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

1. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? Finlay Etherington

2. Initial Research • During the research phase of my music video, myself and 3 other students (1 of whom isn’t on my course) recreated George Ezra’s ‘Listen to the Man’. As well as the previous year in which I gained invaluable experience in filming, this experiment music video was very helpful in allowing us to practice techniques better suited for music videos such as narrative plots. The entire video was set in a football pitch, although we predominantly used two benches (away and home) for the duration of the video. We had lots of space to work with so getting the correct shots wasn’t particularly difficult. I found the most difficult part was editing towards the end to give it the right feel and atmosphere. During this post production phase I used Sony Vegas Pro, I kept multiple drafts to ensure I could go back to older saves if something went drastically wrong. The aim was to recreate the original as carefully as possible while simultaneously utilising features of Vegas to re-familiarise ourselves with the software.

3. Production • Throughout the production of my music video, I used a minimalist approach to equipment. This was mostly due to lack of equipment during certain periods but also to maintain simplicity. The entirety of our video was filmed using a Canon EOS 1200d DSLR camera. I opted for using a DSLR over a standard digital camera as it would give me far better quality. For some shots, I used manual mode to tweak the shot to get just the right balance of light. It was also very useful using the manual focus to ensure my model was in focus. For one shot we decided to keep it blurry as the model walked towards the camera and he gradually became more in focus. This was intentional and I think it worked well with the song. • A lot of the shots filmed were moving shots. This was to keep the momentum of the face pace at which the song was set. We wanted to create an intense feel rather than static shots. Unfortunately we did not have access to a dolly and therefore some shots were handheld. This sometimes resulted in shakiness and we couldn’t include some of our shots. Once we realised this we chose to use a tripod for the rest of our shots giving us a steady shot. This also made it easier to rotate the camera to follow the protagonist. • I have developed skills in using a tripod to maintain steady and strong shots. I experimented with the camera on manual to get a correct exposure and focus. This gave my shots a more powerful presence.

4. Post-Production gritty/natural/realistic/urban • For my final music video, I used Sony Vegas Pro again due to two reasons, primarily because it was the software on the school computers but also because this is the software I am most comfortable with. • To create my magazine album advert and album cover, I used Photoshop CS6. I am fairly proficient in this software having used it for multiple other projects and in my free time (extra curricular). I chose Photoshop over Adobe Illustrator as I would mainly be manipulating photographs (JPEGs) rather than graphic based work. Photoshop was better equipped for my ancillary texts. • Once I had laid out the foundations for my music video in Vegas, I decided to not include any special effects or adapting the colour. I wanted to create a gritty, realistic portrayal of gritty urban life. Adding effects such as colour correction would give a more cinematic approach, this was simply not what I wanted. I wanted the audience to vision what the artist was rapping about without glamourizing the lifestyle. I have developed skills such as effectively organising my clips together and cutting them to correct timestamps. The rendering of my project also taught me correct parameters to use to get the best quality. • Throughout my project I have utilised multiple drives including network drives to store my content. This has allowed me to keep multiple saves of my data.

5. Blog Progress • During my music video project, I have used multiple software and programs such as PDF, Presentations, Prezi, Survey Monkey, Word and writing directly onto the blog. • I have embedded Prezi’s into my blog by altering the code so it is compatible with my Word Press. • While utilising different formats of media I have ultimately become more creative with my production rather than it all simply being one format i.e. word documents.