Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To overcome copyright issues we used a website called www.unisgned.com. This website gives us a huge selection of unsigned bands to choose from. This is where we found the band that we ended up using from our media product.

I used Gmail to contact the band to ask permission to use their song for our media product. They also used Gmail to reply to my email in which they agreed to let us use the song. I used Facebook to follow the band during our production to find out the names of different songs and any information that might be useful to the rest of the group during the planning and production stages of our coursework. 

During the research and planning stage of our coursework we used YouTube to research and watch promos so that we could analyse the promos to get a better understanding of them. I also used websites like Wikipedia to get extra information about bands and important music promos and events. I also used blogger, Moovly, Prezi, Padlet and Tagul to help present that information I found in interesting and eye-catching ways.

During our production we used cameras, tripods, apple macs, iMovie and Photoshop to construct the finished texts.

I learned more about each of these technologies during the production of A2 when compared with AS. This is mainly due to having more freedom to do what we wanted with the music promo than with a thriller. With our thriller we had less freedom with what to do when compared with the music promo because for the promo we got to choose what genre we wanted and what type of band whereas with the thriller we couldn't due to the genre being picked for us. During the thriller we focused more on continuity and plot but with the promo we had to focus more on creating a strong concept from the meaning we got from the song we got to pick from an unsigned band. During the promo we took more risks and did more creative things with the final product than with the thriller as we were focused on making it a conventional thriller opening which meant that we had less risks to take.

 

During filming I learnt that picking the right performer and giving them the lyrics beforehand so they can learn them properly is very important as for our promo the performer kept looking down at the lyrics when we were filming, making the performance in the promo look slightly weaker than it would have if he had learnt the lyrics. I also learnt that it is important to film the performance all the way through several times with several different shots and locations. This is so that if one part of the shot looks bad when editing then you can just pick a different shot instead of having to pick the not so good looking shot. I also learnt that getting a lot of shots of the same sequence and getting filler shots is very important as well so that if one particular shot doesn't look good when editing than you can use the other shot as well.

 

During editing I learnt that getting good lip-syncing is very important. This is because than it is easier to sync the performer up with the song. I also learnt that doing this is pretty difficult and takes a long time to do so that it looks professional and effective within the promo. I also learnt how to cut on the beat and how good and professional that looks when it is done properly. I also learnt that getting a variety of shots of everything we filmed is important as it means that we can edit the footage together so that the audience won't get bored by us showing them the same shot too many times in a row. I also learnt that the narrative can be in any order you choose when you edit it together and as long as the performance is in the order of the song then it looks effective and you can still follow what is happening.