Question 4 draft and incomplete because I was unable to meet all my deadlines for everything this month D': But I tried!!!

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Computers played an important role towards the construction and research of my product. Without the computer, things would have been difficult. Such as accessing the Internet would have been pretty much impossible. And without the Internet I wouldn’t have been able to access YouTube to watch all the music videos.

YouTube was extremely useful for this area of my research towards producing my music video. With YouTube I was not only able to watch as many music video’s to my hearts content, or watch music videos both old and new, I was allowed to view music videos from other countries. I took on this opportunity and watched music videos from South Korea (other than Gangnam Style). This was useful, as I was able to compare the styles of English speaking music videos to foreign ones, and frankly I find the Korean ones more skilful when it comes to editing.

Examples (I'm just proving a point, you don't have to watch it throughout - unless you want to)

Without YouTube, I would of had to watch music videos on music channels via TV. This would of meant that I would have had to cope analysing the music videos without pausing it and re-watching it loads till I had every element noted down on paper. YouTube had other uses as well, including uploading your own videos and watching tutorials when you get stuck with things. 

For documenting all of my research and analysis from watching music videos, I created a blog using Blogger. It helps keep all my work in an orderly fashion without having to look after a whole load of paper work, which in my case wouldn’t of worked out well, as I would of lost everything (also saving trees). I was able to keep everything in an order by using labels and changing the schedule (dates things were posted). With Blogger I was able to embed my YouTube videos, allowing the music videos to be next to my analysis and thoughts. I was also able to embed Prezis and presentations. I was even able to post links of websites that would lead to articles, and upload images from my home computer and the school Apple Macs. 

I created many presentations by using PowerPoint and Prezi. By using PowerPoint I was able to keep research and planning formal. I created presentations on PowerPoint for my shot lists, research on Andrew Goodwin, and showing lyrics to songs. I usually use Slide Share, as they let you embed the presentation onto the blog, but I also used a different one called Author Stream. I wasn’t too keen on Author Stream, because it wanted you to buy the premium before you could embed it. So I had to link the presentation onto my blog. I weren’t too keen on doing that, as it’s not the clear on my blog; it just blends in with the other posts and can be easily missed. I used Prezi loads. I found it so easy and simple. I was able to include videos, photos off Google images, show text in small chunks, and embed it onto my blog.

I used Google pretty much all the time when producing my product. I used it to do research on history of music videos, music institutions, finding lyrics and even signing into my gmails and Blogger. My most used websites were Wikipedia and Metrolyrics from using Google. They are not the world’s most trustful websites, but I found them ok as they had the information I wanted.

I found Wikipedia most useful when I was creating a time line on the history of music videos using Timetoast. It was simple enough to use and had a clear layout. I believe I only got stuck when it came to try putting it on my blog – embedding wasn’t a simple task for Timetoast.

I used a HD camera and tripod to film both my preliminary task and actual music video. It’s just the basics of filming and was very useful, for instance being able to record the footage in high quality and keep the filming smooth. I also used a green screen whilst filming so I could add on new backgrounds that would have been difficult to film.

To upload my footage I used iMovie, and then exported it to Final Cut Express. I then imported music: For my preliminary task I had to find the file in the Student Resources folder on the school Macs, and for the Coyotes music video I used iTunes. Finding the soundtrack in the Student Resources folder was very easy with no hassle as it was ready there for us. Using iTunes was also easy to follow and it supported the artist. Editing on Final Cut Express meant that I could use techniques that are used in real music videos, but I found it difficult to begin with.  When adding layers and layers of footage on top of each other, they would move each other making everything out of order. However when it came to making my music video, I got the hang of it and managed to avoid the problem. An issue with Final Cut Express though, is that it constantly wants to render every time you change something. I found this extremely annoying, as it wouldn’t even allow you to quickly watch what you’ve just changed to see if it’s right. I also felt very conscious about using the program in case I’d accidently close one of the many windows. Overall I did find this program useful when editing, as I can be precise when it came to matching the footage to the beat and lip-syncing.