Technologies used to carry out the research:
The first specific technology we used when carrying out our research and tasks at different stages of the project was broadband internet. Without the existence of this technology it would have been near impossible for us to access such a vast array of information on demand. It allowed us to access so many different websites and technologic recourses, from on demand video viewing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo to web search engines such as Google. Having access to broadband internet was invaluable and has become something that we all depend on in the modern era.
The second specific technology we used when carrying out our research and tasks at different stages of the project was Google. Google is one of the words largest search engines, it is a gateway into the world of the internet and it is the way we accessed all of our information. Anything we could ever need was only a few button presses away, from researching into conventions of music videos, to studying an artist and there successful songs on a site such as Wikipedia, all of this invaluable information was only ever a few clicks away. Google has become something that we take for granted because it has existed for a fair amount of time, but without it there would be a huge struggle to find the site, or information we were after.
The third specific technology we used when caring out our research and tasks at different stages of the project was YouTube and Vimeo. Both of these video platforms proved extremely useful throughout the whole of our project. From the early stages of research when we were using them to watch and analyse existing music videos and then towards the end of the project when we were uploading our draft music videos so that we could share them and gain feedback. The ability to view essentially any music video in existence in a single search is astonishing, and extremely useful because before the existence of a service such as YouTube the main way to consume music videos would have been to watch one of the TV stations such as MTV who air music videos all day long. The main problem with this would have been that we would have no particular say in what music videos were shown, so we would have had to analyse what ‘aired’.
The fourth technology we used when carrying out our project was the various different devices that we used. From Alex’s MacBook and iPhone 6 Plus, to the Schools 21” iMac’s and Eddies HTC One. All of these devices allowed us to work in various different ways, our phones allowed us to film and capture elements throughout the day and on the go. The school’s iMacs allowed us to sit down during lessons and carry out research tasks. And Alex’s MacBook allowed us to edit on the go and sometimes even on location to ensure that we were able to re-film at any point if it was required.
The fifth technology we used when carrying out our project was the way that we ensured that all our information was easily accessible. For example to keep most of our document in sync where ever and what device we were on we used cloud services such as iCloud and Google Drive. We also used an external hard drive as our ‘Scratch disk’ for when we were editing, this was to allow us to edit on different Macs that had Final Cut Pro X installed but this was also due to the space limitation that was present on the MacBook (due to it having an SSD and already containing a vast amount of other important information that could not be deleted for the sake of space when carrying out editing of our video).
The sixth technology we used when carrying out our project was the way that we captured specific parts of information. This varied from information when on the computer, such as text we were able to copy and paste and quote this information, but then there was also elements of videos that we wanted to capture and present in our research to do this we used some of the Mac’s built in screen capturing functions commonly known as ‘Grab’. We also performed some of our research tasks from physical mediums such as books and our written notes, to capture this information we used the cameras on our mobiles phones which took very good photos thanks to the technological advancements that have taken place in recent years.
Research Presentation Technologies:
The first technology we used when presenting our research was Prezi, a cloud based piece of free presentation software designed for presenting ideas in a virtual canvas. We used this technology a lot throughout all stages of our project, but mainly in our research as it provided both a quick and easy way to present information that was immediately interesting and engaging. We both were very familiar with Prezi as it was one of the main technologies we used constantly last year when carrying out the research and evaluation stages of our Thriller film. The features that made this technology great for presenting information was the ease of use to combine both text and images, so that what we were talking about could easily be illustrated. The ability to embed objects such as YouTube videos straight into Prezi also made it easy for us to show off music videos that we were analysing and referencing.
Prezi was best used for the posts that required a stage by stage layout, so that it starts talking about one thing, then it progresses onto the next relevant thing much like a flowchart.
The second technology we used when presenting our research was SlideShare. Slideshare is a Web 2.0 based hosting service where users can upload files privately or publicly in the follow formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenDocumet presentations. We used this technology a lot throughout our research as it made use of a technology we could all already use, PowerPoint. It made standard powerpoint’s easily into something that could be viewed in a web browser and thus put onto our blog. The features of SlideShare that meant it was good for presenting information from both the research and evaluation stages were that we could quickly create an attractive PowerPoint presentation containing vast amounts of detail, combined with use of illustrations and images (such as screen captures of music videos). It was very quick and efficient for us to produce attractive and easy to understand content that could be put onto our blog within minutes.
Slideshare was best used for posts that required a similar stage by stage layout to Prezi, but as it could make use of PowerPoints, any presentations we made we could just put straight onto the blog in an easy manner, this was very useful after giving a presentation.
The third technology we used when presenting our research was Padlet. Padlet is an online wall where you can post images and text to create a virtual ‘space’ that can be navigated around and added to by people all over the web. Along with our use of Prezi and Slideshare this was one of our most used methods of presentation throughout our research and planning stages of our project. We used this a lot because again like slideshare and Prezi it easily allows the combination of images and text. The key feature of Padlet is the ability to quickly produce something that can better convey information to the reader. A useful feature was that because it was open to editing either of us could do so at any point if we felt like something was missing or needed adding.
Padlet was best used for posts that didn't need major organisation like the Prezi posts, padlet was more suitable for posts that made use of just text (small amounts, bullet pointed, not large paragraphs) and images.
