1. Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?<br />The process of research and planning is vital to enhance our understanding of the codes and conventions of the particular genre we have chosen to reach out to our target audience. Whilst planning our music video, we searched through many web sites such as http://www.myspace.com/ <br />http://www.youtube.com/ <br />and http://www.unsigned.com/ <br />for unsigned artists that we wanted to make a music video for. However, this process was more challenging than it appeared to be because we had to narrow down from many different genres and sub genres to one specific genre that we believed we could work on making sure we were informed about the conventions of the genre, as we had to make a video and the two ancillary tasks as marketable pieces. Once we had chosen our artist we had to do further research into the genre and how we wanted to cover this to the audience whilst creating an image for her. At first we individually looked at some unsigned artists on youtube.com that had potential from a marketing perspective to be in the music business and then shared our ideas together as a group. Unfortunately, we could not agree to the artists that we found so we decided to look on www.unsigned.com. <br />We finally came across an artist know as “Porcelain and the Tramps” on www.youtube.com and really liked her music as it was different to mainstream music with catchy music. <br />The choice of “Red Light District” as the title of the song was a challenging process as it meant that it was necessary to include many scenes to show a clear understanding of codes and conventions. It was vital to seek permission from the original artist herself on whether we could use her music to construct the music video so that no copy right is breached. We contacted the original artist of Porcelain and The Tramps via http://www.myspace.com/. <br />The planning of the production was a challenging yet enjoyable experience as it challenged our personal opinions of how and what we believed this video should be based on, and whether there should be more performance or drama. To facilitate our ideas we looked at case studies from Britney spears and Madonna, which played an influential part to the making of the production. To keep a record of what we did every time we came up with new ideas for our planning and production we kept a blog as our production diary. <br />To film our production we used a hand held HD digital camera which was a major advantage to produce quality footages. The use of a hand held camera creates the feeling of uneasiness as it will not be as steady as using a tripod, however, it was easier for the camera to be hand held to create the feeling of “following”. For example, this is a low angle shot in which a tripod was not used, but was placed on the ground to create the feeling that the audience is watching her. Using a hand held camera create the meaning as though someone was watching what was going on. This was in particularly used when trying to slowly introduce the character or establish the setting which creates a meaning of wariness. <br /> <br />The HD camera allowed us to zoom in and out from different angles to create an effective meaning. There were times where we used the tripod that ensured the steadiness of the camera which created a more realistic and calm atmosphere. <br /> <br />For example, in this shot, the tripod was used as it was easier to create a steady and simple effect which gives the impression that the artist is singing to the audience. Furthermore, experimenting with the HD digital camera and the tripod assured us to film effectively and shoot from different angles to convey different meanings to the audience. Close up or mid shots like this involves the audience into the song and invites the audience to understand how the singer is feeling. <br />Whilst filming we decided to play with colour correction with artificial lighting, which we got from the Art department. <br /> <br />From the use of artificial lighting, it creates a more effective effect which creates a more powerful connotation instead of using natural lighting. This also presents the artist as very dominant. <br />During the process of filming, a photo shoot of the character was carried out so that we could get pictures for the ancillary tasks. <br /> <br />For example, this picture taken was used to construct my album cover as I felt that this angle was very effective in capturing my target audience’s interest and expresses her emotions well which is reflected in her lyrics and the song’s she sings. <br /> <br />To construct and edit my music video I used a programme on the Apple Mac known as “Adobe Premiere Pro”. The use of this software enormously helped us to edit smoothly our work to produce an advanced and quality end product that can meet the standards of music television videos.<br />Before we could combine all the videos together to make the music video, to make this process easier, we had to put the song onto Premiere Pro so we could edit the clips along with the music itself. Unfortunately we did not have the music on a USB to transfer but instead it was on a phone so we had to Bluetooth the song onto the Mac to open up into Premiere Pro. <br /> <br />In Britney’s music video to “Radar”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Xp6mmLvLk<br />She uses an effect which blends two images together which evokes a seductive meaning. As a group, we thought this was a very good idea and technique and thought it would be effective if we incorporated it in our music video. <br />In this scene we tried to create the same effect similar to the one shown in Britney’s video. We experimented with all the different effects that was on the programme and came across “cross dissolve” which created this effect as shown. This effect conveys the meaning that the characters life is very busy yet with a different side, which also connotes seductiveness. We decided to speed up the actions involved to emphasise her busy lifestyle as a prostitute. <br />In this particular scene, we used the effect of colour balance and distortion to prohibit any suggestive meanings towards the audience as we thought that it would widen our target audience if we did not use images that was too voyeuristic. <br />As you can see, the image is very dark and negative which conveys the meaning that its x rated which is also illustrated in the lyrics of “crawling on her bruised knees” in which the image amplifies this meaning. <br />In this scene, we decided to reverse and speed up all the action going on in this scene to evoke the meaning of confusion and abandonment which also suggests that everything around her confuses her and that she doesn’t know what to do or what she wants in life in comparison to those moving fast around her. The lyrics “give it up” are illustrated through her actions which connote the meaning that she’s confused to about her decisions on what to do.<br />Once the music video has been completed, it was displayed in front of the class for feedbacks from the teachers as well as my fellow students in the class for feedback. To gain more audience feedback, we also show cased this video to our family and friends to gain their opinions and insights of what they personally felt about the construction of this music video. <br />During our production, we kept a blog recording everything we did in the planning and production process of this production. This website was quick and easy in keeping a record of the process of this production. <br />http://rossanas-a2media-cw.blogspot.com/ <br />To help construct my ancillary tasks, I used adobe Photo Filtre to create my album cover and poster. This enhanced my ability and skills to develop my imagination of how I wanted the tasks to come across to the audience. This advancement gave me the opportunity to experiment with different colour corrections as well as placing images in different angles with different effects to create the meaning I wanted to get across to the audience. <br />I chose to use Black for the name of the artist as this colour because; it stands out against her white top. I also wanted to create the meaning of Dark VS Light as it appeals to the audience in the way that it reflects the personality of the character and the songs. <br />On the side, there are many different tools I can use to construct my ancillary task. For example, I can change the colour of the writing/ image as well as copy and cut images to create a montage. This enhancement has given me the opportunity to experiment with different font titles as well as different colour corrections, cropping, cutting and resizing of the different pictures I took to create the album cover.<br />