How did you use New Media Technologies in the research,

planning, construction and evaluation stages?

Blogging...- Throughout this project, I have been keeping track of what I have been doing along the way. To do this, I used my colleges VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), on the internet, to blog about the researching, planning, construction and evaluation of my music video.

Apple Macs...Throughout my music video project, I

have continuously used Apple Mac computers and the software on them to create my final video and my Digipak. Throughout this slide show I will go into more detail about the software I used on the Apple Macs.

I found this computer difficult to use at first as it was different to average computers that I am used to using. However, the software available on the Macs were incredibly helpful. Programs such as Photoshop, iMovie, In Design etc were all vital when producing my music video and Digipak. These types of programs are available on Macs because of convergence which is the joining of two media products, for example: a computer and video editing software.

Research

When I began my research, I couldn’t pick a genre which I wanted to use, so, I watched a wide variety of different genres of music videos on the website “YouTube”.

YouTube is what we describe as Web 2.0 and is a social networking website on which users can upload, view and share videos. A lot of user-generated content is uploaded onto YouTube and people all around the world are able to view it. It’s a great platform for new artists and bands to get their music out to the public.

After watching copious amounts of different music videos on YouTube, I decided I wanted my project to be based around a rock genre. YouTube really helped me when deciding what genre I wanted to use as it helped me to discover what kind of music videos I enjoyed the most. After finally establishing what genre I was to use, I continued to watch Rock videos on YouTube so to gain further inspiration.

To gain further ideas for my project, I watched some user-generated content, on YouTube, from students from other schools & colleges. This was very helpful as it gave me an overview of what was expected from me.

Research…

As well as researching music videos, I used the internet to research into my ancillary tasks. We were required to create a “Digipak” to coincide with our music videos.

To begin with, I was clueless about what a “Digipak” was, so, I used the ‘Google’ search engine to research what they were and what they look like.

Internet website ‘Wikipedia’ was very helpful in helping me understand what a Digipak was. I discovered that it was a promotional package to help aid promotion of a song. I again used Google to look at other Digipak’s to gain inspiration for my own work and I also discovered I had some of my own Digipak's which I looked at.

As part of the project, we were also briefed to design a magazine advertisement to advertise the Digipak and the music video. Again, Google was my best friend in this task as I looked at a lot of magazine advertisements from a Rock genre using the search engine.

Planning

After I had researched and decided on what I was doing for my project, I then began to plan how I was going to do it. At this stage, my blog played an important role as it helped me organise all my ideas so they didn’t get all jumbled up in my head.

When deciding where to film my video, I again looked to YouTube to help me distinguish what location would be suitable to film in so to convey my chosen genre. I noticed that a lot of run-down areas were used in Rock videos so I then began to think about where I could film.

I used “Google Earth” to look at areas where I could film. I established that I was going to film in an industrial city area – Leeds, so to connote a serious rock genre which I intended.

I didn’t incorporate a lot of digital technologies at the planning stage of my production as I did a lot of planning e.g. storyboards, mind maps, sketches etc with a good old fashioned paper and pencil, as this was the easiest method to use at this stage.

Construction…

Once I had established what I was going to create, I began filming for my video. Originally, I intended to use schools Panasonic cameras, however, on the day of filming I realised that I had forgotten to book out a camera from school so I used my own Lumix digital stills camera.

The Lumix camera proved to be have a better video quality than the schools video cameras, so I used this camera throughout my project in both filming my video and taking photos for my Digipack.

After filming all my footage and gathering photos for my project, I constructed it all together using software on the apple macs such as iMovie and Photoshop.

I had previous practice with using iMovie and editing all my footage together and adding in effects so I found this easy, however, I hadn’t had much experience using Photoshop so I had to get some help from class mates, however, I am now a pro at using Photoshop.

Construction…

When creating my Digipack products, I used websites such as “DaFont” and “1001 Free Fonts” to acquire appropriate fonts for my products. I downloaded the fonts onto the computer and I was then able to use them on the appropriate software.

After I had finished the final edit of my video, I was the required to upload it to my blog, so to do this, I again used YouTube to upload my user-generated content. This was simple however I did have to save my video in a particular format so upload was possible.

Evaluation…

After I had finished my project, I had to evaluate what I had done on my internet blog. I used a number of digital technologies to present my work in a clear, aesthetically pleasing way.

For my first question, I created a directors commentary using iMovie. I had to use a voice recorder to record me speaking about my music video, I then uploaded this onto iMovie and edited it over the top of my music video.

For my second question, I compared my print texts to my music video to analyse how they combined as a product. I print screened my music video at certain points and edited in MS Paint, and put them next to my print products to compare the two texts.

Also, for my second question I used word cloud generator ‘Tagul’ to create an aesthetically pleasing word summary.

Evaluation…

For my third evaluation question, I used iMovie yet again to create an audience feedback video. This time, I used one of schools Panasonic video cameras, as I was filming at school, I then uploaded the footage and edited it along with titles to show the questions I was asking my audience clearly.

For my fourth question, this here PowerPoint presentation, I have used Microsoft PowerPoint to display clearly how I have used media technologies throughout my work. Also, for this question, I have used Google search engine to look for images to put onto this presentation and I have also used the print screen tool.

Throughout this project, my understanding of digital technologies has developed. The variety of technologies I have used has been vast and I now have a sound understanding of how to use such products with ease.