Question 4

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

RESEARCH & PLANNING

The internet was essential in all stages of this project, especially research and planning.
On youtube, we found a lot of reverse videos, which were sources of inspiration. Youtube was great as it allowed us to see professional videos and amateur ones, such as the reverse one above (click picture to follow link to youtube).

Also, Facebook was great for communication between the group and with our actress, Liv. We also used our group blog to communicate if someone was ill or just to illustrate our ideas.


CONSTRUCTION

Music video:

• Canon HV30 camera - much better quality than we had previously used. We used a lot of colour, and the HD quallity was very rich and made them look vibrant
• Tripod- we had a lot of shots following Lexi as she walked, or zooming on her face while she sings so we wanted a few static shots so that
• I've used Adobe premier pro editing software in other media projects but I did learn a few more techniques. 
• We tried to change the contrasts of shots so that there was continuity with colours throughout the video. The colour corrector made this a simple task:

• As music videos tend to cut to the beat or lyrics, I thought that the line "things that are inside" would be a god place to use split screens to emphasise the lyrics. It was quite easy to drag and resize the shots and make sure they started at the right time:

 

• At times where the beat slowed down, we wanted to match the visuals, so we used the cross dissolve tool to create the desired effect:  

 

Album cover:

Photoshoot:

• We used the SLR camera
• We experimented with different lighting effects, such as the fllor lights which allowed us to create the shadow effect which was used for the inside panels on the album.

•  Editing
• I have used Jasc Paint Shop Pro for years and been a bit wary of Photoshop, but it was actually quite easy to get used to. We were able to edit photos, use different layers and go into more detail than Paint Shop Pro allowed us, so I'm happy that I've finally learnt after so many years!
• I used my mac at home to edit contrasts on photos, such as the front cover, which is shown below.

Website:

• I'm really happy that I found Wix, as it's really easy to use and we could work on the website from home. Flash websites are more aesthetically pleasing that simple blogs or myspaces and upmarket brands usually use flash, so this added to the professional image we were going for.

• The website works in synergy with other sites like Facebook, Youtube, Myspace and Twitter which shows how technilogical convergence is key. This cross platform marketing allowed us to utilise all forms of media, so that Lexi can narrowcast to the young tech-savvy fans (most teenagers) but also broadcast to wider audiences, such as fans in America for example.

• Most celebrities use Twitter now as it allows fans to follow their every move and interact with them. Our website is very fan oriented, which benefits Lexi and her fans as both are working symbiotically; Lexi is gaining recognition while fans feel gratified as they can relate to her.

• We also shot behind the scenes footage and took extra photos while on location, as these could be used on the website as Lexi is in action, so that the audience can see her while not in the music video and get to know her.

EVALUATION

We also used Facebook to create an event for our music video screening which was great as we could select who we wanted to invite, so I made sure that we had students from younger years as our main target audience is teenagers AND young adults.

Even though we had a questionnaire, we thought that it would be a good idea to film a couple of responses to get a different type of feedback.