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

PlanningDuring my planning stages I used a variety of new media technologies to help display my work on my blog in innovative ways. This proved effective as it made it easier accessible when looking back at it when constructing my music video.  The softwares I used would not be around if it wasn't for the coming out of web 2.0, the fact that audiences, like myself, can upload their own work.

Obviously the main new media technology I used to display all my work was blogger as it allowed me to post my work on-line, even if the work was originally created in a different software.  I used blogger as it allowed me to keep track of all my work seamlessly this proved very important in the pre-production stage of my music video. Blogger enabled me to creatively display my work as I could embed things from other software's as well as use the text and image format that blogger provided. I was also able to personalise my blog by changing the background, I made it so it fitted with my theme, the red connoting as sexual and girly. Another thing I was able to personalise was the format of my blog, for this I used 'snapshot' which instead of showing the post showed a picture which you'd click to view the relevant post. This differed to how I chose to show it last year as I did not realise you could do this. Last year I had simple text and image display which didn’t look as innovative and fun.

NegativesThere were also restrictions when using blogger as sometimes when adding a picture to my post it would not let me freely move it around. This was problematic as it made so the picture may not be in the relevant part of the post creating confusion to the reader and myself when looking back at it at a later stage. Also the text would occasionally appear bulky and often moved around after publishing the post this proved problematic as it made the post seem unprofessional.

Another software I used was Prezi this was an easy software to pick up as it was based around power point.  This software allowed me to creatively create my work ready for it to be displayed on blogger. This software allowed me to create innovative PowerPoint-like presentations using a single canvas, I thought it would be a good idea to use Prezi as it was a more interesting way of displaying my work. I used Prezi a number of times throughout my work such as 'Diary Entry- second day of filming' this was a lot easier than presenting my work straight on to Prezi as I had more control over the placement of my text and image.

Negatives

Some of the tools on this software are difficult to grasp, such as adding in more 'slides'. It took me a long time to figure that out but once I had grasped it I could then do it effortlessly. Also unlike PowerPoint there is a real restriction on the typography and colour scheme meaning that I could not be as creative as I wanted and it was harder to get my work to reflect my music video. This was over come by choosing a more suitable template but obviously this was still limited making it so some of my templates were unrelated.

Furthermore I also used slide share during the pre-production stage of my work. This allowed me to post PowerPoint presentations on-line and embed them on to my blog. This proved useful for the work that needed more analysis of description meaning that it was more text heavy. It also made it so my blog was not took up by heavily texted work so the condensed form of a power point was very effective. This programme was simple and easy to use as you created the slideshare on power point, something I was very familiar to and then uploaded it to slideshare. Once this was done it gave you the code to embed proving it very easy.

NegativesA negative of this software was that it made the PowerPoint a lot smaller so when put on the big screen the quality had downgraded. It was also slow at times which made it hard when it came to uploading my work. This meant I had to wait a long time after the completion of my work to show it and then use it later on during a later stage. 

Another new software I used was Wix, this allowed me to create a website on my chosen area at that time. This allowed my viewers to be active when looking at my planning as the website had a number of pages. I also had a number of little things that i could put on to my work to liven it up and make it more interesting. Also, as I could insert a picture and text boxes anywhere it allowed me to annotate magazine adverts freely, something which isn't possible to do on blogger or slideshare effectively. 

NegativesAs I was new to this quite complex software it took a well to familiarise myself as there were a lot of editing techniques that I could use to make the website better some of these tools were very difficult to grasp and it took me a long time to create the website. At one point I thought I had finished but the links were not working, this proved very annoying and tedious. It also didn't turn out as effective as I wanted as there was no tool to embed it on to blogger, I had to put an address for the viewer to follow. This is something I felt made it look scruffy which is why I only used Wix once.

Green ScreenDuring pre-production Emily and I thought it would be a good idea to have a 'performance battle' to determine who would be the star image within our music video. We used the green screen as it was easy to set up, in fact we didn't even have to set it up so we could go straight in record and see who was better at acting/lip syncing. This was a valuable piece of technology due to the fact it allowed us to determine who was more suitable to be the star image.

NegativesThe negatives to this were obviously that the green screen would be different and look different to the wallpaper and fairy lights we would use in the real thing. Meaning that our action may not have been true to how we would of behaved if it were the real thing. 

Construction

I used an array of new technologies when creating my music video and ancillary task to help me ensure that they are professional and effective. I also used technologies that I had previously used.

