New Technology

Research and Planning

During the duration of my advanced production I have used many different pieces of computer software and equipment to help me to produce my final products.
During the research stage I used the Internet looking in certain websites which I thought relevant to my project. Although the main problem with using this secondary source for information is that its not always reliable this is the fact that people can edit and change information on sites. Especially wikipedia were i got most of my information, if I did the Internet research again I would probably made sure I used official websites and made sure the information was correct. Although the use of Youtube and researching music videos helped greatly, I was able to search for any video and analyse them. This helped me to get some inspiration on the style of my video and also look at different filming techniques.
I also interviewed the band which helped to get to know the band a little better and ask them about there style. I used a hand-held Dictaphone to record the interview with the pupils which allowed me to make notes as well as being able to review my interview later on. I didn't really finds this research very helpful as the bands response to the questions were quite poor. This was not my fault as I conducted the interview in a serious manner and the band members didn't really take it seriously.

Construction

During the construction of my main and ancillary products I again used various pieces of software and equipment; some that I was familiar with and others not so. In AS I had chosen a brief that only required me to use software which lets me create print media. So when I decided to choose a brief which asked me to make a music video, I was a little nervous about using the new technology's. However in the end the video camera was very simple to use and I took a portable tripod around with me on my filming locations. I also used the camera to capture and animation which was also used in my promo video. Using a hand-held camcorder on a tripod I was able to capture the still images using the Mac programme I Can Animate. This allowed me to construct the moving image.

Although I had quite an easy time filming, I did have a problem when it came to editing. I was using iMovie, which is something I'm not familiar using and I had done most of my editing but for some unexplained reason it brought back all my deleted item. This meant that alot of time was wasted and I had to take time out again to redo all the editing.

When finally finishing my product I used iDVD to make a menu for my promotional video. This programme was easy to use and helped me achieve a professional look which I wanted, as If I wanted to promote my band and send this video to potential record labels that would be the look I would want. Also the design for the menu also acted as the design for the bands website. The programme allowed me to use all the same fonts, pictures and colour schemes that I had been using in my other products. This made sure all my products were intertextual .

When creating my ancillary products I felt more comfortable as I used software which I use quite a lot. My magazine cover was made using a online photo editing site called Picnik I was still able to use my pictures in which were taken while filming on Brandon Hill and the same fonts. Although I used Photoshop to made my digipak, which was more complexed but still had no really bad problems.