Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

A lot of media technologies we used throughout this project in all its stages, as ways of communication, gaining knowledge and the actual practical side of the coursework. A lot of these technologies we had used before in previous media coursework and so we were just reusing our skills however a number of which we were learning from scratch and had never used before. We highlight upon how we used all these technologies in the research, planning, production and evaluation stages  in the video below.

The main difference to past years for me was learning how to use and using the HD camera manually as we could create cool effects with focus before editing which was cool. In the past i have also shied away from doing the camera work but this year i took a really hands on approach and got to grips with this new technology. As well as this i also had to learn from scratch how to use the website program of WIX which was challenging but also satisfying watching it all come together as well. As always we utilised a number of social networking sites available on web 2.0 such as Facebook and Twitter as well as Skype Conference calls which we used to keep in touch and brainstorm online.

Technology in Research
Web 2.0 was heavily used in the early stages of research using YouTube and Vevo to view music videos online and gain inspiration as well as learning about the conventions of other music videos within genre sections. 

We also used the web to look at other band websites and gain a knowledge into what the audience wants out of them and what we should then feature in ours.

 A particularly useful websites were http://www.tastekid.com/ and http://www.lastfm.com/ both of which are websites that generate similar bands to ones you are listening to or have searched. This made our research particularly efficient as from one website we could immediately get an idea of what genre and style of band we would have to be like to suit the track we had selected or even to see how and where similar less popular bands had failed in gaining a big audience following. 

Planning

As a group we tried to stay in contact with ideas etc. as much as possible, this was made possible by websites such as facebook which we both have and are on regularly but also through android phone apps such as BBM which allowed us to keep in touch in real time and inform each other of new and exciting ideas as soon as they came into our minds.

 We also used Skype video calls a lot to also tell ideas (as this is done much more easily in speech rather than via text) and also showing storyboards. This meant we could constantly be building on our idea and informing each other of what we had in mind making the planning stage go a lot quicker as we were not confined to our lessons to discuss ideas.

 

Construction

We utilised new technology most in the construction stage. 

THE MUSIC VIDEO

We used a new type of camera, the ......... which could film in HD and we also learnt how to control the manual settings of the camera allowing us to achieve more arty or just better shots.

We also got to light our sets on our own for the first time, this proved difficult as in our first few shoots we found it hard to light such a tight space correctly but still make it feel like night time, but with the help of our technician we learnt much about different forms of lighting and how to create the effect we were looking for.

During editing we used Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, we used a downgrade of this version last year for our projects however being in a smaller group this year meant i had to apply myself fully to all roles of the construction and i ended up doing a lot of the montagey sequences in our video. For the final edit we used the new easier colour grading wheels on the software to saturate the footage and give it the grainy homemade feel which we achieved well. 

This sequence we made fast motion in our piece to add extra comical effect

THE ALBUM COVER

Again we used an updated version of photoshop (CS5) for editing our album cover, we had already down a detailed plan of what we wanted our cover to look like and getting to grips with this newer software was not at all difficult for us as it was much like the old one we had used in the past. With this album cover we decided to experiment with new effects such as using adjustment layers over images such as 'vibrance' and 'luminosity' to give the images more colours and impact and also using the cutout effect which we used on the guys on the front cover which again emphasised the image of our band as being ultimately fun.

 The new version of photoshop made everything a lot faster to use and so editing together two images (as one band member was unable to make it to one photoshoot) took no time at all and looked seamless and unnoticable.

Photoshop CS5 ultimately allowed us to create realistic looking album covers easily and efficiently which could almost compete with some actually being sold at the moment. Lewis used http://www.dafont.com/ to download the fonts we used on the album as well as the ones on most of our merchandise to give it a more professional feel to the usual recognisable present fonts. 

THE WEBSITE

We used a new programme called Wix to create our website, this was completely new to both me and lewis and it was challenging to get to grips with at first however with sheer determination into finishing the website at high standard (utilising the templates and flash links and innovative galleries provided by the programme), things finally came together. 

