Question 4

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

For my media product I used a variety of techniques involving media technologies. Through my stages of searching for an artist to promote, I used the social networking website ‘Myspace’ to search for unsigned acts as it is a website designed for artists to display their music. There were a number of different acts, so I searched for the ‘alternative’ genre as I personally like that genre and I know it appeals to others in my age range.

This is a close up of the print screen above. It highlights where to click to get the desired genres. After you've chosen your preference it comes up with a list of artists of that specific genre.

To get in contact with the artist I used another networking website called Facebook. I sent an email to the artist asking permission to use his track 'I'll Show You New York' for my media product.

This is the message I sent him:

Hi Daniel,

I'm a media student from City of Norwich School and was wondering if my media group could make a music video for your song 'I'll show you New York'? When we heard your songs on myspace we were really impressed and had to contact you at once to see whether it would be possible to promote your song in this way. We will show you the video and put it on YouTube as we realised that way more people can view it and experience your talent the way we did.

Hope to hear from you,

Emily King, Jenna Bolingbroke and Thomas Block

This is his reply:

Hey Emily, yeah that sounds great! thanks :) What sort of video would it be?? x

This is a print screen of the message I sent to Daniel and the reply he gave. However, it is not very good quality hence why I copied and pasted the exact words we both used.

Another technology through using the Internet is the blogger website. It is a simple webpage designed in order for individuals to set up their own personal blog, displaying their ideas, photos and work for the public to view. For example, this blog has been easy to use to write and post pieces of Media work. As people can comment on individual posts, it has been helpful to gain feedback from a teacher as they can give opinions and advice on how to develop ideas.

To shoot my production I used a hand held digital camera which was easy to use because it allowed me to play back footage that I had filmed. This was a good aspect as I could view shots that had just be recorded, making it easier to see if the shot, acting and camera angle was as desired. It was useful to film on this type of camera as it could be easily transferred to the editing programme I used called Adobe Premiere. I also used an SLR camera to take photos of location and costume so I could use them for my planning, deciding on which locations worked better than others. The stills camera takes photos in a high quality which makes them appear professional.

This is an example of the image quality of the photos taken on an SLR camera:

This is an image taken on an SLR camera. It demonstrates the sharpness and quality of photos that have been taken with it. This photo was taken in the bedroom windowsill location and shows how effective the costume of the red checked shirt is.

I also used this type of camera to take photos for my digipak design. I used the programme Adobe Photoshop to edit the image in order for it to stand out. I have used this programme before to edit images for my Thriller poster last year so found it simple, yet effective to use. I went on my artist Daniel Cope's Myspace website to see his ideas for album covers.

This is Daniel Cope's own CD cover idea:

The album cover is dramatic as the image is upside down which is eyecatching and will intrigue audiences.

This is the original image for my digipak design:

As you can see this image isn't as appealing as it is really basic so I edited it to become interesting.

I rotated this image 180 degrees and edited it by adjusting the brightness and contrast. I also lowered the saturation levels so the skin would be a similar colour to the background making the red of the checked shirt stand out as this is a main signifier of the artist.

This is a print screen of me editing this photo on Adobe Photoshop. It displays the tools you can use to edit and make the photo more interesting. 

To edit my music video I used the programme Adobe Premiere. I have used it to edit my Thriller film before so found it easy to include smooth transitions such as cross dissolve. This particular transition was used a number of times as it implied the sense of illusion and gave a dream-like feel. This was important as the plot of the music video is ambiguous so it reinforced that his day-dream could just be a fantasy.

Finally, to display my music video to the public, I uploaded it to the website YouTube so it can be easily viewed and assessed. I sent the final product to the artist who was impressed and gave positive feedback.

This is my music video being viewed online through YouTube: