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

During the construction of our music video we used new media technologies to help produce, edit and showcase our video. The software we used most was as expected our editing software Apples Final Cut Express. This is the first time we have had to use Final Cut Express as in last years project we used more basic software called Imovie. At first final cut express seemed to over complicated and we found it very frustrating to use, however the frustrating period didn't last long as Warren became confident and capable with the software. Warren also studies Film Studies so he has had to use the software much more than me and Ryan so because of this Warren generally did most of the editing. As well as the new software we have used this year we have had the chance to use high definition cameras which has dramatically improved the quality of our film. To get used to the new software we had to produce a mock music video using songs the school had been given permission to use, our song was I Need Your Pain and was lip synced by Warren . After we finished editing the preliminary exercises we uploaded the short clip to YouTube, the Internets most popular video website. There is a link to our preliminary exercise below.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdkZd1K-IGs&feature=player_embedded)


As for research I created a survey using http://www.surveymonkey.com/ which is a great free website which allows you to create impressive quality surveys without paying a subscription fee. I created a survey to find out some key information about the music video market to find out what appeals to today's audience and who we are most likely to target with out music video. My survey consisted of only five questions but I made sure they were sufficient enough to retrieve the information we needed, I tried not to ask closed questions such as "do you like watching music videos" because we would not benefit from a question which would obviously be answered yes by the music video enthusiasts we ask. I also created a survey which I asked 15 people to take part in after we had finished our video to see how our video affected its viewers. Survey Monkey was a very useful tool that allowed us to retrieve feedback on what we had produced and give us information and the criteria we needed to attract our key audience.

Editing

Today while editing our music video we came across an effect which would create some good contrast in our black and white car scenes. While filming we covered the road with leaves and as the car drove past the leaves were sent flying by the wind. We decided to keep the leaves their original colour of golden brown and leave the rest of the scene in black and white. The effect was simple to edit, however after trying different colours and shades we were unable to make all the leaves in the scene orange. In the scene there are patches of leaves in black and white however a majority of the leaves are colour golden brown how we wanted them, and because the scene is only a second or two we were confident it wouldn't be noticed.

Animatic: I Ran You Down-Tweed

Today we finished our Animatic. An Animatic is a hand drawn visualisation of a storyboard which is commonly used to pitch ideas and give investors/producers and idea of the final product. An Animatic is usually just contains pictures however we decided to add our track to it. The Animatic was a useful task which let us experiment with the basics of Final Cut Express and effects such as fades in between different shots. As a group we are quite pleased with our Animatic of how long/short some scenes may need to be.

NOTE: The scene from 0:16-0:32 shows a couple at first having fun/reflecting on good time in the past, when the screen turns red its the same scene however they are having an argument.

Preliminary Excercise: Warren Holmes- I Need Your Pain

In the last week we have produced our first video of the year. The short video was produced to practise lip syncing and I have to admit it was harder to do than I first thought it would be. We had the track "I Wont Forget You" , a song from a past students music video. Although we have a male lip syncing a females lyrics the video was reasonably good, we managed to film the first verse and chorus from three different angels and then tried to put them together when editing.


There have been a few changes in our 6th forms Media department since last year; andthe most impressive of changes is the upgraded editing software: Apple's Final Cut Express. Final Cut Express is significantly more complex and advanced than our previous software (IMovie). The purpose of the lip syncing attempt was to make us discover the many options and effects that are available on Final Cut Express