How did I use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research
Construction
Evaluation
Planning
YouTube
Audience Feedback
Allcounted
Direct Focus Groups
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom
Blogger
I used blogger to look back on my work so I could accurately construct my answers for the evaluation questions. I was able to look at posts regarding focus groups, ancillary texts, theories and developments all to aid my final answers in this stage. I again used Blogger to present my work, whether in the form of Web 2.0 tools or a simple blog post.
I used Pinterest to create a board of initial ideas and inspirations, from colour through to shot styles. This not only helped develop my music video ideas, but also better prepared me for shooting our artist for our tour poster and digipack. From this I was able to establish that a strong colour synergy works well among products - it establishes the artist, style and audience with a simple theme. Similarly to The 1975's "I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It" promotion, Yoli and I wanted to create a youthful and energetic theme throughout our products, with colour tying the music video and ancillary texts together. Noticing how well the bright colour pink illustrated this, we experimented with this, along with similar colours such as purples and blues.
GoConqr
Blogger
Cameras
Cameras Used:
iPhone 6S
Nexus 5X
Nikon P510
I used Twitter to initially reach out directly to Maisie Peters, to ask permission to use her song for our music video.
As an active social-media user, Maisie got back to me quickly and we were able to correspond efficiently, allowing Yoli and I to understand the expectations our artist had
I used YouTube to watch already-made videos, whether they be professional or another A-level student's work. This way I was able to analyse what a good music video included, asses how well I thought they were made, and inspire my own ideas. This developed my sense of narrative and symbolism so that Yoli and I could construct a music video would be proud of.
I also used YouTube to teach myself how to use softwares such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop, as I hadn't previously used the Adobe products before.
Whilst playing around with what I had learnt, I often screen-recorded my progress and uploaded this to YouTube to reference what I had practised on my blog.
Surveymonkey #
I used GoConqr to map out a whole bunch of my initial ideas and inspirations - this way, it was easy to view my thoughts and produce developments on this. It also made communicating with my project partner, Yoli, much more efficient, as sharing ideas in mind-map form was clearer than simply burbling ideas aloud to each other.
I used Blogger to document my ideas, progress and products. It has been a place I can look back and collect my thoughts to develop new ones, whether it be creating an idea from a pre-existing music video or solving a problem I've come across when editing. Furthermore, I've used other people's blogs to inspire myself – perhaps they stumbled across the same problem, or spoke about a theorist I hadn't come across before. This has thus improved my own work.
Web 2.0 Tools
PowToon
I used PowToon to create short, animated videos of theories and ideas, making my blog more interactive and exciting. Though tricky to use, the overall result is always rewarding as it looks pretty professional once completed.
Visme
Slides
Mindmeister
Emaze
GoConqr
Canva
Infogram
Padlet
Polyvore
I used Polyvore to create mood boards on the style I wanted our artist and characters to have, allowing me to incorporate colour analysis easily into each individual. It was interesting to see how you could manipulate the 'mood' and how relatable a person is, simply by their outfits.
I used Web 2.0 tools to make my blog interactive and stimulating to read through. Having used around 10 in my foundation coursework, I wanted to aim for 12-15 this year, with a balance across at least 5, rather than just Emaze and Prezi, which I heavily relied on last year. I can happily say I believe I have achieved this, using Prezi, Emaze, Slides, Infogram, Canva, Powtoon, Polyvore and Padlet fairly equally.
Canva was a tool I discovered this year, and found it brilliant not only to present decks, but to create logos too! It is an all-round site that allows for all kinds of creations and although I may have used it a little too much in this coursework, I can't deny its efficiency in presenting things clearly, beautifully and interactively.
Time.Graphics
I used Time.Graphics to present my research into the history of the music industry, so that I could easily spot trends and patterns and use this to my advantage when sculpting the artist I believe would fit the market today. I found the software fairly easy to use and think it would be a great revision tool for history students!
Allcounted
SpiderScribe
Shooting Schedule
Snapchat
Yoli and I created a group chat on Snapchat with our teenage actors to plan our filming days efficiently and quickly. We were able to additionally communicate what we wanted our actors to wear and check they didn't clash, as our characters have similar styles. This meant Arthur, though never having shared contacts with most of the group before, was able to stay in touch on the day with ease, in case anything were to go wrong.
BBC Weather
Yoli and I used the BBC Weather website when planning our filming days during the summer. We wanted to ensure we wouldn't be filming in the rain as our equipment wasn't prepared for such weather, and we pictured our music video to be filmed with a theme of sunshine and happiness.
Smartphone
Visit London
I used the Visit London site to create a list of free/cheap places to go to in London, as Yoli and I are working with a student budget. From this list, we narrowed it right down to a handful of locations, which we scouted, evaluated and eventually filmed at. This site was key to us finding a few of the gems we shot at, including Regents Park.
Nikon P510
Google Maps
Used to find the quickest and most efficient routes regarding our scouted locations
TFL
Used to check that London trains were running as we were all coming either via Central Line or Greater Anglia, towards central London for each of our locations (excluding Yoli's house).
Used to capture scouted locations, used for test footage. #
Used to contact God's Own Junkyard in regards to their opening times and filming policy
Green Screen Practise
Yoli and I experimented with Robyn in front of the green screen to decide whether we would include lip-syncing footage at different London locations. We liked the effect of the green screen, so we decided to limit the amount of lip-syncing to just one other location (school).
I used Twitter to contact "Build A Boat" artist, Maisie Peters, by direct message. Wonderfully, she got back to me and gave Yoli and I permission to use the song, as long as we gave Maisie credit. Throughout the project, Yoli and I stayed in touch to keep Maisie updated along the way, showing Maisie our research and drafts.
Excel
Yoli used Microsoft Excel to create initial filming schedules for each of the days we were shooting. Originally, we only had this for the first day (as we only had half of our production team), however, it worked so efficiently, Yoli made sure to make schedules for the other days too.
I used Adobe Lightroom to enhance saturation, brightness and colour to particular clips (mostly of those in London), to ensure the shots captured would fit with our overall theme for our music video. I found the software fairly nice to use, with only one thing tripping me up - how to select a frame of a clip rather than the whole thing to edit - but this small problem was overcome by a series of intense clicking and deep breaths.
Yoli and I decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our music video, as we wanted to practise on software used in the industry today. Initially, it seemed a little overwhelming, but after a few YouTube tutorials, the software soon felt as familiar as home. There was one instance, while I was editing the final draft, that it crashed, but I was able to salvage what I had edited through rendered files I had kept saved. Overall, I'm proud of how far Yoli and I have come with this software, as we were both completely new to it at the beginning of the year.
I created a "vintage" by layering light leaks and scratches over the top of the footage with our young actors. I also included slight colour correction, favouring purple/red tones for the "old film" camera style. I had tried to find presets that would make this task more efficient but I didn't want to spend money. Unfortunately the free presets I found didn't give me the effect I wanted, however, I'm happy with my own outcome in the end - I think the mash of random leaks and scratches works far more efficiently .
I created an animated effect by styling text and mapping it around the frame. It took a small chunk of my time, but I definitely feel as though it was worth it, as Yoli and I wanted to recreate this effect in our own way from the beginning of this project - it was one of the first things I researched! This was what was initially lost when I was editing the final draft, but it saved in rendered chunks so luckily I was able to save it.
Of all three Adobe products I used, I found Photoshop the most difficult to get to grips with. I'm far more familiar with editing images loosely on my phone, and still, even after practising with this professional software, I feel the same. Yoli and I used Photoshop to edit the digipak and poster. I recreated the "vintage" style on Photoshop with only a small degree of frustration, and was really quite proud of the result. Although Yoli and I both struggled with Photoshop initially, again, I feel we've both done ourselves extremely proud as we've managed to produce ancillary texts we're both really happy with!
Yoli and I used my DSLR camera to record at school and in London. This was to ensure we had quality we were happy to work in and would provide us with a high-end resulting product.
Yoli and I also both used our phones to record over the days we filmed. This was to make sure we had plenty of footage in case any shots weren't quite right. Although they aren't professional cameras, the technology in smartphones nowadays meant that Yoli and I were both able to use footage from our phones in our final music video, as the quality hardly differed from the DSLR! #
Apple Mac
Yoli and I used our school's Apple Mac computers as they are made to run softwares like this efficiently. Neither of us have the Adobe Suite on our own devices, so the school's computers were the only choice in terms of professionalism. It meant we were able to experience the Apple computers too, this may be something we must adapt to in the workplace or at higher education. The Macs were fairly nice to use, although there were some computational problems that weren't as easily fixed by non-Apple experts, which delayed some of our project. Our Mac in particular didn't have Final Cut Pro installed, and Adobe After Effects didn't work, which meant we had to approach the animated effect with a different technique and tutorial.
Allcounted and SurveyMonkey are both Web 2.0 tools that share and calculate created questionnaires. Although Allcounted gave a more in-depth analysis of the results, SurveyMonkey's analysis is clearer and time-wise, far more efficient. However, that being said, with Allcounted, there are more options when it comes to question types - although SurveyMonkey has improved since last year as I was able to include pictures and video clips. Overall, I found both easy to use, with SurveyMonkey just scoring as my personal favourite with its efficiency.
Yoli and I made sure to be in close contact with our target audience, as focus groups weren't our strong point in our foundation year. This allowed us to create products more suitable to our market, and therefore more effective, more successful and honestly, more fun to create. Hearing such interesting feedback made our project something that wasn't just Yoli and I's creation, but a generation of youth's own little love story.
Focus Groups
I made sure to check through my Focus Group blog posts to evaluate how well Yoli and I communicated with our target audience, and note down exactly what we have learnt from such a process.
YouTube
Looking back at our research element, Yoli and I shared music videos that had influenced our video, and theories we had considered along the way. This would then help us construct our answer in how our product compares to forms and conventions of those in the music industry.
Canva
I used Canva to place our final products together (taking individual shots from the music video) in order to assess the synergy across them. This was the tool I used to create my mood boards and thus was what I went to use for this final summary of our project.