[TRANSCRIPT]
Throughout the production of my products, I have used various digital technologies through each stage (construction, research and planning and evaluation). Some are technologies that I have had previous experience with while others have been completely new to me. In answering this evaluation question, I will be looking at what digital technologies I used, why I used them and what I learned from them using them...
Part 1:
1. In the construction stage, I began using digital technology through the use of my Pentax K500 DSLR - in order to be able to film my video and take images for my ancillary texts. Since I had my camera before the start of the year, I was at an advantage as it meant I wouldn't have to stress trying to get one borrowed from college, especially when other people would need one. I also decided to use my own camera as I was able to get to grips with its basic settings in my own time before I even started researching and planning.. I used my 18-55mm standard lens, as this was the only lens I had at the time. Through using this lens I was able to carry out the pulling focus technique by turning the focus ring on the lens. This, I believe, made my camera a very handy digital technology tool as I was able to create a conventional simple but effective visual image technique. While the lens I used was only standard, therefore not of the best quality, I was not put at a disadvantage because the quality of video was still fairly good and since I was filming on mostly bright, sunny, days, the aperture was greater meaning the overall brightness and quality would be improved. Using my camera came in useful when it came to lenses because it is interchangeable. Therefore when I later purchased my 50mm prime lens, I was able to use this as well. I mostly used this for the images of my ancillary texts as I was weary the viewers of my video would be able to tell when I had used a different lens because of the differing image quality. I would have liked to have use my prime lens more but due to having a limited time frame to film in (short days and the fact Jess only stayed a week at time in holidays) it was time consuming having to change the lenses. Therefore, I used the standard lens the majority of the time for both my video and ancillary texts but the overall outcome of the quality wasn't overly affected. Having an interchangeable lens camera, again, meant I was at advantage compared to if I had used a camera from college. While college offers students the use of their DSLRs, there are only few; college supplies more smaller HD cameras but these cannot change lenses and I would not have been able to use the pulling focus technique. From using my DSLR in the construction of my products, I now a firmer understanding in the ways in which it can be used (e.g manual focusing, types of image settings). I believe this understanding will take me further into future projects- both video and still image work as I have developed a further passion for using this type of digital technology to create work.
2. As well as the actual camera, I used the accessories that worked along side it. For example, I bought myself a Hama 32GB SDHC Class 10 card as I knew I was going to be dealing with a lot of large video files as well as large still image files from Photoshop. I chose this card because it is high speed, high capacity which means video and still image files are saved onto the card as fast as they are been taken. I had previous knowledge of SD cards from my first year when I transferred the image files onto an Apple Mac computer via a card reader- although SD cards are pretty self-explanatory and easy to use. I used the card reader again this year when transferring my footage onto the editing suite at college (another digital technology I used in the construction stage). It also helped me keep all my files organised and I backed them up on my memory stick, home computer and own file system on the college computers so I knew I had more than one copy of all my footage and images in case I somehow lost it on one device.
