Research
In the research stage of my media music video, the very first new technology I used to help me was the internet, and more specifically internet search stations such as Google. By using these we managed to find loads of information on music videos, the conventions
within them, the diversification they hold and techniques that are useful to employ when creating one. Another new technology that stemmed from search engines is the use of online magazine achieves, such as that of Q magazine which we used to look at their ‘Best music videos of all time’ article.Wikipedia was a good source of background and overview information, as well as providing some useful external links, but as it is anonymous it is not a truly reliable source so could not be trusted unless thoroughly cross referenced.
Moreover, YouTube was a brilliant source of primary research as we could watch loads of music videos (Such as stop motion influ
ences, PEN story, Raconteurs – Salute your solution, The White Stripes – Blue Orchid), read what people thought of them on the comments below and evaluate them ourselves. It also enabled us to pick up on loads of ideas and inspirational techniques used by other directors and producers. Finally YouTube enabled us to watch several Pop up Videos and learn about certain music videos, techniques used within them, the budgets they had and other trivial information about them and the artist.
ences, PEN story, Raconteurs – Salute your solution, The White Stripes – Blue Orchid), read what people thought of them on the comments below and evaluate them ourselves. It also enabled us to pick up on loads of ideas and inspirational techniques used by other directors and producers. Finally YouTube enabled us to watch several Pop up Videos and learn about certain music videos, techniques used within them, the budgets they had and other trivial information about them and the artist. 
The final new media technology we used at the research stage is DVD extras; we watched DVD extras on Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry both were extremely useful in giving us an insight into the kinds of principles and work that goes into music video. In the Michel Gondry DVD we watched videos he had done for Beck, The White Stripes and the Foo Fighters just to mention a few. In the Foo Fighters video we saw a perfect example of textual schizophrenia where Gondry lived out a nightmare he had as a child through Dave Grohl.
Planning
For the planning stage we used technologies such as camera phones to take pictures of location ideas so that we could evaluate which would be the best location for our video, this was because if we were out and about and found somewhere that would be perfect for a certain part of our video it was a lot easier to capture on a camera phone than an actual camera.
In anticipation of our main media product we downloaded a few trial versions of different editing software, such as Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio and Adobe premiere elements. This helped us to gauge what each software was like to use and which we felt was best for what we were doing and which we felt most comfortable with. Finally we settled on using Sony Vegas as it provided us with everything we needed to create our video and the effects to give it the finishing touches. It also enabled us to cut the music down within it which was helpful as we cut the song down slightly to increase repeatability and ensure it did not drag on or become repetitive in a bad way. Plus Sony Vegas was compatible with our Canon Camera files which was essential as our entire video was made up with them! The only downfall of Sony Vegas was that every time we put a new photo on it, we had to cut each individual one down to the correct time, but this was the same on all editing software so there was no way around it really.
In anticipation of our main media product we downloaded a few trial versions of different editing software, such as Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio and Adobe premiere elements. This helped us to gauge what each software was like to use and which we felt was best for what we were doing and which we felt most comfortable with. Finally we settled on using Sony Vegas as it provided us with everything we needed to create our video and the effects to give it the finishing touches. It also enabled us to cut the music down within it which was helpful as we cut the song down slightly to increase repeatability and ensure it did not drag on or become repetitive in a bad way. Plus Sony Vegas was compatible with our Canon Camera files which was essential as our entire video was made up with them! The only downfall of Sony Vegas was that every time we put a new photo on it, we had to cut each individual one down to the correct time, but this was the same on all editing software so there was no way around it really.
The final piece of new media technology we used in the planning was a scanning machine that enabled us to get our hand drawn storyboards onto the computer and therefore the blog. It was a very simple piece of technology to use and it enabled us to use our original storyboards instead of having to try and create digital ones on the computer.
Construction
In terms of using new media technologies in the construction of the music video itself there are 3 main technologies used.
The first one is the camera its
elf, we used a Canon EOS 1000D, it is in Canon’s DSLR profession range, it has many functions that helped us to create our music video, for example ‘sport’ or ‘burst’ mode, where the camera will take loads of frames per second, making it a lot easier to capture movement within the shot, however as the frames have to be captured so quickly you sometimes sacrifice quality if there isn’t enough light, so we had to make sure there was enough light either by photographing at certain times in the day, using artificial light or using the flash on the camera. It would have not made any sense to use a Sony Handycam like we did last time as everything we needed to do involved completely still images as although the Handycam can take still images, it is not specialized in doing that, whereas the Canon is extremely specialized in taking still images.
