How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
At the research stage of our projects we decided to watch and analyse similar products in the media. For our music video we used the video sharing website YouTube to stream music videos form the internet. This is a good example of new media technology as a couple of years ago to complete this task we would have had to watch a music channel on television and wait for out music video to be screened. However not the videos are available on-demand on the internet. When researching for our film opening we used 4oD to be able to watch film openings on demand. We also used the BBC iPlayer to watch soap operas and dramas of similar genres to be able to understand the typical representation of certain social groups.
We colaborated and shared our ideas at the planning stage using online blogs. I used the popular blogging service wordpress as it allowed me to share pictures, video and other media quickly in a neatly presented manner. The service also worked with another NMT area, mobile phones and other portable devices. I was able to download a WordPress application from the Apple iTunes Store and blog on the go using my iPod Touch, MP3 player. This meant that whenever I was inspired be something, no matter where I was in the world I was able to share this inspiration with the rest of my team.
At the planning stage I used Google Calendar. The service is a convergence of the standard calendar and the internet to provide a service that is accessible from hundreds of devices and computers. This helped me to stay organised at the planning stage when we planned our group meetings and filming schedule to make sure that there were no clashes with personal arrangements.
At the construction stage we used several NMT’s. For the film opening we used Apple’s iMovie 09 video editing software, the software was simple but lacked in power so for our music video we decided to use Apple’s Final Cut Pro and a few other applications in the Final Cut Studio such as Motion and DVD Studio Pro. This software provided us with the tools and ability to create a professional looking music video. The software was more difficult to understand but any problems were overcome by seeking technical support on search engines such as google and by watching YouTube videos.
We filmed both of our products using DV cameras and during the filming of the music video I took pictures using my LG Renoir (KC910) mobile phone. The convergence of an 8 megapixel camera and a 3.5g (HSDPA) mobile phone to create this new media technology meant that I could take quality photographs and upload them straight to the internet using my mobile phone. The phone also played an important part when it came to recording people’s feedback. I used it’s video camera to capture people’s reactions. I then edited this using FCP and uploaded this to our blogs and YouTube. This process has helped me to learn about the fast paced nature of the media industry from recording to editing and to the final product as this whole process only took about an hour and a half.
At the feedback stage we also tried to get people’s opinions from social networking websites. I uploaded the first cut of our product to YouTube and then posted a link on the social networking website Facebook where my friends were able to leave comments. As well as this I also posted a link to the video on micro-blogging website Twitter where people left me @replies with their comments on the video.
Overall new media technologies helped up to create professional pieces at a fraction of the cost and time that it would have otherwise taken. Everything from using photo sharing website Flickr when designing our digipack to distributing media on Facebook helped us to be more efficient.
Costume
Summer's Costume
Summer's Costume in Black & White
We decided that we wanted to make Summer look young, free and happy, so her costume included a pair of shorts, tights but most importantly a green top. The green garment was supposed to help us link back to our motif of nature, however we overlooked one potential problem. All of the shots of Summer were recoloured in FCP to be in Black & White so the audience could not see the colour of her top. So we decided in the editing process of one flashback scene to include a transition where the scene is in colour before ‘wiping’ from colour to black and white.
Our Male Character's Costume
We decided to have our male character wear a hoodie and a pair of jeans. A relatively average outfit to make him look like an ordinary member of the public and also so that the audience could possibly relate his situation back to their own lives. Although we didn’t specifically intend to, we noticed that our character was wearing a Nike branded hoodie and trainers. In industry we would have to make sure that there are no legal issues that we may face by including the Nike logo. In industry we could have also used this as an opportinity to make money through product placement. We could have made our actor wear a specific brand’s clothing and asked the brand to pay us for advertising their product in the music video.
Props
We didn’t use many props in the music video to help tell our story, however where we did, they all had significance.
The Map
We used a google map towards the start of the music video to provide our male character with the tools to repair the damage to the equilibrium (stage 3 of Todorov’s narrative theory). The map has the same issues as the Nike branded clothing I mentioned earlier. In industry we could use this as an opportunity to advertise for Google, however even if we decided not to, we would need to get permission from Google to use their map in our music video.
The Sign
Another prop we used in our music video was the sign on the site building redirecting our male character to a location called Winter Place. This provided us with the obstacle our male character needed to overcome to find ‘Summer’ (stage 4 of Todorov’s narrative theory). We simply used a word processor to print the address onto a piece of paper and attached this to the building site.
The Bag
In certain scenes in our music video we see our male character with a bag. Although not directly implied, this will suggest to some members of the audience that the character has packed up his life to go in search of Summer.
The Oyster Card (Travelcard)
Immediately after our male character comes out of a flashback we have him sitting at a bus stop fiddling with an oyster card. We included this prop so that our character has something to fiddle with and help show our audience that he is agitated and at that point in time becoming impatient.
Semiotics
The science of decoding signs and sign-systems; as applied to visual art, since the 1960s. the treatment of images as a kind of language (with its grammar – the rules – and usage. the particular contribution of the artist) which can be deconstructed into its component parts.
Source: [http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=define:+semiotics]
We had to use semiotics on numerous occasions in the music video, the main occasion being the flashback scenes.
Black & White
During these flashback scenes we needed to make sure that the audience knew that what they were seeing on screen took place in the past. So we did the following 2 things. We recoloured the flashback scenes into black and white using Final Cut Pro then we added a fade transition between present day and the flashback. These two edits combined meant that the audience immediately knew that what they were seeing on screen took place in the past.
The Clouds
We included a timelapse of clouds at the end of the music video, this was to show the audience the passing of time, and because we edited the clip to have a variable speed which slows to a stop at the end of the video it gives the impression that things are returning to normal; time which was once moving at a fast rate has now slowed and gone back to reality.
Once we had decided on some of our filming locations we needed to form a filming schedule which fitted around all of our diaries. We sat together and decided on when we could film each scene, as well as who would need to be present for each shot. We decided to film over 3 weeks from the 5th October 2009 to the 23rd October 2009.
We then went on to plan an editing schedule. I agreed to edit the film in my spare time and then keep my group updated every couple of days often asking other members to give their opinions on edits. I had to have the editing finished by the end of the 2009 so that the group could focus on the other products, the digipack and the magazine advert.
For the 2 other products that we needed to produce, we decided to split our group in two and have two of us work on the digipack and two of us work on the magazine advert. We made sure we had a photographer in each pair as well as someone experienced in digital image manipulation. I was paired with Jessie and asked to create the digipack. Planning for this involved us collaborating with our research on our blogs and then coming up with an idea for the digipack which fitted the band’s image and genre. I asked Jessie to produce a series of images that could be used on the digipack panels, I then asked her to email these to me so that I could edit these in photoshop and assemble the digipack. Melissa and Ben who were put in charge of the magazine advert also completed a similar process.
