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

Blogger:

Blogger has allowed for a more efficient process when researching, planning and evaluating for both music video and print production. This is as the site essentially acts as an online filing cabinet, whereby, documents or posts can be sorted under labels and easily re-produced/referenced when needs be; an organisational interface such as this allowed me to succinctly collate ideas without the risk of losing my work permanently. Additionally, the embedding functions such as HTML coding, the ability to upload images and add links gave me the freedom to embed explicit examples of other similar texts, be it to demonstrate how other productions have used conventions that I am exploring or to make intertextual links as a way of strengthening the content of the overall package.

Consequently, allowing me to use a high standard of visual support when making connections between other texts and my own production. The fact that blogger is an online application means for accessibility almost everywhere, I am able to use this website to draft, edit or finalise posts on the go and so if an idea suddenly comes across my mind when I'm say, walking the dog, it's easy for me to get the application up on my phone and add it too a post for later. This constant availability combined with the comments system also means that teachers can feedback to me out of school time, allowing myself to act upon feedback quickly without having to wait for another lesson and giving extra time for other work. Overall, I have used blogger as a tool to produce and store all of my work, from research to evaluation, in order to create a widespread, ongoing documentation of my progression throughout the unit. 

SoundCloud:

SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform, enabling it's users to upload, record, promote and share their originally created sounds. This website proved useful when searching for unsigned British bands as the majority of artists on this website conform to this category, most users sharing their music in order to promote themselves and get noticed. Moreover, I could simply type in the genre I was looking for and the site gave me a long list of all the artists and tracks with a tag that related to this. For example, because I was interested in making a trip-hop music video, searching "trip-hop" gave me a variety of artists to chose from; subsequently, I reached Fold and after listening to some of their tracks decided they were a great band to make a music video for. 

Additionally, this website allows audiences to interact with producers on a personal level as it is the artists themselves who operate their profile, thereby, listeners can give criticism or approval by commenting on tracks uploaded and artists can respond to this. Consequently, brining about a much closer relationship between audience and artist.

YouTube:

YouTube is a popular video hosting website that we used to research the music videos of established artists; the reason for this being that it contains videos from a vast array of artists ranging in genres, and so through browsing this site in the preliminary stages of our production we were able to produce a substantial amount of ideas about how we wanted our music video to play out. In addition to this, being exposed to such a wide collection of productions allowed us to determine conventions that were specific to certain genres. For example, through the consistent intake of trip-hop videos we found that a common convention was the use of irregular story telling to make through provoking points about society. The related videos feature was incredibly helpful in allowing us to do so, this is as the section advertises links that YouTube calculates as similar to the current video you are watching; moreover, feeding us more texts that we could use to reference or influence our ideas.  

Vimeo:

Sometimes, there was content not available on YouTube or videos that weren't of a high enough quality to embed clearly on to my blog, in these instances using Vimeo was the best option. For example, "Cool Song No. 2" is a music video that I embedded from this site, as it was of a much higher quality and this was important when referencing the use of lights that symbolised psychedelic iconography. Additionally, Vimeo focuses on gaining recognition for short films and their "staff picks" section helps promote this, using this "staff picks" feature allowed me to find useful and relatable short films that helped support my research in to the trip-hop genre. For example, when browsing this section, I found a video that demonstrated the use of sampling across the years.

Eclectic Method - A Brief History of Sampling from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Social media:

A screenshot showing the negotiation of a shoot.

Using Social networking sites such as Facebook allowed me, the other group member and actor to keep in constant contact throughout the entire production process; specifically, the message service, which is accessible on a wide-range of technological devices. For example, we could easily send messages to each other regarding the days we were going to shoot the music video and what parts still needed to be done.



As well as helping us through the organisation of the production process, Facebook also allowed us to interpret how the band presented itself to it's audience. This is as Fold has a page on the site and post regularly, by liking this page we could not only see how the band came across, but also how their fans came across through comments, likes, etc. Moreover, allowing us to gain better knowledge of the demographic we need to make our overall package appeal to.

Furthermore, Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to send and read short messages, called "tweets", if sent, "tweets" are broadcast to all who are following the account; this website has also been useful in determining the band's interests as a way of better understanding their tracks and how we could develop and portray ideologies to not only satisfy them, but their audiences also. For example, we gained a better understanding to Fold's devotion about the issues of inequality through the news articles they were posting along with short messages to follow. Consequently, we used social media sites in order to better understand the band, audience and the relationship between the both, as well as a means of keeping in constant communication with one and other.

Examples of "tweets" by Fold.

