Research and planning played a significant role in our production work and also developing our skills. From the foundation portfolio to the advanced portfolio, the use of media technologies help to show the improvements we have made. The research and planning process have developed the quality of our production work. 

-During our pre-production process, we used youtube and vimeo as a means to get an inspiration as it allows us to communicate with a wide range of people in the world in comparison to other websites. With youtube, there are different range of music video from different genres from mainstream videos to independent. Watching these videos allowed me to get an insight of my genre as well as other genres and this has also led me to challenge my music genre as we liked the codes and conventions of other genres as it made sense to our narrative/ storyline. Also, watching other music genres meant that I was able to look at what filters and effects they have used and also what camera angles they have used.

-Youtube was a media platform which allowed me research into real media texts and gain inspiration. A benefit of using youtube was that once I have listened to one song, it would automatically create a playlist. This meant that I wouldn't have to search for that song again as it would already be there.

- After we gained some inspiration from a variety of music videos and different genres, we began story boarding our ideas of what our music video would be about. We came up with the idea that, our music video would be about friendship.

Research & planning continuation

- Although we wanted our music video to about friendship, we had to look for songs that would lyrically compliment our narrative/ storyline or fit our idea. We used spotify and soundcloud to find what song we wanted to use for our music video. We listened to different songs and we agreed on using YOU & ME by DISCLOSURE as we thought that the song went really well with our idea and we liked the way the song continuously had a beat as it would make it easier for us to cut.

- Soundcloud is an app/ website where musicians upload their music thus users like myself can listen to it. I went on the dance genre section and went on the top rated songs. Using a well known song was beneficial as it meant that people who originally liked or supported the song would have a different intake when watching ours. Like movies/ films use well-known actors to gain more fan base and companies/ advertisements use famous models for product endorsement, we did the same for ours. In the original music video for 'You & Me', the video was about two couples but we decided to base our video about friendship which would allow the audience to have a different insight on the song.

- After we had our song and idea, we created a storyboard where we drew out every shot. After listening to the song, we created a narrative. We also printed out the lyrics and annotated them according to what we wanted the shot to be when that specific lyric would come up this was helpful when we used this on final cut pro and actually made it into a video using the song, this allowed us to see how long the shots would be and whether our ideas complimented the song.

Here is the storyboard we have created:

 -All of the research and planning work was made into publishable formats and we used different platforms or different media technologies to publish our work. We used blogger as our main platform for our work and used slide and emaze to publish our work. This made our work look aesthetically pleasing as we were able to upload images and videos into these platforms as well as making our work more professional.

- We also carried out a small project during our pre-production work using Cannon EOS 600D for our music trailer and also for our practice shots before we actually attempted to do our actual music video. This was was helpful as it allowed us to experiment with the camera and see what shots would look good for our music video. We really liked using the Cannon camera as the quality was great and also the fact that you can adjust the effects on the camera which was beneficial for us as we wanted effects for our ancillary task.

- With the same shots the I recorded for my practice shots, I uploaded it on iMovie to edit and use the effects on iMovie. iMovie was easy to use as it required less skills in comparison to Final Cut Pro where more skills was required. For our actual music video, we decided to use Final Cut Pro as it had more effects and also we were able to layer our footages and also create double exposure on our movie video. To achieve this, we had to out two shots in the same place or just after it and change the opacity of the image. Below is the result of using double exposure on our music video:

FINAL CUT PRO CONTINUATION

As previously told, Final Cut Pro was the software we used to construct our music video. Final Cut Pro was very beneficial for us as it had the filters that we specifically needed to include for our music video in comparison to iMovie where filters as very limited. We liked that fact that we were able to do a time-lapse on Final Cut Pro which we couldn't on iMovie. Time-lapse of the sky shot was very crucial in our music video as it signifies that time has gone past and we wanted to show death or the ways in which time has gone past through the use of the sky shot.

-Here are examples of how we used time-lapse in our music video:

Andrew Goodwin Theory

We looked at Goodwin's' theory before we started to construct our music video. We also looked at other real music videos and used his criteria when analysing  this videos:

1: Music video demonstrates genre characteristics. Our music video demonstrates dance characteristics as we have specifically chosen the typical locations or setting that other dance music videos use.

2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. In our music video we have have used this element. Here are examples:

Some of our visuals do link in with the lyrics. This allows the audience to focus on the visual as well as the lyrics making the meaning more apparent.

3. A relationship between music and visual aspects. The tone and the atmosphere of the visuals in our music video reflects the music. We have shown this  through the use of filters/ effects and also the ways in which we have used the lighting. The song that we decided to use- You & Me by Disclosure is about two people which we decided to follow in our music video. 

4. The demands of the record label will include lots of close-ups of the artist. The artist may develop motifs across their work. We decided not to have any performance or artists in our music video as we wanted the focus to be on the narrative rather than the performance.

5. There is a voyeuristic treatment of the female body.  Although there are elements of  the voyeuristic treatment of the female body in dance music video, we decided not to include voyeurism in our music video as we wanted to focus more on the relationship between the two friends rather than their bodily image. Hip-hop and Rnb are great examples of the voyeurism of the female body as women are usually objectified in RnB.

- Photoshop was also another significant software for our production as it played an important role in completing and constructing the ancillary tasks. We used double exposures on both our CD Cover as well as the poster as we thought that the effect of the double exposure complements the theme of our music video. We also used the effect of the double exposure as we did not want a flat image, we wanted to create layers of pictures to reflect the meanings of our music video.

-We decided that we wanted our poster to be very simple as the story of our music video is very common as there downfalls in friendships.

-Photoshop has many tools which helped me to achieve the double exposure effect, from the magic wand, mask tool to the change in the opacity as well as the layering of the images. I decided to use the image of the two friends and created a double exposure effect with that. I used the typical location of dance genre- the city to show the city life and the effects of it.

- The CD digipack was created by using a CD template on google, which was a PDF and edited it on Photoshop. The CD digipack were reocurring images of the city which has been a motif in my music video and poster. We also used the images of the protagonist to illustatre how effected she was by the city life.   

EVALUATION

- for my evaluation I wanted to present my work on different publishable websites. With emaze I was able to use images, upload videos as well. With slides, which I am using for this question, I was able to also use images and also use images. However, I wanted this question to have more writing rather than being filled with images.

- I have used prezi with the audience feedback question. Prezi is an online presentation software which allows us to freely create presentations with different templates and publish them for others to see and comment. Also, another benefit of using prezi is the fact that it has options where you are able to embed audio, video as well as images which I felt was important to use for a multimedia platform. Prezi is easy to use and has a professional feel and look to it due to the smooth transitions.

- The evaluation was independent which allows me to freely use different platforms and really show my ability of using different media platforms. I have never used youtube before as I felt that it was too 'out there'. However, in A2 I had used youtube as means to upload my work for example, my music trailer, my storyboard, practice shots as well as my final music video.

- For question 3, I had to create a focus group and film my target audience with a Cannon EOS 600D camera. With this question I had to show my target audience my final music video for the first time. With this, I was able to get their initial thoughts of what they thought of my music video which was helpful.