Evaluation: Question 4

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

Throughout the production of our media products, we used various types of technology to aid us in our efforts. The most important of these was the software on our computer, an iMac. The main software we used was: Final Cut Express for editing our raw footage into a credible music video, Photoshop for creating our ancillary tasks and Safari for researching music videos to help improve our knowledge of their conventions.

Safari
Perhaps the most important software we used during the research and planning stages, Safari allowed us to explore rival videos and their conventions. This was important because it allowed us to have an idea of what we we needed to put in our video to make it look professional - such as shots, camera angles, lighting effects and transitions.

Safari also allowed us to access this very blog, using the blogging website Blogger. This meant we could review each other's work and share ideas over the internet, meaning a lot of work could be done from home. When researching the conventions of videos we used the mass video website Youtube and when researching our audience we used the site UK Tribes which is basically a database for all the types of social groups in England.

Final Cut Express

After using a Sony DCR-HC62 to film our raw footage we had to import it into Final Cut Express in order to edit it into a good quality music video. This camera was of a medium quality, meaning that the highest quality footage wasn't really available to us but its mobility allowed us to have good camera movements and angles. The lack of quality was tackled using Final Cut's editing options. As shown in the Development of our Music Video post, Final Cut Express allowed us to create a professional looking video because of the quality of the program and the effects it allowed us to use. These included various types of transitions, colour correction and video stablilising. Look at the development of our video here

However, despite the brilliance of the technology I had at my fingertips when editing the video, it was a very time consuming process as the music (which was edited down to 5 minutes using Garageband) had to fit the lip syncing in the raw footage and on top of that we had to find the best footage out of hours of filming. Again, on top of that, we had to choose the right transitions to fit the cuts. Overall though, I believe that Final Cut Express was the perfect software to use to edit our video.

Garageband

There was minimal use of this software but it was important because the song needed to be no longer than 5 minutes long. This meant cutting 13 seconds off the end of the song and using the master volume function (above) to create a fade out affect where we wanted it.

Photoshop

The most important software used during the design stages of our ancillary tasks, Photoshop is an advanced image manipulation program. Having used the program last year to create their AS coursework, Tom and John were able to create brilliant ancillary work to fit alongside our music video. The tools provided by the software are top of the range which allowed them to create many effects such as overlays and glows.

On the Digipak, the magic wand tool was used to erase much of the background image surrounding the fireworks and this was further emphasised by adjusting the opacity to create a firework template. To colour the firwork, hue and saturation was used on another firework image and this was overlayed onto our template using the opacity settings. The image on the inside cover is the same one used on our magazine advert.

As seen on our advert, there is a basic image of our artist which has been manipulated to black and white using the desaturation and stamp tool. The mobility of text in photoshop allowed us to put the text wherever we wanted to create a unique look.

iPhone 4

With a '5-megapixel still camera, tap to focus still images and LED flash' the iPhone 4 was the perfect mobile camera to use for simple images of us developing our coursework - such as filming pictures and location shots.

Technology played a major part in the development of our products and without the technology listed above, the production of our project would have been impossible. Videos have been created requiring editing software such as Final Cut, Photoshop has been used to create all of our ancillary task elements and the internet has been vital in the research stages. This is also true with the presentation of our work as it is posted on this blog, which requires the internet and the Blogger website. Without the technology available to us, this project could not be complete.