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Technology, and particularly the internet, played a vital role when searching for our unsigned band to base our project on. For this reason, we chose to use the website www.unsigned.com, which holds a database of unsigned artists, and enables us to listen to their music, and is an great way for websites to gain exposure with record labels, with reasonably little financial outlay, which is ideal for small bands with relatively little income. Sites such as this are another good example of how the internet has made music distribution more democratic, and shows that nowadays, money and fame are not necessarily the key to success. This acted as a very good starting point for our research, allowing us to compare the different genres of music available. With this website, it is possible to add favourite music and artists to the music player, enabling us to develop a shortlist of potential tracks, which we could then filter down. In addition, the free logon to the site was shared with other members of the group, so that everyone can access it, and add to the playlist.
Social networks also played a key role in our project, as with many unsigned bands, social media is the only way to get in contact. This is why we used social media to contact potential bands, and ask for permission to use their songs in our project. This proved to be a very successful method, as we contacted our chosen band, Chasing Tigers, successfully through Facebook.
Email was another medium we used when contacting potential bands. As you can see above, we sent lots of emails out, to try and request permission from bands to use their music in our project. This was our preferred method of contact, as it is free and gives a more professional feel in comparison to social networking sites, which often have message character limits, which means vital information often has to be withheld.
Whilst undertaking our research, technology played a vital role yet again. By using YouTube, we could watch lots of different music videos, both those that have been produced professionally and in an ameteur fashion, from a variety of genres, to gain an idea of the conventions that are usually included in such videos. Again, this was an effective method, as it was easily accessible, and as YouTube is available on a variety of platforms, it made carrying out research much easier. In addition, lots of content is available on YouTube for us to study, meaning that we could use a wide variety of videos for our research. 
This project has given us the opportunity to develop our video filming skills, when compared to our foundation production at AS level. When producing a music video, we knew that it was vital to include lots of unique and interesting shots, and that we had to be more creative with our shot types. Because of this, we used platforms when shooting the production part of our video to enable us to get some high angle shots, whilst also appreciating the value of occasional handheld shots, which adds to the authenticity of the project. With this project, we also developed a steady-pan technique which we learned from YouTube, whereby the tripod is slowly tilted forward onto its front two legs, and the head of the tripod panned upwards, creating a smooth, moving motion. We used this for a shot with the drum kit, which proved to be incredibly effective. 
Filming our live performance section also demanded the utilisation of a wide variety of skills. In order to sustain an appropriate pace when editing, it is important to get lots of shots from many different angles when filming, which is often very difficult to achieve with just one camera. For this reason, we dedicated a whole day to filming this section of our video, meaning that we could run the song multiple times, enabling us to get lots of shots. In addition to our main HD camera, we also had a secondary camera in use, along with an iPhone, which could be used to get close up shots of certain instruments, with the 1080p HD camera sustaining good enough quality for our project.
As we did in our AS project, it was also important to ensure that a tripod was used at all times for steady shots, and that we used the tools on the tripod, including the built in spirit level, to keep the shots steady. Furthermore, when panning, this movement should not be completed too quickly, so that the viewer does not begin to feel ill. It is also important to consider the framing and composition of each shot, using techniques such as the Golden Mean line and Rule of Thirds to ensure that a shot is constructed correctly.
This project also gave me the opportunity to develop my editing skills. We predominantly used iMovie to edit our project, and with this production, I developed the challenging skill of syncing the drums, guitar and vocals to the track provided by the band. This skill takes great precision, and I developed this skill by completing a short preliminary task before our main project, so that we could get practice at this.
In comparison to our Foundation Production, this project required much a faster editing to be performed. This meant that more care and attention needed to be taken over the edit, and often involved lots of precision work using the built in clip adjuster, which allows you to adjust the length of a clip numerically (see right). Below is a video tutorial I have prepared, which explains the basic skills needed to edit in iMovie:
Although iMovie allows for basic editing adjustments to be made, more advanced software needed to be used to create some of the more creative elements of our video. For that reason, NCH VideoPad for Windows needed to be used to create the section where the photos of James & Jess are overlaid into the scene (see right), as we felt that this effect would hold the audience’s attention, as they want to find out the link between the photo album and the overlaid images. By using NCH VideoPad, I could overlay the selected shots for a very small amount of time, and then adjust the transparency, to control which shot appeared more dominant. I could also control the filter effects used on the images. Once this was completed, I then exported this complete section, and re-imported it back into iMovie for inclusion within the rest of the project.
We also used other pieces of software to create some other sections of our music video. For example, the stop-motion sections of our video were made by take a series of still photographs, kept steady with the use of a tripod, and then edited in Windows Live Movie Maker, by playing each photograph for just 0.2 seconds. When played back, this gives the illusion of movement, and could then be imported back into our iMovie project.
When creating this project, we did encounter a few problems. When filming the performance part of our video, it was important the lighting was correct, so we invested a lot of time in ensuring that this looked as good as possible. We used the pre-installed lighting rig of our staging environment to provide a general wash effect, and then installed some parcans on the floor, pointing up at the band members, to focus in onto the people on stage, which proved to be very effective. It was important to ensure that as well as the lighting looking like it may in a typical staging environment, all of the band members could be seen, and that there were no issues with shadows, as it was important to ensure that no shadows of tripods or of the camera operator appeared in the shot. To overcome this, we did a few initial shots on the filming day, and then reviewed the footage on the camera, to ensure that it looked acceptable.
