Evaluation question 2

While conducting my planning and research for my music video, I used a lot of different programs such as the ones in the picture of your left. Having used these different media technologies it ensured that I was able to complete my project to a professional standard.

Research:

I researched the different songs which artists over the years have produced over the years. The internet and especially YouTube provided me with the necessary help and information which I needed to collect as data for my research. I was able to do this all on a PC. Google was another useful search engine that was at my disposal to ensure I was successful with my research. I used google to search for photos of my artists (Usher), information about Usher, the lyrics to the song (My Boo ft. Alicia Keys) and images of digipack covers to help me decide which was the best one to do for my own project. The internet on my phone was also useful at times to help me with research on the go. If I wasn’t near a computer I was able to search up information quickly or go on YouTube to find the song lyrics. Music channels were also available for research, music channels such as MTV provided us with lots of different genres from different music videos and having watched a few of them we was able to get some initial ideas about our own music video. We made a brainstorm of the best and worst things in each music video and encorporated them into our own video.

Blogger – Research and Planning

I used blogger a lot in my project to write about all the work I had done along the way. Blogger was good and very easy to use to keep track of my progression while working, I was able to use bloggerevery step of the way from the introduction stages to the actual project itself and finally to the evaluation questions.

Blogger was useful as I had the ability to embed pictures and videos to show where I was getting my ideas and inspirations from.

I was also able to insert planning documents such as video interviews and risk assessment.

It was almost like a little diary which I was using throughout my time completing my project.

Microsoft Office – Research and Planning

I used Microsoft word to write up my risk assessment and to also copy and paste lyrics on it so that I could print out the lyrics so that the characters had something to refer to when singing the song. I printed the lyrics out for different reason; 1 reason was so that I could make notes about what we wanted to film and what location we could film a particular verse in the song. Another reason we printed out the lyrics was so that the characters could memorize the lyrics.

I used Microsoft word when I was doing the questionnaire in respect of the music that we got an audience to watch and give us feedback on. It helped my converts the answers from the feedback and put it into a pie chart. The pie chart was easy to make and very easy for people to understand what is going even if they’ve never seen one before.

USB, Mobile Phones, Laptop, PC – Planning and Research

My phone was very helpful during my planning and research stages. It was very useful when it came to organisation and time keeping

I was able to (with the 5 megapixel) take lots of pictures of the various locations and either using a usb cable or emailing the photos I was able to get them on the PC very easily.

I used my laptop and PC when I was at home and wasn’t at school to continue with my planning and research on the internet. I was able to go on youtube to listen to music from my genre (R&B); I was also able to use googleto find out anything else I needed to know as well having a look on the official Usher website.

Construction In the construction stage of my project, a normal PC was used to operate the various editing software's needed to complete my coursework to a professional standard. A HD Cannon (LEGRIA HFR306) was the camera to film our music video. Along with the camera we also used a tripod to hold the camera in place so that it gave the overall footage a steady yet professional look. After filming, we took the footage from the SD card and placed it in the computer to get the clips off so that we could edit it in Adobe Premier Elements. This is when we selected all the footage we wanted to include in the video. We included it in a timeline, edited the video, added transitions and most importantly matched the filming to the official song so that Kevon’s and Ami’s miming and matched the song accurately.

We also used Adobe Photoshop to make the album cover and the advert to promote the song to a wide audience.

We also used the camera on the iPhone to take pictures of the locations that we filmed in and we uploaded them to our blogs and explained why we thought the places we filmed in were necessary.

Editing – Premier Elements and Photoshop

In order to complete our project, we needed to edit the clips together and fully turn it into a music video. The editing software which we used was Adobe Premier Elements. This software is timeline based and it supports many video editing cards and plug-ins for accelerated processing, additional file format and video/audio effects. Starting with the version in CS5, it is a 64-bit application that can be used for Windows PC and for Macs.

Photoshop was used to edit pictures for the album cover and for the advert. Also, photoshop files has the ability to be opened directly from premier to photoshop and vice versa.

This is a snapshot of a timeline. What it shows is that the clips are on the top half and any audio or sound goes on the bottom half

Snapshot of our video during the editing process

Audio files.

Timeline

Video clips

Preview Screen

This is where we was able to chose the all the different editing techniques. There was a variety of transitions and video/audio effects that was at our disposal. We used the best ones in our video to get that professional feel to the video.

Evaluation – Blogger

Blogger was used to record evidence of our filming, editing, research and planning actives that was done throughout the stages of completing the overall project Blogger was easy to access on my school computer, home computer, personal laptop and on my iPhone I kept my blog up to date every step of the way. It was used to insert images and videos I wrote the everything in detail so that it was clear for anyone who was reading it to understand what I was going through. It was fairly easy to use. Signing in, creating new and editing posts as well as publishing them was pretty straight forward.

Evaluation – Facebook & Twitter

In order to receive feedback from our target audience we decided to put our video on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook allowed us to post the video on the facebook timeline and share it with online friends. They had the opportunity to comment on the video or just like it. They also had the option (if they liked it) to share it to their friends and so on to ensure that a lot of people got to see it.

Also, due to facebook I was able to share statuses about the video –hyping it up so that people who did not get a chance to see would be able to see it. I sent numerous amounts of private message to people who was not officially online but they had a phone so they could see it on there. This was done so that I got as much feedback as possible.

I used twitter to ‘tweet’ about the video so that my followers all over the world could watch it and give me some feedback to what they thought about the video.

Evaluation – YouTubeThe video was posted on YouTube which meant that it was easy for everyone to see. Simply by typing in the title of the song they could find it on YouTube. If people couldn’t find it on facebook or twitter because people posted other things and our video got pushed to the bottom, they could come to youtube to watch it as much as they wanted to.

This is the amount of times the video has been viewed so far

This is how many likes and dislikes the video has received so far

These are all the comments people have made about the video.

Evaluation – Slideshare/PowerPoint

Another creative element which I added to my overall media project was the fact that I used PowerPoint presentations to map out all visual elements and then in order for me to put it on my blog I had to convert it into a slideshare document. They were both fairly easy to use and it didn’t take no effort to upload the PowerPoint to slideshare.