How did you use media technologies
in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
The early stages of our Pop Promo creation was all about gathering a full understanding of what
a music video really consists of. To do this I watched countless music video examples on 'Youtube'
and 'Vimeo'. I found that the majority of music videos were generally uploaded to 'Youtube', and
that 'Vimeo' was a video-uploading platform generally used by a more niche market, such as small
film companies and independent film makers. I set up a media twitter account and joined
specialist music magazine sites including New Musical Express NME. I also researched websites of
the major record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal
Music Group
During the production of our pop promo video, my role in the creation was split between various
different tasks. I supervised most of the filming, making sure the surroundings were suitable and not any
apparent risks that could potentially affect myself and the rest of my group. I also set-up the camera for
filming, as i'm a photography student I am highly proficient in the understanding of lighting and depth of
field, these two aspects can be adjusted manually on the 'Canon 700D'. I also had an acting role, where
myself and my classmate Ellie were a happy couple sitting outside a coffee shop, who are encountered
by main character Jeremy on his unhappy walk, which our video focuses upon. I also filmed on a few of
the alternative camera shots, while Harry was manning the main camera, I film the same scene but from
a different location, thus giving us the opportunity to switch between shots when it came to editing.
To ensure that Fateh could properly hear the song when performing a lip-sync, I used 'Bluetooth' to
connect my phone to the wireless speaker, so the song could be played out loud for our 'lead singer' to
hear. This meant that when we had to edit the video, the track added on top of our video matched
Fateh's lip movements perfectly. As a group, various drafts of the video were created, to outline what we
still needed to film, and to get feedback and constructive criticism from our teacher, while we were still
in the process of filming. 'iMovie was used for some drafts as it is good for adding the clips and music
track together, but wasn't capable of producing something of such quality as 'Final Cut Pro', which we
used to create our final pop promo.
We used a 'Canon Legria' when experimenting with different shots and clips. This particular camera
was suitable for the task as it's a 'point and shoot' video camera, meaning we didn't have to worry
about camera set up at this stage. Extensive web-based research was essential in getting the facts
on the different parts of the music industry relating to pop promos were. By researching into how
music videos are made, it really put into perspective the process we would have to go through if we
were a real band making a music video with a record company.
During the creation of my ancillary tasks I used a 'Canon 700D' (on still mode) during the
photoshoot of myself and my group. This allowed us to adjust the camera set up to suit the
lighting conditions in the Photography Room. With a point and shoot camera this would not have
been possible. After downloading the images from the photoshoot onto my 'Macbook Pro', I
exported them to iPhoto. In iPhoto I went through all the photos viewing them with the concept
and brand in mind, and then deleted the ones that did not fit. I was then able to adjust the
colour/lighting of the photo, greatly enhancing the qualities I was striving for. Using the adjusted
images from iPhoto I exported the ones I selected into 'Adobe Photoshop' I then converted them
into black and white and cut out the backgrounds so the photos could be used on the digi-pack.
On Photoshop I performed skin-smoothing techniques, to create a more professional and smooth
skin aesthetic. The use of Photoshop enabled me to manipulate
the image into the exact way in which I planned on paper originally.
After our final production was finalised on Final Cut Pro, we uploaded it to Youtube, and then
embedded it onto a new post on my 'Blogger'. Throughout my A2 coursework (and AS), Blogger
has been the central hub for all my media work, including research & planning, production and
Post-Production. Blogger is a blogging site integrated into 'Google', it uses the same account as
the one you would use to sign into Youtube, Gmail and Google Plus; this meant that I could switch
easily between Blogger and Youtube as the account was connected, all my information was
stored and shared between both accounts. Blogger was a good platform to use as the way to
store my media coursework, as it's all online, it meant that I could work on coursework where
ever I was, on any device. It also meant that I could receive feedback and positive criticism by my
teacher, which I could use to help develop my work to a higher standard.
This way of communicating with my teacher is only possible now due how technology has become
easily accessible, and is used in places of education.