HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
Technology was one of the most important factors in how good of a product I could produce. The vast majority of technology was computer based, using the internet and computer programs to my advantage.
Once I had decided to do a parody music video as my choice of production, I had to research into existing media products to browse the codes and conventions into how they are made up. What makes them what they are? How are they created? What works? What doesn't?
The technologies I would use were firstly, the internet, as would be the case for the vast majority of my advanced portfolio production.
The internet is a new media technology having came to prominence when people began getting computers in the 1990's. YouTube can also be classed a new media technology as it was created in 2005. New media technologies such as this has made the way we access media a lot easier and more efficiently.
I began looking on YouTube to have a look at existing music videos, and in particular, Parody Music Videos. I began looking at how the lyrics were used to their full effect in a parody and what sort of ways do existing parody artists create their lyrics so that they are funny for an audience.
Over the summer holidays of 2012, I began to make notes of lyrics on Microsoft Word to begin planning on how I could make a parody of Rizzle Kicks' - Down With The Trumpets. I looked for the lyrics to the original song I was parodying and looked for ways in which I could transfer the original lyrics into something that related to my chosen topic of crumpets and breakfast in general. I brainstormed ideas and came up with a list of words that I wanted to somehow incorporate into my lyrics. These were things such as: CRUMPETS, BREAKFAST, FRY UP, SAUSAGE, EGG, BACON, CEREAL, FROSTIES, CORNFLAKES, TOAST etc.
- The Internet
- YouTube
When the time came to write my first draft of the lyrics, I listened to the original track I had on my Rizzle Kicks album over and over to get some ideas into my head. My first draft of the lyrics was complete but there were a series of words that didn't rhyme particularly great, so I used online sites such as http://www.rhymezone.com to see if I could find some alternative words and still have the same sort of flow I wanted.
Having completed the final lyrics to the point I was satisfied with, I went down to a friends house to record the song. I had my two singers record the song using Mics to record each of them doing there individual pieces. However, there was only one Mic so Tom went first to record all of his lyrics, then came the turn of Andy. I would have liked both singers to have performed at the same time but restrictions meant I was unable to do so.
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| Set up for recording the song |
http://andylairda2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/recording-song.html
- www.rhymezone.co.uk
- Microphone
- Ableton Live 8
- Audacity
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| 1st page of Questionnaire |
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| 2nd page of Questionnaire |
To find out a little about my audience I decided to do a series of surveys, both online and paper versions. For the online version I used survey site www.surveymonkey.com as well as a printed version off. This would give me feedback from a lot of people to help see what sort of product I needed to produce.
Here is the post I wrote on analysing the results of my questionnaire. http://andylairda2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/questionnaire-results-analysis.html
Filming and Editing of the Music Video
On came the point of filming my music video. I was issued a 'Sanyo Xacti VPC-GH4 Full HD' camera in which to film all the clips I needed. Having decided that I could do with 2 different cameras to aid the speed at which I was able to get on with recording different shots, this was sorted and I filmed the entirety of my clips using 2 varying angles for each shoot. This made life much easier in the production stage. I also used tripods as this would aid camera stability as I would not be left with shaky handheld camera shots as well as the ease of use for effects such as panning.
Having completed the filming of all my clips for my music video, It was now time to edit all the footage and make my clips into a music video.
I had to decide what editing software to use. The options I had were Movie Maker, Photostage and iMovie. I decided that iMovie being obviously the better of the 3 was the software I was going to use. I had arranged to use a Macbook of which I had to borrow from school. This seemed like it was going to be great, however when I got it I realised it was an old Mac and therefore it ran very slow when trying to use iMovie with such large files sizes of my video clips. I did not feel that I would be able to complete the creation of the video using that software as it was not efficient.
I therefore decided I had to choose between Windows Movie Maker and PhotoStage. These were clearly not professional quality software packages and there was little to choose between them. I decided to go for PhotoStage. It used a time line view which is what I wanted whereas the newer version of Movie Maker I wasn't so keen on the layout. So for ease of use I went for PhotoStage.
I set myself 2 days where I would do the editing of my video. I completed it, having synced all the clips to the track.I was pretty happy with the result. I exported the clips in a number of different file formats so I had a version that would play in any given piece of software and of varying qualities. HD 1080, 720, MP4 etc.
Having looked at the footage there was 1 clip that was just out of sync so I went back and edited it further and resolved the issue. I then re-exported the video.
I then uploaded my final video onto YouTube as a platform to get my product out to my target audience.
- Video Camera and Tripod
- PhotoStage
- YouTube
Digipak
For the digipak I used several different technologies to help produce it. The initial photography work was done using the Sanyo video camera I borrowed from school along with another HD camera that I had. The image I have used on the front page(bottom right panel) is one that I have edited using photo sharing application Instagram. Having uploaded the image to my Instagram account and added the effect on, I decided I liked it so much I saved the edited image to my documents.The smaller images of the two singers faces used on the top right hand panel were taken using my mobile phone. This is because I decided I wanted some portrait shots of the 2 band members and my phone camera was of sufficient quality to take close up photographs.
The image on the bottom left panel is a screenshot from PhotoStage when my final video was playing. I wanted to use this image as it is directly from the music video and I felt my audience would like such an image.
To compile my digipak, I used Adobe Fireworks. My ideal piece of software would have been Adobe Photoshop but I was only able to use the Adobe Web Standard package which did not include Photoshop within it. However, coming both from Adobe, similar features and functions were available to me on Fireworks as there is on Photoshop. Having used Fireworks before I felt pretty comfortable going in to use it. I used it to my advantage when creating my digipak as it has the feature of using 'layers'. Layers are an important factor. It means I can overlay things easily. I can 'lock in' certain layers so that I do not accidentally change things I no longer wish to whilst working on another part of the digipak. This was something that I really like about this piece of software.
To compile my digipak, I used Adobe Fireworks. My ideal piece of software would have been Adobe Photoshop but I was only able to use the Adobe Web Standard package which did not include Photoshop within it. However, coming both from Adobe, similar features and functions were available to me on Fireworks as there is on Photoshop. Having used Fireworks before I felt pretty comfortable going in to use it. I used it to my advantage when creating my digipak as it has the feature of using 'layers'. Layers are an important factor. It means I can overlay things easily. I can 'lock in' certain layers so that I do not accidentally change things I no longer wish to whilst working on another part of the digipak. This was something that I really like about this piece of software.
- Adobe Fireworks
- GIMP
Website Homepage
To create my website I used an online site called Wix (www.wix.com). The major factor in me choosing this site over others is that it is free and requires no coding. There are also hundreds of templates for different design specifications. I chose a basic template to start me off of which I then created my own layout to which I preferred for my parody band.
The site offered simple drag and drop tools in order to create a quality website pretty simply.
Evaluation
For question 1 of this evaluation, I have produced a video outlining different codes and conventions of existing media products. To create this video, I used Windows Movie Maker. It was the only possible piece of software I could use at home. Using a headset, I recorded myself discussing a number of codes and conventions I had discovered when researching real media products. I then, overlayed the voice recording onto a series of videos which relate to the topics I was discussing.
- Windows Movie Maker
Other
Throughout my production, I have been keeping records on here, Blogger. This is a good method to keep a written diary of what events have occurred and how you go about your production.
Throughout my production, I have been keeping records on here, Blogger. This is a good method to keep a written diary of what events have occurred and how you go about your production.
- Blogger
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