How have I used digital technologies in the research, planning and creation of my products?
Without an increasing knowledge and understanding of online media and digital technologies, I would have not been able to create my A2 coursework to the high standard and ability that I have this year, compared to my AS project. Through the use of 'Blogger', Google's online blogging service, I would not have been able to display and share my work as clearly and sufficiently as I would have without it. Being able to constantly update, edit and share my work digitally has provided me with a platform for successful coursework.
When sharing our final product, and focus group interviews, we used 'YouTube' as a platform for display. This is a website on which you are able to share, view and like videos. Not only was this useful for us in sharing our project, but without having YouTube to explore other artists work, we would not have been able to take inspiration from others and create a piece that was as successful as it was. In creating our start image, we observed other similar artists and images that we wanted to replicate, and we wasn't have been able to do this without today's technology.
We further used search engines such as 'Google', to see what was relevant in current popular cultures, and say that we could create an artist that would appeal to target audiences of this generation. Moreover, we were able to do research on music video's similar to our idea and see if they were well-received or not. As a result, this made planning our idea and the shooting of our video a lot easier as we were a lot better planned.
Furthermore, social media such as 'Facebook' allowed us to keep up with the times and fashions, and to incorporate this into our final product. Bands such as 'Arctic Monkeys' and 'Jake Bugg' were major inspirations for our star image and their social media sites and website were extremely useful in understanding what is liked by audiences and viewers which we could target our specific audiences with.
Without some of these technologies, I would not have been able to create and show my production and media coursework to the audience. From this I am able to freely make these products and get feedback from them to improve it. As such, I knew to change some of my shots and focus on having less location shots, replacing them with shots of the audience and a crane shot to highlight the setting of a live studio performance.
During AS, we made a storyboard and referred only to this when filming our final piece. During A2, with my increased knowledge of technology, I was able to create an animatic, with images from storyboard cut in time the music. This gave me a much more complete idea of what I needed to shoot for the final product, and where each shot would go exactly in time with the accompaniment.
When actually filming the music video, the entire project took about two days, as opposed to a few hours in AS. This is because the music video is longer than the projects we completed in AS and required a larger variety of shots. Therefore, we spent time setting each shot up for it to look how we wanted it to. During AS, we were more free to make it up on the spot, but during A2, we had much less room for error. This is why being able to manage the equipment efficiently was imperative to the overall success of our product. Furthermore, we not only used a camera (Sony FS100) but we also had the use of lighting to enhance the live studio setting of music video. Hence, we had to make sure that the camera was set up and rolling so that I could then control the lighting whilst the camera was filming.
When editing our video, there was quadruple the amount of footage that we had to work with. This is because in AS we were following a select shot list where we could film each individual shot and just cut them together. Although this is a positive, as there was no shortage of footage, there was loads of good work that we had to cut out. As well as this, our more unique shots which would take minimum 20 minutes to record, had to be cut down to a three seconds shot in the actual product. We had to use far more editing techniques, including changing the colour of all shots and enhancing the brightness to highlight that the music video was set in the 1950s. The music and video was edited using 'Adobe Premiere'. This enabled me to organise and edit my clips with discontinuity devices in accordance with Keith Negus' convection such as cut to the beat as well as using special effects with After Effects to add the greyscale effect. This allows me to convey the fact that this was a pastiche to TV shows such as the Ed Sullivan show set in the 1950s that hosted bands such as The Beatles.
The tools on websites such as surveymokey.com allowed me to get instant online audience feedback online by using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Asking questions such as ‘What would you improve in the video?’ allowed us to make to vital changes in post-production such as changing the penultimate shot of the video where one of the band members sticks his tongue out at the camera. As it was all done online, we were able to attach a link to our music video with the questions allowing them to access it instantly, and answer the questions after viewing our product. This was effective as we didn’t have to be present for this.
The website was created using Wix.com. It’s a website that enables anyone to produce their own website. It provides a template, making the experience user friendly and far easier than coding an entire website. You can add images, videos and link to social networking, keeping that constant contact. The website is primarily to promote Benjy and his music and I made sure that I used my research to guide my decisions such as creating a page where merchandise was available to those who would want to purchase it, and where tour dates and tickets were available in just one click.
The internet was key for my research into digipaks and websites. I often referred back to ‘Arctic Monkeys’ etc. when researching ideas and themes for my digipak and website.
The digipak was created using Coral draw/paint. I aimed to create an organic, effortless styled digipak to attract our target audience by representing 'The Walls' . I was far more creative this year because after learning how to use the programs I was able to manipulate the images to further convey the star image to the target audience. I was able to take a picture of the band in front of a wall similar to Pink Floyd and then manipulate the image to look how we wanted it to.
The use of Wix, blogger, YouTube and social network has made me into a prosumer. It’s had made me both a consumer of media products as well as a producer of media products. Digital technologies allow me to share The Walls' products worldwide as the technologies I’ve used are all free and accessible. YouTube and Facebook allow the audience to like, share and comment giving me the necessary feedback and praise in order to improve my products. All of these new skills learned on this course have enabled to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also become a producer. This is important because it gives an understanding of the media in the online age.
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