Question 4

Question 4. How did you use technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the different stages of my research, planning and evaluation, I

managed to use a range of different technologies which show my capable

within media, and also keeps the text element interesting. Equipment and

technologies which we have used throughout this process includes:

·      Sony

·      Nikon

·      IMovie

·      Youtube

·      Unsigned.com

·      SoundCloud

·      Facebook

·      Prezi

·      Powtoon

·      Blogger

·      Padlet

·      Photoshop

·      Adobe Premier Pro

·      Compressor

I improved my media capabilities very effectively through the transition of AS 

and A2. This is because I learnt how to edit professionally, and also synergise

media products together in an effective way. Not only this, but I also adapted

my range of technologies used in order to present my research and findings. It

took me about a week and a half to come to grips with Adobe Premier Pro,

watching several YouTube tutorials and also getting live demonstrations from

family and friends. It was very useful knowing how to do assemble the raw

shots together, put music to it, and then play around with different effects and

settings for the shots. I improved several existing technologies as well. These

include my camera abilities. We added using a different camera to our

preliminary, as we only used one camera for that. Therefore I had to learn

how to use the Sony, and make sure I know how to do focus pulls, zoom,

changing the exposure, saturation and other effects on the camera.

Preliminary:

Research & Planning:




A main website which was used throughout all of our research and planning was 

Youtube. This website connects viewers and uploaders of videos together, allowing them 

to comment, subscribe and like different videos. Videos can be easily uploaded with a 

Google account too. Additionally, Youtube has allowed me to view other promotional music 

videos from other groups, and allowing me to receive and give feedback. Websites such as 

Soundcloud, Unsigned.com and ITunes has also allowed me to browse through different 

unsigned artists to find a track to use for the music video. However, for this task our group 

thought it would be ideal to use Harry Preen, since he is my older brother. 

There are many sites in which I was able to receive feedback for our music promo. These 

sites include Poll Ev, and social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These 

websites allow other people to comment or give their view on the designs for our ancillary 

tasks, and also music promo. 


AS to A2:


I believe that I have improved hugely throughout AS to A2. This is because I have learned 

to use even more technologies, like using Padlet, Soundcloud, Unsigned.com and 

Compressor. All of these different technologies have made a huge difference in the way 

that I have presented my research and planning, and also how I have used them within our 

different production tasks. Not only this, but my camera skills have advanced as well, being 

able to change between the exposure, focus pulls and saturation. All of these different 

effects are very important when trying to get the raw footage right for the editing, as it has 

to match the genre of the music and artist. 


This year I decided to use Adobe Premier Pro to edit our music promo in, as it is a lot 

more advanced than IMovie and can produce a much higher music promo compared to 

other editing softwares. I had to learn how to edit in the space of a few days, and after 

that I felt very confident that i was gradually progressing with the software, being able to do 

more with the original raw footage like putting different effects on it, cutting to the beat 

perfectly and also changing around the lighting, saturation and brightness. As the song that 

we chose was quite long compared to other groups, my group thought it was best to show a 

story being told throughout the video, with a strong narrative that Harry and the female who 

he has an interest in are apart, and then come together at the end of it. However, the pace 

of the song was tricky to get around, as whenever the chorus comes in, the pace and 

feeling of the song speeds up, and creates atmosphere - therefore my editing skills had to 

reflect that. With the first draft of our music promo, we felt with the feedback we got from 

people that it was too slow and didn't really tell a story, therefore I decided to make sure 

that the editing speeds up when the pace of the song does - making it more interesting to 

watch and also matching the song. 

At first, it was hard to find an artist which matched the criteria that we wanted through 

sites like Unsigned.com and Soundcloud. This lead us to use Harry Preen as our artist, 

as we thought since he is my brother, it would be easier to contact him than other 

unsigned artists. Not only this but he does have a Soundcloud, Facebook and Instagram 

account - making him known in our area socially, and also does have his music and 

debut EP featured on sites like Spotify and Apple Music. 

