Evaluation Question 4

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

Transcript:

During the 'research' stage of my production I used a variety of platforms to help me with the exploration of common conventions, along with artist research and also research on various materialistic products to justify their use in my production, for example the drone and Premier Pro which were both key aspects to the completion of the production. One major platform I used was YouTube. I used YouTube to look at existing products in the electronic genre. An example of this would be that I was able to find all of ODESZA's existing work and carry out a significant amount of research on them through their own YouTube channel where they have an array of behind the scenes videos, along with interviews which I could use to get to know their characters, and listen to variety of their songs for free. Blogspot was also heavily used. Anything and everything which I found with regards to information, examples and ideas or designs was uploaded to my blog and evaluated. Once I had completed the music video, digipak and magazine advert (ancillary products) I constructed together an online questionnaire and sent it to various group chats using messenger which is also another example of the use of media technologies during the research and evaluation aspects of my production. This leads me nicely to Web 2.0. While researching throughout various periods of my production, whether it was in relation to the music video, digipak or magazine advert, I was able to look at various social media platforms and gather a general idea of how to approach each product. Google Chrome was very important to the research of my media products, one website in particular was https://genius.com/ where I could do thorough lyric analysis on a range of songs which can be seen in my music video analysis section on my blog. From using this website I came to the conclusion of using a narrative with direct lyric to visual links as a result of my findings, Web 2.0 was therefore was vital to the altering of our end product. During the research stage of this years production I carried out a practice edit and played around with some existing clips I had captured, at a location we had shortlisted, and edited this to one of ODESZA's songs, this gave us a slight insight as to how the lyrics could potentially fit the visuals and whether or not we would use this genre of music to work with. Final Cut allowed me to do this very easily and efficiently.

In the planning stages, for myself and Charles it was important for both of us to print checklists which we could easily take to shoots which we could tick off and make sure we didn't then miss any needed and important shots, especially when working with Sarah our actress as we didn't want to waste her time (efficiency was key!). Pages allowed us to do this with very little hassle and very swiftly, one benefit of doing it on pages was that if we lost the document we would have an electronic version which we also emailed between us so we could access it while shooting if for some reason it wasn't to hand. Blogspot once again was used as a tool for portraying what we had planned out. One example of using blogspot during the planning and preparation stages is my blogpost on Shot Lists which can be seen here - http://shot-type-productions.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/shot-list.html. On this blog is an example of our Shot Lists which were created on Google Sheets which is another example of a media technology I used with regards to Web 2.0 once again. (https://www.google.co.uk/sheets/about/). Within the planning stage I also used Final Cut and YouTube to graft together a location scouting video which will be embedded below. During our location scouting mission and when planning where would be best to shoot, I filmed various features and aspects I'd like to focus on within the evaluation on my blog. I filmed this on my Canon SX700 HS PowerShot point and shoot camera which shoots at 60fps. By doing this, Charles and I were able to see how these would transfer onto a screen; sometimes what appears to be a breathtaking feature at such a significant scale, like the Cow and Calf can appear small and / or anti climatic. By filming such features we can then discount these clips or, alternatively work on ways to overcome this issue. Finally, when planning the original route on Ilkley Moor and at Fewston, I used Google Maps and Google Images to gather secondary information which would be used when deciding where to go, this was somewhat important, however more so to use images to help paint the picture on my blog of what our plan was before we went, and then, using my own images afterwards to provide a contrast and perhaps evaluate upon this with a potential change of opinion after primary research.

To begin with, I used a variety of digital cameras during the construction of my products, otherwise none of it would have been created. I used the Sony SLT a58 DSLR which was provided by school, this was used during the location scouting to create the 'fewston' video, and in some of the inside shots in scene 1. Along with the Sony we used a Canon 7D for the hand help shots based inside the protagonists house. Outside however, during tracking shots we opted for the Phantom 4 drone due to its built in gimbal which achieved a steadier shot as oppose to using the Canon. Furthermore, to begin with I used Final Cut Pro to edit and construct this piece. However after deliberation over a comparison between this and Premiere Pro which can be seen here - http://shot-type-productions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/why-we-changed-from-fxp-to-pp.html I swiftly moved over to Premiere Pro. On Premiere I was able to take control over colour correction and have a more manual approach to editing the clips, really delving into the dynamics of each clip and alternating small details which come together to improve the big picture. When signing up for the 12 month contract with Adobe I also has access to After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator (which are just a few of the many apps they have available). I was then able to use this during the creation of the digipak and magazine advert. There were free advert creation websites which I saw peers using, however I wanted to demonstrate more skills by doing it first hand and using a greater variety of media technologies in the construction of my ancillary products and the video itself. At the end of the music video, I have incorporated a title sequence which was made apparent to me to be compulsory by ODESZA's management team who gave Charles and myself permission to use this song. This was created on After Effects which works directly alongside Premiere Pro, what you do to a clip in After Effects automatically changes it in Premiere which is very useful! Finally, within the construction of my media products I used social media to export the finish product to my audience. I posted it on my YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/oDlthApEscQ, as well as sending it to group chats on FB (Messenger more specifically) and on Snapchat to close friends to ask for their opinion, which brings me on the the evaluation stage.

Along with social media, such as Facebook, to get the video out to as many people as possible, I used an array of instruments in my evaluation stage. During the initial stages of research, when evaluating market research we did this all manually, and calculated pie charts on Microsoft Excel which is another example of a media technology I used. Once I had completed the music video I constructed together an online questionnaire on Survey Monkey, I then sent it to a group chat using Messenger; from here I was able to analyse feedback and comment on it. During my evaluation questions I have aimed to use different techniques. For Evaluation Question 1 I have used Slide-share to exemplify my powerpoint on how I have followed forms and conventions of music videos within my genre. For Evaluation Question 2 I used a Prezi, which is an example of Web 2.0. This identifies the combination of my main product and it's ancillary products with a description also in a creative manner which I think is important. Evaluation Question 3 uses a blogpost due to going into depth on feedback graphs, this is the clearest and in my opinion the best way to show this information. And finally I have used Youtube for my Evaluation Question 4 by producing a podcast, another used media technology. Overall I have used a large array of media technologies throughout my production exemplifying various skills and techniques.