Q4 How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used a variety of new media technologies to help aid us during the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages in the project.

During the initial stages we used Hypem, iTunes, Youtube and Spotify to try and find a song.After many failed attempts we used web 2.0 to look at the IMDB to look at track lists from famous chick flicks. This is actually where we found our song! This website was extremely useful as it had soundtracks from all the films so we looked at chick flicks as this was our primary audience.

As soon as we started our projection and the groups had been assigned we create a group over the social networking site-Facebook. This was a very positive additions as it allowed us to communicate easily with each other, free of charge, share pictures/ ideas. Although we had weekly meetings in school to discuss our progress with the projects this helped to aid our organisation as we were able to share ideas and thoughts we had outside of school.

Below there are a few pictures from our group on Facebook discussing the project at hand 

We also used to Twitter to communicate picture messages. This was particularly useful during the stages of deciding a logo. We used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create a variation of logos which we were originally going to project during the ATG performance scenes. We tweeted the different logos to each other to be able to compare them easily outside of school

Web 2.0 was also used when we purchases the boy-band wigs from Amazon and to gather oufits for our girl-band performance and photoshoot

Construction of the video

In my personal opinion the construction and editing of the video is where I was able to use my technological skill that I had learnt over the 2 year course to my advantage to create a professional cut of our video.
For the filming of our video we used a Sony HVR V1E camera. We chose to use this camera as it was autofocus. This made it easier for our free for shots. We liked this camera as it produced good quality film as well as suiting the style of our piece. We also used a Canon 5D to take pictures during the shoot to post on our social media pages and website to excite the fans about our new video1

Before the shoots we had test shoots with the technician. In this time that we had booked we would test the lighting for all the different genres. Getting the correct lighting for each genre was necessary to creating a good satire.
Lighting-The main lighting test that we used was a ARRI Redhead Lights set which was located above the studio. The allowed you to change the brightness of the lights(strength), the colour and which lights were on. We could also manually change the lights. This changed their positioning, where it was flood or spotlight and closing/opening the barn doors. Originally we were going to projection our ATG logo on the screen at the back during the girl band performance. This required us to use a projected to show the image. However, after we reviewed the footage that we had shot we realised it didn't work as well as we wanted it to as the lighting washed us out and logo was too bright. We then arranged a meeting with the technician to review our different options. We tired out different projections but in the end we chose to light it with a simple pink filter.

Simple pink filter/ potential projection

Girl-band
We used the lighting desk to use a pink filter and projected the lights on the a white back drop to give the all pink illusion. We used spotlights to make sure we were well lit. We would grade later to create a stronger/darker pink 

 Country
We used the light desk to use a mixture of orange, yellow and red filters on to the white backdrop to give the warm country feel like in country music videos

 Rap
We used both red and blue filters onto the black filter. We got our lighting inspiration from famous rap videos such as Rack City and 23.

 We used spotlights with this video as well as 4 back lights with the settings P 02 FADER 20. This worked well for the boy-band as it create a dramatic atmosphere like in typical boy-band videos

Grunge
This was simple lighting to create a dark and grungey feel. We only used spotlights to light our face to make the genre more dramatic.

When we reached the post-production and editing stage we used  Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 in order to edit. Many of the techniques that I had learnt, in relation to editing, from AS level came in handy when do the rough cut of our video. However I had to learn how to import images to programme as well as creating the 'TV guide' effect- which was all new to me. We used to the titles effect and copied the virgin TV guide to give the video an authentic feel.

Furthermore as we were creating a music video I was able to test the different effects that came with the programme. We tested various effect but finally chose the 3D effect,ghosting and 4 way spilt to use in the video. Simple shortcuts I had learnt from last year proved to be extremely useful such as the razor tool to cut the film accurately to allow it to fit in time with the music.

This was the first rough cut of our video. This was before we graded shows can easily be compared to the final version!

After we had finished our final cut we graded. Grading fixes the colours and makes them more dramatic. We heavily relied on grading as the sharper colours made the satires feel more authentic. 

We experimented with the brightness and contrast as well as with ProcAmp to adjust the colouring. The video believes how we used the program to grade using the programme. The style we wanted with our grading was just to make all the shots really sharp-as if it was really being shown on a TV. This made it feel voyeuristic as if we were really being watch on TV. The grading, in my opinion, worked best with the country shots as it makes the performance feel very country with the deep warm colours.

 ALBUM COVER CONSTRUCTION

We used www.wix.com to create our band websites. The website allows you to create lively websites that were visually interactive as well providing a lot of interactivity for the target audience. With social networking and new technology driving society nowadays we included many different features to entice the viewers. We included QR codes, links to social networking sites such as Facebook/ twitter and the ability for the fans to directly message the group.We wanted our marketing strategy to be multi-platform to reach audiences on all different levels. To do this we included links to our ATG Facebook page, links to our personal twitters as well as the groups twitter as well as to google accounts. 

We found this server to be very productive however, we occasionally felt restricted with layout s had to adapt our original plans!

Evaluation!

During our evaluation that was a lot of reliance on social networking sites such as Facebook. We created a screening to promote our new bands/videos to gather feedback directly from our target audience.  We promoted the event on Facebook so we could reach all of our school. In addition Premier Pro was used to create a trailer of all the videos in order to drum up excitement.

After the screening we released a survey to get feedback. We used the software- Survey Monkey. We posted the survey online for people to fill out and allow us to get direct feedback from.(results can be seen in question3)

I personally heavily relied on new media technology in the presenting of my evaluation. I used new software such as photo snack and Padlet. They allowed me to present my work creatively for free. This made more blog more interesting to all the readers.