Powerpoint:

Powerpoint was a particularly useful tool in the research and planning stages, allowing me to methodically create slides that touched on different sub-topics within an overall piece of research or to layout a document in a neat order. For example, when researching and planning the print production I used a Powerpoint to allow me to place individual album art on each slide, giving a clear depiction of the art as well as leaving plenty of room for analysis. Additionally, I used a website called Scribd in order to allow me to embed the finished Powerpoint on to my blog.

Album Cover Research by mada96

 
 Cameras:

For shooting the music video, we decided to use a DSLR camera as opposed to a camcorder, specifically we shot on the Canon 550D. As well as being a stills camera, the Canon 550D records video in 1080p mode, which we used to shoot our music video in the highest definition possible, allowing for a more professional and cinematic quality; additionally, we could manually manipulate factors such as ISO, aperture and shutter speed in order to create certain tone within the mise-en-scene before the actual editing commenced. Furthermore, the Canon 550D had a LCD screen at the back which allowed us to see what was being recorded at the current time, as well as afterwards, giving us a chance to review the footage and decide whether or not we would have to take in again.

A feature that was very useful in the construction stages was the ability to manually focus the camera, we used the technique of pulling focus to allow for the shift in attention between two subjects in a scene; moreover, giving a higher level of professionalism. For example, maintaining focus on the business man character as he talked on the phone, but as he turned around we shifted this towards the stock display; the same applies to the protestor and church figures.

Additionally, using a DSLR gave us the ability to change lenses and so experiment with different focal lengths when deciding upon how to execute a shot. Primarily, we used a kit lens that came with the 550D, due to it's rather small focal range (18-55mm) we were able to achieve wide-angles of view, allowing us to fit a lot more content in to each shot. For example, this came in particularly useful when filming the time-lapses of the two buildings as we could fit in the whole structures, whilst also including the sky which was the main indicator of faster speeds. 

On the other hand, we used a Canon ultrasonic telephoto lens, this offered a very narrow focal range (75-300mm) which allowed for enhanced zoom and an increase in bokeh when focused on the subject, making objects appear larger to the screen than in actuality.We used this lens to capture close-ups, focusing on the facial expressions of individuals in order to heighten how audience relate to character emotionally. For example, the shot of the business man in the docklands.

A still taken on a Canon EOS 5

Furthermore, in taking stills for the print production I decided to vary between the use of two 35mm film cameras. The reason behind my use of film as opposed to digital photography is that it harbours an aesthetic quality that submits itself more as art than anything else, the chemical changes in development create colours and textures that I feel only highly expensive digital cameras can only now achieve; additionally, using this more traditional means of photography gives the finished prints a likeness to historical images and so in a sense it references events that I'm also trying to reference thematically as well as visually e.g. the Anti-Vietnam war protest. Firstly, I used a Canon EOS 5, a SLR camera that had pretty much the same features as the Canon 550D we used to shoot on, minus the LCD screen and of course, it used 35mm film instead. The reason behind using this camera is that I could automatically take stills, without having to worry too much about how it would affect the film as the settings were already worked out for me; moreover, allowing me to gain an almost guaranteed quality of image with the aesthetic of film photography.

Additionally, the compatibility of Canon's digital lenses allowed me to use lenses that we had used for filming and vice versa, giving me a wide variety of stills to use.

The back panel of my CD case; still taken by Canon EOS 5

Still taken on a Zenit 12xp

Secondly, I used a Zenit 12xp, a Russian manufactured SLR camera that requires manual loading of film, as well as programming of settings. My reasoning for using this is the advantages it has over both the Canon EOS 5 and 550D in terms of aperture range; manual SLR cameras, such as the Zenit, often have a very wide range of aperture due to the fact that lenses are prime i.e. fixed focal length, this means that photographs can be taken in lower light conditions quickly and still come out at as a suitably sharp exposure. Again, aesthetic appeal was another factor that came in to consideration when choosing to use the Zenit.

My magazine advert; both stills taken with the Zenit 12xp

Lighting:

An example of the lights we
were using.

When filming interior shots for the music video, lighting was essential to maintaining a clear standard of quality and so we used halogen lights in order to preserve this. By utilising this source, we were able to illuminate subjects with shear clarity which particularly helped with the montage of quickly edited close-ups that appear in the opening sequence; however, the halogens were very bright and so in some instances we pointed them at white walls within the house we were shooting at in order to reflect light more softly upon the subject. 

Shots that were illuminated using Halogen lights.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6:

We decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 when editing our footage for the music video, this is as it is a popular, professional piece of video editing software that caters to both beginners and experienced users. The layout allowed us to review certain shots before placing them in to the actual timeline, giving us the chance to discuss what we could change to enhance the mise-en-scene as well as conveying a rough idea of how much we needed to cut the clip down. Furthermore, using the different channels within the timeline gave us the ability to have two videos running at the same time as well as the audio of the track, the clear separation of these audio and video channels allowed for both clips and sound to be clearly synched.

