1. E V A L U A T I O N Q U E S T I O N 4
How did you use media technologies in the
construction, planning, research and
evaluation stages?
IsabellaBrowse
2. P l a n n i n g
• Digital technology made communicating with people from across the UK an immediate and efficient
process, meaning that I was able to plan and organise shoots quickly and keep up with the fast paced time
schedule. Again without digital technology, I would have been much more difficult to contact people
involved in the music video shoots and discuss ideas and dates etc.; thus much harder to achieve the given
task on time.
Link to blog post here
3. B l o g g e r
• Due to the multimedia nature of Blogger, I was able to converge all of the different mediums onto
one single platform. Blogger enabled me to create a portfolio of my learning journey that was
simultaneously interactive, engaging and easily accessible.
• It also allowed me to easily navigate and refer to previous work and research which helped me
considerably in the production process when trying to emulate a professional music video. Without
digital technology, I would have been limited to a single medium which would have been far less
engaging.
4. C a m c o r d e r
• Due to having no previous experience filming (and editing), I created a short clip linked here. In
making this, I learned and developed new camerawork and editing skills which proved as vital when
creating the final product.
5. D L S R C A M E R A
• Before shooting the actual footage for my music video, I took some test shots (link here) to
practise and develop my camera work skills (as I had no previous experience filming with a DLSR),
as well as seeing what I would be capable of achieving with the limited equipment that I had.
• I knew from AS that lighting was extremely important when taking photographs. Therefore, I did
lots of research to become familiar with the rules of lighting applied to filming, and to ensure that
I get the desired result.
• In order to film with the red LED lighting with as little noise as possible, as it would cause the
visuals to be less aesthetically pleasing, I increased the shutter speed as much as possible as this
would absorb as much light as possible.
• I also learned that one has to use the highest shutter speed when filming slow motion shots so
that when they were slowed down, the footage would appear smooth.
6. i P h o t o
IPhoto was used at various stages throughout my production: importing footage from the DLSR
camera, going through footage to see what footage to upload onto iMovie and selecting the best
photos for my ancillary products.
I found that dragging photos onto my desktop helped my isolate the best photos and made it easy to
access when consulting my target audience on which images to use.
7. i M o v i e
• At AS level I had no experience with any editing software for moving texts so I initially found using
iMovie quite complicated and taxing to use. Therefore, in order to become more fluent using this
software, as well as develop and explore editing techniques, I produced some videos linked here
and here, before creating the final product.
• During the production process of my final product I encountered many difficulties due to having
too much footage uploaded onto my computer, ultimately causing the iMovie file to corrupt and a
lot of edited footage was lost. To work around this, I moved to a computer with a more updated
version of iMovie to prevent lag and the file corrupting again.
• I found having the ability to create separate projects on iMovie was extremely helpful as it
enabled me to concentrate on the details of the smaller projects and then paste them together. I
used this for the TV effect.
8. i M o v i e
• A technique that I often used was adding overlays using the ‘Green/Blue screen’ function. This created
the impression that shot was filmed on an old camera, an aesthetic which is trendy among Kpop music
videos, thus making my music video appear more professional.
• Using iMovie, I would also speed up/slow down cuts in order to achieve ‘visuals’ that reflect the song.
9. O n l i n e V i d e o C o n v e r t e r
• I used YouTube to obtain the green screen footage to overlay onto my pre-existing footage and
then using online video convertor to convert a YouTube clip into an MP4 file, which I could then
download and then upload onto iMovie. In doing this, it really felt that it made my music video far
more aesthetically pleasing and made it seem more professional.
10. O n l i n e v i d e o c o n v e r t e r /
G I F M a k e r
To create the TV effect, I obtained a video of a retro TV from YouTube, and then converted it into an
mp4 file which I then uploaded onto Gif creator. I then added text and filter and cropped the video. I
then repeated the process using different filters and different texts and then uploaded them onto a
separate project on iMovie. I then edited the clips and then pasted it to my main project.
11. i M o v i e / I n D e s i g n / P h o t o s h o p
• As the course progressed, I became increasingly confident with the software which enabled me to
create the song titles and the credits:
• To achieve these shots, I used InDesign, Photoshop and iMovie. How I achieved these shots can be
seen here.
12. P h o t o s h o p / I n D e s i g n
• Using my skills that I gained from AS, I was able to easily manipulate images in order to create a
digipack and magazine poster for my brand which maintained it’s brand identity whilst being
aesthetically pleasing, engaging to the target audience and professional looking.
• I also used my knowledge from AS to use either InDesign, Photoshop, or a combination of both to
achieve the desired result. For example, when producing the typography, I would use InDesign.
• Before Photoshop (right) , after Photoshop (left)
• Using InDesign for typography
13. R e s e a r c h a n d E v a l u a t i o n
• During the production process, it was essential for me to acquire audience feedback that would
help to improve the quality of my product, or confirm that I was making the right decisions.
Therefore I used Google forms and forms on office 365 to create questionnaires and send them to
my target audience as well as a lay audience.
• Both Google forms and forms on office 365 were incredibly useful when collating and displaying
the data gleaned- with the bar and pie charts produced from multiple choice questions, it was
easy to spot audience patterns. This also highlighted how and where I needed to improve my
product.
• However, I found that Office 365 forms were much more useful as its feature to see who
specifically was behind an answer enabled me to identify whether they were part of my target
audience .If they weren’t, then I didn’t put too much value to their opinion as I knew that they
weren’t well versed in the Kpop/R&B genre and so didn’t have the cultural competency to have a
proffered reading.
• If I were to do a project like this again, I would use office 365 forms instead of google forms for
this reason.
14. C o n c l u s i o n
• In conclusion, this entire project would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible without
digital technology as it was included throughout my portfolio. Despite the lack of experience with
some of the technology, as a digital native, I was able to assimilate relatively easily.
• I do however, think that not having access to expensive technical equipment used in the
entertainment industry mean that the visual quality of my music video was slightly compromised.
• As an audience member myself, I enjoyed what David Gauntlett describes as a ‘prosumer’,
creating media texts that emulate existing texts to a high degree of verisimilitude; all enabled by
digital technology.
