Evaluation: Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout G324 I have used many forms of hardware and software so that I am able to complete all of the stages which were part of the production of my video. These stages are:

Research and planning

Construction

Evaluation

These are the pieces of software and hardware which I have used.

Computer:

This was the most important piece of technology which I used, without it I would have been unable to complete any of my work. The computer had all of the features and software which I needed to use to create my product. The main pieces of software which I needed to use were Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Premiere Elements 12.  I was able to use different computers as all of my work was stored online on blogger and online hard drives such as DropBox.

Blogger:

This is where all of my work is show off and shows the progress I have made throughout the course. I was able to keep all of my ideas on my blog so I would not forget, this made it easier for me to expand on what I had thought of which was on my blog which would help me more in the production of my products. Also, it allowed me to look at other people blogs, which give me the chance to get inspiration for my own blog for if I was stuck on what I wanted to post.

Various Online Presentation Software:

For G324, I used a few different online presentation software’s. One of these was Prezi, an online presentation site which allowed the audience to interact more with the presentation. This gave my blog a different look as it was not just all blog posts. I had some troubles with the posts disappearing but I was able to fix this as all I had to do was repost the presentation. I also used an online service called Poplet. I used this to create my timeline schedule for the project.

 

Microsoft Word:

Microsoft Word was very helpful due to the auto correct features it has, correcting things such as grammar and spelling mistakes which I would have missed out if I had typed it directly into blogger. Also, it was a lot easier to write a lot as I could save it as a document and then copy it across to my blog.

 

Photoshop CS6:

Throughout the course I was able to use Photoshop to create my advert and also my digipak which was needed for the project. As I am also a Photography student, I was able to use things which I had already learned through that. Using this I was able to make simple yet effective products which would end up on my blog.

In the image above, we can see some of the tools which I have used on Photoshop CS6. I have used text to experiment ways in which my digipak would look, I decided against using text on the front cover as I wanted to keep it simple and follow conventions of Kanye’s legitimate album. I have also used text to make the logo in the middle of the digipak. I have used the letter ‘Y’ and added various shapes to it to make it look like it is also a cross. I have done this as the ‘Y’ represents the album name and also the nickname of Kanye, ‘Yeezus’, and also the cross represents the cross which Jesus Christ was put upon. I have put these together as Kanye is a Christian and it shows how the album links with Christianity.

The picture above shows the tools which I have used to make my poster. Once again I have used the text tool; this is obviously so that I could put the album name and other conventions on the poster so it would look more professional. I have also used the same symbol which I created for my digipak; I have done this to keep the continuity of the brand which I am using. The main image used in the centre of the poster is an image which I took which I have edited by using black boxes so that I could darken the image and also merge it with an image of nebula by using the overlay setting. 

Adobe Premiere Elements 12:

I used this piece of software in the construction of my music video. At first I was not quite sure what I was doing, but over time I learned what everything did and was able to add whatever I needed to my music video and also get all of the editing done correctly. As I used it more and more I became more confident, making changes to my music video with the slightest tweaks to try and get the best out of my footage. Using this, I was able to make 2 rough cuts of the video and also a final copy of the video. 

On Adobe Premiere Elements 12 I was able to use a range of tools to create my music video. First of all, the effects. Throughout my video, I have used the black and white effect on all of the footage, with a mirror effect on some of the pieces of footage. I have done this so that the video will have a similar feel to the official New Slaves music video; it gives the video a more professional look.

Another Tool that I used was the cut tool. This was used to break up pieces of my footage so I could place them in different places. I have used this tool a lot in my music video so that I could add different pieces of footage in at the right time, as I used the cut tool wherever there was a beat and when I wanted to change the footage being shown.

One more tool that I used was the text tool. I have used this tool to add some kinetic typography to my video. I have been able to do this by adding pieces of text for the same length of time in which the lyric was being said. This makes the video more interactive as the audience will be able to read what the text is saying

YouTube:

I have used YouTube to inspire my work by using it for research purposes. I have been able to look for videos that will inspire me on what to do for the production of my music video. This gave me the opportunity to look at some of Kanye West's official music videos to see how they were made. I have been able to incorporate some of the conventions in Kanye's videos into my own work to make a successful music video. 

Cameras
For my video, I decided to use my phone for recording as it shoots at 1080p and 30 frames per second (fps). This was better than the video cameras that I had at home as the best they could record at was 720p. Using my phone was very successful as I was able to capture high quality footage so that my music video would not be blurry.

For my poster I decided to use my Nikon D3000 DSLR camera. As I am also a photography student, my camera was easy to access as I had purchased it. This is a 10.2 million pixel camera so I was able to get high quality images from the photoshoot which I did so that I could produce my poster. I was not able to use this camera for my recording as it does not have a recording feature.