giving a fantasy effect. This wide lens made it easy for me to shoot at night time as it captured the light effectively. I also used a Sony camcorder when filming my green screen footage, as shallow focus was not necessary and would still capture the footage in high quality.

When it came to the editing process, I used technology in a number of ways. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to initially cut my footage into order, and worked with Premiere throughout the production, using it to sync the footage to the song, apply transitions and effects, and adapt the brightness and colours of the image. I also exported the footage into Adobe After Effects in order to edit the green screen section, and apply filters. I used an ‘indie film’ filter which gave it an aged, vintage look and increased the professional finish. I also used after effects to create the backdrop for the green screen, using an ‘old film’ filter and applying it to the footage from the verses.

When creating my digipack and magazine advert designs, I used Adobe Photoshop. I used the Canon 550D to take photos to use in my designs, and also took stills from my music video and edited them so they looked suitable for an advertisement. I downloaded fonts from refont.com, choosing the designs I felt suited the artist the best. I then used the warp tool on Photoshop to adapt the appearance of these designs, giving them my own personal flair. I used different filters and changed the colours and exposure of my images, giving them an artistic, soft look. For example, I used the emboss tool and blurs on the image on the front of my digipack to make the artist look doll-like.