How did you use media

technologies in the research,

planning, construction and
evaluation stages of your
production?
By Baylie Bain
 Weebly - Research/Planning/Evaluation
Weebly was typically used throughout the coursework as a platform to showcase
and share the ideas and work that myself & my media group have produced over
the past few months. Like other students, I chose to publish my theoretical
work/ideas on Weebly because of how simplistic and clean the service is - unlike
Wix, which feels like a cluttered mess with all of the add-on features that you can
throw onto the page(s). Another reason why I chose Weebly to house this content
is because I was familiar with the platform, as it was used in the same regards for
the AS Coursework (showing my research/planning/product/evaluation).
Whilst it didn’t provide me with any resources for the Research section of the
development, posting blog posts about the various sections that we had to
research allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the subject, as it allowed
me to articulate my ideas in a fluid and personal manner.
Throughout the entirety of the coursework, the design of the blog was integrated
with various media platforms, such as linking YouTube videos (to help backup
arguments that I had stated in my research posts), uploading images (and using
images as a way to creatively divide each page, with page-specific themes, such as
the pattern design on the Research Page), and linking documents such as Prezi
presentations/powerpoints. This was all included on the blog as a way to show my
capabilities with using other multimedia platforms, and also shows how I’ve learnt
to use these technologies more on Weebly to better explain my arguments and my
ideas for the Music Video/Ancillary Products.
Whilst Weebly helped with expressing my understanding on the music video
background, it was also crucially used as a way to express my specific ideas
for the music video. This was important as it meant that I had a dedicated
platform to refer back to ideas made from prior weeks, as because the blog
was continuously updated looking at past posts was essential for better
understanding where we (as a group) could go next with the development of
the music video. Specific posts, like the Moodboard that was created to
show our individual ideas for what we wanted to create for the music video,
were essential to post on Weebly as this created the foundations of how we
envisioned the creation of the music video to look like.
Weebly was used less after pre-production concluded, due to having shifted
focus on other technologies (such as Final Cut Pro and the Canon EOS 70D),
and was generally reserved for publishing our production diaries over the
production/post-production time period. This is a justifiable action, due to
how our focus needed to be directed towards these technologies more, in
order to better progress into the project. Weebly concluded with the
evaluation, as it was used to showcase the multimedia responses for all 4
questions. The typical blogpost was utilised for Question 2, due to how short
the question was, in regards to referencing to the ancillary products.
Overall, Weebly has been a driving force for ideas throughout the
coursework, and will remain in this manner after the coursework is
complete, due to how these pages stay up after completion.
YouTube - Research/Planning/Construction

YouTube was used during the coursework as a platform to gain inspiration from. With YouTube, the
plethora of videos available to watch meant that there would be a large collection of music videos to
help gather ideas and inspiration, in order to better help the creation and production of our music video.
Because of the long shelf life videos have on YouTube, the research section of the project allowed for us
to analyse videos that weren’t originally published on YouTube (this refers to music videos posted to TV
channels, such as MTV) - which further supported our research and planning, due to how we could
evaluate the change of certain genres and the music video profession in general. Videos such as Sugar
Pine 7’s “Just a Couple Friends”, Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holdin Me Back” and Coldplay’s
“Adventure of a Lifetime” all helped better our understanding of specific genres, such as the
Alternative/Indie genre, which influenced us to create our music video from this background.
The only other time in which YouTube was used during the course of the project was when we published
the rough cut and the final draft of the music video. The reason why we chose to upload our music video
to YouTube is because a large selection of media consumers, including our target demographic, all
consume their media (including music videos) through YouTube - so to publish on YouTube allowed us
to showcase our product to a potentially larger audience than our small, local audience.
Whatsapp - Planning/Construction
Whatsapp was used during the Planning stages of the coursework, as a way for the group to
easily communicate to each other whenever not in school/during the evenings. This technology
was a better form of communication than face-to-face communication, as general topics about
the music video were discussed in detail, whereas in general conversation this would be
complicated with talking and trying to do classwork - which at times was difficult, as our minds
weren’t properly focused on the topic at hand.
The biggest reason why Whatsapp was used was to be able to communicate with our
conscripted actors, as adding them into our group chat allowed them to observe the thinking
process for each scene development, which in turn made them more aware on what to do/how
to act whenever we arrived to the location. Speaking of location, this also helped as a way to
communicate whilst trying to meetup with the actors in person, as it allowed us to communicate
to them our current/predicted whereabouts and what time they should arrive to that location.
All of this was effectively successful for the development of the music video, as active
communication allowed for us to remain on task for an extended period of time, and where
messages could be sent 24/7 ideas could be expressed at any time of the day.
Photoshop - Construction/Evaluation

Photoshop was a specific technology used for the development of the ancillary products, specifically for
the digipak. Our experiences with Photoshop varies, considering that it is a generally understandable
software to use, however it does take time for users to grasp a stronger concept on how to use it. In
developing the digipak, we decided to create an original logo using the shape tools provided by
Photoshop - which at great extent helped us in creating an original design and something that could
work well over all the ancillary products (including the website). Photoshop was in preference to be the
main software to design the digipak, due to how there is a plethora of editing features that can be
applied to any image in the selection range - e.g. alteration of colour, cropping of size, creation of text,
gradient effects that can be applied to objects, etc. - and there are limited other software packages that
can complete the same level of tasks that Photoshop can do.
Whilst the digipak was designed, Photoshop also helped with separating the layer for the artists logo,
and allowed us to turn that into an individual entity, separate from the digipak. This was applied to the
logo, as it would be later used for the website development, as a page logo.
Photoshop was later used again for the Evaluation, for simpler reasons being that we needed to crop
screenshots of the music video/the digipak’s development, for the images to then be used for the
questions. Overall, the use of Photoshop was successful due to having complete creative ability to
develop the images and icons that we wanted to utilise for the ancillary products & for the evaluation.
Wix - Construction

Like where Photoshop was specifically used for the development of the digipak, Wix was
specifically used for the development of the website for our artist, that we were creating in
conjunction to the music video. Where Wix had faults for its use as an active blog page, it’s
shines over Weebly for the development of an active Website; the features that can be added
onto pages benefit in this regard, due to how they could be used to actively promote the activity
of the artist in question. During its construction, images had to be imported onto the page to be
utilised for features like: the slideshow on the main menu - which links to the music video, a
banner for the About page (that fit the style of the website), and for the logo - where the logo
made for the digipak could be anchored onto the header and appear on all pages of the website.
The useful feature that made me select Wix over Weebly for the Website development was the
ability to include active social media feeds, such as an active Instagram feed (which showcases
illustrations of any active projects that our artist was working on.
All of this was effective in the promotion of the artist we created, as the website reinforced a
brand image that is to now be expected by audiences, whenever references to him is made.
 Final Cut Pro - Construction

Final Cut Pro was a specific technology that was used for the construction of the music video.
The reason why Final Cut Pro was selected is because it is the only professional editing software
that is readily available at school - meaning that everyone had to edit their main products with
Final Cut Pro. Our abilities to edit on this software was smooth, due to how we are used to using
this software, considering that we also had used it for the AS Coursework. Even though the
effects library and options are great with the software, it’s slightly annoying that there was
limited choice in the technology used to create our pieces. Use on Final Cut Pro was efficient, as
we had understood concepts and conventions from our research tasks into music videos - so
putting the shots together in a similar style was effective in keeping to the tradition of how
music videos should be presented. Our time working on Final Cut Pro was long enough to have
completed a rough cut and a final draft, meaning that our skills over the course of editing on the
software improved as we progressed in the editing. If a greater library of software was
provided/selectable to us, then perhaps I would’ve selected Adobe Premiere Pro, due to how
that software is one of the main industry-standard softwares to use in the media profession, and
because of how comfortable I feel using Premiere Pro in comparison to Final Cut Pro.
 Final Cut Pro Continued
In terms of the technical composition of the editing that was applied
to the edit for the music video, a wide range of tools were applied to
the shots, in order to create a near-perfect professional production.
Whilst the standard “Select/Blade” tools were used, to rearrange the
clips and cut out the moments that were not relevant, the “Clip
Speed” tools were used to maximise the amount of time that one shot
had in the sequence. This was used to either speed up or slow down
the clips that were selected. The majority of the slowed-down clips
were adjusted between 85-70% clip speed, due to how this allowed
the clip to be slower than the standard speed, without losing any
quality of the shots - if these were lowered further, the shot would
experience “jitters” with the frames of the clip, causing it to look
unappealing to the viewing eye. Speeding up the clips were used for
the last portion of the sequence, with it being adjusted to 876%
(meaning that the clips run 8.76x faster than the original clip speed).
This was included to add emphasis on the moments selected,
reflecting on how life travels fast before your eyes.
To replicate something that appears in other music videos, we applied
insertable text to Transformation and Distortion effects, to make it seem
like it belongs within the music video world. “Transform” allowed for the
text size to be reduced to an appropriate level, in which it would fit inside a
given range that we wanted, to then apply the “Distort” tool to angle the
text to allow it to act 3-dimensionally. This couldn’t be properly
accomplished, with the fact that we couldn’t resolve the issue of the
character walking in-front of the range we wanted the text to be applied to
- however, by completing this our skills of these tools greatened and have
improved, due to how we now know the depths of these tools. An
extension that was also applied was the ability to add Motion to the text.
Final Cut Pro enables the user to apply a motion to an object, by going into
the Inspector Panel & adding “Keyframes” - which defines where that
object needs to be in that frame, and how it gets there in the frames
between the keyframes. This allowed for the text to move along with the
camera, as it pans around the corner of the seats - resulting it to fit more
into the scene of the music video. If this was to be completed again, I
would’ve stabilized the shot, so that then the movement of the text
would’ve been more smoother to look at.
Final Cut Pro Continued
 Continued