The first one is the camera its
elf, we used a Canon EOS 1000D, it is in Canon’s DSLR profession range, it has many functions that helped us to create our music video, for example ‘sport’ or ‘burst’ mode, where the camera will take loads of frames per second, making it a lot easier to capture movement within the shot, however as the frames have to be captured so quickly you sometimes sacrifice quality if there isn’t enough light, so we had to make sure there was enough light either by photographing at certain times in the day, using artificial light or using the flash on the camera. It would have not made any sense to use a Sony Handycam like we did last time as everything we needed to do involved completely still images as although the Handycam can take still images, it is not specialized in doing that, whereas the Canon is extremely specialized in taking still images. The second new media technology we used in the construction of our music video
is the editing software, for our media piece as mentioned in planning, we used Sony Vegas, we used Vegas because it allowed us to do everything we needed and it was simple to use. We used it on our AS media project so we knew our way around it as a package, however, we did still download trial programs for other software just to check to see what they were like. Vegas allowed us to upload our photos quickly by letting us drag them in, shorten the time length they remained on the screen for, change the colours of them, change the intensity or the opacity of them, use filters, effects or blurs and it also let us cut our music down so that we could cut out the last chorus in order to increase repeatability and decrease monotony, what was especially helpful was that Vegas allowed us to make certain parts of the song e.g. the vocals or synthesizer quieter, which made it a lot easier to fit the song together.
is the editing software, for our media piece as mentioned in planning, we used Sony Vegas, we used Vegas because it allowed us to do everything we needed and it was simple to use. We used it on our AS media project so we knew our way around it as a package, however, we did still download trial programs for other software just to check to see what they were like. Vegas allowed us to upload our photos quickly by letting us drag them in, shorten the time length they remained on the screen for, change the colours of them, change the intensity or the opacity of them, use filters, effects or blurs and it also let us cut our music down so that we could cut out the last chorus in order to increase repeatability and decrease monotony, what was especially helpful was that Vegas allowed us to make certain parts of the song e.g. the vocals or synthesizer quieter, which made it a lot easier to fit the song together. 
The third new media technology we used in the construction of the media music video was the Kodak 24 hour printing service; this enabled us to put all of our photos onto memory stick, give it to the person in the kiosk and then picked all the printed photos 24 hours later. This was a great service as it saved us a huge amount of time and money compared to how much it would cost us in both time and money to print them out ourselves. Plus by using Kodak it guaranteed a good quality of print and on good quality paper. For 800 prints it cost our group £40 which is highly cost effective; this price is as we had so many prints as the more prints you have the cheaper it becomes. 
Finally the two media technologies we used in the construction of our ancillary texts are Photoshop and Wix website. Photoshop was used in the construction of our magazine cover to import and edit images, create many layers over each other and insert text or logos. In terms of creating a website we used Wix.com to create ours, it was quite simple and very effective. It provided use with a loose layout on which we could build upon, adding information pictures and songs onto a music player in the bottom corner. Both of these technologies are highly effective in helping us to create our supporting products as without them it would have been much harder and taken much more time overall.
Evaluation
For our evaluation we received l
oads of feedback from social networking site ‘Facebook’, all of it was positive and very supportive this was good as it minored and reinforced the views expressed by teachers but it was feedback from an age group closer to the target audience for music video, especially of this genre. Within a few days we had received over 40 comments and more than 50 people had ‘liked’ it.
oads of feedback from social networking site ‘Facebook’, all of it was positive and very supportive this was good as it minored and reinforced the views expressed by teachers but it was feedback from an age group closer to the target audience for music video, especially of this genre. Within a few days we had received over 40 comments and more than 50 people had ‘liked’ it. The second media technology we used in the feedback / evaluation stage of our coursework was email. We did not initially intend on emailing our video to anyone within the media industry, however when two of my close friends who have worked within the industry for years expressed the strong recommendation of sending it to Owl City we were persuaded. After roughly two weeks, we received feedback from Owl City’s manager saying that he ‘loved it’ and that he was going to forward it to Adam himself who is currently touring in Hong Kong and China.
So overall in the research, planning, construction and evaluation of our music video we used quite a few new media technologies to their full extent which were exceedingly helpful in helping us to create an effective media product.
So overall in the research, planning, construction and evaluation of our music video we used quite a few new media technologies to their full extent which were exceedingly helpful in helping us to create an effective media product.
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