A2 Media Studies Coursework - Evaluation Question 4

1. Evaluation – Question 4
HANNAH BENNETT

2. • We used blogger.com as a collaborative e-portfolio in our group
throughout the planning, construction and evaluation stages
• For example, when planning we often carried out separate analysis’ of
various music videos and by posting this research on blogger it gave us
the ability to view each other's work and gain more ideas. We could then
also make use of the comment facility to state things we thought we
could take from this and next steps to take
• Within the construction phase we were able to post our call sheets and
risk assessments which meant we had electronic versions of them at all
times so that they were easy to refer to while we were on location at a
shoot Throughout we were able to
embedding links within the html to
our Prezis, videos and PowerPoints,
such as this one. Furthermore, it
allowed us to collate our previous
research and information into one
place in order to use it to
demonstrate our points further.

3. • We used Survey Monkey to carry out our audience research
• This was useful as it allowed us to create a questionnaire and send it out to multiple people electronically
• This means that all our results were collected to the same place and it was very easy to collate them
afterwards
• Moreover, we were able to attach a link to our song on the email so that people were able to listen prior to
answering questions
• This made it less time consuming for both us and those filling the questionnaires out than a paper version
would have been
• This demonstrates how Web 2.0 is an effective way to keep on task and save time in a more efficient and
effective manner
• This also shows development from last year as I have used a more effective way of gathering this research
and as a result have been able to gain more helpful results which have informed my work more so than last
year

4. Tracking shot taken with
Glidecam
Low angle long shot taken on
tripod to remain still
We took this long shot with a
stabiliser lens so that we could
have slight smooth movement
without a shaky handicam effect
• This allowed us creativity as we could make use of the pull focus function, for example, when taking close ups of instruments
• When shooting we used DSLR cameras to get both our footage and print stills
• It also allowed us to use a stabilizer lens so that we could take some moving shots of the band and narrative aspect
• We were also able to change the light exposure settings so that when it got darker outside we could turn the exposure up
so that our footage will still of a relative brightness
• We were also able to experiment with various angles while shooting so that we had a range to choose from
when it came to editing them

5. When taking our photos for print we were able to try
different settings such as the landscape and portrait to
see which were most effective.
We took this shot by putting a go pro under water
in a sink so we could film Callum scooping water
onto his face and leave to water rippling
afterwards,

6. • To edit our print work Adobe photoshop was vital for colour
grading and inserting text as well as piecing frames
together for the digipak
• To create a colour which matched that of the video I started
by using the Hue/Saturation tool to de-saturate the image
by about -40 taking the vibrant colour out of it
• I then used the colour balance tool to change the shadow,
midtones and highlights settings, mainly altering the reds
and blues
• I also used the curve tool on the RGB setting
to get the colour to match the video
• Something our video had but print work did
not was a vignette. Photoshop allowed me
to achieve this by creating one copy layer
which combined all my layers together using
the ctrl-alt-shift-E shortcut and applying
Multiply to darken the image. I then used
the eraser tool with a large, soft brush to
erase the darkness in the middle and leave it
around the edges to create a vignette effect

7. This shows the colour
grading achieved in both
the print work and the
video through use of
Adobe Photoshop and
After Effects.
This allowed us to create
a more autumnal
aesthetic which was then
cohesive across all of the
products.
Additionally, this meant is
the brightness of shots
differed due to weather
or time of day in which
they were filmed we were
able to even this out
across them all to our
ideal brightness using the
brightness/contrast tool.

8. • After effects was the software we used to
create a colour grade on our video
• To do this we used tools similar to those in
Photoshop as the colour needed to look
cohesive throughout all three texts
• This included the curve tool for all of the
RGB, Red, Blue and Green settings to bring
out certain colours and bring some down
• We also used colour balance to achieve the
same effect, leaving the mid-tones alone
but bringing the blue down in shadows and
up slightly in highlights and we brought the
red up on both
• This achieved an overall effective colour
grade and we managed to emulate the look
we had planned
• This demonstrates my progression as last
year colour was not a big issue and we only
really focused on lighting. This meant I was
able to gain new skills and show more
editing potential

9. We encountered a problem with our advert
photo – in the background of the image
there was a house, rugby post and pathway
which we felt ruined the folk aesthetic.
Using the clone tool on Adobe Photoshop I was able to
erase these by duplicating the sky or grass on top of
where they had previously been which proved very
effective. I also used this tool to cover up a similar
issue on the digipak.

10. To edit our video the main programme we
used was Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0.
This allowed us to have all our footage in a
timeline so that we could move shots into
their order easily and use the cropping tool
to take the segments we wanted and get
them to correct lengths.
The biggest challenge we had during the editing process was cutting to the beat of the music as we wanted to
have an ambient relationship between the two so the cuts had to be very accurate. Adobe allowed us to achieve
this as we could have the song on the soundtrack line, listen and pause exactly where the cut needed to be. We
would then use the scissor or crop tool, depending on whether we wanted to keep or discard the rest of the
footage in a shot, to make the cut.

11. We were also able to layer different
performance clips on top of each
other and then delete the ones we
didn't want for that particular part of
the song, this allowed us to intercut
different performance clips
efficiently and effectively.
Additionally, this also allowed us creativity as we were able to fade out
Lauryn at the end of the video by having two shots next to each other on
the timeline and fading between them, as shown above. Moreover, we
could alter parts of the colour on this programme such as the black/white
filter which we applied to fade in on this final shot as Lauryn faded out.