Tuesday 17 April 2012
Wednesday 4 April 2012
Sunday 1 April 2012
Q4- Evaluation:
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In order to display the whole of my coursework and all of the stages it had gone through I created a blog on blogger.com. In this respect the internet was really helpful as it allowed me to visually present my coursework in a different way for example through video posts or by creating Prezi’s. It was also really effective in chronologically charting the growth of my coursework and each stage I had to get through to create my final products. I was able to directly utilise tools on blogger such as labels in order to make sure my blog was organised and structured while I was able to use other aspects of the site such as its polling tool to help in understanding my audience through asking them questions about my products, an understanding of the audience being a vital aspect of my coursework.
In terms of the research and planning stages of creating my coursework I found the internet was particularly helpful in allowing me to quickly and easily access existing products. For a lot of my similar product research I relied on websites such as Youtube which let me view music video’s online, through this website I was able to deconstruct the components of the video and visually break these down by posting them on my blog in either screen shots or embedding the whole video. I followed a similar process when creating both of my ancillary tasks. I used the internet as a starting base to research design ideas and specifically pick out those that I felt were successful and the components which made them successful. Through the internet I was able to access such a wide variety of both music videos and ancillary products which gave me a clear idea of the general features of these products amongst their genre as well as giving me good ideas about the kind of product I wanted to make, it was with these ideas I created the inspiration page on my blog. Media technologies were also really important in my research stage in terms of giving me a feel of the kind of software I would be using when creating my music video. As part of my research I went out and experimented with the Sony HVR cameras and took some shots. Because this was the first time I had ever used the cameras it helped me in experimenting with some shot types and understanding how to use the camera for example changing its focus or zooming in and out. I then uploaded some of the sequences into Adobe Premiere Pro and experimented with using various effects on these sequences such as reverse, colour pass and distort. This was helpful in allowing me to gain a feel for the software and the kind of effects I could use when creating my music video. Another aspect of my planning that I found really helpful and required the use of media technologies was the creation of my animatic. My animatic was a sequence of draft storyboards I created accompanied by my chosen song. This was really useful because not only did it make me think of the kind of shots I wanted to create in my video but it allowed me to visually see these and evaluate at this stage whether they worked effectively. It was this part of my coursework which helped me in creating my running order, a basic outline of the kind of shots I wanted to take when filming my music video.
In the actual construction stage of my coursework I used two different types of camera’s to film my music video. For my location shoots I used a Canon 550D camera as well as a steadicam to make sure my shots weren’t too shaky. This camera was really effective as it allowed me to capture some really interesting HD footage in terms of lighting while I was also able to play around with the focus of the camera in order to make my location shoots a bit more interesting. The steadicam was also really important when doing my location shoots as it gave me a lot of flexibility while filming which meant I could take a variety of different shots for example I followed the main actresses feet as she walked during one of them. The majority of my video was made up of green screen footage and therefore I used a better camera for this in order to ensure the footage was as good quality as possible. I also used a tripod while filming these shots and though it gave me less flexibility than the steadicam I was able to compensate through my camera movement in the location shoots and I made sure I included a lot of different shot types such as close ups in order to make my music video visually interesting. After shooting I imported all of my sequences in the professional programme Adobe Premiere Pro where I cut them up and placed them in the specific order I wanted. I also used this programme to give my music video cool effects on sequences for example in one shot I reversed its order so it appeared like the person was sucking in the bubbles rather than blowing them out. After exporting all of my footage I imported it into Adobe after effects. This was necessary because I had to get rid of the green background as part of green screening my footage, initially I wanted to replace this with a plain white background however I decided to embrace the positive and fun themes within my video and add a cartoon like effect on this footage. Firstly in order to remove the green screen I had to divide each section of my footage up into individual layers and then drag a user preset onto all of these to remove the green background. However I had to go through and tweak each individual layer to make sure it had green screened properly and adjust them by using the screen matte tool. After completing this I decided to add the cartoon like effect on my video, I achieved this through adding two new layers on each of sequence of the footage and dragging two user presets onto these layers called black and white. This made it appear as if the people participating within my video had black and white outlines and therefore appear to be in cartoon form. I extenuated this effect by adding a drop shadow to each sequence of the footage. I also changed the colour layer of every sequence, using a range of different colours such as reds, pinks and blues as the background for my video and this was not only effective in making my video more visually interesting but coincided with its positive themes.
In terms of the construction stages of my ancillary tasks I used a professional camera and lighting to take various images of the artist. After taking a range of these photo’s I imported them into adobe Photoshop in order to create my products. I found this programme really effective because not only did it allow me to experiment with various features such as changing the images saturation and filter and adding effects to text such as drop shadows but also through the eye tool I was able to hide these layers and therefore see whether I wanted to include these effects or not. Photoshop was also really important in creating the puzzle piece design I consistently used among all of my ancillary tasks. I created this by importing a texture into photoshop and then dropping down the opacity of the texture to make the image behind it stand out more. For the majority of my tasks I also experimented with lighting levels for example for my first album cover I created a filter effect on the main image which made the artist appear much darker and as if he had been ‘smudged’. These effects were really important in making my overall design stand out, this being vital in terms of attracting audiences.
In terms of my evaluation I used the same programme, Adobe Premiere, I had used when creating my music video. I found this programme particularly useful because not only did it allow me to make my evaluation more visually interesting but I was able to directly support the content of the evaluation with images on the screen for example I included before and after pictures of my album covers as well as Cam studio’s which charted the creation processes of my products. In this way it allowed me to visually chart the growth of my product and support everything I had included in my evaluation.
