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

To answer this question I shall split up each section to answer individually. Research To gather research that I could then relate back to my products I used the power of the internet. The reason for this is because it stores an endless supply of information that would be useful in the research stages of my music video, looking into what bands attract what type of audience and the most common genre that is of today's era. To document my findings I used blogger to upload all of my research that I had found using a variety of methods. http://lukebarnes12345.blogspot.co.uk/. As Research is such an important element in the creation of any music video I first looked deep within the internet for ideas and suggestions into what genre of music to look into that would give the structural bases for my music video and ancillary texts that I had to create. Whist looking through many pages across the web one website that I knew I could find many examples of music would be the website " YouTube". This was a webpage specifically designed for audience to upload videos and share with everyone. Seeming as I had already taken a like for the folk scene one band that came to mind in which I could look into would be "Mumford and Sons". From millions of views on many of their videos myself and Ben through this genre would be unique but a good route to go down purely because I enjoyed folk music and had a good idea of the background of the genre. This image to your right depicts the power of the internet through the website "YouTube, where from one search of the band "Mumford and Sons", many videos came up that indicate millions of viewers have accessed this band and genre of music. This lead to myself thinking that if I were to create a product of the similar genre would I get the desired response just like "Mumford and Sons" due to this band bringing the genre of folk back into the audience's eye?

From accessing the website www.unsignedband.web I was directed towards a webpage that featured many songs from a variety of artists. Here I was able to look into the folk genre as find one song that both I and Ben agreed on that would present itself with a meaning. I came across the band "Buffalo Son" with "A Healing Song". This song reflected the folk genre with the instruments used but also evoked characteristics of an indie genre. This is where I then looked through the search engine Google to explore the indie genre movement and research other indie bands such as "Oasis". From websites such as www.nme. I was able to research many other bands just like my product such as "Noah and The whale", with their use of musical instruments would feature both conventions of an indie and folk genre. I was lucky enough to attend a music festival called "Folk East". This was a music festival dedicated to the folk genre of music. Whilst there I heard a range of different music based within the genre of folk and also got the chance to explore the audience of a folk genre. The website for the event http://www.folkeast.co.uk/ came across to me whilst researching folk genres and the typical conventions that you would come across. From this I was able to acquire the headlining acts to feature and also the booking and pricing information to attend the festival. From using this online information I was able to get a glimpse of the folk lifestyle. Through my research from the two genres of music, indie and folk, I was then able to collaborate these genres to form on new genre of indie/folk music. From the use of the internet I was also able to look upon the lives of the two genres and thus creating a better understanding for my products.

In the post production stages of my music video I needed to see if my product would appeal to the specific audience that I aimed it towards. This is where I used social networking sites to promote the music video. I used the website "Facebook" to upload my music video and he get a range of analytical responses that would help with targeting specific audiences. The responses that I received from my target audience was very positive, seeming that my friend range is from 15-23 and the music video was aimed at this audience the amount of likes and views from this proved that I had pleased my target audience with the video.

For research into my ancillary texts I looked at a range of examples such as "U2's" "Joshua tree". This then gave myself a bases on how to structure my digipak and what to include. Through research from the search engine "Bing" I was bombarded with a huge range of digipak examples and what to include within the product. Without the use of this technology this information would have been a lot harder and time consuming to acquire. Thankfully the time era allows us to access a range of research into almost anything, my focus being on indie/folk music.

To look into the indie scene I came across a variety of magazines in which to view to gather information and ideas to include within the process of constructing my music video. The website www.nme.com came to my mind as the magazine consists of indie bands due to the nature of the magazine. From enabling myself to use the internet to look for magazines this helped structure the indie side of my music video by finding conventions to look upon and use. I was also able to look at the audience that are associated with the indie genre and thus presenting myself with a lot of research that I could incorporate into my music video.

Planning

For my product to be successful planning was a must for when I needed to structure my creation of the ancillary texts and also the video itself. I looked into the ideas that generated around specific lyrics. As my song featured a message I sat with my fellow classmate Ben and discussed these lyrics, how they would fit in with the product and what we wanted the audience response to be. This is where a lot of planning procedures such as story barding came into play. Accessing music channels through television such as Q Box television on sky channel 364 allowed myself to involve myself deep within the storyline that progresses to plan out different ideas to base my music video upon. I was then able to craft ideas on challenging and developing the genres of indie/folk and collaborating the ideology together to form a music video that portrayed a meaning. Ed Sheeran was one key artist that I looked into with the indie side of music purely from the acoustic sound that is presented with his name. During his music video for "The A Team" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWcs5H-qgQ it is structured without any performance side to it, only narrative. This lead to myself and Ben planning to use a performance side as well as a narrative to connote that our product is a music video and less like a story being told with non diegetic singing over the top. From this, my planning then developed into a final story board which I would go by when constructing my music video.

