Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning, and evaluation stages?
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Start of Project
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Blogger
The use of Blogger as my main website for my blog has been interesting. Positives of Blogger allows me to organise my posts through labels for easier access as well as the ability to easily embed different websites into the blog in order to make it more interactive. Negatives towards using Blogger have been the multiple email accounts I have had to sign in and out of in order to embed publishing documents that then log me out of Blogger and cause disruption when writing posts. -
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Research Music Video
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Chrome
I have primarily used Google Chrome for access to the internet for the duration of the project. The use of the internet has been the reason for varied use of resources I have had in order to create my blog, along with all of the interactive posts that have been embedded on the blog. The negative of using Chrome have been the various times the programme itself has closed unexpectedly or when certain documents are unable to load on the Chrome server. -
Internet Explorer
The use of Internet Explorer was different than Chrome for its ability to load specific websites and embedded documents that Chrome has been unable to, although it holds the same loading problems as Chrome, just with varying websites and embedded documents that have meant switching between the two programmes has been present throughout the whole project; Internet Explorer being able to load Youtube videos faster, but Google Chrome being able to load the interactive documents easier. -
Filming Camera
The first main piece of media technology I used was a filming camera when I started producing test shots and experimenting with filming techniques before actually constructing my music video. Over the course of the entire project, the use and application of the filming camera became easier and more applicable to the work I was attempting to produce, considerably as we built up our collection of footage for our main production through multiple shoots. -
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Planning Music Video
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SlideShare
Primarily to share PowerPoint documents to my blog, I have used Slideshare that is linked to Linkedin. As a result of this, it was somewhat difficult to log into the appropriate account each time I wanted to use Slideshare to share and embed a document to my blog. However, despite the logging in difficulties I have had, Slideshare was effective in displaying the individual slides of varying PowerPoints, displaying each slide separately in an interactive post on my blog. -
Issuu
Issuu is another 'embed-able' online publishing document that I have used within my blog, being able to embed documents such as Word, PowerPoint, and even PDF documents. Issuu organises documents in a book format in its interactive form, which has been helpful in displaying things such as my digipak insert, although has somewhat muted the point of individual slides in a PowerPoint presentation when it groups two slides together to create a booklet style format of the PowerPoint. -
ThingLink
For annotating posters and images within my blog, ThingLink has been a good resource; allowing me to annotate image without masses of text being written on top of the image, around the image in big boxes, or in paragraphs underneath the images. ThingLink has also allowed me to annotate specific sections of images with a clear clarification of the exact part of the image I am discussing within my annotations, although once embedded the 'dots' are not always shown on the image until hovered over. -
Drawing Tablet
For the original storyboard, I used a drawing tablet and used Photoshop in order to create graphic images to place on the storyboard, allowing a greater use of colour and adaptation of the application of different media forms to make the presentation of the storyboard more visually appealing to the foreseeing audience and placement on the blog. However, despite the refined appearance of the images, the time it took to complete each image extended the time I should taken on each panel. -
Youtube
For uploading different edits of the music video to be viewed on the blog, I used YouTube to upload the edits to then embed them on my blog. YouTube has been useful throughout the project for the ability to upload, share, and embed the various edits of the music video onto the blog, although on occasion, difficulties with using YouTube arose when researching music videos and any possible breaking of copyright privileges that may occur during the construction of the music video edits. -
Adobe PremierePro
We have used PremierePro throughout the project when editing small test shots, to the final and finished edit. PremierePro was somewhat confusing at first, having to learn and grasp the basics of the programme ourselves and "learn as we went". After we became accustomed to the programme - along with the overlapping of the various other Adobe programmes you can use simultaneously - editing the music video became easier after learning specific techniques and structuring the work as we went along. -
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Construction
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Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word was a good resource to use for documents such as call sheets, risk assessment, and release forms primarily in the planning stages of the music video, being able to easily hold text heavy documents along with its ability to easily be uploaded to the blog through a number of online publishing documents. The main difficulty when working with Microsoft Word was the lack of ability to work with text and images that has restricted our creative outlet using Word throughout the project. -
Microsoft Powerpoint
Microsoft PowerPoint was another extension of the Microsoft programmes used within this project. Unlike Word, PowerPoint excelled at combining words and text together within slides in the document, allowing research pages to be completed in a more entertaining and engaging manner within the research and planning stages of the project for both the music video and the ancillary projects. -
Printer and Scanner
For some of the documents used throughout the project, the need/ use of a printer and scanner was required for documents such as the release forms that needed to be printed, signed, and then scanned back into the computer with the participants hand written signature on them. The use of the printer was accessible from both home and college during the project, making the availability to print easy and highly accessible, along with the ability to scan the document back into the computer at home. -
