HOW DID YOU USE NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

IN THE CONSTRUCTION STAGE

To construct our video, we used a digital camera. The camera itself was very basic but it suited our needs. We

filmed all of our video on it as it was easy to use.In post production, we used to programme iMovie on the iMacs provided by us by our school. We were taught how

to use the programme by attending a session at Brentford CLC, where we taught the basics of the programme, which

enabled us to edit our own videos. By using the programme, we were able to add special effects

such as the dream effect to our video, as well transitions from one clip to another. We used the dream effect as we believed it completed some of the scenes in our video, as they were meant to be from a dream. From our session,

we were also taught how add the soundtrack the video. We had to make sure that the song fit correctly with the video as there are clips of lip syncing for example, James, one of

our male characters, singing ‘Brown Eyed Girl’.

IN THE CONSTRUCTION STAGE

In the making of our poster and CD cover, we used the programme fireworks. The programme was

fairly easy to get to grips with. We created synergy through the use of Hazels, the main girl

character, eyes which we used both on the poster and on the CD cover.

We chose Hazels eyes as our logo, which people would associate us with, as they are distinctive and easily recognizable. We made sure that the

picture was part of both the CD cover and poster by photo shopping them in using the programme Photoshop. The programme Paint also came into hand when cutting images in as well as editing

images.

RESEARCH

In the research stage of the production, our main source was the internet. We mainly used Google, but yahoo also came into handy. Search engines provide a great

amount of information and we used it mainly when doing research for our CD cover. For

example, we were able to find out what was needed on our CD cover like the bar code

and he record labels logo.

RESEARCH

Individually, we all did our own research into CD covers. We looked at how bands created synergy between their music, logo

and their front cover. For example, Coldplay’s theme on their front cover of eccentric art runs right through to their concerts where fans are given bright bracelets to wear during the show.

We also created our own CD covers for other bands at the beginning, to give us some practice for when we produced our

group CD cover. For these we also used the programme Fireworks, which enabled us to practise using the programme

so we would know how to use it properly when it came to creating our CD cover for ‘Brown Eyed Girls’

RESEARCH

During research, we conducted audience research to find out what our audience expected from a

music video including themes and storylines. We also conducted audience research when

completing our poster, to find out what intrigued them and what would make them watch a music

video through looking at a poster.When questioning our audience, we showed them

a mock up of a possible poster as well as posters from other bands and what they liked from

them.We used a flip camera to film the audience

research as they were small and easy to use and the clips were quick to transfer to the iMacs.

We also tested using the green screen prior to filming, to see how it worked and we all enjoyed using it. However, we decided that we were unable to use it in our video as there were no points in our

storyline that we could have used it. Below, is us filming Michaela on a plain screen, which we decided worked best for our filming.

RESEARCH

Every part of our planning and research has been presented on our blog. At the beginning we concentrated on looking at other artists and their CD covers. We analysed digipaks as well as music videos performed by other artists. We also looked into record labels to see which record label the song

would be most likely to be signed under. I think there are many advantages to using new technologies

such as blogging, using different technologies such as digital cameras and flip cameras. It is a lot easier to keep

track of your work and new technologies have made it easier to record and edit clips.

However, its sometimes hard to use these new technologies as they tend to be more complicated. As a group, we found

it hard to get to grips when using fireworks but we were okay when using other programmes. We also found both

the cameras easy to use as we had previously already used them.

PLANNING

When planning our music video, we came up with a

storyboard which we filmed, creating an animatic. This showed in motion our plan

for our music video and then helped us fill in the missing gaps and what

could be improved when it came to actually filming our music video. The animatic was also created to enable us to experiment with the different combinations of

images to fit with the soundtrack.

We planned both our CD cover and poster on fireworks by coming up with different possibilities for our poster. We tried different colour schemes as well as different layouts to enable us to get the best

combination for our poster.When planning our music video we used the blog to take down any

ideas including costumes and settings. Analysing other artists digipaks and music videos also helped us when planning for our own music videos. We used the internet, programmes such as Paint and Fireworks and of course BlogSpot, to blog our ideas

EVALUATION

As a group, we used different electronic formats to present our evaluations. We tried to vary our formats by using different programmes to present them such as Prezi and Slideshare.

For Slideshare, we had to combine the use of PowerPoint and Slideshare to create the slide. Prezi unable us to use the combination of still and moving images with texts, and it

was a different and interesting way of presenting our evaluations.

We upload our final music video to YouTube which enabled the public to watch it but we also embedded it on our blog,

which enables the public to look at the final product and the processes we went through as group to achieve the final

product.After we had published our music video, we showed our classmates as well as the general public and on the whole

we received positive feedback, especially of the dream scene for example, when Hazel is spinning around.