How Did You Use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages

Planning & Research

I used Wordpress, which is an online website creator; itallowed me to create pages with only a few clicks and create different posts so I could upload my work throughout this A2 – Media Studies course.  Throughout the time I spent working on the music video and other work, I used this site to present all my work. For example, pictures and descriptions showing my process of designing my Digipak, music poster and music video. 

Wordpress was simple enough to allow me to simply upload pieces of work I needed for my different pages. Planning and research was straightforward as it was easy to upload various types of media, such as images, Prezi documents, slide share documents and Word documents

The internet played a major role in planning and research, finding examples of posters, music songs and album designs, the internet had helped a lot. Finding inspiration from Google images, Wikipedia, music websites to create my music video around. The internet gave me a little insight in what conventions should be used to make an exceptional digipak and poster.

www.youtube.comwas particularly useful in the planning and research, because it was used to research catchy songs we could use in my music video and reviews of album pieces. It also gave me ideas of what shots and actor actions I could include in my music video, for example; the images below, shows a GoPro shot of a footballer training, which is good as it puts the audience in the actors shoes (perhaps connecting

to the actors emotions, what they see, etc).

The other image shows a famous footballer, preparing himself for a game, this is an idea that I could include in the narrative

I used the internet for nearly every aspect of the planning and research, search engines including Google, Wikipedia and more, were very effective and useful whilst searching for pictures or information to help with the planning and research of my work; I explored the internet to give me the information and facts to help me gain an insight on different film industries like Warner Brothers, Paramount, and much more.

Google offered so many websites/pages that helped me with research in facts and information relating to what I needed/searched for. Google also helped me to find more programmes such as slide share, Prezi and scribd which helped me to view other pieces of work created by other people, which offered pieces of information I could use in my work. It also allowed me to share my work and findings with the world and can be put onto my blog for my course.

I learnt a lot about camera technologies during our pre and post production, as a class we learned how to use different functions on the cameras, one of the most significant thing we learnt was how to set the white balance on the video camera, after testing it was evidently clear that it made shots easier to see. I already knew how to focus a camera from using camera’s growing up. Before I started filming, another important technique I researched for my website and implemented in my work, was the rule of thirds. The idea of this is to place the key elements of your scene where the lines intersect as shown. This should engage the viewer’s attention and provide a natural focal point. For example, in a portrait, keeping the eyes in line with the top intersection and the mouth with the bottom. Whilst filming I counted in and out, the importance of this is that it leaves time or the actor/actress to prepare for what they have to do, also it means there is space for error that can be cut out whilst editing, most importantly the camera man has time to adjust the camera and make the shot perfect.

An example of Rule of Thirds

An example of a DSLR camera. This is an example of a camera I will be using to record.

I watched numerous music videos to familiarise myself with current music in the pop/alternative/RnB genres. Songs that can be used in my video, and other videos that are sport themed, for example Manchester City’s US tour, showed a variation of GoPro shots and footage of the team performing their training sessions. This video and other videos inspired me to create a sport themed music video.

The media department decided to purchase a GoPro to help record various scenes for my music video. It records P.O.V (point of view) shots, which helps get the audience to be in the actor’s shoes, his perspective and feel his emotions.

I saved a great deal of time by

familiarising ourselves with how to set the equipment up, my teacher giving me a tutorial of how to assemble the equipment made my time management more efficient. It also helped by practising with the equipment and software I’d be using in the first year of A-levels and during GCSE’s, of where I studied Media.During my planning and research there was one thing that held me back, the blockage of sites on the college computer system was a major hold-up when it came researching key facts and information that I needed for my work.

Creating low-key footage in several of our scenes in our first attempt at a music video we changed the settings of the shutter speed and the aperture. The shutter speed is how fast light comes into the camera, so knowing this I would change the speed to 1/100, the higher the number the darker it will be. The aperture is how much light comes into the camera; I also set this quite low when needed. These two settings joint together, helped me create a low-key footage which aided me in some scenes of my music video.

Photoshop was the main editing software that was used to edit both Digipak and music poster.  Photoshop is very useful with its amazing features to crop, slice, heal, change colour, font and anything you could think off to change to an image, Photoshop can offer you that. I did have issues using the program, I was unfamiliar with the tools that the program offered, which left me stuck with an image that I didn’t feel was right for my music poster or my digipak. However, with the help from graphic students in my media class, I was able to be shown how to use the software’s tools.