Vietnamese artists capture war and the refugee experience
Question Four
1. ‘How did you use media
tecHnologies in tHe
construction and
researcH, planning
and evaluation
stages?’
2. Overall the media technologies that I have used
in my productions, include iMovie, Photoshop,
Illustrator, Paint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
PowerPoint, Web 2.0 in the form of Blogger,
Survey Monkey, Slide Share, YouTube, a Sony
video camera and tripod, a Cannon HD video
camera and tripod, a Nikon camera and a
Samsung camera.
3. When it came to the recording of my music
video I used both a HD and a non HD camera to
do the filming. I used the HD camera to record
the performance bit of my music video, I did
this to create the effect of my artist having
clarity and conviction in what he was singing
about. As the HD camera is more clear and
focused I hoped this would reflect the clarity
and determination that the lyrics reflect and my
artist sings with.
4. For the construction of my digipak and
magazine advert I used both Illustrator and
Photoshop. For the first drafts of my digipak
and magazine advert I used only Photoshop to
construct these. I did this because I had more
experience using Photoshop and I felt not only
more confident using it but I also felt that I
knew the capabilities of using Photoshop and
what could and couldn’t be done on Photoshop.
5. However after I had done the first drafts of my
digipak and magazine advert I decided to
switch to Illustrator as I felt that the image that I
was trying to portray of my artist wasn’t being
achieved by solely using Photoshop.
6. When I did use Photoshop I used a range of
technologies such as cropping the image,
distorting the colour, erasing the background
(using the magic wand tool) and getting rid of
the red eye of my artist. On Illustrator I used
technologies such as feathering the image of
my artist, having an effect of inner glow and
outer glow on my artist and changing the
greyscale of the image.
7. Combing Photoshop and Illustrator
For the design of my final digipak and final
advertisement I found the middle ground and
used both Photoshop and Illustrator, I did this
because I liked different aspects of each
technology for instance I liked the effect of
feathering the edges around my artist on
Illustrator and on Photoshop I liked the easiness
the quickness but more importantly I liked the
preciseness that I got from using Photoshop to
erase the background of my image.
8. Also in the creation of my ancillary texts I used a
mixture of both technologies to create my
titles, similarly to how I used both these
technologies on my images I used Photoshop to
edit the background and then I also used
Photoshop to change the colour of my font and
then I placed my title onto Illustrator where I
was constructing my digipak and magazine
advertisement.
9. However when I was filming the narrative for
my music video I decided not to use a HD
camera because the quality of the camera that I
did use wasn’t as defined and clear as the HD
camera was and I wanted to transfer this into
the idea of uncertainty and the future not
having defined or set in stone onto my
narrative.
10. I had already decided that I wanted my
narrative to be flashbacks and the quality of the
camera helped to create this feel of flashbacks
as it set a tone and look of memories being
revisited.
11. Using I-Movie
I used I-movie for my animatic, my rough cut
and my final draft of my music video, I did this
because I knew the technologies that I wanted
to use and I –movie had those technologies so I
decided to stick to I-movie instead of switching
to Final Express.
12. Black and White Effect
On I-movie I created effects such as making my
narrative black and white. I did this by right
clicking the clip I wanted until I was presented
with a menu of three options: video, audio and
clip. I then clicked on clip and went to effect
where I was given a range of effect options and I
clicked on the black and white effect. I used the
black and white effect because I wanted to
highlight that the narrative is flashbacks which
sum up the relationship that my artist and the
girl has.
14. Romantic Effect
Also on I-Movie I used the romantic effect, to
highlight that there is a romantic relationship
between the artist and the girl. Furthermore I used
this effect to illustrate the general romantic genre
of my music video. To create this effect I right
clicked the clip I wanted until I was presented with
a menu of three options: video, audio and clip. I
then clicked on clip and went to effect where I was
given a range of effect options and I clicked on the
romantic effect.
16. Cutting Clips on I-Movie
I also used I-movie to pick specific bits and
periods out of what I filmed to create my music
video. For instance the performance where my
artist is against the green background in total is
5 minutes and 25 seconds however using I-
movie I was able to select and use just 9
seconds in my opening lyric.
17. Presenting my work on
Blogger
Presenting my work on Blogger has been useful
not only because it is on the internet so
therefore I could easily access it anywhere e.g.
at home or school as well as when I was on the
go via on my mobile phone. Blogger also helped
me to edit my work easily as it was
computerised so I could easily delete and
rewrite mistakes that I had made and place
pictures
18. Developing my skills on
Blogger
Furthermore using blogger has helped me
develop my own skills in posting work on the
internet, for instance I have learned how to post
survey’s that people will be able to do on my
blog for example the survey I created to get
feedback on my draft magazine draft. Which I
did by creating the survey on Survey
Monkey…..
23. The Use Of Survey Monkey
Using Survey Monkey to get my feedback was
very beneficial as it was not only quick and easy
to use, in terms of designing the questionnaire
and placing it onto my blog but also to see the
results the clearly. As Survey Monkey not only
analyses the results for you but it also lets you
see what a person answered to all the
questions. This makes it beneficial in terms of
clarity i.e. the presentation of the results and
the understanding of the results.
25. The Use Of You Tube
The use of YouTube has been very high in my
production featuring in my research, planning
and evaluation stages. I used YouTube firstly in
the research stage to look at and analyse
different R&B videos such as J-Lo’s Im Glad
video and Usher’s U Got It Bad video. In my
planning stage I used YouTube to research how
an artist’s image is developed and changed
through their music videos, this I did through
my star image analyse of Usher.
27. Lastly in the evaluation of my music video I
used You Tube as the prosumer to post my
music video as the producer and also to get
feedback on my music video. Additionally You
Tube has been a very useful tool that I have
used when I have been stuck in how to post
something on my blog.
28. For example when I first started posting videos
on my blog that I had watched in relation to my
research, planning and evaluation I had no idea
how to post those videos on my blog. So I
watched YouTube tutorials to help me
understand how to post videos onto my blog.