The use of media technologies has been vital in the production of both my main and ancillary texts. Throughout production i have used software such as final cut pro and Photoshop to help edit and shape my final product, whilst i have also used things like the internet in order to collect research and aid in the inspiration/planning of my product.
The first piece of technology i used was the website YouTube. By using YouTube i was able to watch music videos from the genre i wanted to portray and this allowed me to see and record the typical conventions used throughout the genre. For example via YouTube i was able to watch several Ed Sheeran videos in which he is pictured singing whilst playing his instrument. This then gave me the idea to include this in my own music video and use it as a recurring convention. I then repeated this process with other videos from the singer-songwriter genre until i was able to to visualise my own idea for a music video and start to plan it via story-boarding. By using YouTube i was also able to look at the comments of these videos in order to gain an understanding of the target audience. This helped me to shape the design of my digipak and magazine advert to then appeal to this audience. The comments on videos of the original song massively helped me with my research as i was able to gather opinions from a range of different people from around the world. This combined with my primary research provided me with the information needed to optimise my products for my target audience. For example, i decided to include the "real" relationship in my video and make it seem more of a personal video because of the comments i had read on the original video.
During the construction of my music video the most integral technology i used was a video camera. Through this i was able to record the various shots and angles used for my music video. By combining this with a tripod i was able to record steady shots and because the camera is handheld i was then able to quickly move and adjust it for any desired shot. By using the pause/record it allowed me to easily record individual segments without having to stop recording entirely. After all the required footage was recorded i could then upload it via a USB cable to an apple computer. From here i was able to edit my footage and audio together using another important program: Final Cut Pro.
Earlier on my blog i explained what i had learnt by completing a preliminary task in final cut pro in which me and 2 others filmed and edited a short segment to the song "3 lions". I used this acquired knowledge and applied it to the editing process of my own music video. After uploading my footage i was able to select various clips and drag them into the view in order for me to cut out the required shot using the "mark in" and "mark out" tool. From here i could then drag the desired cropped clip onto the timeline where i then spent time trying to match the lip-syncing from my video to the actual song lyrics. By having the audio of my song already on the timeline i was then able to determine when to change shots in the video due to hearing the beat of the song. By cutting to the beat i was able to make my video seem more realistic and therefore more effective. The entirety of my video was edited and constructed in final cut pro which shows my reliance on it to deliver a successful product.
For both of my ancillary products i used the program Photoshop. As expressed in an earlier blog post i also performed an ancillary task in order to develop my skills in the program and then translate these skills into the production of my texts. After gathering the various images i wanted to use for both my digipak and magazine advert i was able to do things like cut out the images using the magic wand tool in conjunction with the feather tool to place a smooth looking cut out of the artists head onto each of the products. I also demonstrated earlier on my blog how i came about making an image which breaks the artists head into seperate puzzle pieces by merging the layers of different images. All of this was accomplished in Photoshop and so this and Final Cut Pro proved to be extremely useful in the production of all 3 of my texts.
When it comes to the evaluation i once again turned to Youtube as that is where i uploaded my finished music video in order to showcase it on my blog. From here i received comments on my video about what people liked/disliked about my video. From these comments i was able to gauge the general reaction to my video and whether it was successful or not. Since Youtube is integrated with Google, people who commented/viewed my music video on Youtube was then able to share it through their Google + circles. Another way to judge the success of my music video is through the likes/dislikes it has. I also used social media sites to receive opinions on my finished products. I was able to ask people via Facebook what they thought of the finished product and so on.
For other aspects of my production cycle such as story boarding and primary research, i relied on paper copies so that i could manually draw the shots i wanted/record my results. I did however then take pictures of these on my Iphone and uploaded them to a computer in order for these to be placed on to my blog. I found this to be much quicker than scanning each page in as i could easily line up different pages, take a photo and move on to another page. I was then able to transfer the images in bulk across to a computer where i could then upload them onto my blog.
Another major technology i used during all my stages was the blog itself. The blog made it easy to document the various stages of the production cycle as well as provide a platform to neatly showcase all of my work in an easy user friendly format.
Overall media technology has played an integral part to the overall production cycle of all three of my products. The quality of my finished texts would be no-where near the standard they currently are without the use of said technology.
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