3. As mentioned, another digital technology device I used for the construction of my music video, was the editing suite supplied by college. This was a completely new area for me to be creative in as I had never worked on an editing suite before or with the editing program Premiere Pro (Adobe software). Using it was very much a self-learning curve as Ben, the media technician, understandably could not devote a lot of time teaching me how to use the software. I first used it to create small 10 second drafts of clips from my storyboard. I also did this outside of college on my laptop on which I downloaded a 30 day free trial of the program. This give me more time to look at the basic features with which I could put my footage together. I began by using the simple tools such as selection and razor. As I became more comfortable with the tools, I was able to use the keyboard shortcuts which put me at an advantage as I was able to edit my video together a lot faster. When it came to editing my first full draft on the editing suite, the footage I had filmed on my camera was too large for the suite to deal with since it was fairly old. Therefore Ben helped me export and render it into one whole file from which I could select a starting and end point of the footage (using the trim tool) I wanted and drag and drop it onto the sequence timeline. This, for me, felt like a much easier way of dealing with the amount of footage I had; the previous drafts I produced involved me having to search through the imported folders to find a specific clip I wanted. Once I had quite a bit of practice with using Premiere Pro, editing the second and third time round was a much easier process. I developed onto using/experimenting with further tools such as colour effects and transitions including fades. After purchasing a new computer and monitor, which is pretty nifty with image quality, I was able to download another free trial of Premiere Pro. This enabled me to spend much more time investigating more tools and experimenting with different effects (particularly colour in which I learned how to adjust the RGB curves to create a sepia effect). I also experimented with the creation of titles, the last thing I placed on my video, by looking at the properties which you could change to adjust the title- e.g. fill, strokes, font size, opacity etc).The final thing I learned from using Premiere Pro was how to export my video. This was obviously essential in the construction stage because without exporting the video in the correct settings means that the image quality could be greatly affected. I exported my video using Adobe Media Encoder (automatically installed with the editing software) and selected the format H.264 as this was the suggested format, I found while researching about exporting video from Premiere Pro. Since I was uploading my video to Youtube, it made sense to choose the preset 'Youtube 1080p'. This meant that my video could be played in HD on Youtube.While it took a while for me to learn the basics of using Premiere Pro, I have learned a great deal and now have the knowledge and understanding to go on and make future projects using the software.
Finally, Illustrator was another computer program I used in the construction of my digipak, specifically the design of the CD/DVD. Having never used Illustrator before it was, again, a new learning curve. I found, however, that it is very similar to Photoshop so it didn't actually take long to get to grips with the basic tools., although it did mean I had to practice quite bit before I was happy with the result of my vector graphic. This use of digital technology therefore also played a part in my research and planning stage as well as construction- I had to carry out extensive research on vector graphics and how to use illustrator. From doing research on existing vector graphics, it became apparent that I was challenging conventions as I could hardly find many examples, especially as CD designs. However I felt confident enough going ahead and continuing to produce one in order to allow myself to be more creative and show this through my work. When actually constructing the design of the disc, I used the pen tool to outline, firstly, Jess' face then her hair (from an instagram photo). Since they were separate pathways, I was able to adjust and resize them to make the overall graphic look even. The next step included adding colour to both the face and hair; for the face I searched through the library of swatches (named colours, tints, gradients, and patterns) that Illustrator provides and selected a skin tone colour (this was to make it obvious that the graphic was of a person- since I did not include a face). I then experimented with gradients for her hair by first selecting the path then opening the gradient panel. The panel allowed me to pick existing colours and gradient or create my own. I obviously chose the blue gradient and messed around with the colour stops that I could move along the scale to change where it gradated with another colour (in this case green). The overall process of creating the vector was farely simple, considering I hadn't had any previous experience, therefore I think it was quite successful in the construction stage of my coursework.
Part 2:
The most obvious digital technology I have used to evaluate my work is my computer, in which I have used the internet to firstly search for presentation websites online (such as Powtoon, Emaze and Glogster). These websites in particular have been useful to use in my evaluation stage because they provide a more creative way of not only presenting a large amount of text but also making it more interesting for the reader;if the content is presented in a way that makes the reader interact with it (this will be discussed more when I talk about each individual site over the following slides). I have also obviously used blogger to post my evaluation questions and answers on, along side my coursework. Since I have used Blogger throughout the whole duration of my coursework, I have obviously used it to post my evaluation questions and answers on, as mentioned. While I posted my answers to question 1, and 2 (plus 4 when this is finished) using other digital technologies, I used blogger to type up my answer to question 3. This is because I felt it was much easier to structure the answer (writing separate paragraphs on my audience feedback for each product)- although I could have done this via Prezi, I had already used it twice before so didn't want to be repetitive. I also think it just showed more variety in ways of presenting my answers.
