Q1a - Digital Technologies

AS
For my AS coursework, the majority of my research and planning was done using PowerPoint and Prezi. A few of the posts may have used videos, however these would have been created on Windows Movie Maker, whereas for A2 I used Premiere instead, as well as recording myself for Production Diaries.
To create my product I used Adobe InDesign. It was the first time that I had used such a professional software system as my preliminary task was made purely on Photoshop. Using Adobe InDesign taught me many different skills such as how to re-link items, place photographs and create new pages with the same layout, i.e. having the page numbers in the same places.
On of the main things that I learnt in AS was how to edit my photographs properly and how to take them in such a way that they looked more stylish and professional. Using a 550D Canon camera and a 1.8 50mm aperture lens allowed me to take images in a place with a busy background without the attention being taken away from my model. For example, the majority of my photographs were taken in a graffiti park, therefore the aperture lens focused on the model, whilst still showing the urban background in shallow focus.

I used the 'affects tool' on photoshop CS5 to add a 'cool water' effect to all of my photographs which increased the saturation slightly and made them look more artistic.

A2
For the majority of my research and planning software such as Prezi, PowerPoint and videos has been used. Prezi is an online presentation website which allows you to type information into different text boxes in a variety of styles and is presented by zooming into each text box on the page. This is a more effective way of presenting information as you can easily break up the text, rather than writing it all as an essay.

PowerPoint presentations were used for a few of the planning and research tasks too, but the most effective was when it was used to show the several drafts of the ancillary products and how they had progressed. On the presentation, it was possible to line up the images to show the progression of each ancillary product and using a text box, an explanation of the changes that had been made could be written very easily.
This year, videos seemed to be a very effective way of recording production diaries on the go. The front camera on an Apple iPhone 5S was used to record reflections of the work that had been completed at different stages and this method of creating production diaries was especially useful when trying to track the thought process that went into creating these products.

To create the Digipak and Magazine Advert, Adobe InDesign CS6 was used. Using the page layout tool, an A4 size was chosen and the main image was placed onto the page using the File-Place action. Once the image had been inserted, the text tool was used in order to type out the name of the artist and the title of the album. Before typing this text, different fonts were downloaded using Fontspace and dragged into an application called NexusFont which allows one to open several different fonts at once and use them on different documents. Using InDesign, the correct font was chosen and ‘Monique Todd’ and ‘Lovestrong’ was written out. After placing these at the top of the page, a different font that typed out floral borders was used to create a frame around the image. After readjusting the sizing and position, reviews were typed out and stars were created using the shape tool to show the rating of the album.
To create the A3 version of this poster, the action ‘Create alternative layout’ was used and the correct page size was chosen. Once this was completed, everything that was on the A4 poster was now also on an A3 version, therefore the only thing to do was to re-arrange the text and images to fit a landscape view.
Creating another alternative layout to the size 120mm x 120mm created a page that was the size of an album cover or digipak and just like with the A3 poster, this action had copied everything from the first A4 page too, therefore there was no need to re-type the information or place the same images in again. Some of the information that was unnecessary on a digipak front cover was deleted and others repositioned. Using the ‘add another page’ tool, it was possible to create the remaining three pages of the digipak that were the exact same size. This was more efficient as having to create each page separately then to edit the size of the pages would have been time consuming.
Once the other pages were created, the circular shape tool was used to create an outline of a CD. By clicking inside this outline then using the action ‘File-Place’ it was possible to fill just the CD shape with a photograph of an orchid. The opacity of this was changed using the ‘Image – Adjustments – Opacity’ action to make the orchid look more subtle.
The text tool was used to type out the letter of thanks from the artist and the ‘centre text’ tool allowed for the text to be aligned in the centre of the page. Additionally, by using the floral font, a border on the side of the page was easily created by typing the correct letter, and then rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise using the rotate button.

Next, in Photoshop, images of Monique were edited by adding an affect that lowered the saturation of the images. These images were then placed into small squares on the second page of the digipak and one in a rectangle across the back page. The corners of these squares were rounded to soften the look of the images. Using the text tool, the track list was then typed up and aligned correctly using the ‘centre text’ tool. This list was then dragged and placed under the photograph. As the background looked slightly too plain, it was decided that the same orchid image that was used on the CD should be used on this page as a low-opacity background therefore it was placed, sent behind the text and image and the opacity was dropped to around 30%.
All of the images used were taken using a 550D Canon camera and a 1.8 50mm aperture lens. This camera made it much easier to view and check the images as soon as they were taken to ensure that the images to be used were of the highest quality.

To create the music video itself, this same camera and lens was used, along with a tripod and crane. The aperture lens focuses on anything in the foreground, placing the background in shallow focus which automatically adds a more cinematic feel to the aesthetics of the video. During the studio shoot, two freestanding studio lights were used to create that spotlight effects and to ensure full focus was on Monique.
Using the 550D Canon, the ISO and shutter speed was changed as and when needed and the camera was put into manual mode, which meant that it was easy to ensure that the footage was well focused, even when the camera had moved position. When the filming took place in Hyde Park, the natural lighting could not be controlled; therefore it was helpful that the ISO could be easily altered to ensure that the footage looked as high quality as possible. The shutter speed could also be adjusted to ensure that small imperfections were not easily recognisable when watching the footage back, making the footage look more professional. When recording the studio footage, Monique was able to read the lyrics off of a screen while a lyric version of the song played on YouTube, which made the shooting process easier and made the miming look more fluid and natural.

Once all of my footage had been shot, I uploaded it to my computer from the SD card and dragged all of the shots into Adobe Premiere CS6. Using Premiere, each clip could be viewed and the ones that were of a high enough quality to use were dragged onto the timeline. The most helpful tool on Adobe Premiere CS6 was the single frame advance as it made it easier to match up the miming of the lyrics to the song itself. The ability to place footage and sound on different layers made it a lot easier to not only match the miming, but to know when to break up the studio footage by placing in a clip from Hyde Park as the length of each shot was easily visible. Therefore, if there was a clip from the studio that seemed particularly long, it was easy to place an external clip above it, on another layer.

Using the effects tool on Premiere, decent shots that looked too similar could be adapted by zooming in slightly and adding a horizontal flip which made the shots look like they were from various different angles and ensured that the video was not too monotonous for the audience to watch. For some shots from Hyde Park, or the ones in which Monique was twirling in the studio, the shot was slowed down by decreasing the percentage using the ‘speed/duration’ tool. This was done to add emphasis on certain parts of the video, for example when she takes a step on the line “one step closer…”

Lastly, once the video was complete, in the sense that all footage and sound was correctly placed on the timeline, the colour correction tool was used to ensure that all of the Hyde Park footage looked vibrant and that the studio footage looked professional and lit up by the spotlights.

The music video was rendered and exported then uploaded to a video website on the internet called Vimeo where it can easily be embedded, watched and shared.