Camera

To record my work I used a standard digital camera, this when put with a tripod allowed me to film effortlessly. This camera had the basic recording tools such as to zoom in and out, edit the picture by adjusting things such as the contrast as well as take pictures The footage could be simply uploaded to the mac by removing the SD card and placing it in the mac meaning that I could record and upload efficiently. I was already familiar with the camera as it was the same one I had used when filming my AS work.

Negatives

The cameras although effective were obviously not the best, this then meaning that the quality of video was not sufficient enough for that of belonging to the pop genre. This then meaning that we had to add effects on to the video during the post production stage.  Also the booking system at my College was not the best and it often took a while to get a camera. They would often make a lot of mistakes with this as well meaning that I would have to take it back and get a new one for silly reasons such as no battery or no SD card- something you would of though they would of checked!

Lighting

To go hand in hand with filming in the studio we had to make sure the lighting was effective. Lighting is a very important aspect when shooting as it can create the atmosphere, mood and style of the piece. This then proved an important piece of technology therefore we took great care when it came to the positioning of this.

Negatives

As the lights were quite big they were rather hard to move therefore positioning them correctly proved quite difficult. For this reason we had to ask a strong male friend to come and lift them and put them in to the position we wanted. If this had been neglected the lighting would of just looked off.

Iphone

I used my iPhone to take pictures of what we were doing for diary post, this proved easier than using the camera as we did not have to keep taking it off the tripod and switching it on to camera then putting it back on etc.. This meant that our time was used effectively. It also allowed us to take pictures for the ancillary tasks, this proved useful as I was able to add different effects to fit in with our vintage theme.

Negatives

At the same time as being easier than using a camera it also proved more difficult as both Emily and I lost the USB cable meaning that we had to email the photos from our phone to our email to then get them up on the mac. As the internet at Weston College is not the best it often took a long time for this to happen. Although once done the pictures could be simply downloaded and put on to the appropriate software this usually being Photoshop.

Post-Production StageThis refers to everything during the editing stage and what software I used for this.

Final CutThe most obvious software I used was Final cut Pro, this was the editing software I used to create my music video. This software as previously mentioned was very easy to use as I had already used in when creating my frame by frame and for creating my as coursework, a titling sequence. This software enabled me to easily edited my work by uploading them through the SD port, uploading it straight to final cut, ready for me to crop and cut the shots to the length I needed. I then could effortlessly drag them down and move them to make them fit to the music. This made sure that my lip sync was correct as this is the most important aspect of a music video.  This software also enable to me to add a variety of effects on to my work such as the kaleidoscope effect and the mirrored effect.  

Continued…These effects enhanced my work as the they help it fit more with the theme and look more exciting making the slow beat of the song seem more exciting. I also used this software during my evaluation stages, question one, this enabled me to be able to present my work as well as giving examples of my work to further reinforce what I was saying. This then proved effective as if my speech did not create a full understanding of what I was trying to put forward the picture would then clarify this. This style of presentation is also a lot more interesting than viewing text and image. I also used final cut during my diary entries, this was to show what I had done during the construction task.

Continued…I used out takes to do this as well as clips I had specifically recorded to show equipment and reasoning behind my construction. I then edited this on final cut to put my attempt at either close-ups or the long shots against Emily’s so we could really see who was doing better. I also used final cut to create my animatic, this is where we put the story board we made to the music. This proved very useful as it showed Emily and I that we did not have enough cuts and that the slow pace of the cuts made the song seem to drag on a lot. I also used it to put together my performance battle. This enabled me to clearly see the contrast between Emily and I so we could then see who was the better performer making them better fitted for the music video. I could then easily share my work on social networking sites like YouTube at the click of the bottom then whilst this shared I could simply and easily carry on with other work.

Negatives

However this software can also be quite slow, lagging at times making it quite difficult to complete work efficiently. This then means that a lot of time was wasted waiting for the work the render or even catch up with what I was doing. 

I used Dafont to locate the chosen font I wanted. This web address allows you to download fonts to your font book for free, unless they are being used for company reasons. This relates to what John Norton said in his newspaper article -25 things to do with the internet you didn't know' in guardian about the internet not being truly free. However as we were using this for educational purpose and were not a business we could use it for free. I had previously used this website as well, during my as year within media as well as without meaning that i was familiar with the website so no time was wasting in figuring out what to do.

NegativesA negative not for me but the company would be as you can download it free it runs the risk of piracy as the fonts can be easily stolen. However a negative for me is the it took a while to download the font as my college has a block on downloading things meaning that we had to wait awhile for this block to be lifted and then downloaded it during the short period it was unblocked, this was obviously slightly annoying but nothing that effect our work gravely. 