Blogger was therefore a useful digital technology to use for answering my evaluation questions because it provided me with the opportunity to post answers via other digital technologies (such as Prezi) by embedding the html codes but also answering them as a simple text post that would also allow images to be uploaded. in my audience feedback question I was also able to embed the surveys I had created so I could show the questions other than through the use of a screenshot. Blogger therefore contributed to the creativity aspect of the evaluation stage through particular features that it provides.Emaze was also a very useful website to use to present my evaluation answer. I used Emaze because I felt it provided a more creative way of using a powerpoint-style to present large amounts of text. Like Blogger, I was able to insert images and videos from YouTube as well as having the choice of a larger range of templates than what Microsoft/Google Drive Powerpoints offer.
These templates were also beneficial as I could choose one that suited what it was I was presenting (earlier in my coursework I used the template that provided a variety of demographic based graphic images; in my evaluation stage I used a more professional looking template that had a much simple colour scheme and was easier to read text from). Emaze also offered ways of adding different media paltforms to the presentation (as shown to the left) as well as providing a variety of shapes to use and charts to make when presenting data (although I didn't use this for my evaluation, it appears to be alot easier to use than on a normal powerpoint presentation). The problem I had with using Emaze, however, was that it had trouble processing the Prezi that I had originally tried to embed on it. I therefore had to embed this separately on my blog post in order for it to be viewed without crashing the Emaze presentation.
Again, Prezi was a very creative digital technology to use in my evaluation. I used this to answer part two of question 1 (How I conformed/challenged conventions in my digipak) and question 2 (how effective my products are as a combination). Prezi consists of a variety of templates that are presented through paths that you can edit (I did this to guide the viewer through my Prezi in an order that I felt would make sense to them, so they weren't stuck with where to start). The idea of a path is that itruns smoothly like a powerpoint slide but is more useful for zooming in on things such as images and is a more interactive way of presenting information. All the information is displayed on one page which makes it useful for viewers because they can easily find a section of information without having to scroll back and forth between separate slide I therefore used this as part of my evaluation because it was also a lot more fun to use and would also benefit the viewer. Like Emaze and Blogger, I was able to upload images and YouTube videos onto my Prezis and it allowed me to effectively separate the points I wanted to make into more easy readable amounts of text (instead of having a large paragraph that looks boring and time consuming to read, I used the feature of circular borders to separate my paragraphs).
I used slideshare to answer part 3 of question 1 (How I used/challenged conventions in my album advert). However in order to use it, I first created a powerpoint to upload, which I did using Google Slides (since I don't have Microsoft Powerpoint). I was able to use Slideshare as I had the option to share it to a number of website (this included an embed code which I could put on my blog.Both Slideshare and Google Slides provided a simple way of presenting large sums of text, images and videos. While it isn't as creative as other digital technologies, it varied the way in which I presented my answers.
PowToon is a further digital technology online presentation website, which I have used to discuss this part of question 4 (How I have used digital technology in my evaluation stage). I have used PowToon creatively by adding transitions to each slide and creating visual effects that make it more interesting for the viewer to read. I will then be using YouTube to upload this presentation onto, as another media platform to display my work on. Using YouTube will also make it more accessible for everybody to use and viewers will be able to skip through or repeat parts of the presentation at their leisure (this is something you can't do when viewing it on PowToon itself. Furthermore, the video will then be displayed on my Glogster presentation in which I have answered my fourth evaluation question (how I have used digital technology in the construction/planning/research and evaluation stages). I found Glogster visually attractive to use because I could upload my own images as well as inserting graphics that are featured on the program. It is also a useful way of getting viewers to interact with the presentation as they can scroll through the text and have easy access to other mediums such as YouTube which are displayed on the same page.