In order to display the whole of my coursework and all of the stages it had gone through I created a blog on blogger.com. In this respect the internet was really helpful as it allowed me to visually present my coursework in a different way for example through video posts or by creating Prezi’s. It was also really effective in chronologically charting the growth of my coursework and each stage I had to get through to create my final products. I was able to directly utilise tools on blogger such as labels in order to make sure my blog was organised and structured while I was able to use other aspects of the site such as its polling tool to help in understanding my audience through asking them questions about my products, an understanding of the audience being a vital aspect of my coursework.
In terms of the research and planning stages of creating my coursework I found the internet was particularly helpful in allowing me to quickly and easily access existing products. For a lot of my similar product research I relied on websites such as Youtube which let me view music video’s online, through this website I was able to deconstruct the components of the video and visually break these down by posting them on my blog in either screen shots or embedding the whole video. I followed a similar process when creating both of my ancillary tasks. I used the internet as a starting base to research design ideas and specifically pick out those that I felt were successful and the components which made them successful. Through the internet I was able to access such a wide variety of both music videos and ancillary products which gave me a clear idea of the general features of these products amongst their genre as well as giving me good ideas about the kind of product I wanted to make, it was with these ideas I created the inspiration page on my blog. Media technologies were also really important in my research stage in terms of giving me a feel of the kind of software I would be using when creating my music video. As part of my research I went out and experimented with the Sony HVR cameras and took some shots. Because this was the first time I had ever used the cameras it helped me in experimenting with some shot types and understanding how to use the camera for example changing its focus or zooming in and out. I then uploaded some of the sequences into Adobe Premiere Pro and experimented with using various effects on these sequences such as reverse, colour pass and distort. This was helpful in allowing me to gain a feel for the software and the kind of effects I could use when creating my music video. Another aspect of my planning that I found really helpful and required the use of media technologies was the creation of my animatic. My animatic was a sequence of draft storyboards I created accompanied by my chosen song. This was really useful because not only did it make me think of the kind of shots I wanted to create in my video but it allowed me to visually see these and evaluate at this stage whether they worked effectively. It was this part of my coursework which helped me in creating my running order, a basic outline of the kind of shots I wanted to take when filming my music video.
In the actual construction stage of my coursework I used two different types of camera’s to film my music video. For my location shoots I used a Canon 550D camera as well as a steadicam to make sure my shots weren’t too shaky. This camera was really effective as it allowed me to capture some really interesting HD footage in terms of lighting while I was also able to play around with the focus of the camera in order to make my location shoots a bit more interesting. The steadicam was also really important when doing my location shoots as it gave me a lot of flexibility while filming which meant I could take a variety of different shots for example I followed the main actresses feet as she walked during one of them. The majority of my video was made up of green screen footage and therefore I used a better camera for this in order to ensure the footage was as good quality as possible. I also used a tripod while filming these shots and though it gave me less flexibility than the steadicam I was able to compensate through my camera movement in the location shoots and I made sure I included a lot of different shot types such as close ups in order to make my music video visually interesting. After shooting I imported all of my sequences in the professional programme Adobe Premiere Pro where I cut them up and placed them in the specific order I wanted. I also used this programme to give my music video cool effects on sequences for example in one shot I reversed its order so it appeared like the person was sucking in the bubbles rather than blowing them out. After exporting all of my footage I imported it into Adobe after effects. This was necessary because I had to get rid of the green background as part of green screening my footage, initially I wanted to replace this with a plain white background however I decided to embrace the positive and fun themes within my video and add a cartoon like effect on this footage. Firstly in order to remove the green screen I had to divide each section of my footage up into individual layers and then drag a user preset onto all of these to remove the green background. However I had to go through and tweak each individual layer to make sure it had green screened properly and adjust them by using the screen matte tool. After completing this I decided to add the cartoon like effect on my video, I achieved this through adding two new layers on each of sequence of the footage and dragging two user presets onto these layers called black and white. This made it appear as if the people participating within my video had black and white outlines and therefore appear to be in cartoon form. I extenuated this effect by adding a drop shadow to each sequence of the footage. I also changed the colour layer of every sequence, using a range of different colours such as reds, pinks and blues as the background for my video and this was not only effective in making my video more visually interesting but coincided with its positive themes.
In terms of the construction stages of my ancillary tasks I used a professional camera and lighting to take various images of the artist. After taking a range of these photo’s I imported them into adobe Photoshop in order to create my products. I found this programme really effective because not only did it allow me to experiment with various features such as changing the images saturation and filter and adding effects to text such as drop shadows but also through the eye tool I was able to hide these layers and therefore see whether I wanted to include these effects or not. Photoshop was also really important in creating the puzzle piece design I consistently used among all of my ancillary tasks. I created this by importing a texture into photoshop and then dropping down the opacity of the texture to make the image behind it stand out more. For the majority of my tasks I also experimented with lighting levels for example for my first album cover I created a filter effect on the main image which made the artist appear much darker and as if he had been ‘smudged’. These effects were really important in making my overall design stand out, this being vital in terms of attracting audiences.
In terms of my evaluation I used the same programme, Adobe Premiere, I had used when creating my music video. I found this programme particularly useful because not only did it allow me to make my evaluation more visually interesting but I was able to directly support the content of the evaluation with images on the screen for example I included before and after pictures of my album covers as well as Cam studio’s which charted the creation processes of my products. In this way it allowed me to visually chart the growth of my product and support everything I had included in my evaluation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)