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

We used two different websites to come up with our original 3 bands that we had to choose from. For Beechwood UK, we used www.unsigned.com, which allowed us to download the chosen song ‘Recipe for Love’ copyright-free, which meant that, if we used this song, we would not get in any trouble for using it.

These sites are useful to unsigned bands as they allow record companies or people who may be looking to sign them, to hear their music as well as see some information about them and the location that the band can be found in.

 

The other site (above) we used was www.bestofbritishunsigned.com, which we used to discover Chasing Tigers, the band that we eventually decided to use. This was a useful site as it meant that we were able to find local unsigned bands and the necessary contact details in order to get in contact with them.

Technologies:

Youtube was a large factor in the research phase for our music promo. This is due to the ability to see any music videos by pretty much any artists, or if that isn’t possible, you may still be able to find a lyric video of it so you can still listen to the song, even if there is no video to watch.

This is the website that we used to watch Chasing Tigers’ original video for the song ‘Idols and Upsets’ and, after seeing how unprofessional their music video looked, this provided inspiration to produce a better video than theirs to the song. This was a key factor in our decision to use this song in our music promo.

Also, Youtube plays a massive part in the presentation of key ideas and inspirations of our blog. Out of 67 posts, there are 58 videos from Youtube. This is a massive amount and shows just how big a part it plays in our research, planning and also as a way of presenting our final piece and try-outs throughout. It also allows us to research different conventions as we are able to look at genre of video that we4 choose to look at which is helpful when looking at specific conventions between different genres and music promos.

 

 

Social Media was also extremely helpful as a way of gaining feedback and exhibiting our work. We posted the first draft of our music promo on Facebook in order to gain feedback from the target audience of the video and genre. This feedback was then very useful in aiding us with the final editing of our final production as we were able to take many of their points under consideration which succeeded in making our final promo much better.

I-Movie was the software that we chose to use in order to put our video together. Using this technology, we imported our footage and edited it together piece by piece from beginning to end. We also had to use I-Photo in order to import the still imagery into I-Movie that we used in our final music promo. I-Movie allowed us to get the timing right, as well as add effects and transitions where appropriate. This was undoubtedly the most important piece of software that we had to use because, without it, we would never have got our final music video finished to the standard that it is at. Using I-movie was helpful because it meant that we could use transitions to positively effect our production and the editing between the different scenes. It also meant that we could slow down and speed up different shots (time-lapse shots) as well as add effects on that could indicate things like flashbacks because it was possible to add black and white effects. An example of this would be when we put a black and white effect onto the images of me and Jess, highlighting to the audience that this has happened in the past and is not part of the present narrative.

Final Cut Express was another piece of technology that we chose to use to aid us with the fine-line editing of our music video. Although unfamiliar with this software, we managed to come to terms with it and use it in order to overlay our images over the video footage that we had. This was quite effective as it added that ‘bit extra’ that we needed and brought a slightly different element to the video that had not been seen in it previously.

I have also learnt a lot about the video shooting skills that are necessary in the production of a music video. One thing I have learnt is that I have to be very careful in making sure that the angle is right to be able to achieve the correct composition and framing of the shot. This is extremely important in the performance scenes of the music video because, if not shot properly, the lead singer would not be highlighted as the main member of the band, he would just be a general part of the band. Many bands frame their shots different in their video and even images of the band depending on what roles each member plays in their band. For example, Mumford and Sons tend to all stand in a line, with no member taking a less important position in the shot that any of the others. This is because all 4 members sing as well as play an instrument, therefore there is no need for them to place a lead singer at the front and the other members of the band off to the side of behind him. Our band do this differently in our music video, placing the lead singer at the front and the guitarist and drummer behind him and off to the side, to highlight that he is the key member of the band and the one that the audience are listening to when hearing the lyrics of the song.

We also used Adobe Photoshop in the creation of our overall package. It was very useful, especially in the creation of the digipak as it needed to be used in order to create the ‘tiger eye’ effect that has been successfully used for the front cover. Also, it was helpful in adding the effect onto the overall front cover image as well as the black and white shadowing effect that has been put onto a picture of the guitarist in the performance shots, to make for the sleek back cover that has been created.

 

I have learnt many things throughout the entirety of this project. One thing that has been very new to me has been the extent of the synchronisation that has to be done in order to get the timing right on the production because the music has to fit in and be timed right with the footage being shown. This was achieved by carefully analysing each scene and making sure that the synchronisation of the singing in the performance matched the words of the song being played exactly. If this had not been right, it would have ruined the whole video because it would have looked like the band members were not actually singing the song, causing the promo to look unprofessional and hastily put-together. This was much easier using software like I-Movie but it also meant that timing could also turn out to be too perfect, as it was in much of the first draft of our music video, whereas in the final production, the timing was a lot less predictable, meaning that it actually turned out looking more professional.

Also, I have learnt that a lot of care needs to go into the surroundings within a music video. Last year, when doing the thriller, we made a lot of amateur mistakes which put our production down almost immediately. In this project, we were very careful to make sure we did not make silly mistakes, and therefore we did not have problems with things like tripod shadows or having something in the background that shouldn’t be there. Although this is quite difficult because of the unpredictability of some surroundings, especially at the beach and in the city, it was still manageable because we were trying to capture the atmosphere of the place that we were filming. This meant that anything happening at the time in the background, only served to add to the effect that we were trying to give. This skill has been developed from the preliminary task to the final production and this is shown by the image below that shows a section of our preliminary task that had a bag in the side of the shot, which looked out of place and should not have been there.

Blogger was a useful tool in the presentation of all research, planning and as a way of presenting this evaluation. This is because it allowed us to post our work on a more private and specified website than a social media site, therefore meaning that we were able to all view each other’s work easily and gain inspiration from others. It also meant that we could structure all work that we had done in a more simplistic way, meaning that everything was easier to find as well as read.