Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During all sections of the production, the use of media technologies was an important aspect to help aid the production to completion. In the 21^st century technology is a major part of life in the media business with the use of computer software to complete tasks like a music video or thriller film. Technology is used from research of the bands on the internet, to the construction of the music video itself.

About ten years ago the research and planning section of any media production would consist of work being written or drawn on paper, and with the amount of planning that is involved, keeping organised and the mobility of the work would be a difficult task. Nowadays, these sections are performed with the use of computers and the internet. The paperwork, that was once stored manually in a folder, is now written up and saved on a computer before being uploaded onto an internet blogging website called ‘Blogger.com’.

For drawings, like design ideas for print productions, they are manually drawn on paper before being installed onto a computer with the use of a scanner. This was done for the storyboards for the music video, along with the design ideas for the print productions.

For researching similar media productions ten years ago the only way of this would have been possible was watching music channels, like MTV, although there was only a few at this time. Another problem with this method was there was no control over the music videos that came on; meaning the music videos that came on might not have been of the same genre that was needed to be researched. Luckily, with the improvement in technology during my research stage I was able to use websites like ‘YouTube’ and ‘MySpace’ to watch music videos of the same genre and gather important aspects to the representation of the genre. These websites also helped me to find my chosen artist.

The use of ‘Blogger.com’ was not only helpful during the beginning stages of the production, but throughout the duration of the course when work was uploaded to the blog tutors were able to make comments. These comments were there to help advise improvements and help to evaluate creative ideas that I had. An example of this would be where I made improvements on audience research, creating a better examination of the genre’s audience.

When researching for design ideas for the print productions I looked at the digipack images of the artists whose music videos I researched, using websites such as ‘Play.com’ and ‘iTunes’.

This gave me immediate access to the current and previous digipacks that have been released by a certain artist, furthermore including the views of the target audience. I also went onto the NME website, looking at the album covers that they nominated the best of year. With the indie pop genre being a main genre NME look at the five albums that were nominated showed me the modern album front cover in this particular genre. I then tried to look at album covers of other genres to get more ideas to help the challenge the genre conventions of indie pop images. These different genres included RnB, Heavy Metal and Folk.

The album covers that inspired me the most were then researched in more detail, learning the meanings behind the images to create links between them and my own production. With the help of ‘Blogger.com’ I was able to keep the inspirational images with added notes in a safe place, where they could also aid me during the design stage.

The need to the keep the audience’s opinions in mind during the creation for both of the video production and the print production was a necessary. Both productions have to be made to appeal to the target audience, with their interest a priority for the success of the productions. The research of the audience is done throughout the development of the production; for example I made four different designs for the front cover of the digipack so asked members of the target audience which design they preferred and appealed to them the most by using a voting system.


The voting system was not only used in the old fashioned way of paper ballots, but also on social network sites like ‘Facebook’ and an personal blogging site ‘Tumblr’. With myself constantly checking which designs were the best with every part of the production, I kept a close understanding with the target audience to assist in the creation of a successful production.

During the planning stages having gathered the research into the genre conventions of the indie pop genre, I had to use these to help create a narrative idea. With the different aspects of the genre researched this gave me a number of potential ideas that I could use for the music production. To develop these ideas, I used a stills camera to shoot potential shots that would be included in the music video. These stills shots helped to show which narrative idea looked best. The shots were uploaded onto ‘Blogger.com’, with my tutor giving their own opinion on improvements and suitable with the genre. An example of this would be during the planning for the location for the music video, with stills images taken of different places around Norwich where the target audience are most commonly found, setting an ideology of the band to the audience.

Even though the chosen narrative structure looks like a potential successful production in thought, during the shoot the footage that are collected may not fit into how the music video in the original narrative structure. Thankfully with the technology of video cameras introducing the ability to watch raw footage that was taken on the camera itself, the creativity of different camera angles and shots increased; ten years ago the possibility of the revision of raw footage would not happen till the editing stage of the production. The improvement in video cameras means that there is a screen showing the footage that has been taken, along with showing the shots that are being taken when recording the scenes. If footage that was taken was not of a acceptable quality then it could be recorded over, however having a high number of different shots is a good thing to have during editing as it may be needed further on in the production. As I was able to review the footage that was gathered whilst on the shoot of the music video I was able to spot the disadvantages in the production. This resulted in the entire narrative structure of the music video being changed; without the hassle of having to re-organise a new date for the new shoot, helping with a strict seclude. With the video cameras being digital now it also simplifies the task of recording footage, with video cameras previously recording onto a tape. Digital cameras can be connected to a computer via USB cables, meaning the video footage can be uploaded to the computer.

