Final Music Video: 'Don't Stop' by Fragment

                                                                                                                         

Final CD Digipak: 'One/Four' by Fragment

Final Website Page for Fragment

Evaluation Task 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

By using digital media technologies I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign.  My use of technological skills has enabled me to become a prosumer, a creator of media products to a near professional standard.  The use of Final cut pro as a piece of editing software has taught me how to select and organise a music video to a very high standard using semi-professional media equipment.  I have also been able to share ideas and research global and industry standard products.  Digital technology has made available to me opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using Youtube as a free online broadcast platform.  It is also interactive – audiences have been able to feedback, like and comment on my products using features such as Instagram, and other online tools.  These new skills learned on this course have enabled to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also to also become a producer – important to an understanding of the media in an online age.

Henry Jenkins was very interested in examining this ‘participatory culture’ and most specifically how the Internet has brought it to the forefront through offering opportunities for regular audience members to produce and upload their own products – something that I have achieved by research and planning my work so that I can be inspired and offer my own version of interesting products.

Evaluation Task 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Callum and Honor began to write a script today which will be used in Evaluation Task 4. The script is rough and hasn't been completed. We will spread around the different sections in order to give everyone in the group things to say. Here it is...

Draft of Script:

Throughout the shoot we used various technologies to film our Music Video. We used an iPad to act as a clapper board, this enabled us to know when to cut video in order to keep visuals in time with the song during the editing stage. We held the iPad in front of the camera lens for 4 seconds until a beep came on the track that signified the song commencing. After we hard this we took the iPad out of the frame and prepared for the take. 

For the filming of the video we used a Black Magic URSA mini which is a semi-professional cinematography camera which enabled us to create a more professional and visually intriguing product. We switched between a variety of different lenses throughout the shoot in order to get different framing sizes and the sizes we used were 18mm lenses to 85mm lenses. The 18mm lens was used to shoot the wide shots of the artist and the dancers, the 50mm shot was used for mid-shots to show costume and other symbolic conventions in the video and the 85mm lens was used for extreme close ups which showed a sharp image of the artist in the foreground and an out of focus background. This ensured that the audience were able to focus entirely on the star image and the unique selling points (USP). 

We adjusted the shutter speed on the camera in order to portray an agitated and strobe like effect as it backed up the club theme in order to abide by the genre of music we were presenting. In order to achieve this we incorporated lighting that was programmed prior to the shoot. The lights made up part of the mise en scene of the electronic genre we wanted to portray, thus incorporating technical conventions to make the video a more accurate representation of the artist. 

As we were filming each member of the group would take turns to operate the camera and the others would watch the TV in the studio that was linked directly to the camera feed. This allowed the observers to make judgments on the framing and ensured that the footage was always appropriate and aesthetically pleasing. This in turn made the whole process a lot more efficient, in the sense that if a shot was not working we could immediately see this and change it. Occasionally we were able to turn the TV to face Jonty as it helped him visualise what we wanted him to do in the shot, ensuring that he could deliver a realistic Dj performance which, according to Keith Negus is a fundamental element that should be incorporated in music videos. 

Once the production shoot was finished, we began editing the clips together in an offline edit. The editing process began with naming the clips and arranging them into an easily accessible order. We did this on Adobe Premiere Pro which is an ‘off the shelf’ software which enables people to create semi-professional products. We began by attempting to create a rough performance cut of the video to play around with clips and see what worked in certain orders. We agreed that the video had to be edited through the use of a rhythmic editing style which simply means cutting to the beat of the song. 

We then found that because of the pace of the song due to hidden accents and off-beats we found that the use of the ‘blade’ tool would be beneficial to use. We utilised the arrow keys on the keyboard to enable a second by second preview of shots which was crucial as our track was so quick and accented so we needed to make accurate cuts in order to present the energetic aspect of the electronic genre. We were encouraged to focus more on the final edit which meant paying attention to detail rather than making a rough cut that would eventually be scrapped restarted. This advice enabled the process to be a lot less time consuming and enabled us all to focus on the small details in every shot. After we had finished the product we began to do an online edit which consisted of adjusting and correcting until we felt it was fit for purpose. Once the product was green lit we were able to export it and upload it to YouTube which was used to document and expose our music video, as well as a platform for inspiration in the research and planning stage.  

Evaluation Task 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To conclude, by using a vast majority of complex digital technologies, I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign. Other than the technologies that we all used to produce the music video I personally spent a lot of time using the software photoshop. I was able to manipulate photographs from the photo shoot of the artist that my friend kindly took using her 5D camera. The ways in which I edited each image from the shoot I added a black and white filter on top of the images to make them look more effective and meaningful. I then used the contrast feature to create shadowed regions which made the images look more visual contrasting and involve the idea of form into my imagery. I also used photoshop to outline the digipak template and select images that I could drag on and use as the front cover and back cover of the digipak. Moreover, when I added the names of the artist and title of the album I had to use the text tool and different layers so that I could manipulate where on the page they would be. The barcode on the back had to be taken from the internet and I replicated a copyright paragraph from another album cover and just adapted it so that it was in line with our artist and his record label.
I made at least 10 different digipak's front cover designs and then asked people what could be improved, changed or added. Most people were pretty certain on the final design, however, there were many others which I thought were effective too. Once I had chosen the front cover I was able to manipulate the rest of the digipak to fit the style and the look of the artist. I used images from the internet and made them my own by editing the 'contrast levels' and 'channel colours' to make the image unique and my own.  It also added an element of professionalism to the whole campaign as it was slick and neat. To allow the campaign to interlink and match I used these same images as it was almost like a trademark in which people could recognise the artist by.