This coursework, especially through the design and planning stages of the project we have used many different media technologies. Some we had experienced due to previous projects in media, others we gradually learned to get used to through the course. Without this technology we would have found our production very hard and wouldn’t have created the same quality of work.
Firstly, before we were put into our coursework groups, research for our bands and albums was taking place individually. Therefore the internet was a key factor in researching. The main website I used was Youtube, a video sharing site. This allowed me to search throughout the website for videos and research into ongoing conventions and themes of music videos out there. We then analysed these in Microsoft word, which acted as a basis for all my written work as it was easy to access and supplied word count and spell check that aided my work.
When planning the video we wanted to be as well prepared as possible so looked into using different programs like Microsoft Excel to present the shooting schedule, risk assessment and notes on each others numbers and email but stuck with Word because we were more comfortable with this. We then used social sites to keep in contact and set out shooting times/dates/locations like facebook and hotmail as well as through texting and calling each other. We felt it important to maintain a constant communication level throughout without this the majority of our plans would have failed. An example of this is us texting someone in our group of where we left the camera and to pick it up after school. Without this reminder we may have lost the camera
After printing the lyrics off from a lyrics site we wrote over them with our annotations and ideas. We then wanted to put these on to the computer, we did so by scanning them then editing the image in Paint. We did the same with our storyboard. After capturing the pictures from the storyboard we wanted to make it into a video so did so using the video editing software Adobe Premiere. This gave us a great amount of practise because we had never used this program before therefore were able to get familiar with it. This was one of the main media technologies we used. It allowed us to play around with the video and experiment especially with transitions and learn the importance of cutting. We shot the actual video with a Sony camcorder though had troubles with ours. Capturing did not work and certain features of it did not work therefore after sending it back and swapping it with an extra we found the equipment easy to use, plus it was easy to carry around. To capture the Sony DV tapes we used a fire wire cable that simply plugged into the computer and connected us straight away to Premiere.
Printscreen of editing in adobeFor the ancillary tasks we wanted to create a band page and digi-pack. For the digi-pack we found through research that the trending theme was an air-brushed “perfect” image. And after taking the pictures on a Nikon camera in the woods whilst it was raining we used Adobe Photoshop CS4 and CS2 to manipulate and edit them to get this “perfect” pretty image. Taking the pictures on this kind of camera allowed us to get good quality images that would not be lost through transforming, cropping, liquefying etc. When it came to the artist’s name, Eden Summers, we wanted a more personal touch therefore used a Tablet that linked with Photoshop to allow us to sign her name as if it were her signature
I presented all of my work throughout this project on the website Blogger/Blogspot. This was easy to use to present my work as I could easily insert text, video and pictures.
Media technologies have ensured my work throughout this project to be at a good standard, without the help of this the quality would have decreased a great amount. Although the technologies have helped us as a whole, we did incounter various problems with some technology. For example, blogs could take a while to upload which caused a strain on keeping work organised. We also had the problem of adobe crashing and some of our work being deleted from the system when we were editing. But overall we were happy with all the new technologies we were introduced to.
