Script for question four - :Luke

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Construction

Final cut - We used this program to edit our footage. We was slow at first but soon got to grips with it due to its basic and understandable layout. It was a good program to use as it offers many effects to add to your video's with a wide variety of transitions. Another strength of this program is the different levels of tracks you can add letting you distinguish the diegetic footage sound from the easily dragged in soundtrack. However at times our footage would disappear and we would have to re-import it slowing down our editing process.

Photoshop -We used Photoshop to create our poster and digipak for our band. We imported photo's from the digital camera and then manipulated them to create a unique digipak. This was a time consuming program to use however it was the best option available. While the digipak and poster was the primary use we also used it to crop and edit our pictures of the plankers before exporting and importing the new photo's to Adobe after effects.
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After effects -  This was used to add most the effects seen throughout our video including the placing of plankers. It was a difficult program to understand and we had to watch a few tutorials to begin with to get to grips with it from sites such as Videocopilot. However it is a very useful program as it has countless effects. A problem we had was we had to import our video from final cut to after effects and then back across. This was time consuming and lowered the footage quality of our music video.

HD camera - This was a vital piece of kit as we shot all our footage on HD cameras. A strength of this is they gave great detail giving the video a better feel. Another positive was their slender size making it easy to take when carrying over equipment. While a negative we found was the battery life and also a lack of room on the memory card. However the Camera did have photographic capability's meaning we needed less equipment on the shoots. Another positive of the HD cameras was they recorded straight onto a SD card making them tapeless unlike older cameras.

Research
Blogger - Blogger was a very useful site for me across all the elements. I researched previous students A2 media blogs via blogger.com to see what was needed to achieve a high level 4 blog. It also allowed me to upload video's and pictures of my research on music video's and digipaks. Another positive of this site is I could access it any where provided I had a internet connection however a weakness of the site was a times the server would go down and be unavailable for me and Aaron to continue work. The site not only helped orgasation for me and Aaron but also our group collabation as we didn't have to be in the same place while doing work meaning we could be at home but working on the same project this was a very helpful positive.

YouTube - We watched numerous video's of past students work to get an understanding of what a high grade piece of work looks like and what a low grade looks like, this helped as it showed us what to do and not to do when creating a music video. A strength of YouTube While we used it to look at past student works through their channels on Youtube such as Hurtwood house. We also viewed many professional video's to understand different genres and what traits came with them. On top of this we also used the site to find video's which gave us inspiration for our up and coming project.

Internet (Firefox) - Using Firefox as my web browser allowed me to not only access pictures and video's online but every other site i needed to research and create my final project this is a very long list including blogger,youtube,soundcloud etc. While it helped all of this i also researched a number of major and independent labels for our artist which later changed into a band. A problem we found with the internet is sometimes it would become slow or be unavailable for us bringing out research to a hault.

Hotmail - This was our primary way of communicating with our band as we used it to get permission for the track and keep them updated with how our work was going. A down side of using Hotmail was when the internet was down we could not access our emails.

Soundcloud -This was a key site in our research as it gave us access to millions of artists from every possible genre across the world. After changing our original plan we used this site to find us a new band. A big positive about this site is that you could download the songs instantly from the site and also get in contact with the band or artist directly. You could also narrow down your search easily into genres saving us time however we felt it almost had too much music even after this and made it very difficult to pick someone out. We eventurally picked our track by cutting down to a few songs and then took audience feedback and our own ideas into account for what we wanted to create.

Planning

Slideshare.com - We used Slideshare a few times throughout our project, first being our power point presentation pitch about our original ideas. Slideshare has a number of advantages for its users one being that after uploading a presentation to the site you could then upload it into blogger as blogger does not have the capability. Slideshare was a valuable tool as it helped to keep as organised as it allowed us to easily refer back to previous presentations we had done such as our pitch or conventions of the genre when planning our shotlist. While we was able to create and view our own we was also able to view other uploaded files made public by the account holder. This helped with our work as it gave us information and ideas. However a problem with this tool was at times it would not allow us to upload our presentation because of a 'Error' which wasted our time and slowed down our project.

Blogger -  Very useful for updating plans about the video and digipak as could access from any internet connected PC/Laptop. Blogger allowed us to check planning schedules and other vital pieces of information such as our animatic in numerous locations including when on shoots via our smartphones

HD Camera - The HD cameras were very helpful for our group throughout this project. In the planning we used them to take practice shots and test out ideas which we hoped to incorporate into our music video. A strength of the HD cameras was the quality of footage you could shoot on them and also their size as we had to travel a lot with them.

Digital camera - We used digital cameras to take reece shots of potential locations and costumes for our band members. Because of the small size and light weight they was easily portable to locations and shoots. We also took band photo's for our digipak and poster while out on shoots. On top of this we took pictures of people planking which we later edited into our music video. A positive of the digital cameras besides them being portable was the easiness of uploading after coming back from shoots. One problem we faced was the battery life however we soon learned to double check before booking them out.

I Movie - This was a key program in our planning as it allowed us to view our practice footage on a mac while also edit it we also created our animatic in this program after uploading pictures of our storyboard from a digital camera and then cutting to the pace of the music. This was effective as it allowed us to see how our ideas matched the track however sometimes when we went to save work it would have a problem with the server and would have to save on the desktop and drag it across at a later date.
I stop Motion -  A useful program in both planning and construction.After watching video's on Youtube such as Plan B's music video "No Good" we became interested in using Stop motion at some stage in our video we attempted to make a quick scene and then uploaded it to blogger for feedback. This taught us a lot of lessons on how to edit and create a stop motion piece.
Microsoft Work - We used Microsoft word to create our shot list and shoot schedules. It was a useful program as we could place information into easy to read grids and charts making the intake of information more organised. We could also print of the work to take on shoots with us.

Evaluation

Flip camera -This was a useful piece of kit as it allowed us to quickly film feedback from our audience and then upload it straight as the flip camera boasted a built in USB.

Prezi -
Wix -

Youtube - We used this web 2.0 site to upload our finished video so people could easily view it from anywhere and comment on it. We also added annotations to explain decisions about the video for our evaluation. It had easy instructions about uploading then editing the video with annotations however took awhile to actually upload our video.

Blogger - We used blogger to record written feedback given about our digipak, poster and video. While also uploading the video's taken from the flip camera onto the site. We also scriped our evaluation questions on the site however we came across a big program that the site would randomly delete paragraphs after being saved numerous times.

Facebook - We uploaded our video to facebook a web 2.0 site, so we could get feedback on our video and comments on how to improve it. However a negative of this is only my friends on facebook  could view and comment on the post.

Another useful tool used across all the elements of this project was Screenshots/Screengrab as we frequently used the tool to compare music video's and other texts and allowed us to import the shots into blogger and other sites. It was very useful when talking about video's and also in the edit when we wanted to show what we was talking about. We had no problems with the tool and was vital for us completing our work.