Task Number Four: A director’s commentary on how I used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.

New media technologies are evolving within our media industry more and more each day. Everywhere we go we are hit by new media technologies in some way even in small things such as a mobile phone like the iphone. Back in the day everything used to be done in Analogue. Analogue used to capture the image, scramble all the data and send it through the airwaves and the data would then unscramble on your television this whole process is only one way and an analogue camera cost about £60,000-100,000. Because the data is so large the televisions only had room for about five channels on the frequency and as well as that if you filmed with analogue whatever you were filming had to be lit perfectly. However nowadays we have converted to digital, digital means tht it is all done with binary codes, i.e. 1 & 0. Because it is done in binary code all the information is compressed, it is so small that it allows for far more channels, for example Sky has about 1000 channels.

Digital also allows you to edit footage and change the lighting if you didn’t get it right when filming. It cost far less at £3,500-4,000 and as well as that it can work both ways, people sitting at home can interact and place bets on horses or switch between what event at the Olympics they want to watch. The advantages of digital are fantastic, it is fast, cheap, easy and has a much better quality. Another way of putting this is QPCI. Quality – it has about 50 picture quality and 100 sound quality. Proliferation – number of channels. Convergence – merging together. Interactivity – allowing viewers to interact on programs.

New media technologies have helped with our music video in all five stage of production: Research and development, Planning Stages, Construction, Post Production and Distribution and Evaluation

Research and development has improved with new media technologies with the invention of the Internet. We used this to research our target audience, the competition, and the music industry and also to find props, costume and location. We also looked at TV, DVDs and watched videos on our iPods to get ideas for our music video these are other new media technology. As well as that we also watched several YouTube videos to get a better idea of other music videos and again check out the competition.

For the planning part of our music video I believe new media technology helped us a lot. We used digital stills taken from a camera and created a digital storyboard. Before digital technology we would not have been able to see if our music video would piece together and with this new technology we can see if the whole concept and idea of our video would work and if it didn’t, it would allow us to change it before it was too late. We could also camera test our band members to see if their faces worked well on camera. And once again the internet helped us again for planning as it was very easy to email all the cast and crew the call sheet with maps, pictures etc. which was far easier than printing it out and sending it to them. For example it was very simple for me to email the call sheet to the cast and crew, instead of printing it all off and sending it to people where it may get lost in the post.

New media technology has changed the way we can construct and shoot a music video for example in our music video shoot we filmed with the JVC 1500 and the Sony 21, these cameras are easy to use, speedy, high quality and allows you to shoot a great deal of footage. We probably shot about 192 shots and only used about 62 of those. This means we shot on a ratio of 3:1 which is fantastic. The higher the ratio the better, as cameras are smaller and easier to carry around and they have a longer tape it is so much easier to film nowadays. For example when we were filming our feather shots we had to constantly shoot, pick up all the feathers and redo it. Because nowadays shooting is as simple as pressing a button and shooting we could easily shoot a variety of shots and be more creative. Analogue cameras were huge and far more difficult to carry round so shots had to be good. They also didn’t have a long tape so you had to be accurate. However with digital you can just stick the camera where you need it and press the button to film. For example we were able to do a number of tracking shots several times around the birdcage, which wouldn’t have been possible with analogue. New media technologies also make green screen and blue screen possible. The 0,1 binary numbers are simply downed to erase green or blue and you can simply place in another image.

The invention of Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro, we can now edit our music videos a lot quicker and more effectively. It is simple enough to assemble a rough cut and then also allows you to be creative and detailed in your final cut. For example when editing our pop video we put in all our favorite shots very roughly and then edited it down and made it all work together. As well as this the advancement of new media technologies allows us to add special effects and other interesting elements to our videos such as better sound and editing the lighting. For example we were able to used colour correction on our video as our lighting was all uneven at parts, we were also able to apply a diffused glow to some of our shots to make the video more ethereal.

The distribution and evaluation thanks to new media technology has been made so much easier. We can get our music video to our viewer minutes after we have finished editing it thanks to YouTube, MySpace and other websites. The distribution is also made much easier thanks to email, there is no chance of it getting lost in the post. It is quick, easy and has good quality. Also by posting it on a website everybody can access it.

For evaluation new media technology or digital technology has changed the media landscape. On youtube you can reach tens of millions potentially, get their details, comments and reactions and change your product accordingly if you wish. Using facebook and twitter, email and a website for the singer you can drive people to the youtube offering of the pop video and get more and more reactions as you go. If you can place your pop video and song on an electronic download site again you can get reaction from many people really quickly. All of this in terms of evaluation was impossible before new media technology arrived.

Overall thanks to new media technologies creating a music video has become far more efficient. Not only is it quick, easy and has far better quality but it also allows us to be more creative and experimental with our work. Creativity is the key word here as the film industry thrives on 'originality, value and purpose in creativity as defined by a government report that stated that these where crutial and depended greatly on new media technology'. (A Brighter Future, Department of Education 2006).