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

Throughout the process of this project, I was presented with challenges that proved difficult at times. The first being my lack of knowledge with the equipment I was given. This experience forced me to think quickly on my feet as I was going along.

I had to rely on my past experience with Adobe Photoshop, I used this for the duration of my AS media studies, so to say the least I  had experience with some of the products.

New Media Technologies have significantly influenced our project in many ways, and had they not been so advanced, I would not have been able to achieve the outcomes

Prior to making the music video we had to research and analysing contemporary music videos via YouTube as independent musicians posts their music videos, some of whom take unique approach with a specific genre and borrows different conventions from contemporary music videos. This gave us an insight into what the demands of this project, for us to understand that there will be hardships in this project.

We used the internet as a research tool to look for music videos that could be used as an inspiration in the production of our music video. We came across Vevo this is a music service similar to Youtube but more comprehensive library; most artists tend to upload their music video through this service. This was especially helpful in helping us find the song to use in our project.

For AS Media last year, I was assigned to creating a music magazine cover, contents page and a double page spread. During AS I never encountered any sort of video editing, which meant I did not know anything about the different processes and techniques.

I was honestly very new to this.

I started to look at Final Cut Pro tutorials on Youtube to aid me and help me gain more of an understanding into the intricacy of the program.

We used the green screen effect, to add backgrounds which reflect the tone of the video and the lyrics. We utilised it to create effective background like the snow to give the connotation of melancholic atmosphere, to reflect cold nature of this theme. We also used it to create backgrounds to suit each performers respective genre

We used different filters such as the cold steel effect which was used for both differentiating between the past and present and to reflect the actor's state of mind, we wanted to create sympathy and possibly empathy with our audience.

We also began to utilise different editing techniques such as cross cuts and fades, which are prominent features seen in music videos of the Hip Hop/R&B genre. We started to experiment with different transitions such as the whirlwind to start the flashback, after seeing some of the flashback fades that were present in final cut pro, we collectively decided that they were to say the least simplistic, and quite frankly dull. That's what caused us to experiment with different transitions to create the sudden flashback, and we decided that the whirlwind was most appropriate because it immediately transitions into the flashback, without waiting for it, creating the element of surprise. 

We also used a program called Adobe AfterEffects. We utilised this program to create motion within our texts, so that it synchronizes with the timing of the 4/4 beat of the song. The motion of the text is different for each performer in the song, where Carlo Gambino's(Main Performer) lyrics pop up as punchlines in a sudden, unpredictable way reflecting the aggressive nature of Hip-Hop.                      Jay-S(Featured Performer) lyrics however comes out in a elegant and sophisticated motion, it is even stylised in calligraphy, we used this to reflect the soft and sensual nature of the R&B genre. 

During the construction of our music video, I had to  research into contemporary Hip Hop/R&B music video directors such as Director X, Hype Williams. They are known for their fast  and on beat editing, which inspired us to take into account the fast editing, to reflect the pattern of our song choice, to make it memorable to the audience.

This leads me to discuss the use of the Apple Mac’s in class sessions. Prior to creating the music video, I had used my friends Apple Mac for browsing the web, watching videos etc, I never used it for anything as complex as making music videos.

If I did not use the Mac’s, I wouldn't have been able to use Final Cut Pro which would meant our music video would probably not consist of any special effects at all; this in return would essentially render our narrative null.

In hindsight, the idea of removing these shots from the final music video would surely meet an unsuccessful outcome and a very unprofessional product.

To have an unbiased critical reception we decided to upload our video to social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. What’s interesting about YouTube in particular is the fact that it is shared globally and in return offers unbiased reception.

Their feedback proved to be very helpful in constructing the final version of the music video. Through this we were able to engage with our target audience.

The research for producing the ancillary products, I had to take into account real examples of media products; I went from analysing a real digipak by analysing the Kanye West’s 808 and Heartbreak album. I looked intricately into it analyzing the colours used and the effect behind it. I then took to the internet to analyse further and discover key connotations, and styles used by artist to convey the message and the theme of the album. By analysing these I was able to draw up the disadvantages and advantages of a digipak.

I also have a Blackberry Playbook, to which I used to buy magazines digitally, without having to resort to going to at store buying a physical copy. This was less time consuming seeing as, you can just at the touch of a finger move pages. In a short amount of time I was able to look through so many different magazines such as XXL and The Source which is primarily Hip Hop/R&B centric magazines. By analyzing these magazines I was able to figure out what elements I should include in my magazine advert and what to avoid doing.

Through the production of our music video we did not use Photoshop at any point, but it proved to be crucial in the process of making the digipak, magazine advert and record label. As well as Adobe Photoshop I used Adobe Illustrator enhance our magazine advert and digipak, Photoshop is used for image manipulation and Illustrator is used to give high quality image to some extent you cannot do in Photoshop, we had to bounce back and forth with these two programs. The reason why we chose to use Photoshop is that you can artistically combine images with texts, there are numerous ways in which you can use to make it artistic and attractive. Strokes, drop shadow, bevel and emboss and other effects allow you to give more emphasis on your texts, it also allows you to make images look better even by simply adjusting brightness, contrasts and exposure. Even if your photograph doesn’t really look good or has certain mistakes, you can still adjust and enhance that in Photoshop. It can cover up poor lighting, marks on the picture, dark photos, red eyes and others. You can also crop the picture if there are some parts which were mistakenly included when you took it.

At times when we were shooting footage for our music video, it was close to winter which meant we could not get any natural lighting at that point we had to improvise and use studio lights and the green screen effect, and add backgrounds to compliment the lighting. This obviously could not replace the natural lighting, we were hoping to use frequently, but we collectively decided as a group that it was better to have variation in our music video.

The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS is a 12 Megapixel super-zoom camera with a massive 35x optical range.  This was used throughout the production of all of our media products,(Music Video, Digipak and Magazine Advert). This is an 1080p HD ready camera, which gave us high visuals for our music video. This powerful camera is packed with different filters such as colour accent and contrast levels to produce high quality footage to which we used in our favour. 

During the planning stages of this media project we used a website called Blogger, through this website we would document everything and add video diaries to, it was used as a diary in which we would use it to document what we have been filming, editing and planning. The advantages of using blogger is that it is so accessible, I can view my blog through my mobile phone and simultaneously post on my blog, another reason is that it was through the internet meaning once I posted something I would not need to carry any sort of hard drive with me I could access it from any computer.  


We also used Microsoft Excel, which is a very intricate program in which you can produce statistics and spreadsheets, this was helpful when gathering the results from the questionnaires I took from both audience feedback and to researching my target audience 

We also used mobile phone exchanges to keep track of each person in the group, this is to make sure what days we could record and what we should do in preparation and convenience.

Overall, I have learnt that I am very fortunate to have been surrounded by new media technologies. The internet at this point is an element in my every day; it has proven to be extremely crucial and played major role in the making of this project. The use of the Apple Mac’s and practical aspects like the cameras has allowed us to create the music video that we have, and it has given me a much more understanding of how much influence new media technologies had on the overall outcome