For our music video, we filmed with high-definition camera equipment, and used 

high quality and effective editing softwares. We used a Nikon D800 and Sony NX Camera, 

which both film in 1080p - 4K. We used a tripod for some of the shots to capture more 

steady moving images, however we used the camera without a tripod for the majority of the 

time, as a lot of indie alternative music videos feature hand-held cameras, as it makes it 

more flexible to get different angles and shots. 

For the ancillary tasks, we decided to use the Nikon D800 to capture a range of different 

images of the two characters, and also different landscape shots. This is because we 

wanted to create synergy between all of the different products, and the way we would 

create that is through the theme of 'traffic'. This is because Harry has released a song 

which is on the EP called Traffic, and there are a number of different shots in the music 

video featuring lots of people or focus pulls on transportation traffic. 


Tutorials 


Poster


Video:

Script:


For one of our ancillary tasks, we had to create a promotional advert for the artist we had 

chosen. This advert had to create synergy with the digipak and the music video we also 

had to create.

Regarding this advert, we took many professional styled photos of our main character and 

the actual artist, Harry Preen. We took them with a Nikon D800, and had professional 

lighting set up in all the rooms we photographed him in. This came useful for this editing 

stage, as it meant we did not have grainy shots, and could edit the brightness.

The reason why I chose this picture out of the other ones that we took was because it was 

the most conventional – following the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is very important when 

trying to take an interesting photograph, as it bases your attention to the centre of the shot. 

The centre of the picture we used for our advert is our main artist looking directly into the 

camera. Not only this, but it also follows the conventions of the indie alternative genre, 

being similar to many artists which I believe are like Harry.

The first thing I did for the advert was experiment with a range of different photos that we 

took, just in case other ones suited the frame better. Once I chose the one that we used for 

the final advert, I decided to get the eraser tool, and erase Harry from the background. I did 

this instead of using the magic eraser and lasso tool, as it was a lot more precise, and even 

though it was more time-consuming, it gave a more effective, professional finish to it.

The next point I focused on was what effect I should use for the main image. I ended up 

playing around with the threshold tool to make the main image look posturized with a black 

and white effect. I also changed the lightness on the hue/saturation tool to batch the same 

shade as the black background.

Once the main image was completed, I focused my attention to the typography. This was a 

really large factor of the advert, as it is once of the main points, which captures the 

audiences eye immediately. I decided to go through my research and planning stages to 

find adverts which were similar with the idea that I wanted to create, and then tried to match 

the typography through using the text and font tool on Photoshop. I also had a look on 

typography websites like Dafont.com; however felt that the fonts on that site wouldn’t give 

this poster a professional feel to it. I ended up choosing a serif font for the majority of the 

text on the advert, as it matched the indie alternative genre the most, and those sort of 

artists.

After this, I added promotional material to the advert, like social media pages and record 

companies logos. This is to follow the conventions of adverts in the music industry – 

especially indie alternative adverts, and also engage the audience on a more personal 

level, so that they are then able to get in contact with the artist.

It was very important to consider what other images I would have on the advert as well, and 

I ended up choosing to put on the advert Harry’s EP cover for ‘No Love Lost’ – but I 

changed the font and colours of the actual EP cover, to synergise with the advert, digipak 

and music video.

Lastly, choosing the colours for the digipak was a long process, requiring a lot of audience 

feedback. This is because after the first two drafts for the advert, I gained feedback saying 

that they didn’t feel how the products combined and synergised together. This is where I 

decided to create a ‘traffic-light’ theme throughout the three products.  I simply went on the 

text tool and highlighted the word that I wanted and then changed the colour of it. However 

for the bottom text – ‘Out 3^rd March’, I wanted to be a bit more discreet with the colour, as 

the colour red is quite harsh compared to the other ones. This is where I chose to go on 

‘Layer’ at the top, then click on ‘Layer-style’ and the click on ‘Outer glow,’ and put that to an 

opacity of 59% - therefore not being too overpowering.