Our Focus Group

FINAL COURSEWORK PIECES

Wonderland < LINK TO WEBSITE

Director's Commentary

EVALUATION TASK 4
(I'm furthest from the camera)

Time Lapse of Shoot Day

(I'm in the green jumper)

EVALUATION TASK 4: Part 2- Offline Technologies

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
 
The digital hardware I used in this creative process was:

This is the logo for Final Cut Pro- this was the main editing programme I used to create the video. After we filmed the shots we needed, I edited it together on here. I also used this hardware to add the music to the video and make sure it all matched up properly so that the lip-syncing was accurate. We did this by using a digital clapper on an iPad, we matched the time signature of the clapper to the correct place in the song and this meant that the lip syncing, instrumentals and movements were all accurate.

This is the FS100 which is the camera I used to film the video. It's fairly easy to use once you're used to the controls and has a good quality without being too large to edit on Final Cut Pro. However, saying this, we filmed on this camera in HD then reduced the quality for editing and then put it back into HD afterwards otherwise it would've been too big and made the editing process too slow.

We used the right fixed focal length lens to rotate between shots. For example, the 18,mm we used for a wide angle shot and an 85mm for a close up and we rotated between lenses to get different shots, cut between scenes and therefore get the feeling that there were many scenes going on in the house at once. 

Photoshop is the hardware I used for creating the digipak. I started off by coming up with a design and drawing it by hand. I then scanned it in- another digital tool- and edited the thickness of the lines, the layers and the colouring. I added the title, changed the background and added the production values and list of songs on to the back as well.

Photoshop is one of my favourite pieces of technology as really there are no limits to what you can create and it's a fun process when creating something new.

I used After Effects to de-saturate the colouring of the band section of the video to make it look more gritty- this was something I had originally planned in my research and planning at the beginning of the process and by using After Effects I was able to accurately choose the colouring that I had in my mind's eye.

 

By using digital media technologies I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign.  The use of Final cut pro as a piece of editing software has taught me how to select and organise a music video to a very high standard using semi-professional media equipment. The products mentioned above have allowed me to become the prosumer as they’re all readily available to semi or non-professional directors; a key characteristic of the online age I’m experiencing. Making use of these technologies, as I have, and gaining an abundance of skills throughout this process is imperative to being able to create new, interesting and current pieces of work in the ever changing media world.

EVALUATION TASK 4: Part 1- Online Technologies

 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my A2 coursework I used lots of digital technologies which helped me to create my coursework to the best quality possible. Some of these technologies were online software and others were hardware on the computer.
Here are some of the online digital technologies I used:

       

Storyboard That is a website that helps you to create professional looking storyboards as it gives you cartoons to choose from in order to create your own storyboard. This meant that my storyboard was more professional looking and accurate and furthermore meant that my storyboarding was a more effective process.

I used YouTube, an online, free, video sharing platform in order to research our chosen song to check if it had an official video before we created one of our own. Also we used it as a platform to share our own video and to determine which audiences liked it the most. In the research and planning section of the course, I used YouTube to establish the different styles of music video and could also identify the conventions of an indie-rock music video so I knew what to create in my own video. As well as this, I looked at the demographics of the audiences of certain videos and the genre they belonged to and this helped me to both establish the target audience and also to establish the conventions of a video that appeals to this audience in order to actively recreate these in my own coursework production.

I used dafont to choose the best font for the band's logo, website and digipak. I found through my research that often the font of the band acts as the logo so I felt it important to choose a font which is more original, rather than one from the menu on word or PhotoShop. Furthermore, the style of the font also depicts the genre of the music and so I used the categories on dafont to find the style of font that fitted the genre 'indie-rock' the best.

I used blogger to keep track of my progress and it has been a really helpful way to check that I've covered all the areas which I need to in order to create a successful campaign. Blogger also helped me to establish sections of my coursework that I may have missed which would hinder my work and so I could follow this up in order to have the most effective production experience possible.

I used google as my search engine because it's quicker and easier than going to a library; it was the start point for my research and so this was a vital part of my whole process.

 If I didn't have google I wouldn't have been able to create my products as quickly as I did or to the best standard that I could. I also used google to come up with creative ideas.

In conclusion, I used many online tools and NMTs to create my coursework products to the best of my ability. By using these online tools the products I created were accurate to how I had planned them as the abundance of information on the Internet meant that I could pick and choose, re-create, develop and edit ideas into exactly what I wanted.

 My use of the internet and NMTs has therefore enabled me to become a prosumer, a creator of media products to a near professional standard.  I have also been able to share ideas and research global and industry standard products.  Online digital technologies have made available to me opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using YouTube as a free online broadcast platform.  It is also interactive – audiences have been able to feedback, like and comment on my products using features such as the comments box at the bottom of YouTube and SurveyMonkey for direct qualitative feedback.  These new skills learned on this course have enabled me to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also to also become a producer – important to an understanding of the media in an online age.

 

Encoding/Decoding Model

Stuart Hall (above) is the man behind the idea of encoding and decoding within media texts.
He believes there are three types of decoding, after the producer of the text has imposed their encoded meaning:
Intended Reading:
The meaning which the audience has interpreted is the one which the producer intended.
Negotiated Reading:
A meaning which is similar to the intended meaning, is understandable and the reason behind the audience reading it in that way is negotiable, but is not the exact meaning which the encoder intended.
Oppositional Reading:
A reading of the video with opposes the one which was intended by the encoder.