Studio Lighting
The first described light was very useful casting light in a singular direction and needed no other crew members to handle other than the camera person. Despite this, it wore through its batteries too quickly for the length of filming we needed, and only had one direction of light (from the direction of the camera), breaking the shadows within the footage we collected. -
Studio Lights
During the filming process, we used two styles of studio lighting: the first being a light that gets attached to the top of the camera so that the light is always directed from the point of view of the camera; and the second a studio light in a cylinder style that needed to be held by another member of the crew to effectively distribute light throughout the set during filming. -
Studio Lighting
The second described lighting was the primarily used one after comparison. Despite having to have another crew member hold the studio light in required locations and the communication skills between the whole cast and crew to achieve this, this studio light was the better of the two options; the battery lasted far longer than any filming times we needed, along with the change in light intensity used between scenes to increase atmosphere and effect within the footage we acquired. -
Photography Camera
During the construction process of the ancillary products, the use of a photography camera was needed for several photoshoots for the digipak and the advert. From previous use, specifically in the previous project last year, the use of the photography camera was easier made the overall photoshoot run smoother having the ability to function and use the camera and its desired functions; such as the night and portrait setting to obtain the efficient settings on the camera for our studio locations. -
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Research Print
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Adobe InDesign
From previous work last year using Adobe InDesign, the basic application of the programme was simple to use from previously obtained knowledge, although the different product being constructed this year meant the use of different tools in different fashions was needed, along with the change in colour palettes available on Photoshop and InDesign meaning the black background of an image edited on Photoshop didn't match the black on InDesign during construction of the Digipak, causing some distress -
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Planning Print
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Paintfont
For copyright privileges and brand identity, Paintfont.com was a valued resource in the planning and construction stages of both the print documents and the music video. We were unsure of the artist's original font and its possibility of being copyrighted, along with its lacking comparison to any known typefaces, we 're-created' the style of the font the artist has used on one of their albums to create a new font specifically for the use of the artist for their promotional package. -
Scanner
After the original storyboard was found to be lacking, the creation of a new storyboard was put into practise to further define the elements of the music video and extend the narrative that - from the first edit - was now known to be very lacking in the original story board. Due to hand drawing the new storyboard on paper, the use of a scanner was key for the ability to make the storyboard digital and usable on the blog. -
Albumizr
After the photoshoots for the digipak and magazine advert, we searched a way to display the mass collection of images on the blog without making an extensive blog post. From this we found an online publishing programme called Albumizr that allowed us to create specific folders to display images for specific purposes; such as a different folder for portrait shots than one for landscape images. -
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop has been used to edit images from the required photoshoots for the ancillary products. Photoshop has been useful for these edits when it came to experimenting with the use of colour within my digipak and when layering images such as the image of the eye in the insert; layering both the child and adult actors eyes over one another. Despite Photoshop's uses, the colours used on Photoshop do not exactly match those in InDesign and so I had to use the eyedropper tool to match them. -
Google
The use of the search engine Google throughout the project has allowed me to discover websites to display and embed further work into my blog, as well as allow me to research existing magazine adverts, digipaks, and music videos to help and benefit my entire project through the research stages of the project. -
SD Card
The use of an SD Card allowed me to transport my documents externally and use and work on them from multiple computers. Luckily in the early stages of the project, I lost my SD card with the first set of footage we filmed with our first cast actor Zak. Due to not backing up the footage, all of it was lost and we had to re-film everything with our second actor. The negative of using an SD card is its simplicity to lose, although its transportablility made working on different computers easy -
SanDisk Memory Stick
Along side the use of an SD card throughout the project to store documents and files on, I used a memory stick as a back up to the SD card documents. The use of the backed up information was helpful come to a point where I may have lost either of them again, along with using the SD Card for filming and photoshoots and having the memory stick as the main external hard drive for any documents and editing I created from the footage and photoshoots produced. -
Computer
During the project I have switched from working on a PC to a Mac. There have been difficulties with the combination of the two computer systems due to the change of programmes used between the two and the applications on each; I have a more recent version of Adobe CreativeCloud on my Macbook than on the PCs I have been using and so have not been able to edit any footage on the PC, having favoured editing on my Macbook overall. This has limited the occasions I have had to edit the music video. -
Macbook Pro
With the combination of using PCs and a Macbook Pro during the project, I have been limited to the occasions I have been able to edit the music video along with other documents that I have originally created on different versions of programmes such as Microsoft Word. The use of my Macbook being portable has allowed me to transport the computer to where I needed to work once the deadline for the completion of the music video arose, which places benefit on its ability to be transported. -
Deadline