For the editing section of the production the computer software ‘Abode Premiere Elements’ was used to help place the footage together along with adding the chosen song to accompany the shots, to complete the music video. The editing stage of the music video is a very complex and time consuming part of the production, with not every shot working in its planned position. By using the computer program I was able to piece together the footage before installing special effects to the music video, giving the music video a more professional and finished look. The music video uses special effects consisting of cross fades, fade to blacks; while also placing two shots on top of each other to create a ‘ghostly’ effect, this being used at the end of the music video while the two characters run towards each other.

Cross fades are used to connect the contrasting footage together, like the change of location, cleanly helping to guide the audience through the music video. This was used to most effect when the male character is playing the guitar and the shot changes to the eyes of the female character; the eyes are seen to be looking over the male character connotating the genre convention of love.

The fade to black effect was used on one occasion, when the camera falls over to symbolize their relationship of ending or heading into darkness, this was used rather than a cross fade as other footage would appear in the wrong order. Without the use of ‘Abode Premiere Elements’ or any other computer software program the editing of the music video would have been very basic, while also causing a challenge. The use of computers is accentual during the editing of any production in the 21^st century.

Print productions are an important aspect of the distribution of any music track, especially with unknown artists who use their print productions to attract the attention of the audience. With the print productions using only images, compared to the music video using images and video footage, the contrast of the image and the camera angles were important to signify the meaning behind the shot. For example, the image used on panel 4 shows the difference between men and women with the difference in colours used.

With suitable images already being taken with the video camera during the shoot, while also taken images using a stills camera when taking images for how the footage was shot. These images were uploaded onto a computer, before all shots were reviewed by selected members of the target audience on the social networking site ‘Facebook’ and ‘Blogger.com’. The audience gave their views on the images, including weaknesses along with strengths, helping to create new ideas of how the images could be used to the greatest appeal. This helped with the choice of font, colour and positioning of the text on the front cover (panel 1).

The computer software programme ‘Photoshop’ was used to edit the images, as well as to input the informative text about the band and the album. Without the use of computer technology the feedback from the audience that helped aid the creativity of the print productions would have been carried out by the use of paper, meaning the amount of people evaluating the images would not have been as high.

With the use of social networks like ‘Facebook’ and ‘MySpace’ growing in numbers the way artists market their productions is done mainly on the internet. The music video is uploaded onto ‘Facebook’ and ‘YouTube’, where I managed to gain feedback from the audience. These websites are useful for the artists of the indie pop genre, with the target audience using the social network websites fairly often. This means that they would find the music video and possible want to develop their interest further by going onto the artist’s website, which is included in the description of the video. Feedback from the audience helps signify the strengths and weaknesses of the production, informing me where improvements can be made. This helps to create a music video that appeals to the audience for the duration rather than just a section of the music video. An example of artists who us this approach include Young Guns and Ed Sheeran, who both use their social network accounts to promote their music and ask for audience feedback.

With artists acknowledging their fans by taking and using their opinions this creates a friendly and positive feeling towards the artist, helping to spread the word of their music and gain more fans.

In order to successfully write the evaluation of the music video production the use of technology was key. The evaluation was written out on ‘Microsoft Word Processor’, a much reliable computer program to use to make sure the file is safe and gives better aid to having correct spelling and grammar. When finished the evaluation is copied and pasted onto ‘Blogger.com’, which enables examples of points made to be backed up by images and screen shots. These images, when installed, can also be used to compare to each other. The images were saved on ‘Photoshop’ as JPEG files, making the images easier to upload onto’Blogger.com’. Throughout the development of the evaluation 'Blogger.com' was constantly checked to review my production to create a detailed evaluation with examples, while also e-mails were sent between myself and my tutor. The e-mails consisted of adaptations to the evaluation, helping to fulfil the requuirements of OCR.