Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts ?
Q3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Task: Create a video presentation which discusses the technologies you used at each stage of the project. This video needs to be different from the Director’s commentary in terms of its presentation and content ie. Presented as a ‘How to use…’/ Teaching (in character?) style of video that could then be used as a future teaching aid. For homework for wednesday, you need to write the script for this and try to collect relevant screen grab images. Choose 3 technologies that you used and explain how you used them or you can
SCRIPT Research:
Actor 1: I am going to answer the question; How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?
Actor 2: But how are you going to answer the question?
Actor 1: I am going to look back at four things: Research, Planning, Construction and the Evaluation.
Actor 2: Sounds great! Tell me about the Research process.
Actor 1: During lesson, i used the Apple Mac for research where as at home i used Windows 7. On the Mac i was able to use different softwares such as Safari.
Actor 2: Safari? what did you use that for?
Actor 1: I used Safari for internet surfing. On the internet i used google search to do a lot of my research such as to search conventions of hip-hop and rap, as well as researching into the art of dance, urban style and the lyrics of our song choice I then uploaded any evidence of research onto a Google owned website; Blogger. Another google software i used for research was Youtube.
Actor 2: YouTube? What is that and why did you use it?
Actor 1: Youtube is a popular site people use to upload and watch different videos. It was significant to my research as i used it to listen to different songs and watch different music videos with the same Hip-hop/Rap genre as my product in order to understand various conventions and how artists develop and challenge them.
Actor 2: Ahhh, i understand how you researched now. But that still doesnt answer the question in the aspect of Planning.
Planning:
Actor 1: Again for our planning we used Blogger to show the stages. From the research on Andrew Goodwin's, as a group we were able to plan a structure for our music video in relation to the key features. We were then able to plan a location, time and date for our filming. To make filming day easier and more organized we sketched out a storyboard of key shots and angles in correct order.
Actor 2: Did the research help your planning then?
Actor 1: Yes! The research was very helpful as it gave me an understanding of what shots/angles to include in the music video and the amount of them. Goodwin suggests that quick cuts is key in music video's to keep the viewer watching and there should be at least 7 different locations/shots. Before arriving at each location, we also had to plan what day is best to shoot depending on the weather and risk assessment.
Actor 2: From all this research and planning; how did you then construct the music video and ancillary products?
Construction:
Actor 1: The first step of construction was to film. While filming i learnt to use different equipment such as the sony camera, lighting for a brighter appearance and a tripod to keep the camera still and focused. With the camera we were able to get different shots/angles such as; birds eye, high angle, mid shot, long shot, hand held and close ups.
Actor 2: What did you do with the footage?
Actor 1: With the footage I began to edit using Final Cut on the Mac computer. I found this challenging but was able to learn quickly. Firstly, i listened to the music and marked key vocal points on the sound track and did the same to the video in order to make the lip syncing smooth and professional. After choosing which clips we needed and were we needed them, i placed them onto the timeline and began to create slit screens with some. This idea of split screens came from the music video called 'hey there delilah'. to make a split screen firstly had to make a white solid background then scale and crop. To make some clips more interesting such as the last clip, i added the effect called earthquake which gave a shaky feel on the beat of the song. I found this by going into effects then video filters and then in distort. I also added a reverse speed to the same earthquake clips by going into modify clicking speed then clicking reverse.
Actor 2: Did you edit to change the lighting of clips even though you had planned to film in dark locations?
Actor 1: After the video was complete, i found that there was a significant difference in the lighting/brightness of the clips and so the solution was to colour correct. Colour correction allowed me to change the mid whites, saturation and brightness of certain clips. I found this by going into effects, then video filters and clicking colour correction.
Actor 2: Did you use Final Cut for your evaluation?
Actor 1: Yes i did. One new thing i learnt was how to minimize a clip placing it in the left hand corner while another clip is present. I did this by changing the basic motion. This included making the scale 25 and making the centre 519.64 and -389.9.
Actor 2: That all sounds complicated but impressive. Did you use any other software of the Mac?
Actor 1: Of course i did. I used Photoshop to create our ancillary products. This is a software i was familiar with but not so skilled with. Although, like final cut, i was able to learn quickly. In order to make our artist appear to have tattoos we downloaded tattoo templates and painted them on to the image of our artist and adjusted the colour t0 make the stamp realistic and not so harsh. To remove spots on our artist we used the clone stamp tool. Another tool i used was the magic pen tool. I used this to crop out a bit from an image and the drag and drop in onto another. This came in handy when i wanted to use the image of our artist but did not want the background.
Evaluation:
Actor 2: What was the forth and last thing you were going to look back at, again?
Actor 1: My evaluation. I did most of it on my laptop using Windows 7. I was able to use software such as Microsoft, Prezi Desktop and Google chrome. I used Microsoft for two things; Power point and Word. On Powerpoint i was able to make slideshow presentations which allowed to answer evaluation questions in depth as i could back statements with an image and annotate along side it. I used word to edit images by cropping and adding boarders. I then copied and paste them into powerpoint.
Actor 2: How did you view your powerpoint on blogger and did you use anyother software at home on your laptop?
Actor 1: In order to view my powerpoint on the blog i had to upload it onto Slideshare then paste the URL onto link. Prezi desktop is a step up from powerpoint as it allows you to place powerpoint' into your Prezi file and it includes great designs and it is more interactive in the way that you view the presentation. I uploaded my Prezi by copy and paste the html code into the HTML bit of the post then when i changed it to Compose, i was able to view the Prezi. A knew software i have learnt to use during the evaluation process is Xtranormal. I used this by choosing Actors, a scene and sounds. I then added my script into the storytelling. To make the presentation more interesting i was able to change the camera angles, motions, pauses, sound, image, faces, points and look-ats.
Actor 2: That was very intriguing
Actor 1: Thank-you for listening, i hope you have learnt something new.
Xtranormal Presentation:
