Throughout making my products I needed to use many types of media technology. This included social networking sites, online websites builders and internet search sites. Firstly, almost everything I did was based on my mac computer. It was the hub of all the editing and producing activity that led to my products being complete. However this was also backed up by the use of my smartphone as I could take preparation shots, test out the shots and use it for all communication purposes. It's in-built planner and calender also helped me to organise times and when to meet up with actors and helpers.
Final Cut Pro was also instrumental in the creation of my music video. I relied on this program heavily when needing to edit the shots together and put the track in time with the action on screen. I also used the in-built effects to my advantage when editing some of the shots. I slowed some of the shots down and used after effects that made the subject and frame out of focus.
To help me with Final Cut Pro, I used YouTube to watch tutorial videos on how to blur out or pixelate the children's faces. I then learnt these skills and applied them to my music video. I also used Final Cut Pro to put a green filter over all of the forrest and location shots to aid the colour scheme.
Next I used the online website builder Wix to create my promotional website. This involved taking pictures and uploading them directly to the site. Creating the background and the colour scheme. I was also able to use the design tools to embed soundcloud clips and YouTube videos. There was also a tool where I could create a online shop with links to items that you could buy. It was important that I linked my website to social networking sites as this is a modern convention that many artists in this genre use. This is also what I discovered when doing my audience research.
As a group, to do evaluations and audience research we created a 'group' on Facebook where each class member could post their ideas, ask for feedback and arrange shooting.
I used a website called DaFont to download a specific a typeface for my products. I then was able to use this in the photoshop program to use in my digipak. I used this in my music video for my opening credits, which linked my music video to my other products.
I used Adobe Photoshop to create my Digipak from a template that I downloaded. Even though at first I struggled with the software, I was able to watch video tutorials set by my teacher that were made available on the A2 Media Blogger page. Using the mac I was then able to watch the tutorial and use the software at the same time. This was extremely important in the construction process.
Social Networking and communication tools/sites were key to each process of my products. As I mentioned before I used Facebook to communicate with other class members. However I also used an email service to send messages and ask questions to my teachers in case I came across any problems. Google Mail (or Gmail) was the most useful here as it was possible to send Google Drive Documents to each other for double checking. I was also able to create powerpoint presentations that I could embed onto my blog. That was especially important for the planning and evaluation process, as I was able to create a powerpoint that outlined my treatment. The social sound website Soundcloud was also useful in the Evaluation process as I was able to record an evaluation as a podcast.
The internet as a media was one of the most important tools that I used throughout the whole process. I used it to create almost every single product in my project, be it sharing ideas or researching my target market. This was headed with the internet search site Google, which I used to find other examples to analyse.
I was able to share the videos that I made using the site YouTube, that way I could easily embed the videos onto the blog and the website. It was also a good resource for music videos to analyse in the planning process. I was able to take screen shots of specific frames and talk about them in detail.
To film my products I used 4 different types of cameras.
- A Handheld Canon camcorder. I found this was the best camera to use for the shots on location as it was quick and easy to maneuver and set up in difficult terrain
- An HD Sony Camera. I used this to film the shots of the band playing against the black background. The high definition of these shots gave it a real life feel rather than the out of focus less clear fantasy world of the location shots.
- A Canon Camera. I used this to take the pictures that I needed for my Digipak. I then used an SD card to quickly transfer them onto the computer to be able to edit.
- Smartphone Camera (Samsung Galaxy S3) I used this for quick and easy filming of an evaluation. I then uploaded this onto YouTube and embedded it onto my blog.
