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

• By using Web 2.0 it aided our research as were able to watch a wide variety of music videos of the same genre and of other videos which may influence our own concept on YouTube. We were then able to record our findings on the blog and also embed the music video we looked at on our blog. Also using YouTube we could study music videos which had been made by past years at our school and other schools. We could then get an idea of what sort of music videos we could make with the budget and equipment we had.

Here is evidence of our use of Web 2.0:















• Media technologies have been integral in our planning, construction and evaluation. We used the blog as a collaborative e-portfolio to develop ideas and to record research we had carried out. By using the blog we could develop ideas regarding the music video and also the print texts, we were able to comment on each other posts pointing out what we thought could be improved and what we thought was positive.

Here is evidence of us using the blog collaboratively (click on images to make larger):














• Using Adobe Premier we constructed an animatic. To do this we had to draw out a storyboard consisting of all the shots we believed we needed and record each shot on a digital camera. We then captured all the footage and inserted the track in the audio. We arranged all the shots so they were in sync with the music. This was useful as we were able to see how many shots we needed to use and get a sense of the cutting pace.

Here is our storyboard animatic:




• During our planning we weren’t sure how table tennis shots would come out on the computer and how they would look in slow motion. Therefore we recorded Jack and I playing table tennis on a desk in a classroom, by doing this we were able to capture the footage and view it on a computer. We found that it was quite difficult to see the ball as it was white and moved quickly but if we slowed the shot down it looked far more effective.

Here is the video of the practice shots:





• We developed a pitch consisting of our ideas, costumes and locations; we then presented this to the class. We had to do this to check with the teachers that our video concept was viable and the class believed the concept would work with the song we chose to use. We were then able, by using the website SlideBoom, to upload the PowerPoint presentation on to our blog and then we could comment on this and evaluate how the pitch went.

Here is a screeshot of our pitch on the blog using SlideBoom:













• When shooting we used DV cameras. There were problems which we encountered and we had to overcome these.
• To create steadicam shots we used the tripod, this was the majority of our shots.
• We wished to use a 360° pan in our music video. To do this we needed everyone to stand completely still and also somehow needed to make the ball look as if it was attached to the racket. We overcame this by using blu-tac to stick the ball to the racket so it would stay. We used a dolly so we could move the tripod round smoothly.

Evidence of 360 Pan:



• We attempted to use some high angle shots and to this we climbed the rigging at the side of the school gym and held up the camera on the tripod. This created a problem as the shots weren’t steady and we couldn’t see what we were filming, once we put these shots on the editing software we realised they weren’t good enough to use in our final video.


• To edit the video we used the editing software Adobe Premiere. This enabled us to capture all the footage we had recorded and sync this footage with the track itself by using continuity editing. Within this programme we used a number of different techniques to enhance our final video.
• We put the performance shots in our video into black and white, to do this we lowered the saturation to 0. By doing this we believed it made the performance look both authentic and gritty which fitted in with the genre of the music.

Evidence of Black and White:



• As the shots we recorded were very bright we had to change the brightness and saturation. We increased the brightness and also raised the saturation to bring the colour back into the shots, by doing this the shots became clearer and also looked warmer which is a convention of our music genre.

Evidence of Colour Change:



• We changed the speed of a number of shots. We slowed down the shots which consisted of the band playing table tennis, to do this we right clicked on the shot and changed time stretch and decreased this. By doing this it fitted in with the calmer parts of the track and also the ball became more visable. We then had to speed up some shots so it was in sync with the fast paced music.

Evidence of Slow Motion:



• To create movement in one of our shots we zoomed into the image and created a pan so the image moved left in the screen. By zooming in the image stayed on the screen the whole time.

Evidence of Zoom in and Pan:




• We had to split clips up once we had captured the footage. To do this we clicked on the shot we wished to split and the pressed the ‘split clip’ icon. By doing this we could take parts of a shot we liked and parts of another shot we liked and put them all together to create continuity editing. Also this enabled us to create fast paced editing which added excitement to our video.

• We used a digital stills camera to create two print texts, a digipak for an album of the band we chose and also an advertisement. In Adobe Photoshop we scanned in a polaroid one of us had and then within the programme we were able to insert a picture of a band member over the original image by using different layers. We completed this four times for each band member. For the digipak we then ripped out a number of images from music magazines and placed these on a cork board along with the polaroids we had made of the band members and using the digital stills camera we took a picture for the front cover, inside and the back cover all consisting of different layouts.

• For the advertisement we used all of the same images we had ripped out and the polaroids but added information we felt necessary for an advertisement such as release date and the bands website written on scrap bits of paper. We put together a layout we felt was sufficient for a music advertisement and then took a still photo of one of us holding up this cork board against a brick wall. Within Photoshop we were able to alter the brightness of both the digipak images and the advertisement, we felt felt as if we had to make all images brighter as they came out quite dark as we took the images in the classroom.

• Once we were happy with all the images we could then use Microsoft Publisher to create the final piece. With the digipak we created a booklet with all the correct dimensions and placed the images in where we wished them to be, Publisher was useful for this as it was easy to make a booklet and it is also possibly to set dimensions and see borders of what your working on. For the advertisement we could check that all the sizes were correct for the size of the space in the magazine we wished to advertise in.

Here is how we used Publisher (click on image to make larger):
















• To carry out the final piece of audience research we used the website Survey Monkey. By using this we could devise a questionnaire consisting of as many questions as we desired and also whether we wanted them to by open/closed end questions or multiple choice. We could then send the questionnaire to whoever we wanted via e-mail and then people could send their responses back. Using this website was incredibly useful as it was quick and easy to make and the website also collated all the results and put these into graphs and tables which we could then use to compare the results.

Here is evidence of us using Survey Monkey productively (click on image to make larger):