One of the largest technical issues that we encountered during the project occurred after our first shoot day when we filmed the performance element. After the shoot, we discovered that the camera settings had been changed prior to our shoot taking place, and these settings had meant the camera recorded all of the day’s footage in AVCHD format. Although this format produces extremely high quality footage, which was good for our project overall, the .MTS files produced are not compatible with iMovie. Therefore, it took around two days for a computer to convert all of our footage into .MOV files using Prism File Converter, due to the size of the original files created, so that they could be imported into iMovie and then be edited. Learning from this issue, we ran more tests with the camera prior to completing the 2nd and 3rd days of our filming, to ensure that the camera produced the footage in .MOV files, because as our 14 day free trial of Prism File Converter would run out before the next filming days, and because budget limitations of the project meant that we would not be able to purchase the software, it was imperative that the problem was rectified before next use of the camera.
The narrative section of our video was filmed across two consecutive days in three locations, including Peterborough, Morton Fen and Skegness, and for the continuity aspect of our video to work, it was preferable that the weather conditions were similar across the two days.
For this reason, we used a weather app on my smartphone to monitor the weather over the two days in the days leading up to our filming, to try and pick the best time frame for filming, and to adjust our production schedule accordingly.
Although we were reasonably lucky with the weather over the two days of filming, when we were filming in Morton Fen, it did start to rain somewhat. Although this did not really affect the final outcome of our video, and is not really noticeable in the video, we did have to protect the camera equipment with a plastic reusable bag, so that it did not get damaged. It was, of course, important to partially remove the section of plastic bag covering the lens cover when filming, so that the shots did not appear blurry, although this was monitored throughout the shoot.
Overall, we were reasonably lucky with the weather, as it was relatively overcast and gloomy whilst in Peterborough and Morton Fen, which represents negativity, whilst being sunny in Skegness, which reflects the positivity and a new beginning. When creating our ancillary tasks, technology also greatly assisted us. We used Adobe Photoshop to edit the eye for the front cover, and by layering orange stripes and gold effect spray to make the eye more realistic. By doing this, we developed our skills in using specialist photo editing software, so that the final product was as good as possible. A video explaining the skills needed to edit with Adobe Photoshop can be found below:
To create our digipak, we also used Microsoft Publisher. This premium Desktop Publishing Software product allowed us to use a template sourced from the internet to get the sizes of the digipak exactly right, again adding to the realism. As we already had experience with creating products using Microsoft Publisher, we could ensure that our product appeared to be as good as possible.
Our website required specialist programming knowledge to be produced successfully, whilst being inline with industry standard programming languages. Using my skills that I have developed whilst studying Website Production as part of my BTEC ICT course, I wrote the HTML and CSS coding out for our website myself. To build my website, I wrote the coding in Notepad, which is an application installed on all Windows computers. Although this software is not particularly advanced, it provided the ideal platform to write my HTML and CSS coding from.
Once I had completed my website, I then used a website domain that I had previously created to upload our site onto the internet. To do this, I used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software to upload my website to the server, which is hosted remotely. By doing this, it ensured that our website is accessible by our audience as easily as possible.
Whilst undertaking our advanced production, we also used other pieces of technology to produce our work. Blogger is a service that we have used very often, to evidence our research, planning, construction and evaluation for our project. By using Blogger, we can present our work using a variety of media forms, including images, text, video and presentations, and makes adding work easy, because it is accessible from web browsers, and also from mobile applications.
To present our work in an interactive manner, we also used Prezi. This enables us to present our work in an engaging and interesting way for the audience, and can also combine text, videos and images to further enhance our work.
The internet has played a pivotal role in the exhibition of our products. Once our product had been completed, we uploaded it to YouTube, so that when people searched for Chasing Tigers or Idols & Upsets, they would come across our video. This helped to increase the exposure of our product, and as most of our audience will use the internet as their primary method of accessing our website and music video. YouTube is the most popular video website, with 900,000,000 unique monthly visitors, compared to NetFlix, which is in 2nd place, with 55,800,000 visitors a month, so is by far the most sensible video streaming service that we should use. In addition, viewers can choose to share our video via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, again increasing the reach of the site.
We also shared our video on our Facebook profiles, as this increases the amount of people who will be able to view our music video. To increase viewability further, we could also have considered creating a Facebook Page for our band, so that fans of the band would be able to see our music video there.
The internet played a vital role in the exhibition of our website also, as the primary method for viewing our website is via the internet. We used web servers to host our website, so that it can be viewed by fans, and the development of technology in recent years, with smartphones and tablets becoming more popular, has meant that it is easier than ever for fans to access our site.
By exhibiting all of our products on the internet, a large amount of people were able to see and access our works. It also means that, as our research showed the majority of our audience were young people, most of our target audience will either hear about or interact with our products. Because of this, and because of how influential the internet is within the music industry, there is the potential for interest about Chasing Tigers to increase, which is one of the main goals of the three products we have produced.
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