I used Photoshop to create both of my ancillary tasks a software that I had no previously used. This software allowed me to edit the pictures with an array of professional effects. It also allowed me to edit my chosen typography to make it more readable. I did this by downloading a font from Dafont into my font book which could be accessed when using Photoshop. To start with you could not clearly see the font but by using different effects, one of these effects was called Liner Light. This then enhanced the visibility of my work making my work look more professional.

NegativesHowever Photoshop was quite difficult to get my head around as I was not familiar with it. This then meant that I often had ask for external help. This was often hard are the person familiar with this, Mark, was often not in. Therefore we resort to the trial and error technique to get our head around the software. This then meant we were wasting time trying to figure out what to do instead of actually doing it. However this in a way is positive as it taught us how to use the software so later on in life when it is needed to use it again we will then have the prior knowledge to do so.

Sure I will help you :)

Distribution

We distributing our work using web 2.0 software such as YouTube. This is because this is what are target audience use due to the fact they are digital natives rather than digital immigrant.

I used YouTube to distribute my music video as on final cut I was able to export it straight on to there and embed it on to my blog. I was also then able to post this on to many other social networking sites to easily gain feedback. YouTube enabled me to title my work, write a description and add tags to it so that viewers can/could easily locate it.  This then making YouTube one of the most useful pieces of soft-wares that I used and defiantly is the most useful distributing software I have used.  YouTube also allowed me to look at the statistics surrounding my music video post so I was able to see who was watching and how they were viewing it. This proved effective as it enabled me to realise if i had correctly targeted my marketability of which I had this was evident through the way in which my video was viewed, mostly on Tablets this is a product that mostly 17-23 year olds have, my target audience.

ContinuedThey could also leave various comments and like the video this would then help me make modifications to my music video especially when they commented on my draft work. This also helped show me that my marketability liked my video as they were leaving positive comments showing that my music video must be successful to gain this. As well as being used in this stage it was also used in my research and planning stage to look at already exciting music videos to see what made them so good. This was useful as it also helped me gather information on the conventions of music videos and in particular the conventions of my chosen genre, pop.  This then enabled me to create a professional music video which is what I originally set out to try to create.

Negatives

However as the internet is a ‘free for all’ anyone could document on my work therefore I had a few people commenting on my video with things that were irrelevant, what they thought was funny. This was in actual fact tedious and annoying as I wanted constructive feedback to help make my music video the best of its ability.

I then shared this YouTube link on twitter to help broaden my feedback as it is said on the channel four 'Urban Tribe' website that my marketability, RAHS and Trendies, will often visit/use this website. Twitter now has broaden its marketability as well as it can be a useful website enabling people to meet others with the same interests through 'hash tagging' meaning that it opens it up to a wider audience of different tribes. 

Negatives

A negative of using Twitter is that it is unlikely that someone that you are not friends with to comment no matter how many followers you have, unless you are famous obviously! Meaning that even though I tried to gain a wider range of feedback I was still stuck with getting feedback from friends. Although a few different people did comment each time I posted something meaning that I still gathered more feedback to help ensure my end products were professional and effective. 

I also shared my work on Facebook, this enabling family and friends to comment on it. I posted my draft work as well as the final pieces so that I would get constructive feedback to I could improve my piece to make it to the best of my ability.  This was easier than gathering feedback from Facebook and Twitter as different urban tribes were able to comment on it all from different age groups, as I have family members on there who are older than my marketability. So I would then increase my chances of getting more feedback from a diverse audience.  They were also allowed to simply 'like' the post a lot easier than commenting and my music video received a lot of likes meaning that it was well liked by my audience.

6th February 2014

6th February 2014

6th February 2014

Negatives

Again, like Facebook it enabled for anyone to comment on it so occasionally I got the odd 'funny' comments. However the positive comments outweighed this. Again it was mostly friends that commented on my post, however a few family members also did so making it so my audience was widen. They left positive comments meaning that my video also appealed to them. However as they are family there is an element of bias in there as they would not want to upset me !

6th February 2014

6th February 2014

Overall I used a range of new media technologies that are only available to me today because of web 2.0. Which without would have prevented me from creating products that look realistic and professional. That I also felt proud to have created. However I feel that if I was not a digital native I would not of been able to achieve what I have because the new software would just be too new and complex for someone born before the internet era to understand.

Ne

Also the ability to use all this new media technology comes at a price, all the work I have posted to the internet now belongs to the internet and anyone can download/use it. This also means that anyone can comment on it, even abusive language. As even though the big corporations feel they have the most control, I personally feel they do not have the time to troll through every comment meaning some are left unnoticed. So far this has not really happened to my work, well besides the ‘jokesters’!

Continued