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How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation stages?



New media technologies have led to a revolution in the way film production has now become accessible to all. The proliferation of hardware has allowed people to learn and experiment with cameras and film making equipment leading to millions of independent videos. It is due to this and the phenomenal growth of virtual platforms, expanded by Web 2.0 that sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook have linked audiences all over world.

When I was assigned the task of creating a promotional video for an unsigned artist, my first port of call was to

search the web on unsigned.com where I came across a range of artists which I then shortlisted to Mirabelle.

Unsigned.com allowed me to listen to a few of her tracks, which helped me understand her genre and style.

​Soon after, I embarked myself on researching on the artist. From unsigned.com, I was directed to her YouTube channel where I learnt more about her music. She had a few videos, which also helped me in promoting her in the right way.  Having found her contacts on   her website, I was able to contact her via email and because of the facility of communication as a result of technology; I was able to get a prompt response from her where she gave me permission to use her song ‘I Got You’. Without such technologies,

it would have been practically impossible to contact her or even know about her. In the past when technologies were

not that far advanced, the manager – the middleman – had to rigorously shortlist which artist to promote; today

Mirabelle from Australia is able to reach out to the whole world via one single method – digital technology.

Internet (Web2.0);



The Internet is an invaluable source of information. These days it seems to be the one stop shop for everything. The Internet also allowed me to research in depth about music video production techniques, genre conventions and theories of music videos, which gave me a much clearer insight into the stages of music promotion. What was really useful via social platforms like YouTube is that it is interactive! The comments that people left about certain videos were effective in the way I measured my audience interest. I was able to watch a far greater range of music videos, which I could pause, rewind and crop. At times, I could also slow motion some shots which allowed me to pay attention to certain detail from composition, timing of sequence, use of props or even costume.

I contacted my lead role Ellie Ha through Blackberry messenger was ideal due to the fact that we both had Blackberry mobile phones and the communication was free. With my male actor I had contacted him through social networking site; Facebook, which allowed me to also look at photos of him to see if he fit the character I wanted for my music video. One of

the most helpful instant messaging programs I used is Skype. This allowed me to use video

call both of my casts and choose what costumes they should wear and accessories that I thought

would fit best and allowed me to finalise all details before filming.

Other than YouTube, I used social networking site ‘Facebook’ to receive feedback on my music video. This was resourceful as it allowed me to be able to show my work and also to receive feedback in quickly. The internet minimises length of time of research. The internet has opened all restrictions and allows me to do so for free.

Technology has allowed me to create a DIY production which is extremely popular globally and has become more popular due to YouTube as it allows people from allow over the world to watch your videos. There are many editing software’s and packages that allow you to edit and alter videos which make DIY productions more of a success than they used to be.

Google has allowed me to find information on my artist and to complete my research. Finding information on music video directors would have been very difficult without a search engine such as Google. Technology has equipped ‘normal’ people with the possibilities to stardom and fame. Justin Bieber

is a classic example of a young boy who has been signed by music agencies through

uploading videos of him on YouTube singing songs; it is a type of self-advertising.

In order to keep track of all of my research, planning and the progress of my promotion campaign, once more I used electronic media, which is WIX.com. This site allows any user to create a website with pages. It also has multimedia features, which allow the user to upload videos, pictures and sound. This is now the way forward with film making as the traditional method of paper and pen is dying out.  In fact, I found using WIX.com really convenient as I had all of my work in one place, therefore revision of ideas were more easily done. Also, the fact that I could access my work anywhere as long as I had an Internet connection made planning really practical and organized.

These drop-down buttons make it easier to navigate through the pages.



As we live in this era of 3G technologies, mobile communications is the norm for business and personal use. I was able to select my cast almost instantaneously with Blackberry messenger. The male cast was contacted via Facebook where I was able to check out his photos on his site to confirm my decision to cast him in the video. After the casting exercise was done, I was able to communicate with them via conference call on Skype where I could physically see them when talking. Also since this service is free, I did not have to worry about budget here.

Google allowed me to decide on locations and costumes which allowed me to mentally be prepared for what locations to look for and costumes to choose.

