Evaluation Question Four

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

Throughout planning to make my music video I researched many others mainly using YouTube, using the similar suggestions that the website makes based on my view history which helped me find music videos of similar genres to what I was researching.

Music channels also supply constant streams of music videos

that I was able to analyse to help me learn the conventions and iconic mise en scene of genres. The channels that are relevant to my bands style are Kerrang and Scuzz.

Another aspect that helped me get a more rounded understanding of bands and how they market their ‘package’ was their websites. I looked at these and related them to the ideas that they use in their music videos, reinforcing the main genre conventions and ideologies. Later this helped me produce my Digipak and advertisement as the visuals on the websites often link closely with their advertisements and CD covers.

In the planning stage of my music video I used photographs and sketches to make a storyboard using Cinemek storyboarding software. This software helped me create and put together my ideas according to how I could represent them easiest - using sketches and photos. In planning the rest of my music video I put together shot lists, mood boards, notes on lighting and floor plans. For this I used little technology other than Microsoft word.

The track for my music video was frequently performed live but had not been recorded. Luckily I already had some appropriate equipment and software for the job. Using various microphones and having many takes, we got what we thought was a good recording. I could only do this as easily as I did by choosing a local band that I knew. When filming my music video I used High Definition Cameras. Although these were much better quality than the ones I had used for my Thriller opening, the computers at school could not cope with the size of the files editing was made impossible. Therefore I had to convert the clips to standard definition for all of my footage for my music video, this took overnight. I had many issues with editing footage and I believe this was mainly due to my laptop being a bit knackered. It would not accept most video file formats (which are usually fine). I initially edited on my laptop for convenience but progress was too slow and frustrating so I began to edit on another computer I have at home. This limited my productivity in class and so I then took the video (in progress) to school where I then edited there. Editing on adobe premier pro was another challenge considering that I mainly used elements for my thriller. But I got used to the new layout in no time. Once edited, because I wanted to automate the soundtrack to fit the shots within the music video, I then took the video back home where I then imported it into Cubase 5 with a copy of the soundtrack which I edited accordingly, exported and then uploaded to YouTube. When I recorded the instruments and mixed the edit I compressed the track to get a more professional sound. After this I then automated the track alongside the video.

With the software that I had for editing I could play with ideas for transitions. This included adding fades and overlaying video clips at varying opacities. This creates more dynamic shots and add varying pace to the video. I took advantage of other editing techniques such as changing the levels and colours in the footage. I used black and white settings on some of the shots in my video also.

I wanted to use manual focus for one of the shots introducing the vocals in the video. To do this I had to use my own camera instead of the ones that I was provided with at school. This was still not ideal but it did work and I managed to get the effect that I wanted.

I have evaluated my work basing it on feedback from comments on YouTube and from questionnaire style messages about my video on Facebook (question 3) These are both effective methods which enable me to assess how well my video appealed to its au

dience. On YouTube my video has had nearly 200 views and the band has incorporated the music video onto both their YouTube channel (where it has had 166 more views) and their own website. This free distribution is one thing that is changing the media industry.

YouTube was a very interesting tool which helped me in my research of music videos. This is because YouTube allows you to see statistics about videos, data and information from which you can tell whether videos are popular, where they are viewed and how many times they have been viewed. In the picture here you can see the views and likes, but other statistics are available but hidden.