evaluation question 4

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

2. I used YouTube in the initial stages of research and planning because it was useful to watch
existing music videos to allow us to gain insight into what content we should include. In order to
gain an understanding of different types of music videos (performance, narrative and hybrid), I
searched YouTube for various videos then analysed them. This was useful because as well as being
able to see how a professional music video had been edited, I was also able to appreciate what
made the video a performance based, narrative or hybrid. As well as in the research and planning
stages of creating my music video, I also referred to YouTube throughout the process of creating
my video. For example, if we weren’t sure how to link two shots together, we would look on
YouTube for inspiration. We noticed that in a lot of female Hip Hop music videos, they use film
dissolve as a video transition, so that’s what we used. The female we used to be the artist in our
music video wasn’t sure of the body language she should use, so we showed her various music
videos on YouTube of artists like Beyoncé, Pia Mia and Rihanna to allow her to understand how a
female Hip Hop artist should act. I also used YouTube to upload Vox Pops that I obtained in the
research stage and a feedback video that I filmed during the evaluation stage . This enabled me to
post them onto my blog.

3. I used Google a lot during the research and planning for my print based work for things
like: costume, typography, existing digipaks and advertisements etc. I researched what
female Hip Hop artists typically wear, so that I could realistically draw what I’d want the
artist in my music video to look like. This also made my designs link more to the Hip Hop
genre. As another part of research and planning for my print based work I used Google to
find inspiration for typography. To do this I Googled existing magazine covers such as
Vibe and Rolling Stone and was able to see the particular fonts, size and colours they
used. Similarly, I was able to use Google to research existing digipaks and
advertisements that I could gain inspiration from. I found an advertisement for Jessie J’s
new album release on Google and was inspired by the placement of the text- the artist’s
name big and bold and the name of the album underneath it, smaller.

4. Blogger has been extremely useful throughout the whole
production of creating both my music video and print based work.
This particular aspect of media technology enabled me to present
my work on my own blog, which I was able to put in any order I
wanted. I also used Blogger to create work that I then published
on the same site. For example, the production logs that run
through my blog were written straight on Blogger then published,
rather than typing it on Microsoft Word and copy and pasting it
into Blogger. Blogger also allows you to post images and videos,
which was useful when analysing different types of music videos. I
was able to post the videos straight from YouTube to Blogger,
then analyse them underneath.

5. PowerPoint has been used during this project as a way to display my ideas
in the research and planning stages. I used PowerPoint to present my
work on analysing different albums. PowerPoint was useful for this
because it enabled me to convey my analysis on over 3 different album
covers, without having to post them all separately. It was also useful to
carry out and record this research in PowerPoint because I was able to
access all of the information together easily- all I had to do was click onto
the next slide. PowerPoint presentations are more exciting methods of
displaying information, in comparison to a word document. Putting this
information into a PowerPoint allowed me to change the design of the
background and spilt each section up into readable chunks.
Slideshare is the software I used to make my PowerPoint presentations
compatible with Blogger. After I created and saved my PowerPoint, I would
upload it to Slideshare, copy the embed code and paste it into the html tab
in Blogger. This would allow viewers of my blog to flick through the
PowerPoint presentation easily.

6. Facebook Messenger came in very handy when communicating with the
person my partner and I wanted to play the male role in the music video.
Because neither of us had his mobile number but I was friends with him
on Facebook, I was able to use Facebook Messenger as a way of
sending him an instant message. This was such a useful app for me to
have on my phone during the filming process because it sent me
notifications to tell me when I had a message, which made
communication between Jordan and I extremely efficient. This app also
provided an option to call the contact, which came in handy if my partner
or I needed to explain something complicated to Jordan, that wasn’t
easy to convey in a message.
IMessage was another messaging app that was extremely useful during
the filming process because it enabled me, my partner and the female
actress in the music video to keep in contact and send regular
reminders of meeting times, costume information or cancellations.

7. Premiere Pro was the programme I used to edit the footage that my partner
and I filmed. We imported the clips that we wished to use, labelled them and
inserted them in the order we wanted them to be in. I think that Premiere
Pro is a relatively easy programme work in and offers a wide variety of tools
and effects to use in order to make the video appear more professional. For
the transitions at the beginning of the video we used ‘dip to white’ to create
a flashing effect and for the rest of the video we used ‘film dissolve’ to offer
a smooth transition from one clip to another. In some parts of the music
video we also used Premiere Pro to layer one shot on top of another, so that
it’s faded. This effect made the concept of the female artist thinking of the
male more prominent, because as she was clearly on screen, a shot of him
would be faded into it. As well as using Premiere pro to create the music
video, I also used it to create Vox Pops and to edit the footage I filmed from
a focus group. I used video transitions like ‘push to side’ to split the different
clips up because it doesn’t have to look like a professional music video, it
was a chance to experiment with other video effects. I also inserted text
onto the screen to display the questions they were answering and a title at
the beginning of the video.

8. PhotoShop was used during the creation of the digipak and
advertisement. The main aspects we used on PhotoShop were the
adjustments of the photo itself- we edited the contrast, brightness etc.
which enabled the photo to look brighter and more flawless. On the
album colour the background is black and white and the image of the
artist is in colour, which was achieved by turning the saturation right
when the background was selected. I think that this particular effect links
the album to the Hip Hop genre because the artist is featured against a
brick wall and many Hip Hop videos are filmed outside in various
neighbourhoods. The contrast of colour between the artist and the black
and white brick wall causes a more feminine effect, as well as making
the artist more prominent. Inside the album we used the blur tool on
PhotoShop to cause a blurred effect on the background. The
background is made up of titled images of the artist, which gives it a
more unique design, so blurring it makes it even more unique.