Task: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions in Video

Task: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Task: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Task: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used technology a lot throughout the process. I recognized and recorded the uses of technology I found most significant.

iMessage

As the group all owned iPhones, we decided to create an iMessage group, through which we communicated and discussed ideas. This helped keep the group organized and avoided errors of communication, especially over the holiday, where we didn't see each other.

Additionally, it allowed us to share images with each other. For example, potential costumes for the video or digipak designs.

iPhone Camera

 We used the 8-megapixel iSight in-built camera of the iPhone 5 to record all rehearsals. The iPhone's camera may not be the exact same as the cameras we used for the final video, but the quality is very good for a phone camera and allowed us to get a basic idea of what things would look like. We used it when recording the background girls and when recording Hannah roller skating.

We also used the iphone camera to record the footage which makes up the animatic as well as take photos of the potential locations for filming.

the runway photo

Camera

For the purpose of filming, we decided to use a Sony NX5 digital camera. We set it up on a tripod for most of filming, to keep the camera straight but we later took it off the tripod and use it as a handheld. This camera is very high quality and capable of shooting slow-motion, which we used for various shots, including the glitter shot at the end.

We used extreme close-ups to capture the attitude of the performer's face.

We also used wide-shots so that we could get the performer's clothes inside the shot. This is important as we wanted to stress the theme of fashion. We hooked the camera up to a screen so we could see what the footage would look like.

Wix

I found the free online Wix website editor at wix.com to be a hugely significant part of the process. Wix is a free online website editor. Without Wix, we wouldn't be able to easily make a professional website. We included a landing page with a strong image which immediately showed the viewer exactly what our performer was about.

Wix has many features which make it easy to use, including page templates, which allowed us to create a new page for a new purpose whilst keeping the same style throughout. Our priority was to keep the design as simple as possible. We put the Maria logo at the top of the page at all times, above a menu of options and a reminder that the new video is currently on YouTube.

For our photo gallery, we decided on a simple three column layout so that we could fit many photos on the same page but keep it simple at the same time.

We included a social page dedicated to fake Facebook and Instagram accounts for Maria. Social media is a huge part of a performer's communication with their fans

Adobe Premier

We used Adobe Premier to edit the video. This involved cutting the clips so that clip changes occurred on the beat as well as syncing the lyrics with the actresses mouth.

Lighting

We used various lights including a spotlight and movers (remote control lights). This added a sense of professionalism to the video and made everything look a lot nicer. We wanted to recreate the smooth background effect of the Irish Missguided advert with a faded spotlight effect.

As seen here, lighting can make a huge difference to the mood and look of a video,

The Missguided video, which we took inspiration from.

Our video. Using lighting, we tried to replicate the effect.