Another few things that were added to the music video, to connect to other In addition to this, the music video also undergone the exclusion of certain
music videos and the Alternative/Indie genre, was the implementation of moments within the track itself - and replaced it with later moments from
visual effects. The “Prism” visual blur - which blurs the shots, by adding the track. This is evident through both the Rough Cut and the Final Music
red/blue/green borders around objects - was added to all shots regarding
Video, in which a portion of the “Adventure of a Lifetime” track was cut,
performance, as a way to visually distinguish these moments from the rest of
using the “Blade” tool, and readjusted into a position in which it doesn’t
the sequence. The style of the blur enhances connections to the
Alternative/Indie genre, as visual illustrations from the genre vary, in terms
sound too different from the music that was already playing. This was
of creative choices for the mise-en-scene/editing - the blur adds a nostalgic accomplished to a lesser extent with the final version, due to how we
taste to the performance, which is rightly placed given that “Adventure of a managed to fill up a longer portion of the music track - originally, this was
Lifetime” isn't the most recent music release. This was effectively applied, as performed to reduce the amount of time we needed to showcase the
it distinctively differs itself from the rest of the video. Furthermore, the scenes (due to how we didn’t possess the clips of the performance scenes
application of cropping the entirety of the music video further displays during the development of the rough cut). In this application, to make this
actions to create a music video that conforms to typical screen resolutions transition sound smooth and unnoticeable to the viewer, we applied a
of modern music videos. Similar to Motion, using the Inspector Panel
Fade-in for the music to increase in volume - rather than to abruptly
allowed for us to adjust the height of crop that we wished to add to the
include this section of the track to the prior section. This was successfully
shots. An additional method to this was to readjust the position of the clip,
given that there were some moments in which had primary focus around the
accomplished, with little-to-no noticeable moments where the audio
top borders of the shot - by changing the y-coordinates of the clip from the transition seemed harsh to the viewers ears.
same area in the Inspector Panel. This effectively produces an appropriate
effect to the music video, as it places more focus within the range that
wasn’t cropped.
Continued

Lowered to -99Db
(Decibels)
 Canon EOS 70D/Convergent Phones -
Construction
For the cinematography of the music video, we had to use a mixture of using a professional DSLR camera - the
Canon EOS 70D - and our convergent mobile phones, particularly the Samsung Galaxy brand. This decision was
harshly provided to us, as in reference to Production Diary #1, in Winter Wonderland we were unable to use
our DSLR cameras to take photos/videos of the area, due to the rules and regulations the event had with active
cameras. However, we decided to film the rest of that day and the majority of other days with our convergent
devices, due to how in the rules and regulations it stated ‘camera use from convergent devices are allowed’. We
later then stuck with using convergent phones to film our narrative scenes, due to how readily available we
were in possessing them, and because it creatively allowed us to gather more/alternating angles from the same
scene (with multiple people filming at the same time). An annoying factor about using convergent phones to
record most of the music video was with the battery life, as where the group uses different phones the battery
life varies across all the devices. This meant that at times we felt limited in the amount of time we had to film the
session with, given that we also had to use the devices to communicate with the rest of the group, in meeting up
before filming started. However, one of the unique abilities that the convergent devices provided was the
accessibility to HD 1080p resolution quality - meaning that the quality filmed on the phones would be nearly
indistinguishable to professional/high end cameras. This meant that switching between the two cameras
caused no negative effect on the overall quality of the music video, as it consistently remained the same High
Definition quality. Even in dire situations, such as during the scene where we filmed in the snow (in P.O.V.), the
fact that we could instantly go to the location and start filming with our mobile phones allowed us to be
consistently productive throughout the production.
 Continued

