[JB] Evaluation (4)

• Our group made use of digital technologies such as blogger.com in order to collaboratively work on the planning, construction and evaluation of our coursework. We used it as an e-portfolio as well as a communication tool to convey our ideas and development.

• It helped our planning because it allowed us to document our research and to understand how certain theories and conventions may be appropriate for our video. It aided in construction by allowing us to keep track of our progress and meet deadlines, as well as to post feedback, for example for the rough cut.

• At times, the blog was seen as more of a hinderance than a help - however, last year we used the blog for our AS production of a film opening, and now that we have had a second opportunity at a blog it has proved more helpful.

Our Year 12 blog.

• We produced an animatic of our music video before we began the construction. This animatic was useful to us - it allowed us to see just how much footage we would need, as well as whether it would actually fit with the structure we had chosen for it, and what sections would require changes to the types of clips we chose.

• The use of ICT helped us to reach an audience for planning and evaluative purposes. We carried out a closed questionnaire on a website known as SurveyMonkey, to which we posted a link on social networks such as Facebook, for access by our friends who were of the age bracket and target audience we were aiming for.

• We also uploaded our music video to YouTube, and shared the link on Facebook, enabling us to get a few more views than anticipated and thus receiving more feedback than we had perhaps initially expected.

• I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 in order to design and create a four-pane digipak design as part of the promotional campaign for ‘Parade of punk-rock t-shirts’. This is a very versatile image creation and processing program which allowed me to create varying effects on certain visual elements of the design.

Layer Styles dialogue box

• For example, I used the Layer Styles dialogue box in order to create a soft black outer glow on the text layers. This makes the font much more readable and also gives it a very professional, clean look.

• I also used the Cutout filter in order to apply an artistic effect to the images of each band member. This further increases the “professional” feel which is achieved from it because it removes any blemishes from their faces.

• To film, we used my Nikon D90. It is a Digital SLR camera, which has a much larger lens than the standard HD camcorders available, and this resulted in a much higher level of clarity in our footage and brought out a lot more detail. 

 

Nikon D90



• Adobe Premiere 9 was the program of choice for editing our music video. With a similar principle to Photoshop, it is a versatile tool to manipulate our footage into a working, final cut.

• We used certain techniques in our video to achieve interesting effects on the footage, to give it a professional feel.

• One technique we used was cutting. This allows us to shorten the footage we took into useable size, and into the specific length of time that we want each individual clip to be.

• Another technique we used was Image Control. This tool allowed us to modify the hue, saturation, brightness and contrast of our footage. We used it on our performance shots to greatly improve the appearance and professionality of it.