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

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

Throughout this project we used a variety of different technologies such as Adobe Photoshop and Premier, Instagram, after effects and our blogs. During the researching into the genre we had chosen and the artists we specifically studied as a group we depended a lot on our blogs. Seen as though we were in a large group and had a huge amount of ideas individually blogging allowed us to view each other’s ideas and interpretations of existing music videos and products. It allowed us to ensure we kept up to date with each other’s opinions and i think this made our project extremely unique and well thought out. It also meant when it came to planning and constructing each piece we were able to refer back to our research and this helped with influencing when making our own music video and digi pak etc. I used the internet for the majority of the researching side to the project and watched existing music videos and analysed album art from artists such as Mumford & Sons.[EDITED TO ADD] I used Youtube in order to view exisiting music videos and this influenced me by giving me a wide combination of ideas. During the planning stages the blog became the most useful as it allowed me to put all my ideas into words and get opinions from friends in my class and others that looked at my posts. This meant we get the best possible results and managed to get a breif idea of what the audience and viewers would prefer to see from their feedback. When it came to picking the final typography to use and imagery as a group we couldn’t always agree on one so we were able to ask people via our blogs and this often helped us come to an appropriate conclusion.

We also used an IPHONE app called Instagram to give our digi pak images that we had took on a location scout a unique colour scheme. This is a video showing how we got the ‘early bird’ effect. During the construction of the digi pak we tried to get the same effect in photoshop but this was unsuccessful so we stuck to using instagram. I think without this effect our digi pak would not look as professional and successful as it does.[EDITED TO ADD] Because each image has the same colour filter to it, it meant the whole digi pak worked well and each image would be recognisable to the artist Elliot Guy. The filter we used added to the warm feel of the beach and made the images seem more soothing and relaxing which i think was a good way of representing the type of music the artist we made produced.

For the construction of our music video we used Adobe Premier. During previous projects such as the making of an opening film we also used this programme. This meant each of us individually knew the basics of editing each scenes and cropping etc. However this time we wanted to make the project unique by the black and white scenes and hand-held style scenes. This was something we hadn’t done before but looked at during the planning and it helped develop our skills of this programme. We each as a group took park in editing the music video either in pairs or individually so we all managed to have a clear understanding of this software. However when it came to editing the balloon we were unable to get the effect we wanting in this software due to the shots we had filmed and the windiness of the day we shot them.[EDITED TO ADD] we initially tested the balloon using the 'matte effect' in this programme but this wasnt successful. We then decided to hire someone who was more experienced with adding these sorts of effects. This video shows James editing the red balloon frame by frame in a piece of software called After Effects. He did it by using a leave colour style of effect that focused on the red balloon and left it the only remaining colour when adding the black and white effect. 

[EDITED TO ADD] As you can see each clip had to be edited frame by frame, this enabled us to get the more accurate and best possible result of the balloon and made it more realistic.

When constructing our digi pak for example we did the majority of our work in Adobe Photoshop. We all as a group managed to develop our skills and improve the images we had taken for the digi pak. For example we picked an image of the female character who was shown throughout the music video as our advert image and digi pak from cover but the image made the red balloon have a more pinky colour to it and this meant it didn’t stand out as much as we all liked. We decided to edit it in photoshop, here are the steps demonstrating how we got to the final product.

We opened the image in photoshop

We then used the magic wand tool

We highlighted the two balloon by keeping the alt button pressed down

We then clicked refine edge

Once this had opened we used the feathering tool to make the edges of the balloon less harsh and the shift edge tool to make sure the whole of the balloon was evenly selected. This meant when changes the colour to a more vibrant red it would look as natural as possible.

We then went on image > adjustments > Hue and saturation to change the colour.

We then changed the played around with the hue, saturation and lightless until the balloon looked a natural and professional red.

This is our final edit outcome.

[Edited to add] I think by using this software to edit the balloon it made the picture more fitting and successful. The red balloons in this image then perfectly fits with the one featured in the music video and advert and is a crucial part of our whole project as a way of making it unique and iconic.