The Canon 70D was specifically used for the Performance shots, due to how we wanted to make this scene
look as professional-looking as possible (to create a contrast from the narrative and the performance). This partially worked, as the two
camera qualities are close to being indistinguishable from one another, which is why we preferred to use convergent phones more than the
DSLR. There was one specifically performed action of cinematography conducted with the DSLR camera - in the opening, where the artist
walks through the door to get ready for the performance, you may notice that the artist is out of focus until he walks closer to the camera,
and in that instance his face is completely cut off from view - this adds a layer of enigma to the opening of the music video, as it allows the
audience to challenge their intelligence of what’s going on with the narrative/sequence. This was caused by the ability to manually set the
focus distance for that particular shot, as with the convergent devices the focus range covers both foreground and background, whereas
the DSLR camera will only have the selected distance in focus, which successfully created this enigmatic illusion. Throughout the
remainder of the performance shots, the DSLR’s cinematography becomes more distinct compared to the narrative portions of the music
video, due to how stable the camera is used in these moments. This may be due to the fact that, with a bigger camera, there is more ability
to hold onto the camera - however with the mobile phones, because they’re smaller and lighter, they have a greater chance in slipping out
of the camera operator’s hands - meaning that in terms of smooth cinematography, the DSLR is superior in use and in evidence. Something
else that the 70D provided technologically was the auto-focus ability, this can be evident in the performing scenes, where the amount of
(clear) focus that shot possessed was determined by the movements and placements of objects in the foreground of the camera’s position.
This allowed for the focused items, such as the guitar and the drums, to consistently remain in focus even where the camera may have
panned from left to right.
Overall, the shots were recorded on both devices in a professional manner during the production, due to how capable the group was with
filming the scenes - past experiences from AS have helped with this, as our abilities to use DSLR cameras have progressed from those
moments. If we had to do the production stage of the project all over again, I would try to include the DSLR camera more into filming than
how much we used it now, due to how confident and successful we were in using it this year.
 Google Slides -
Planning/Evaluation
Google Slides was used towards the beginning of the development of the music video, to
help support us in our creation for our pitch. This was chosen because of how it can allow
multiple people to access and collaborate on it, given that it is a cloud-based slideshow
application. What this meant was that the slides could be developed on any computer at
any time - which was beneficial as most of us don’t possess the license to Microsoft
packages, and it doesn’t restrict us from working on the same computer all the time - the
ability to develop our ideas in a relaxed environment was key for the development of the
Pitch, as it allowed our minds to feel refreshed and acceptant to new creative ideas.
However, where you have the ability to work on projects whenever you want, this
potentially created a negative effect in the fact that work continuously lingers over our
heads - which has the potential to result in negative mental health effects if not dealt with
the stress in a calm manner.
Google Slides was also used within the Evaluation, in answering this question - to help
meet the needs of outreaching to multiple multimedia platforms to write our answers on.
The overall success of using Slides to answer the questions is achieved, due to how the
presentation is unique and successfully achieves the amount of effort needed to insert
into the response to an evaluation question.
Prezi - Evaluation

Prezi was used during the Evaluation Stage, to help include a larger scale of multimedia
platforms for the formats that the questions had to be in. Prezi was selected due to how similar
it is to a standard slideshare application, however Prezi allows you to be extensively more
creative with the workspace you are provided with. Also the template provided by the Prezi
service are creative and stand out from typical/standard backgrounds, meaning that the reader
is more attracted to viewing the material that’s on the page. It was effectively used to answer
Question 1 of the Evaluation, due to how deep and complex it asks for the codes and
conventions of real media products - what I will say as a criticism is that there wasn’t a lot of
options to change the background that you selected, all you could do was change its colour. The
downside of using Prezi is the fact that we have to use Prezi Classic, in order to embed the
presentation onto the blog, which consequentially meant that we lost some features of Prezi
Next in the creation of the presentation.