ByBritney Sullivan, Maxwell Pope

And Daniel Gorsuch

Technology

Lighting kit• The lighting kit was a very key part of our technology for

making our final music video. The lighting kit helped us to add atmosphere and give a professional feel to our shots. Lighting is a key part of the mise-en-scene, and so we used the kit for a lot of our shots, especially when we were filming in the studio. At first we only used one lighting kit when we were doing trial shots. After looking back over the footage, we realised the lighting was not bright enough, and shadows could be seen on the backdrop for the studio shots. To solve this problem we used another two lighting kits, a total of 3, to light the studio shots properly.

Tripod• The tripod helped give a professional feel; to our

Music Video as we could use it to hold the camera steady and keep it in the same position. As the studio shots are filmed with many different outfits, it was very important to keep the camera in the exact same spot, which the tripod allowed us to with ease. After seeing that some of our shots were unsteady as we had held the camera ourselves, we realised that we needed to use the tripod in most circumstances to keep the shot steady, consequently improving our final music video.

SLR Camera• This year we chose to use a SLR camera due to the quality

that we would be able to film in and the final footage would be in a very detailed way. With the SLR camera we were given the chance to work with a lense as well to make the quality of the footage even better. To add to all of this the camera filmed in High Definition(HD) which made our video to look even more professional. The transferring to the Apple Mac was an easy procedure due to all the footage being stored on the SD card which allowed us to just slot it in to the side of the Mac. With the use of the same type of camera every time we shot some footage it allowed us to keep the same quality of image without there being a change in definition.

Software

PhotoshopWe used Photoshop to complete our Digipak and our Advert as we thought it would give the best finish and effect for our audience. We used many tools ranging from the eraser tool to more complex tools such as the magnetic lasso tool. This allowed us to follow the line of our image and then the tool would cut out the outline. This helped us a lot as it saved a lot of time as it’ll attach straight to the line we draw over. The lasso tool gave a crisp finish and made our product look more professional. The use of layers on Photoshop gave a 3D effect making the image of LUNA come out towards the audience compared to white background. We used a variety of colours which we kept the same throughout our whole coursework. This was easily done on the software we used as we could just take the co-ordinates for the colours and insert into both the digipak and the advert. This allowed us to make sure that our collective identity was consistent and continuity came across well.

iMovie• iMovie was our biggest asset this year as we

not only completed our dailies, but our rough cut as well as our final video on this software. The use of the cutting and the cropping of images allowed us to make our videos of a high level. We were proud of our video as we synced the song with the images on the screen making all of the lyrics relate to the images. For example, the use of lip syncing and images correlating with the images make the video more professional than if they weren’t related.

iMessage• IMessage helped with the communication

aspect of our coursework, allowing us to contact each other easily and schedule times to meet up for either filming or editing. IMessage was also a big help when contacting our Actor and Actress Alex and Zara, allowing us to message and organise times and dates for shooting, making the whole process a lot more organised

Youtube• YouTube was very helpful for the research aspect

to our Music Video. YouTube allowed us to easily locate other music videos within our genre, such as Katy Perry’s Music Video ‘Roar’, and many others, to get a feel for the pop genre. Once we got a feel for the pop genre, and saw how other artists made their music videos, and what conventions we could see, we were able to draft our own music video. Watching the other Music Videos on YouTube also helped with inspiration and ideas for our own Music Video.

Casting Call• Casting Call is a website where employers can post

adverts for actors to apply to for certain roles needed. Casting Call was a major aspect n our music video as it helped us to find one of our main actors ‘Alex’, who starred as the boyfriend in our music video. Casting Call allowed us to save time by posting a simple add on the website and waiting for a response from a professional or amateur actor, rather than having to go around asking people individually whether they would feature in our music video. In total, it made the process of organising our music video and lot easier and more efficient.

SD Card

• This was an essential storage device that we used in our camera when filming all of the footage for our music video. We then transferred this footage onto the mac computers so we could begin the editing process. We encountered a problem with our SD card as we ran out of memory. To ensure this did not happen again when filming we took multiple SD cards when we filmed again. This was an essential piece of hardware technology that we used during the construction process of our media coursework.

Wordpress• We used Wordpress as our blog software to display all of our

coursework throughout our AS and A2 coursework. Wordpress allowed us to present all of our research, planning, audience feedback, communication, evaluation and our use of new technologies. This was an essential medium we used to demonstrate all of our work in pre-production, production, and post-production during our music video stage. Additionally, we uploaded all of the essential audience feedback we received from each stage of our coursework. This helped us tremendously to fully incoporate the feedback to help us progress towards our final media coursework. Wordpress also allowed us to put links on our blog and embed our work from other software websites. Wordpress helped us lay out our work in a neat and efficient manner, as we were able to tag and categorize each of our posts. This made reflecting on our previous work a lot easier and effectively.

Spiderscribe• We used Spiderscribe in the evaluation stage

of our media studies coursework. We found this to be an effective way to lay out our work and allowed us to critically evaulate our work in a proficient manner. As we used arrows to indicate the types of feedback we received, this made all of our work categorised.

Wordle

• Wordle was a new software we used to convey all of our feedback that we received. We took words from all of our feedback, putting it onto Wordle allowing us to show not only our positive but also negative feedback that we received in a contemporary way. This also gave our audience members something eye catching to look at instead of us just writing down our feedback.

My Brainshark

• We used mybrainshark to upload powerpoints and then add in a voiceover over the top of each powerpoint slide. This was extremely useful when trying to fully convey all of the information as we were able to elaborate on all of ideas during the voiceover. Therefore we were more concise and analytical about our work. This was an essential piece of software throughout each of the stages of our Media Studies coursework.

SlideShare

• We used slideshare many times during our coursework allowing us to create presentations on powerpoint and upload them to our blog. This allows us to portray the work we had completed by the use of this technology. We used this for not only our ideas but for our treatment at the beginning to pitch our idea to our peers and receive some feedback.