Evaluation, Question 4: Ellie Scott.

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

When producing our coursework, we used several different sources of technology in order to complete our coursework successfully. We used a variety of websites in order to complete the research for our coursework. We used websites to research ideas for our video, our digi-pack and our magazine advert to use other artist's work to inspire us to complete our coursework. To look at other artist's work, we used You Tube regularly, to analyse various videos, looking at factors such as camera work, mise-en-scene and the narrative of the video. We also used search engines such as Google in order to research for the preparation of our video, such as prop lists, location shots and costume research. One of the key factors in which we used the internet for was searching for our costumes, we used masks of politicians within our video and managed to buy these successfully off the internet. We mainly used the internet before we made our video; researching to prepare for our video, looking at factors such as genre characteristics, similar bands, songs and props. We also used the website ‘wordle’ within the process of completing our coursework. This website allowed us to make mind maps of all the key words associated with our work, the mind maps allowed us to incorporate and organise our ideas before starting our coursework. Topics we made into mind maps include; setting ideas, costume ideas, song choices and key words associated with our coursework. 

Here is the blog post link displaying our word clouds, using the website 'wordle': 

courseworkhttp://gliscoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/word%20cloud.

When producing our coursework, we used blogger to report updates of our work and to inform both our teacher and the examiner of an up-to-date account of our coursework. As a group, every time we progressed with pieces of work, such as completing a day of filming or completing some research for our coursework, we would post about it on blogger so it is accessible to the examiner as well as our teacher. To add to this, we also used programmes on the computer such as Final Cut and Photo Shop. We used Photo Shop to edit our magazine advert and our album digi-pack, we used this programme in order to make photographs look precise and eye-catching and we also used this programme to create the font used and also make it look professional, bold and colourful. This programme was very helpful as it made both our magazine advert as well as our digi-pack look extremely professional and suitable to that of our brief. It was difficult to use and as a group we did struggle at times, however eventually we managed to use it effectively. Lastly, we used Final Cut to edit our music video; this is a very helpful website and helped us to edit our video professionally. We used features such as the razor tool and markers to help us edit our video successfully. We found this programme easy to use as we had previously used within the beginning of year 13 to make a practice music video, which we made to the song, 'Its not unusual' by Tom Jones. Here is a link to watch this video: http://youtu.be/3Zmk6aDvuOc. Also, using Final Cut we made an animatic story board of our video to give people a visual idea of what our video is going to look like, here is the link to watch this video: http://gliscoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/blog-post.html. Also, here is a link to our rough cut of our music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34pigPEBH3c&feature=relmfu.

Our group were able to use the Sanyo HD camera to film our coursework, this camera was very good and made our footage look very clear and clean cut when we came to edit it on the computer. We, as a group, feel very privileged to have been able to use this camera as it was very efficient and definitely helped us in getting successful footage for our coursework. We used features such as white balancing the camera. this feature enabled us to ensure that the camera displayed all colours; making them bold and clear. To film our video we also used a tri-pod in order to ensure that our footage didn’t look unstable; the tri-pod helped us in gaining clear and stable footage. It also allowed us to film footage in various different positions without making the camera wobble, this therefore was very helpful as all our footage was stable and did not wobble and look unprofessional. Overall, as a group we managed well when using both the tri-pod and the camera, we were able to use all the controls successfully and use the tri-pod efficiently, putting it up and down quickly and easily when we needed to do so throughout days of filming.

When on location shooting, we did find that the weather was the biggest problem that we faced. Due to the fact that we filmed various times throughout December, we often faced very grey, dull days and often faced rain. This was a large problem as when it rained we were unable to film as we didn’t want to damage the camera or the tri-pod. We also found it hard to film when the forecast was really dull and dark as the footage didn’t look bright, colourful and of the best contrast, which therefore affected the quality of our video. Another problem we faced was the position of the tri-pod when we were filming in difficult and un-even areas. Due to the fact that our video is filmed throughout the whole of London, we had to film on bridges, steps and in very overcrowded places for example, to get the correct shots for our video. This was difficult when positioning the tri-pod as it was often un-balanced and produced un-even and un-professional looking shots for our coursework. To try and solve both of these problems we tried to plan our filming days around the weather, primarily trying to film on sunny days to increase the quality of our footage. In order to try and solve the problems with the tri-pod, we tried to find suitable places to film that would not cause difficulties with the tri-pod, filming in stable and less crowded places within London which is obviously hard to find. The fact that our group was able to use both a camera and a tri-pod from school definitely helped us when producing our coursework; both the camera and the tri-pod were of brilliant quality and improved the quality of our music video.

When editing and completing our music video, we used Final Cut. Yet again the fact that the school was able to provide us with Final Cut to edit our music video helped us massively. The editing programme helped us to improve our music video by allowing us to edit on the beat of the music, improve the quality of certain, rather dreary shots, arrange our footage correctly and also enable us to add details such as our production name and individual names to the video. As a group, we found Final Cut difficult to use at the beginning of the year, but as we got used to the programme we found it easy to use. Also, learning skills such as how to lighten certain shots and using marker tools to enable us to edit on the beat of the song, improved our understanding of the programme and made us more efficient when editing our video. After we completed our music video, we had to complete a magazine advert and an album digi-pack, in order to create this we used Photo Shop. Personally, I found Photo Shop harder to user than Final Cut, as the programme was brand new to me, as with Final Cut I had used in previously within year 12. Photo Shop was very confusing when I first worked on it, however once I had learnt the basic skills from a tutorial, I found it easier and less confusing to use. The special effects that we used when producing our magazine advert and album digi-pack really helped improve the quality of our work. Effects such as brightening and editing photographs to cut out the background and to make the colours look clearer and brighter definitely improved the quality of our work. Improving the quality of photographs and font for our magazine advert and digi-pack was very time-consuming and at times hard to complete, however we are very thankful that we were able to use the schools facilities as they were extremely helpful and definitely improved the quality of our work.


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