Construction

Construction was one main key feature that I explored to create both my ancillary texts and my music video. Whilst developing my music video I used a Canon EOS 600 D camera that featured a digital projection screen. This was a great feature as it allowed for myself to view the film whilst it was being constructed. This helped a lot with one section where I use the camera to focus upon my facial expressions whilst running. The fact that the camera filmed using 1080p insure that high definition was used to create a better look towards my music video.

The software that I used to edit my music video was Adobe Premiere pro. This software allowed for myself to edit and create my music video. The reason I chose to use this software instead of my software that I have on my laptop would be because premiere pro supports a high resolution image up to 10,240. It also includes an audio sample-level editing procedure within to make sure the sound from my music video was perfect. I was able, through premiere to play files saved through windows or Mac format that I have previously saved when out filming some scenes. Other Software may not have this option, only to use one type of video file. There are a wide range of effects that were hand to use such as different transitions from one section to another which is a feature that I looked upon through the construction of my music video to link different section together. From using these transitions I was able to portray many emotions through my music video but also continue with the story line that progresses instead of jumping to a completely new section.

With the creation of my ancillary texts the technology that I and my partner Ben explored would be Photoshop. We used the most up-to-date version that would ensure that all elements were at the peak of its game. From enabling Ben to crop images together he was able to create a series of imagery that I then looked over and added to. Using tutorials I was able to create a tearing affect across the digipak to reveal inside messages. This would link back to the video in hand to promote the idea that the video is a personal message towards his brother. From using the effects such as contrasts and applying hue and saturation levels onto the digipak and magazine cover the effects transformed the imagery into a black and white with a contrast from white to grey to black. The colours then coordinated the style and message within the song. it also reflected the feeling of misery that is evoked.

Evaluation

In the evaluation stages I used a lot of both primary and secondary work to support my findings and to answer each question. I was able to acquire screenshots from my music video off YouTube to link with ideas and suggestions through each question. For instance the first evaluation question asks how I used genre codes and conventions. I was able to use the internet to access my music video situated on the website YouTube and screen print different sections to link with the ideas and contentions I have portrayed.

Through the use of Facebook I was able to obtain a number of useful, analytical responses that I could incorporate and correspond into my evaluation questions on how I targeted audiences.

From uploading this clip to Facebook I had a number of people comment and like the video. This provided myself and Ben with a range of analytical responses that we could work from. I also used other social networking sites to boarder the feedback that we received. These website were "Twitter" and "Tumblr". Although no one commented on the upload that I published I was able to gain a substantial amount of like and views of my music video. This connoted that the target audience were, again, happy with my music video and not just my friends being nice but from a range of different audiences viewing the product.

Through the use of Google I was also able to obtain many images that I could then incorporate into my evaluation questions to back up ideas that would then link back into my media products. This then enabled myself to show that I have used both primary and secondary uses of the internet to portray work. This was the same for my ancillary texts where I was able to get examples from the internet to explore within my evaluations and compare to my own ancillary texts.

To upload work during the process of creating work I found the website Scribd to be most useful. I was able to access embedding codes that I could then upload to blogger to portray the work that have created. Using this website enabled myself to indicate that I have used a range of ways to convey my work. Problems did occur though whilst uploading the embedded files to my blog. The reason for this would be whilst I as trying to upload more than two scribd files onto my blog a message would come up saying that the files

are corrupt due to over use of scribd documents. To overcome this I then decided to explore other media software to convert files to documents.

One helpful website that allowed myself to convert my media documents into a power point presentation to portray work would be Sliderocket. This website allowed for myself to view different pages of work on different slides to present the work in the form of a PowerPoint. I found this very useful and unlike Scribd it allowed myself to upload many posts on my blog without corrupting the files. This is again one portrayal of how I have used technology to upload work demonstrating many uses of technology throughout my blog.

Another useful media uploading webioste would be Slideshare. This , again, coverts files into a powerpoint structered presentation but it allows the audience to view work from each page onto separate slides. I found this site most useful when wanting to portray a range of media used to showcase my work. It also allows for myself to upload more than one file of the same encoding allowing myself to upload many slideshare documents without corrupting the files which is also very useful. From using this website it allowed for work to be shown on my blog whilst demonstrating a use of technology to do so.