Part 3:
The main digital technology I used during my planning stage was the internet (via my desktop PC) which provided me with easy access to many websites that I could use to research existing products. YouTube was the first website I used to watch existing music videos. This was to gain an understanding and underlying of what was required of me to produce my own video. By watching music videos of the genre that I had chosen to base my product on, I was able to look at conventional cinematography and editing techniques that I would need to apply to my own video in order to make it representable of the genre. Since I used YouTube in the initail stage of my research, I was later able to plan efficiently by using the knowledge I had gained from the videos I had watched. This included planning an initial narrative and thinking about certain camera shots and mise-en-scen elements I would need to use to support the narrative.
I found YouTube very useful in my research stage because it allowed me to find and view other artist's videos who I had never heard of before, therefore broadened by knowledge of the genre and what it entailed. It also alloed me to find editing tutorials for Premiere Pro which I
watched pror to editing myself. This included videos showing how to alter the
colour of the video and other simple editing techniques.
Google was used throughout the research and planning processes of all of my products. I first used it to search the song lyrics of my chosen song for my music video, from which I was able to choose from a number of results. I was also then able to search the meaning of lyrics- while I had my own interpretation, I thought it would be useful to look at other people's interpretations to see if my video would fulfill Hall's Reception Theory. I found the site http://songmeanings.com/ which allowed me to do so. I further used Google to search my chosen genre and artists of the genre. This allowed me to find artists I had never heard of before, through recommendation, or didn't realise they were of the particular genre, as well finding out more about those I already knew of. I was able to get a feel of how they are represented as folk/rock/singer-songwriter artists which allowed me to be able to plan how I wanted myartist to be portrayed (in terms of mise-en-scene-clothing).
For my digipak and advert, I initially used Google to search for images of existing products, from which I could look at and analyse their conventions to help me plan my own product. Google images was extremely useful at this stage as I was able to find hundreds of adverts and albums of all genres that I wouldn't have had access to if it weren't for the internet. This therefore resulted in efficient
research as I was able to look at a wide range of existing products. [CONTINUED...]
Furthermore, Google was used to search song existing song titles that I could put on my digipak. Google was exceptionally useful for this as it gave a clear list of all the artist's songs, placed in their appropriate albums. This made it easier to find all their songs in one place and I was even able to listen to them on Google to decide if the song was best suited to my album.
I finally used Google to search for creative was of presenting my research, from which I found emaze to present my demographic survey findings. I also found sites such as Glogster and PowToon which I used at later stages (such as this evaluation stage). Again, Google was exceptionally helpful with this as it meant I could find and use online presentations instead of simply typing up my research and planning onto a a plain blog post.
Amazon was also used when researching songs to feature on the trackball of my digipak. I did this by searching and existing album and looking at the images which provided the front and back cover of the digipak, on which the tracklist was shown. Like google, Amazon made it easily accessible to look for songs and I was able to listen to short clips of them on Amazon Music Player. This further helped me deicide on the tracklist of my album. I was limited, however, because not all albums sold had an image of the back cover, although this did not affect the overall outcome.
I used blogger in my research process by creating a poll to feature on my blog. I used a poll as way of collecting initial target audience responses but because it was featured on my blog, I only received two responses (this could be because there were no clear instructions stating that anybody had to respond). Regardless of the number of responses, a poll was a quick easy way of creating a small questionnaire that doesn't take long to answer. Blogger was therefore useful as it provided me with the tools to create a poll.
As well as this, survey monkey was also used in gathering results from surveys as I was able to distribute them more widely by sharing them to social networking sites, therefore making them more reliable as I knew the surveys would be reaching my target audience. Additionally, survey monkey allowed me to easily change how I wanted the results to be displayed (pie/bar chart etc) therefore making it easy to analyse my findings.
Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are the three social networking sites I used to post my surveys on. I used these particular sites because I knew that they are largely used by people within my target audience's age range (16-25). This meant that while I knew the age range of my target audience, posting surveys specifically targeting them would allow me to gain results telling me why they are my target audience and how I can create my products to meet their specific needs.