The most prominent and important feature technique we have used in our music video is split-screen, in order to achieve this effect we used the scale tool within the motion tab to shrink each clip from 100% to 50%, making the pieces of footage half the size of their original. We then clicked on the clips and dragged them either left or right of frame (depending on the character), this rather precise procedure allowed for two clips to play along side of each-other, thus creating the effect.

Furthermore, Premiere Pro CS6 also enabled us to create a time-lapse effect on some of our footage, this allowed us the creative opportunity to speed some of the footage up to give the impression of changing times and fit well with the ideologies in our video. This effect was achieved by right-clicking the desired clip in the time line, selecting the speed/duration setting and altering the number to a desired speed, we chose 1000% as it worked well to give the idea of fast motion without shortening our clips down too much.

Colour correction was a vital tool in ensuring that all clips were visually sound, as well as conveying a constant tone to reflect the mood of the overall production via the mise-en-scene; the two primary tools we used to adjust this aspect of our footage were the three way colour corrector and RGB curves. Firstly, the three way colour corrector gives users three wheels to manipulate the colours of shadows, midtones and highlights, this tool also gives the option of adjusting the saturation. 

On the other hand, the RGB curves serve a similar purpose; red, green and blue can be manipulated to change the colours. Moreover, we used these two tools to primarily ensure that the colour was balanced as well as the overall tone. For example, some of our footage was extremely vibrant and overpowered with a red/orange tint due to the intensity of the light we were using; therefore, we dropped the red slightly, as well as upping the blue and decreased the overall saturation to give a more stable mise-en-

scene.

Before and after colour correction.

Additionally, we used the brightness and contrast tools in order to create a more crisp, cinematic mise-en-scene, adding definition to the subject by making it's presence in the frame more bold. For example, with some of the footage taken on an overly sunny day we lowered the brightness (as to not leave the frame over-exposed), and increased the contrast to give a stronger sense of distance between objects.

Before and after brightness and contrast.

Adobe Premiere Pro also offered a selection of video transitions that came in particularly handy, specifically the cross dissolve. We were able to use this transition to fade one of our split-screens to black during a climactic moment in the track, subsequently, heightening the relationship between the track and the video. For example, when the song begins to die down we used the cross dissolve to fade out imagery of the stocks banner, leaving footage of the American flag on screen to indicate that this was a primary icon to focus on during the reflective period of the track.

Adobe Photoshop CS6:  

Photoshop was an incredibly important tool in editing stills to ensure they were ready for the CD panels of my digipak, I used the program to add text, adjust tones, colours and composition. The way in which this is possible is through the adjustment layers that can be created for different aspects of manipulation, these layers are then piled on top of the original image to allow adjustments to take effect; firstly, as I used a manual SLR film camera for some of my stills it was hard to get the settings exact depending on the light. Therefore, some of the images I developed were a bit over exposed, in order to correct this I used Photoshop's exposure tool, dragging down the slider to ensure that there was a less intense presence of light.

Furthermore, lowering the exposure can sometimes take away some of the depth and to combat this I used the curves tool; functionally similar to Premiere Pro, the curves tool allows the user to create a more noticeable contrast between light and dark. Additionally, allowing for the reduction of reds, greens and blues.

An important tool for ensuring a composition that worked well and fitted with the template was the crop tool. Using this allowed me to select the area of the image I wanted to keep, trimming out the parts that didn't work with the overall panel; additionally, the distort tool enabled me to ensure that lines in the image were straight and well composed.  

Furthermore, combining the use of different tools allows the user to create interesting effects that aren't pre-determined by the program itself. For example, I used a combination of tools to draw a more central focus to the primary subject of my front panel. Firstly, using the elliptical marquee tool I created a circular shape that was central to the image, touching all four sides; then, I selected a curves adjustment layer and inverted the shape so that the area being manipulated was the space outside the circle, proceeding to lower the curves as to make these sections darker. Finally, the gaussian blur tool was used to fade the rough edge between light and dark to create a constant level of smooth tone; the overall effect darkened the outside edges, whilst keeping the remaining inner circle light and drawing more focus to the man walking his dog.

Additionally, I have similarly used these combination of tools (although not exactly the same) to bring attention to an icon of colour amongst a widely de-saturated canvas. For example, when editing the magazine advert I used the polygonal lasso tool to select the tie of the business man, created a black and white adjustment layer and inverted the effect to leave the rest of the image completely de-saturated with the red tie standing out colourfully.     

In order to give the digipak an overall melancholy vibe to reflect the ideologies of social inequality, I used the vibrance tool to bring down some of the colours and give the image an overall colder palette of tones.