Using new Media and mulitmedia to create research evidence

4.    PLEASE remember that you need to provide EVIDENCE of your research for marking purposes so you should use your phones/dept cameras to take pictures of you working on your ideas or even mini videos. Blogging is an electronic form and has been chosen by the exam board for this reason – it allows you to provide lots of multimedia evidence to show how you worked. It is a KEY area in the marking and you must take advantage of the opportunity to maximise your marks whilst you can – later will be TOO LATE. You can record meetings on paper or by photograph or video and you can also take photos of your plans, ideas, different versions of your plans as you work on them and change them – you can even use screenshots to show how things have developed. You will be competing with others who are doing this as a matter of routine so make sure you make the most of it. It is also important to remember that you WILL be writing about this process in the exam so thinking about how you used new technology (for example) to help you to research and prepare for your project now will not only improve your marks but help you later in the year. Basically think PROOF that you did research, showing PROGRESS and PROCESS using MULTIPLE TYPES OF MEDIA, including ‘new’ media technology as well as things like Facebook and Twitter. For example, although you cannot access FB in school, you may use it to talk to each other in your groups and to arrange meetings. Similarly you might use Twitter. The use of your phones to take pictures when you’re out and about of potential filming locations and to record ideas or tracks, to bookmark Youtube videos you like etc will all help you both NOW and in your exam later…take this as a SERIOUS HINT!!

Final Cut Express Training

3.    You also need to look though the FINAL CUT EXPRESS training videos. Miss will give you all a brief idea of the kinds of special effects that can be created in FCE and she will put up videos that show how to do some of the special effects – these will be linked to the YOUTUBE channel and available on the blog, linked under the “Technical Help” tab. The BASIC training videos are located on TEACHING RESOURCES/STUDENT/Media Studies/Final Cut Express training. You will see there are instruction videos numbered 1-10 and also an item called “Exercises”. It is in this item (‘Exercises”) that you will find the PROJECT versions of the FCE files the training refers to – in other words, you watch the video tutorial and you DO THE EXERCISE shown in the tutorial by opening the corresponding FCE project file in the ‘Exercises’ folder. These are all .fcp file types and will open in Final Cut ready for you to try out. You do not need to do the introduction videos unless you want to as these are really only the outlines of how the training works and what you will cover. Each is LABELLED with what is covered in each video and these are professional videos used across the world and as such are organised very effectively and efficiently for you to follow in the order they are presented.

Pitches and Groups

2.    You MUST now approach Miss with your proposed group and you should be working on a pitch to present – there are examples of pitches in your pack (and you can research them on the internet) but it is advisable to give an oral outline to how you expect things to roughly work before writing too much down in case your idea or track is rejected. When your initial ideas are approved in principle, you need to present the pitch properly which is a brief outline of the video, with what will roughly happen when with some outline visuals (like a very basic/sparse storyboard). Once your pitch has been approved, you should then be working on your storyboard in full detail. This MUST be completed by the END OF NEXT WEEK – the 11^th November, 2011. Filming will commence from 11^th November. YOU SHOULD BE DOING THIS NOW IN CLASS TIME.

Research Tasks

1.    Research at least three music videos and write an analysis – one of these can be the music video you already prepared and presented in class. These MUST be put on the blog. As they will form a key part of your blog and will be marked as research and so COUNT DIRECTLY as part of your coursework overall grade, the analyses should be detailed and sophisticated, using as many elements of theory we have covered as you can manage.

Vernallis Article

Carol Vernallis the Kindest Cut Original Article

Adjusting your images for LRRH

If you can't see your scans properly when you've uploaded them, if you open them on the MAC using PREVIEW (which should be the default programme), then you can adjust the settings so they are clear.

With the image open in preview, choose TOOLS and then ADJUST COLOURS - move the sliders around until the image is really clear and then save. This will change your image. You can then upload them (again) onto blogger and they will be viewable :)

LRRH Instructions

1. Scan and upload your 30 (ish) length storyboard. Discuss how it is disjunctive (refer page 14 in your packs) and how this reflects Goodwin.

2. Having had roughly half the frames removed at random, reflect on how what you now have is not just disjunctive but also a fragmented narrative. What would you fill the gaps with? Explore/Explain how this meets with the conventions of music videos generally (as generic conventions) and perhaps you might mention that not all MVs follow this pattern _ some are all narrative and some all performance. You might give some examples and even link some!

3. Choose (or get someone else to choose) about 4 frames of your shorter version. Storyboard these in more focus so you can see exactly how many shots you are actually going to need to shoot if this were a real video - this will help you to see how much footage you will need when it comes to your coursework - you should find that your initial 4 shots becomes very many more. REMEMBER to focus on using all the techniques we explored when discussing Vernallis - that is use of frames, space, camera movement etc - revise or prepare for this by going back and seeing what we highlighted in class and looking at the notes in the pack. Finally reflect on what you have learnt from this process and perhaps come up with some ideas as to how you will use your learning in your work.

REMEMBER to label your posts effectively - you can use MORE THAN ONE - think of using words like - disjunctive, fragmented narrative, vernallis, reflection etc etc