The fourth technology we used when presenting our research was Glogster. Glogster is a social network that allows users worldwide to create free interactive posters that are commonly called ‘Glogs’. Glogs are very similar to the physical form of posters, but in this case readers can interact with the content. We used this technology a fair amount, but due to its occasionally bugginess we usually preferred to use a different technology. It was still fairly good with the ability to use both images, text and video to create something that appeals to the reader. The key feature of Glogster are that it has a vast range of different objects that can be dragged in to build up the ‘virtual poster’ along with interactive elements that can be added to
Glogster was best used for posts that required a large amount of interactivity, with thing such as embedded videos, images etc. We used it sparingly as we found this to be an extremely buggy technology which caused us to lose our work repeated times.
The final technology we used when presenting our research was Blogspot. Blogspot allowed us to very easily create posts that contained images, text, tables and all of the embeddable different technologies that we used. We tried to keep the use of pure Blogspot posts to a minimum because they are not very interesting and can become painstaking to read if there is just large amounts of text on a webpage. The key feature of Blogspot is the easiness to add text, images and videos, along with the ability to edit HTML, this enabled us to copy the embed code from the different technologies we used and then paste it into a post on Blogspot and adjust the sizing so that it fits the blog nicely.
Blogspot was best used for simple posts that mainly only needed text and images, this was the most straightforward method of conveying the information and was also used as little as possible as it can become very boring and dull.
Technologies Used During Construction Of The Ancillary Tasks:
The first technology we used during the construction of our Ancillary tasks was Photoshop. This application was essential for us to be able to create the effective Vinyl and CD packaging that we have done. We downloaded existing photoshop templates from the internet for both Vinyl and CD packaging so that we were able to drag and drop all of the photos that we wanted to feature into Photoshop and then manipulate them as well as adding text and logos. An area that we focused on a lot was ensuring the consistency of the black and white theme and Photoshop was great at allowing us to colour grade all elements as we desired.
The second technology we used during the construction of our Ancillary tasks was Adobe Muse. This was not a piece of software that the School provides, but instead a piece of software that both of us were familiar with. Adobe Muse is one of Adobes experimental web development and design applications. We used Adobe Muse to build our whole website from scratch, unlike other fellow students who used sites like Wix which are based fully off templates. because our whole site was built from scratch it enabled us to have creative freedom, from the video banner behind the title at the top of the page, to the navigation bar that isn't present until you scroll down, all of these little things we were able to control and build from scratch thats to this application.
Technologies Used During Construction Of The Video:
The first technology we used during the construction stage of our video was all of the different video capture devices we used.
The main device we used to capture our footage was Eddie’s Cannon 1200d a DSLR capable of 1080p 60fps video recording, when we were using this to film the majority of our footage we shot with an extremely low ISO (about 100) to ensure that we captured the sharpest footage possible. With this device we switched between a fixed 50mm lens and a standardised 17 - 55mm kit lens. We ended up using the fixed 50mm lens more often as it gave us very sharp quality footage with a wide field of view. We primarily used this camera on a full tripod to ensure that we had very stable main shots, for more of our moving shots we used the same tripod but then also fixed it onto a dolly which enabled us to freely move it around the band on the stage.
The secondary device we used to capture our footage was Alex’s Lumix G3 Compact DSLR with a 17 - 55mm lens, this device captured footage of a similar quality to the Cannon but due to its smaller sensor it was not able to capture at as low of an ISO level meaning that some of the footage did become slightly grainy. For most of the shots that we captured with this camera we used it on a hand held dolly that is meant to reduce hand-held shake, but obviously due to the fact it was not gyroscopically stabilised it was still quite shaky at times.
The third device we used to capture some of the more specialised aspects of our footage was Alex’s iPhone 6 Plus, we used this because it was capable of capturing 120fps slow mo. This enabled us to capture the slow pouring smoke shots but at the same time we could use use the 120fps as non slow-mo creating a sense of ‘hyper speed’ for a few aspects of the video. Because the iPhone needed to be used without a tripod and we wanted to get some moving shots we used an App called Hyper-lapse that allows smooth video capture due to its advanced image stabilisation algorithm combined with the iPhone 6 Plus’s optical image stabilisation. For some parts of the footage that we captured with the iPhone we used an add on less called the ‘Ollo-Clip’ it has four in one functions including Wide Angle, Fish Eye, Macro x10 and Macro x15. We used the wide-angle lens to capture some of the wider band shots that we needed, and the macro lens to capture footage of close up instruments.
The second technology we used during the construction stage of our video was Final Cut Pro X. This application is Apple’s high end video editing suite that we both got familiar with last year as we had our own copy, unlike the rest of the class who was using Final Cut Express. There were many features of Final Cut Pro X that we had not used last year as it is extremely different making a Music Video to a Thriller. The features that we we used were:
- Clip trimming and precision editor
- Transition effects (flash for concept clips)
- Video effects (to black and white grade the whole video)
- Sound effects (for the record player)
- Layering (to create the solo part of the video)
Final Cut Pro X offered us a lot of effects, but for us to fully achieve the look we were aiming for we decided that we needed an additional third party effect pack. We paid out £30 to buy a retro theme pack that offered up further customisability to create the vintage film reel look we were aiming to produce. We felt like altho the £30 cost may have been steep for the limited selection of features, it has defiantly been worth it as it has enabled us to create a video that fits our intended theme.