4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

New media and especially Web 2.0 played crucial roles in our overall project. They influenced each stage differently, and we tried to use different technologies in each stage, so that they could enable us to work to our maximum potential.

Research

Above is a Prezi detailing the research process and some of the new technologies that we used.

Planning

As I mentioned earlier, Facebook and web 2.0 were very big parts of our group planning sessions. In order to communicate easily, we created a Facebook thread called "Sharilanila" where we would post our thoughts and ideas, so that we could easily document the stages of the project.

The highs and lows of organizing a prop-heavy music video

We also decided to create a Facebook group (also named "Sharilanila") where we could post more practical things; such as costume possibilities, props and material lists.

Making props gets stressful

The use of Facebook as a communicative tool worked well for us as a group, as we all have some sort of access to the website at any given time, whether it be Facebook mobile or online, therefore enabling us to communicate seamlessly with each other.

The above image was created in a program called Celtx, which is very useful when it comes to mapping out set-ups. The image represents a frame during our first chorus; Ava and the backing dancers move close to the camera in order to create a more personal connection between our artist and the audience, and the ex-boyfriend moves off camera, giving the set hands space to move away all the props from the back (bench, tree, clouds etc). Planning out each setup and the timings was very important, specifically for our project, as a one shot would have been impossible to do without meticulous attention to detail.

Production

The camera we used consistently throughout the project was the Canon 5D Mark II, which we used for our main music video shoots, and for the two promo shoot sessions that we held in the media department.

A blueprint of our set, the Seward Studio, showing the placement of the lights in relation to our "stage"

A picture of our lighting settings

From the above image, we angled all of the lights towards the centre of the set, changing the settings so that all the studio rig 1000k RedHead lights would be on the flood light settings. We mainly lit the floor, however we also lit some of the back walls as we noticed that we were getting a rather ghastly shadow in some of our earlier takes. We also used some floor lights on our final shoot, which really helped, as two of the lights had been broken prior to our shoot session, and we therefore had to substitute two 650k RedHead floor lights on either side of the camera. Learning how to do the lights was really interesting, as I hadn't used studio lights before and being able to change lighting settings is something that I know will be useful in future projects.

Social Platforms

Because Ava would have grown up as a technological native, and there has recently been a massive proliferation of social media, we knew that realistically, she would be on a lot of social networking websites.

Please turn on annotations for information

The above video explains how we used social media in order to create different platforms from which Ava could market herself/communicate with her viewers/fans, as we think that she'd be an artist that is very invested in the fans' opinions and comments.

Taken from a study by GlobalWebIndex, showing how many people use each social network

Because we knew that social platforms are so integrated in our current society, we decided to create a page on each one of these platforms for the following reasons:

A mind map showing some facts about the different social networks we used, and why we used them

We also created a Facebook group for our set hands and extras, so that we could tell them what costumes they had to bring and what time they would have to get to the set. This was very efficient, as all of our helpers turned up on time for all three shoots, and we didn't have any wardrobe malfunctions.

Post-Production

Album Cover

The editing we used on Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 enabled us to use a Skin Smoother tool, which acted as an airbrushing tool, to get rid of wrinkles and some of the softer shadows. It also made the image look softer and with less flaws, as it took away all of the blemishes. As you can see in the .gif below, the layer which carries the mask includes a Gaussian Blur and a High Pass, which when combined, create a slightly blurred and smoother looking surface.

Music Video

Because our video is a one shot, we didn't have very much editing to do. In order to try and make the music video a bit more exciting, we decided to add some effects at the beginning and the end of the video. For the beginning of the video we decided to have a Fade In, as we think it eases the viewer into Ava's world; it is also something that we noticed in some of our references. For example, Kate Nash's Mouthwash has a fade in at the beginning, as does Amy McDonald's Don't Tell Me That It's Over.

Kate Nash's OMYGOD! music video also features this convention

Amy McDonald's Don't Tell Me That It's Over music video uses a fade in at the beginning

For the ending of the music video, we decided on an Iris Round effect, as a lot of the music videos we looked at had this transition at some point during them;

Lily Allen includes this effect at the beginning and end of her Alfie music video

Kate Nash also uses this effect at the end of her Pumpkin Soup video

In order to achieve this effect, I added an Iris Round video transition and reversed it, then I also moved the position of the Iris Round effect so that the shot would show only Ava's smiling face at the end.