1. Q1: How and to what extent have the outcomes of your research
findings influenced and impacted upon your initial creative thoughts
and specific planning decisions?
We have done multiple research tasks, such as audience research,
music video research, our location searching and photos, camera
testing, our conceptual idea (ballet dancing) research, archive footage
research, and colour balance testing.
Our audience research has helped us greatly, as we discovered what
our genres audience and the audiences of other genres expect in a
music video. We interviewed around six or seven people who liked the
rock/pop genre (our target audience) and watched music videos
regularly. We also interviewed around five people who were fans of
different genres and watched music videos. We found out from our
target audience that the majority expected our music video to have a
'dark' mood. This is reflected across the genre as in my music video
research, most of the videos I looked at of the rock/pop genre were
darkly lit and had a generally dark mood, such as '21 Guns' by
Greenday. Taking this on board, we decided to use a location which
could be made dark very easily so we can control the lighting to the
optimum effect, creating the 'dark' mood that was expected from our
audience. During our audience research we also found that it was very
split between whether people liked a performance, narrative or
concept video. Seeing this, we decided that we would include a little bit
of all three. However, the majority of our target audience (the ones
who liked pop/rock) said they liked a performance video, so to please
all audiences, we are going to have the majority of our music video as
a performance, with interlinked parts of narrative and concept.
Another thing our audience research showed us was that people
expect to see some form of dancing in any music video, no matter
what the genre is. We realised it would be very hard to create a dance
routine to match our song as it is not the correct genre for this, dance
routines being much more suited to mainstream pop. Instead
however, we decided upon a conceptual idea of having slow motion
shots of ballet dancers in extreme closeup, showing only a piece of
skin or a mouth etc. I saw an idea similar to this in The Editors 'A Ton Of
Love' music video, except we have taken this a step further by
including a form of dancing, and making it slow motion. I watched and
analysed the music video for Greenday's '21 Guns' which included
multiple slow motion shots, so we are living up to the conventions of a
pop/rock music video. I also watched a video on YouTube of some

2. ballet in slow motion, to get a feel for what it would look like. It was
useful to see that it could be done to good effect, but the video I
watched was not at all closeup and was very bright, opposing the
mood we wanted to create.
Our next task was to find a suitable camera to use for our slow motion
shots. We quickly realised that most of the lower end cameras, such
as the handheld video cameras and the Olympus bridge cameras, only
had 24fps, meaning that when you slowed the footage down, you
could see the separate frames. We thought this looked very amateur
and wanted it to look more professional, so we asked if we could use
the higher end Canon DSLRs. We found that you could put the fps up
to 60, meaning we can slow the footage down a lot more without
being able to see the frames, making it look much more professional.
I saw in the Foo Fighters 'Best Of You' music video that they had used
interspersed parts of archive footage, seemingly completely random
but in fact related to the lyrics. I liked this idea, so I had a look at the
lyrics of our song, saw it was partly about conflict and war, and started
researching archive footage that we could use. I very quickly came
across some, and as a group we decided which parts would be best
for our video. However, we then found out that only a certain amount
of the music video can be archive footage (around 5%). So, we then
came up with the idea of projecting some footage onto the band while
they were playing. This idea came is very similar to a part in The Editors
'A Ton Of Love' music video, so we know we are playing up to the
conventions of the rock/pop genre.
Watching performance music videos such as 'School Of Seven Bells'
by Lafaye, I noticed that there are many closeup shots of the lead
singer, showing that they are the main person in the band. This is the
same in the Foo Fighters 'Best Of You' video, and the same across the
pop/rock genre, so I decided that while filming, I would get lots of close
up shots of the band and mainly the singer.

3. Q2: So far, how useful has the use of new media technologies been in
carrying out and presenting research findings as well as planning
ideas?
I have used lots of different multimedia technologies, such as the
different cameras, the handheld video recorder, the Olympus bridge
camera, and the Canon DSLR, the Apple Mac computers, the software
on it such iMovie, Final Cut Pro and iPhoto. I also used various internet
presentation websites such as Prezi, Voicethread, video watching sites
such as YouTube, Vimeo, Keepvid and ssyoutube, and Blogger to blog
all my research and planning.
Cameras- The handheld camera was not good enough for the slow
motion shots as it only had 24fps, the same with the Olympus bridge
camera. The Canon DSLR camera has 60fps, so this was the best
camera to use.
Apple Mac Computers- These have been useful as everything we
need is in the same place, making the research and planning process
much faster and easier.
iMovie, iPhoto and Final Cut Pro- These are all software on the Apple
Mac computer. These have been very useful as I have been able to
edit any parts of footage quickly and easily, and any video ideas I have
can be created quickly. iPhoto was used for any photos that needed
uploading, such as the location photos that I took.
Prezi- This has been very useful to me to create aesthetically pleasing
presentations that can easily be uploaded and embedded onto my
blog. Prezi has many benefits over Powerpoint, for example, you can
embed videos into Prezi where you can not on Powerpoint, and you
can change the layout of Prezi, make it into a pathway, and overall
make it a much more interesting and encapsulating presentation
experience.
Voicethread- This is a new and different way of presenting information.
This has been helpful in getting my exact point across, as sometimes,
in writing, the point of an argument is lost. However it is much easier to
make your point through speech, which is exactly what voice thread is
for, presenting our information findings by speech, with the video or
picture right there.
YouTube- YouTube has been very useful for me in two ways:
-I can upload videos easily so my group can get access to them.
-I can watch and research music videos easily, watching what I want

4. whenever I want, and being able to pause and rewind at any time, an
advantage over watching music videos on TV.
Vimeo- Vimeo's advantages are the same as YouTube's, it is a simple
and elegant video browsing site where I can upload and watch videos
much more easily than I would be able to otherwise. These sites have
helped me in my research and planning as it makes it easy to share
videos to my group so I can get feedback, and also allows me to
watch whatever music video I like at any time.
Keepvid and ssyoutube- These are video-keeping sites, which I have
used to look at certain parts of music videos in more detail, or to gather
archive footage for our music video.
Blogger- Blogger has been the most important tool in my research and
planning as it allows me to write ideas down whenever I want, share
music videos, share analysis' and research, and allow the whole group
to be up to date with everything happening to do with our music video.
It also allows me to share pieces of work easily with my teachers so it
can be marked quickly and I can get feedback straight away. It is
where every piece of my work culminates and can be easily seen and
read in an aesthetically pleasing and simple way.