Media Evaluation

Haja-Fatmata Bangura

1067

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

• At the beginning of the planning stage I used the internet to conduct my research for my music video. At first I did not know the type of song I was going use or the genre and this decision was to be made throughout the planning stages.

• On the internet I first looked at and analysed a variety of different music videos on video sharing websites, such as YouTube and Vimeo.

• The first video I looked at was for the R&B song, Un-thinkable by Alicia Keys So I could have a wide option of genres to choose from I then went on to look at a different genre. I looked at the video for the Hip-Hop song Faded by Tyga & Lil Wayne. I also looked at a hybrid genre of Rap & Rock for the video of the song Numb/Encore by Jay-Z & Linkin Park.

Here are the music videos:

After watching a reasonable amount of music videos I decided to use a hybrid genre of R&B/Rap for my music video. I then began to focus on just the genres Rap and R&B and looked at more music videos, some R&B, some Rap and some both R&B/Rap. Once I began to get a feel of the codes and conventions of R&B and Rap videos from watching music videos online and also on the television (music channels), I then went on to do other forms of research. I looked at different music video analyses on SlideShare.

I also looked at blogs of people who have previously created music videos or know about on blogging sites such as Wordpress and Blogger.

• One can be found here:http://richardlartey.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/goodwin/

• For my ancillary task research, I used Google to search for professional digipak advertisement and CD booklet designs that already exist. Google gave me a wide variety of different types of examples. This helped in my research as I was able to know the type of features that are included in digipak advertisements and CD booklets and what I need to incorporate into my own piece of work.

I also used Google to learn about different theorists who talk about the forms and conventions of a music video and elements of them.

• Sven E Carlsson believes that music videos are generally placed into two groups, Performance, where the video is mainly the artist or others singing and dancing, and/or conceptual clips, where something else is shown throughout the duration of the music video. I learned about Laura Mulvey and her visual pleasure theory. She believes that in film women are seen as objects of visual pleasure and males are seen as the dominant ones. She introduced the concept of the male gaze, where audiences have to view females from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

• In the pre-production and production stages I used Wikipedia to search for what takes place in during these stages. As we were in a group we were allocated different roles and I was the Producer, however we did share roles. The main roles I looked at were director, producer, cameraman and editor.

Google also aided me in my research on the different camera angles and shots available to use in general.

http://www.sophia.org/cinematography-intro-camera-angles-shots-tutorial

In the planning and research stage I also looked at the type of camera shots and angles that are usually used in music videos of my chosen genre and I found out the following are mainly used:

Camera Shots

Establishing shots, usually

at the beginning of the music

video or in breaks of the

song, e.g. the chorus or hook

Close-up shots, to focus on

the artist’s facial expression

and so the audience can feel

involved

Medium close-ups to focus

on the singing performance

element of the video

Wide shots so the audience

can see the background as

well as the artists

Camera Angles

High angle shot

Low angle shot

During the construction stage I used a video camera to film all of the footage that was used in the music video. The video camera that was used was the Canon XM2.

Once I was happy with all the filmed footage it was all transferred onto a computer. I then began editing the raw footage on Adobe Premiere Pro. This was another media technology I used during the construction stage in the creation of my main media product. Premiere Pro enabled me to put together a variety of my different footage together in order to create my final product.

When editing the footage in Premiere Pro I used tools such as:

Zoom tool

Hand tool

Track select

tool

Razor tool

These were some of the main tools I used when editing my music video.

I was provided with a 12.1

megapixels Sony Cybershot

digital camera to take

photographs for my ancillary

task. When I was not able to

access the digital camera I used

my iPhone 4s as an alternative.

When creating my ancillary task the media technology I used was Adobe Photoshop to edit my original photos.

• Here are a few examples of the changes I used to alter my images

Here I used the Lasso and Quick

Selection Tool to remove the original

background of the image. This was so

I could place the image on another

background of my choice in order to

go with the theme of product.

For one of the images I used

a particular filter for effect

on the image. I didn’t just

want it took look plain, I

wanted it stand out better

than the original image.

Original Image Image with Filter

• Most of the fonts available on Adobe Photoshop were not really what I was looking for so I used the internet to look for websites available so I could download fonts that would work for my products.

• I found a variety of fonts I could use on the website dafont.com.

• Also I wanted to create certain effects on my products and at times Photoshop didn’t have the brushes to do so. So I also looked for websites that would allow me to download brushes to use.

• I found a variety of different brushes on the website brusheezy.com.