Stairs in the Royal Festival Hall



I also looked at the positioning of artists of the POP genre such as Shontelle. I used this to help me with both my music video and to familiarise with the style of make-up which was simple and found that the common type of make-up is black liquid eye-liner on the eye-lid.

I viewed videos, posters and digi-packs of artists of the same genre of my song. This led me to artist Taylor Swift’s music video ‘You belong to me’ which gave me inspiration for my narrative to use the paper/confession scene. Shontelle’s ‘T-shirt’ music video contained clips of the artist in simple but classy clothing which affected the choices of clothing I wanted for my music video.

Shontelle - T-shirt



Although Rita Ora is more of an artist from the RnB genre she does have songs that hybrid into the POP genre. I found that she was extremely popular with the younger audience through her fashion and make-up. This is why I favoured her Poster and chose to go for a more Hip style which is reflected through my poster.

Rita Ora – How we do (Poster)



When it came to creating my magazine advert and digipak, Adobe Photoshop was really useful. In fact both Adobe packages are used in the industry and being able to have those installed on my laptop gave me equal opportunity to construct a good piece of work. On Photoshop, I learnt to work with different layers and with the use of the lasso tool; I was able to cut around a picture, which I then blended onto a different background. I also air brushed the face of the artist to get rid of blemishes to give her perfect look using the blur tool.

In order to arch the text on the magazine advert,

I made use of the Warp text. In order to get the right

font to fit the representation of the artist, I researched

and downloaded some fonts from Cooltext.com. I felt

that every time I needed some information how to

include an effect and exclude an element, the Internet

would provide me with the solution.

Through my research in finding that light leaks were common in POP music videos I searched for this effect and was successful and found a free download which was fortunate as it was a DYI project with a small budget.

The construction phase relied largely on technologies, as I understood how it is through these packages that I was able to create my products to match my ideas. Its indispensability was seen especially when technology was able to correct those errors that had occurred during filming.  Now with the accessibility of multimedia platforms on home packages, people are becoming increasing literate about technologies.

I went on ‘cooltext.com’ to find a font that I wanted to use for my poster and digi-pack. I did this so the font I used is different from the typical fonts such as ‘Arial’.

During the production stage, I used a Panasonic HD camera, a tripod and a dolly. The HD camera nowadays is tiny compared to the studio ones and of good quality. It was easy to use which further encouraged me to experiment with my filming by trying a range of shots. In order to make my print tasks, I made sure to carry along a DSLR camera for the photo shoot.

By using the editing software Adobe Premiere Pro which allowed me to create more professional music video which could be shown on real music video shows such as MTV.

Premiere Pro allowed me to experiment and alter my clips to what I wanted them to look like, an example of tis is I wanted to reduce graininess and combined this with blur tool which allowed me to balance the effects.

Blur tool video effect



At the construction stage, using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop were very effective in helping to piece together the footage, correcting errors and adjusting lighting and contrast. With the razor tool, on Adobe Premiere Pro I was able to cut clips with precision. By using the crop function I was able to exclude unwanted elements in my video. I also manipulated with the brightness and contrast, added effects; video limiter, equaliser and tint.

I also learnt how to adjust the sound, work with the opacity of the clips, which could merge two shots together. With Adobe Premiere Pro I was able to add light leaks (which I found out about on tutorials on film editing on YouTube).

At the evaluation stage, social networking sites were very handy and almost instant. People could interact with one another’s comments, which made me more aware about the outcomes. When it came to my digipak and magazine advert, I mainly used Tumblr where my followers gave me feedback. As for the video, I mainly used YouTube and Facebook where once more an interactive response was obtained.

Nowadays, everyone has those gadgets that can allow him or her to be wired onto these sites, so I simply had to forward the URL to YouTube. My friends on Facebook received immediate notification, which made collecting audience feedback much faster than the traditional routes.

Through the internet we are able to research, re-use and share information. Social networking sites have allowed us to communicate with both friends and strangers all over the world making the world into a global village which is all because of web2.0. Due to all the technologies available and the technology that will be available in the future DIY projects will be more doable and proficient.

When I evaluated my work, I realized how technologies are indispensable in the process, if we are to succeed in a DIY production.

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