Evaluation - Question 4

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

In our research and planning stage we used a variety of Internet search engines, music websites and social networks in search for an unsigned artist with suitable music for music video construction.

• www.GOOGLE/MYSPACE/YOUTUBE/FACEBOOK.com

Myspace provided us with the initial artist portfolio which included information about the band, tracks from their album and the description of their music genre. The fan page link on their Myspace page also provided us with some knowledge of the target audience for their music. We contacted the band through the social network Facebook for the right to use their music and received permission in the form of messaging. This was done in the matter of hours, the efficient communication channel the network provides saved us precious time for planning and constructing the video.

• Flip camera

We browsed through different music videos on Youtube in the Punk/Indie/Rock music genre and decided a conventional video would include shots of the band with lip sync and instrumental performances. This was an idea that was not applicable to us in reality as the band had split up, we also thought the song was more suitable for a story line based music video. During research we watched The Scientist by Coldplay which used an interesting rewind effect (the video seemed to be rewinding yet the character is perfectly in sync with the song), putting a strong focus on the character and the story. In attempt to copy this technique we used a flip camera to film a few simple walking scenes and later uploaded to Final Cut Pro to apply the rewind effect, however in rewind the footage was jumpy and unusable, a possible explanation is that the footage produced by flip camera was not sophisticated enough for these effects.

• HD camera

For actual filming of the video we used a HD recording camera. This provided us with much better quality pictures than the original SD cameras, which allowed us to produce extreme close up shots as planned (inspired by Ferris Bruellers' day off). A good quality tripod enabled steady filming, while also credible for camera angles such as birds eye view. However, some of the footage produced were prone to bad lighting even though we had used the flash light on the camera , we had to improvise with the colour coordination on Final Cut Pro to make the footage more presentable.

• Final Cut Pro

Inspirations also came from TV and films, we added white flashes to our day dream sequences by applying and modifying the Light Glow effect on Final Cut Pro (as seen on Scrubs, usually a symbol of reality to dream or vice versa transformations). After receiving some feedback which suggested we needed more improvements on clear separation of reality and dreams, we used the Saturation effect to make the day dreams black and white which made the transformation more powerful combined with the white flash. 

Final Cut Pro also allowed us to manipulate with the speed of each footage, this was useful especially for us due to the fast beat of our song. With this technology we were able to slow down or speed up footage for the music, producing a more synchronised music video. We discovered this when we produced an animated version of Here We Go Again, which was a visual basic outline of the video created by converting each frame of our storyboard from a HD camera photo to a footage edited on Final Cut Pro. This showed us we had insufficient footage to complete to video, which inspired us to lengthen some of the parts.

However, there was no fast forward button on Final Cut Pro for the speed of HD videos exporting into Quicktime movies, especially when clashed with slow Internet speed, the exportation can take up to 30 minutes or more. This wasted valuable time for construction therefore delayed completion time, leaving little time for evaluation.

• Photoshop

For the digipak cover and magazine advertisement, we decided to use photos from a studio shoot for a more professional outlook. The original idea for the CD front cover was a 3x3 grid of photos of the character with different expressions on his face, this was inspired by a magazine advert of Kate Moss. However we were unable to pursuit this idea as most of the photos produced were out of focus, which may be due to faulty setting of the motion sensor on our camera. 

We improvised with front and back full body shots of the character as the front and back covers of the album, creating a 360 presentation. By using the blur tool we created a mystified, out of focus look as we blurred the outline of the character from the back. As for the magazine advert cover we created a black and white layer using one of the in focus mid body shots of the character, leaving only the tie in red using the eraser. This helped created a visually bold, statement making advertisement base photo, with the adding of a few other simplistic yet eye catching items including the band logo made on Photoshop, we successfully created a professional and eye catching advertisement cover with a fuss free theme.

• Others

We used online software such as Wordle and Prezi frequently in our research and planning, construction and evaluation as they provide visual elements to our blog balancing the text which makes it more interesting to read.

Technology brought both efficiency and limitations to our media production. On one hand it provided the technical platform for us to practise our creativity. On the other hand, we were reliants to these technologies. Any technical breakdowns/insufficiencies we had indicated changes to the original plan, and became barriers to completing the task.