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

Before we started creating our product we used technology. The main being the internet as this is where the majority of our research was undertaken. The use of the internet allowed us to use the website youtube to view and analysis existing videos whilst also letting us view existing websites also. WE also managed to use the social networking website, facebook, to arrange our film shoots for all the party scenes.

To create our video we used Final Cut due to wider range of opportunities it created for us than a standard piece of software like iMovie. The biggest bonus is the use of layers in Final Cut making editing footage easy and manageable rather than in one long timeline.

The most advanced use of the technology was used when splitting the screen. The first stage of this was layering the video clips. As said previously this is a huge advantage on less advanced software and would have hindered our project if not possible. with the layers arranged we moved the clip we wanted to start with into the central viewer and used the tabs at the top of the viewer to edit settings to move the clip on the screen. For example, crop and opacity. When creating the split screen we used the motion tab to rescale the individual clips to arrange them on the screen fitting two or more clips on to the same viewer. To polish of the effect of the split screen we feathered the edges to create a smoother transition from one clip to the other intertwining the characters on the screen better.

By feathering the clips they become one clip rather than separate clips requiring separate attention.

This split screen was again adapted for the scene in the bathroom with our main character looking in to a mirror and seeing a bear mask. However, the cropping had to be much tighter this time without feathering edges to create one image. Feathering the edges would have blurred the edges of the clip making it look like two separate takes on the camera rather than one. To help this we had to make sure our filming was tight and the camera was not allowed to move. This took a few attempts by getting our main character to try different reactions. We settled with a less dramatic reaction as the camera was moving when our main character jumped back in shock.

A more subtle use of Final Cut was playing with the contrast of shots. This was for the flashback clips. We were able to add a more grainy grey colour to them separating them from the rest of the footage. This symbolised looking back with hazy judgement due to the influence of alcohol at a party. These clips were much easier to create as they were pre-set under the Video Filters tab.

To create our website we used Adobe Dreamweaver. This is a professional website development software. It allows you to do many different things other software can not and is linked with all other Adobe products. This is extremely important as we used Photoshop for our digipak and Flash for elements of our website.

To create our website we used a mix of flash and HTML code. The hardest part of the website to create was the scroll box using HTML. This is because although it is easy to find a rough code template on the internet it is hard to manipulate to create our own and create the style we want.

To do this we needed to first generate the code with all our text in to it. This is easier than trying to type what we wanted in the area manually. With this simple code created externally we had to modify the widths and height to fit our website. We also then changed the colour of text and added a horizontal rule to separate the information.

To ensure all media we put into our website was viewable when hosted we imported all photos, videos and animations in to a folder to link to. This folder would have to be on the server of the person hosting our website. This is a simple stage in creating the website and ensuring it works properly once hosted but can easily be forgotten and often causes mistakes with websites due to content missing.

For all the animated elements of the website they were created in Adobe Flash. As stated earlier it is linked with the same package as Dreamweaver making it easily compatible. The animations were imported as movie files to play without being on a loop. This therefore looks like a heading and menu system rather than a separate part of the website. Due to the black background and same colours it ties in well and makes the whole webpage look seamless.

Our digipak was created in Adobe Photoshop with a huge focus of the idea being done with editing the original photos. This is because a huge influence of ours was The Horrors Primary Colours with its blurred image. Our final digipak accomplished this well with us also managing to get similar colours of The Horrors digipak unintentionally.

In Photoshop we took down the opacity of our

band photo and then layered with the television static. Consequently we added a guassian blur affect to achieve the bright glow. To complete the album artwork we placed in our logo and added a glow to match the television.

The back of the digipak was made by importing our chosen photo. We believed it would be a good idea to go along with a theme of keeping the identity of the band hidden. This was taken from the blur on the front cover and the hidden identity of the video. With our chosen photo we zoomed in and played around with what fragmented image would appear in different positions. The first idea was a picture of my neck and ear until we found the two bottoms faces together. We had to however, play with the contrast and hue to ensure the same colours from the front of the cover carried on. This was also applied to the inside panel.