Wix was generally a very useful tool it allowed us to create a visually interesting and interactive website. The use of galleries and widgets allows the creator to make something interesting without difficult html codes. However Wix could be a little frustrating at times when uploading these pictures and made you do it repeated times before it actually worked. However overall i feel Wix was a great (and probably an easy website) to create our website and all the preset templates, galleries and comments boxes etc. made it a whole lot easier for us.

Evaluation

Lots of the technology previously mentioned was again utilised in our evaluation for example we we used Facebook this time for audience feedback along with YouTube and both of these to also moniter who was consuming our products and who 'liked' them. Using and utilising fully new media technology allowed us to reach a vaster audience much faster than ordinary. Not only this but this year even how we blogged our evaluation was changed, for example my android phone i could download a blogger app and blog my evaluation questions on the go, making the process quicker and generally easier.



Editing

We made a decision in the editing process that Lewis was better at putting together the narritive pieces and I was better at doing the montagey collections so this is how we would split the editing.
As well as this we decided that our choruses would be filled with performance and our verses would be montages cut in with hints of performance or Lewis just singing in the bed.

We had quite a big difficulty with colour grading, however we felt for the style of our music video it didnt need to be perfect and also showed progression in our narrative, with it getting lighter as the morning draws nearer etc.

For an ending we also decided to play on the 'aint no rest' part of the song, giving a blackout as he falls asleep, and hear an alarm sound and then looping this back to the beginning, so its like he never gets any rest and always is for some reason up and awake which we thought added some comedy.

Comedy was a big theme in our edit, as the set never changed so we needed something else to keep up the audiences attention. Therefore in each verse we encorporated shots of our characters just being stupid and silly, as this also linked to the image of the band which was fun and freespirited.

Final Shoot

Our final shoot was mainly getting all the shots we needed to re-do because of the first shoots poor lighting. Again we asked our media technician to come along and advise our lighting to make sure it as closely as possible to the last shoot.

Here we had a very ridgid schedule and managed to get every shot needed completely done with many takes. As well as this we sorted out gaps in our narative such as how the characters get their instruments and also an ending.

Overall we were very happy with our final footage and were confident we had enough footage to complete a good and effective edit.

Second Shoot

For our second shoot we asked our media technician to come along to advise us on our lighting.
However we encountered the problem of our Darth Vader actor hurting his hand and being in a cast, so we then had to switch to Leo playing the character instead. However this was not a problem and he was very hardworking and understood what we wanted out of him for the video.

This footage was alot stronger in the lighting and we also focused mainly on the performance shots at this shoot making sure we had fun angles, good lighting, and focus pulls etc. to keep our video interesting.

We also took into account the feedback we got on the last shoot which was to use more handheld free flowing shots and also to get a still shot of lewis in bed singing to cut in throughout the whole video, and we managed to get alot of takes of this to potentially use.

First Shoot

Our first shoot went quite well, we managed to get quite alot of footage however we still were'nt 100% happy with the lighting.

My favourite shot of the shoot was the nightnurse shots shot, as it was really abstract and played on the focus of the camera to give our video a cool effect.

Overall it was very productive but we decided another few shoots were needed in order to get every shot intended at high quality, preferably with better lighting.

Test Shoot

On our test shoot we realised lighting would be a problem as the room was quite small and so created alot of shadows. However the costumes looked really good and we got a good idea of what shots we could try and also  we made sure the room looked quirky and cool with American hints by adding a skateboard and other props such as an american football shirt to the room.

An example of the poorly lit shot

Overall it gave us more confidence into our first shoot and a better idea of how to get exactly what we wanted.

Our final idea

We have decided to go for this as our music video choice, because it doesn't seem too complicated to do (with only two people), Miss Blackborow thought it was strongest and also we feel it will ultimately encapsulate our sense of humour, however after the presentation and teacher feedback we decided to keep our idea even more simple and make the members 4 males focused more on image (so we could harness our creativity) and less on performance quality (something different to the normal genre characteristics).

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