Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For this evaluation question I’m going to be diving each of the three headings into sections this is so that I can add more depth to each one and so that I can concentrate on each of them individually.

Research

For most of my research I used the internet which is an endless source of useful information. By using the internet I was able to find out a wide range of different things about not only Wretch 32 but also information about the genre we had chosen. We went into a lot of detail when choosing the right song as we didn’t want to make any mistakes. We therefore used the internet to find out all the information we could about Wretch 32 such as his record label the songs that he has done in the past and also his background history, to do this we used specific websites such as YouTube and Facebook. After researching all these different aspects of Wretch’s life we decided that we would choose one of his songs. By using Google I was able to expand my research, whether it was magazine related, video related etc. Just at the click of a finger I was able to get hundreds of pages of information on Wretch 32, and learn more about Wretch’s attitude and the influence he wants his songs to have. As wretch 32’s genre of music is mainly focusing on hip-hop when coming to a conclusion on which song I was going to use ‘Unorthodox’ I decided to research other artists similar to him in order to see what the conventions are of that genre I also did this by using the Google search engine.

The use of the internet was also very useful to help determine what our digipak was going to look like by viewing different album covers in the same category of genre to ours. After closely looking at other examples through the internet we had finalised our decision and had decided to use a few similar conventions to the hip-hop genre but also still wanted to keep our unorthodox theme. We used Google images to view other types of album covers we managed to get a series of examples and analysed them in a lot of detail. After consideration me and Harrison decided to stick with our unorthodox theme and not follow the typical conventions of hip-hop album covers however there were a few ideas of unorthodox that had already been used by artists such as The Game he used an album cover that had one colour dominating the whole cover. We decided to interpret this into our own music video as the colour purple is symbolic within our music video and we wanted to make this apparent to the viewer.

Not only did we use the internet to choose what song we were going to use but we also used it to determine who our actor was going to be. After Harrison suggested to me that we should use Nick Stott I decided to look at some videos that he had done in the past after viewing the videos I thought that he would not only bring experience to our music video but also a positive and energetic vibe which is exactly what we were looking for. I used sites such as YouTube and Google to listen to Nick’s music. By doing this research it helped me and Harrison determine who our actor was going to be and we were both very pleased with his performance in the music video.

Although most of my research helped me determine what to include within my production and digipak some other research that I conducted also helped me when it came to the post production stage of our music video. I wanted to improve my knowledge on editing techniques so I decided to research different methods of editing so that I was fully aware of how to edit effectively. I researched techniques such as letterboxing and also the sin city effect which is where a shot or sequence is dominated by one colour. I got this research by using the search engine Google to generate some results from these results I then found myself on YouTube with helpful videos that helped improve my editing knowledge.

After completing the editing adjustments above I was able to come to a final shot of the one above with the research that I gathered about how to do this successfully. By viewing he videos on YouTube I managed to get a good understanding of how to edit effectively. 

Planning

When thinking about the planning stage of our video production we used many different technologies in order for us to record and manage this data. As I was studying hip-hop, a genre that gets little exposure; without the mainstreams paying much attention to it, via radio. channel AKA on Sky was a vital resource for identifying generic rules and concepts within the UK urban genre's. As a channel that plays UK Hip Hop and Grime music back to back all day; in one sitting, I was able to pick up concepts straight away. From this I was able to craft an idea on how to challenge and develop the genre by focusing on the lyrics. It also saved me the work of having to look up grime artists, because the music channel did it for me.

Also when planning all of it was recorded using Blogger, this was another very useful piece of technology that I used as i was able to look back at all the other posts that I had done in the past. This wouldn't have been possible without the rapid revolution of technology. Blogger was a great asset to our planning stages as we were able to record our research and effectively and also have it in a specific order.

Construction




In terms of construction me and Harrison both used a wide range of different filming equipment that would give us the best outcome for our production what we used initially was a tripod  a HD camera and also an SD card. We took this with use to the filming in London we both believed that this would be the right equipment an everything that we would need in order to have a successful shoot. Although we could have brought along other filming equipment as well such as a dolly we didn't think it would be nessecary to bring it as we were travelling to such a far away location and was limited on the amount of weight that we could carry.

In addition to this we brought along a HD camera which produced very good quality film me and my partner were both very pleased with the outcome of the quality and didn't encounter any problems from it. Compared to our AS production last year these cameras were much more easier to work with as the lighting was much more clearer in darker spaces and wasn't grainy were as one the SD cameras it was hard to see in the dark. 

Also on the day we decided to take two 4g SD cards and two 2g SD cards this was so that we were able to film as much footage as we got. Me and Harrison wanted to make certain that we had got enough footage in order for our production to be successful. Also as the footage was going to be in HD this meant that it was going to take up more space compared to SD footage. Taking more than one SD card was a good idea and this technology helped us a lot with our filming.

Finally and probably the most important piece of technology that helped us was the programme final cut pro  which me and parter use in order to create our music video. This programme let use edit our footage that we recorded on the camera if we didn't have this programme to help us then we would have been unable to complete the music video. Within this programme is many different tools and effects that we were able to use in order to create a successful music video. Because of technology we were able to use this programme and make our music video.