As mentioned earlier, I used Emaze to present these results. I found that Emaze provided a very
creative way of doing this, rather than creating simple pie and bar charts on Microsoft powerpoint, because the presentation themes include a wide range of graphics that I could use to illustrate the results- especially the percentages of ages and where the respondents where from. Emaze was also useful at it provided practically the same features as Microsoft PP but in a more creative style which I felt would keep the reader concentrated on the presentation.
Windows Movie Maker was an essential program during my planning stage as it was needed to create an animatic of my storyboard. I used WMM by scanning in my drawn storyboard onto my computer then opening the images in the program and placing the audio file over the images. Since I was pretty accurate with the timings, little editing was needed therefore making the program exceptionally easy to use. While I had the option to use an editing suite (and Premiere Pro) to create the animatic, I felt WMM was a better option as I didn't want to spend too much time editing it together. This was because I knew my storyboard would change as I developed my ideas, so creating a quick animatic allowed me to see whether the initial ideas I had planned would work with the music or not. I also used WMM because it was easily accessible-I was able to work on my animatic at home as well as in college where I was not always guaranteed a computer.
Google was, again, used in my planning stage. I sued google maps to plan where I would I be filming my music video. I did this because it meant I could choose initial locations to narrow down my options before heading out to film. Google maps was very helpful at this stage because it meant I could easily look at the locations in street view instead of spending time going into town when I had other planning to complete for my music video.
The process of choosing where and when to film was further supported by using the BBC's Weather forecast which provided me with the weeks weather from which I could plan around. This was helpful to do as it kept my schedule for filming organised and I was able to make arrangements with Planet Coffee for when it was raining and I couldn't film outside. The website also provided me with not only the overall daily forecast but also the hourly forecast so I could plan my schedule for the whole day.
The use of my Pentax K500 DSLR was additionally essential as I used it to further plan specifically where it was I wanted to film as well as the outfit that my artist would be wearing by taking images. Taking images of the locations (such as the table I wanted my artist to be sat at) meant I could produce another storyboard with specific details, therefore helping me when it came to actually filming. The camera also came in useful when taking images of my artist in potential outfits as I was able to use the built in flash to make the lighting quality better as I currently don't have LED lights at home. I had to take the photos at home because my artist does not live in Hull so I couldn't use the facilities at college.
I also used the video setting on my camera to film test shots which helped me plan exactly what shots would work and what wouldn't in my music video. This was useful as it meant I wouldn't be wasting time filming shots that I wouldn't end up using.
To do this I used my standard 18-55mm lens which, although produced standard quality images, was the only lens I had at the planning stage. The quality of the image however did not overally affect the outcome and wasn't that important
as they were planning images.
Using my own camera was especially useful because it meant I could take my time getting the images and footage I needed as I didn't have the pressure of getting it back to college like if it was borrowed. I was also very familiar with the camera's settings which saved me time.
Finally, I used Facebook and my mobile to make arrangements for my music video. I first used Facebook to contact Planet Coffee to ask for permission to film. This was important to do because it meant I could plan further ahead and around the dates that I was filming in Planet Coffee. I also made sure to do this at least a week before filming so I could change the storyboard if I couldn't film.
I also used my mobile to text Jess (my artist) to plan when she was available to come to Hull to film. this, again, was important as it meant I could further plan my schedule. I also texted her to make arrangements about re-recording the track for the music video. Skype was also used as it was an easier way of discussing such plans. These were all essential in the planning process as I wanted to be able to be ahead and have everything planned before filming so I wouldn't be held up because of my lack of organisation.
Conclusion:
Overall, I have used various digital technologies throughout the process of completing my coursework, all contributing to each stage and the final outcome of each of my products. While I have had previous experience in using some, others have been a completely new technology to use. Therefore not only have I used such technologies, such as Premiere Pro, to create my main product but also as a way of learning new skills in areas I wasn't confident with before.
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