A2 Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used a range of new media technologies in the coursework processes, they are as follows:

Video Camera and Stills Camera: These were used for the planning and production. photos are used to pre-visualise the locations and costumes. The video was used to capture the footage in production.

Premiere Elements 7: This was the programme we used for all of the editing process. A detailed account of how it was used is in my "editing process" entries. Basically, we used the cut tool, timescale tool and the default special effects. It was a very easy programme to use compared to the more complex programme we used last year. We were able to take full advantage of all its features.

Fireworks CS4: Similarly to elements 7, this programme is explained more fully in the "fireworks cs4" entry. It is a photo editing software in which I used to create both my Digipak and magazine advert. At first, the programme was a little complex as I was new to it but after a few sessions on my digipak I quickly discovered the tools I needed. It was crucial to making my ancillary products the quality that they are.
Picasa: This is free photo editing programme offered by Google. I used this is in producing images for my digipak. It is very basic and allowed me to improve the appearance of existing images. The same could have been done using fireworks but to add some variety, and ease, I decided to use this.


YouTube: This video sharing website was used to distribute our music video in order to receive feedback for the evaluation process. It was also used to help us realise what kinds of audiences were looking at our video. This has been very useful for these reasons.

MonkeyJam: This is programme used to create stop motion animation. Towards the filming process we had the idea of including some stop motion of a tie tying itself. This programme places all the shots together so that there is a "continuous" running piece of footage. The stop motion didn't fit with our music video so we didn't use it after all. However, it was fun to experiment.



Myspace: This social networking site was used to contact the band "Vampire Weekend" in the planning process. On top of this, we used it to identify what kinds of people listen their music.

Facebook: Similarly to MySpace, we used Facebook to contact the band. We also used it to advertise that our music video was on YouTube and that we wanted friends to take our survey on Zoomerang. That was another technology that we used. Zoomerang is a free survey creator that enabled us to ask multiple choice questions and send it to numerous email accounts.


Dolly: Although this isn't a media technology as such Dolly's are and this was our attempt at creating one for the production. Unfortunately it didn't work too well so ended up using my car instead which was very successful. It also helped with our planning process in knowing that we can include tracking shots.


Prezi: Unfortunately, I had a go at using prezi as an alternative to Blogger. It was easy and quick to use, and with a lot of patience, it enables you to create an exciting presentation. However, I didn't like the fact that you couldn't navigate to just one part, you had to cycle through the entire presentation to find something. In contrast, the drop down in blogger allows you look at any entry in any order, and I found far easier to use.

Blog:
This blog is a media technology in which I have used. It offers the chance to upload text, images and animations. On top of this I am able to insert links that relate to my content. For example, I have many entries in this blog which all include either an image or a video. This blog has been the key element in recording the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of my media product.