Question 4 - How did you use New media

technologies in the construction and research,

planning and evaluation stages?

New media Technologies• New Media Technologies – is a 21st Century term used to

describe technologies which describes the interplay between technologies, images and sound. Due to the ‘fast-moving’ nature of technology it is virtually impossible to predict what will be created in the near future. To fully understand ‘new media’ it is worth noting ‘old media’ includes televisions, films and paper based products.

• The proliferation of new technologies – details how multiple technologies begin to come together into one machine for convenience. A good example of this would be Apple’s iPhone which contains an internet browser, a photo and video camera, a torch, video games, a music player as well as much more through the sale of third-party apps.

How did I use them?• 1, Padlet – I have used the website ‘Padlet’ earlier in my evaluation as it is

a good site to upload images for comparison. I used it to compare and contrast my products against a list of codes and conventions for all products, as well as existing media texts. If Padlet did not exist, I would have to embed images on to my blogger alongside each other

• 2, Dafont – Dafont is a website which allows downloadable fonts, which I have utilised in the production of my print products, I have downloaded fonts for my production company logo, my inter-titles, my title and the masthead for my film magazine. If this technology didn’t exist I may have had to use an alternate website such as ‘1001 Fonts’ or fonts that are supplied with Fireworks.

• 3, SoundBible – SoundBible is a website with downloadable sound effects, in a large variety. I used the site to download a sound file of a girl screaming, which I put into my trailer when Jennifer is kidnapped. This helped me meet the codes and conventions of thriller and without it I may have had to record one of our actors screaming, which I feel wouldn’t have been as effective.

• 4, Safari – I used the web browser ‘Safari’ which is built in to the Apple iMacs. This technology allowed me to ‘drag and drop’ files into the likes of Prezi, ThingLink and so forth and was easy and fast to use.

How did I use them?• 5, Prezi – I used the online presentation software ‘Prezi’ in my

research about identity theorists. It was a fun, interactive technology to use however without it I could have merely uploaded a PowerPoint.

• 6, Blogger – I used the website blogger to share the production of my media texts, it was useful to embed many different kinds of file as well as having one interface with all my coursework. It would be harder to remain organized without Blogger.

• 7, YouTube – I used YouTube to upload and embed all my trailers as it is the largest video sharing site in the World. Without YouTube I may have had to use another video sharing device such as Blogger itself, however it is more complicated to embed.

• 8, iTunes – to collect all of my sound files in one (including my music and sound effects) I used iTunes which was very useful as it allowed me to export my sounds on to iMovie. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to attach my own sound files to iMovie.

How did I use them?• 9, Flickr – to share the photos I used in my products, I uploaded

them all on to one Flickr account, making them easy to access.• 10, Google – obviously for research I used Google, as I could access

information about my target audience and genre, however there are many alternatives such as Bing.

• 11, Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia featured information about films in my genre, so that I was creating something more unique, without it I may have made something unoriginal.

• 12, iMovie – I used the built in film software on the iMac’s to create both of my trailers, it was extremely helpful as I could import my videos and iTunes files. Without the software I may have had to use different software such as ‘Windows Movie Maker’ which wouldn’t be effective for the iMac’s.

• 13, Facebook – I used the social networking website Facebook to interview members of my target audience, it was effective as a lot of Facebook’s users are teenagers, therefore in my target audience. It may have been as equally effective to use websites that were made for feedback such as ‘Survey Monkey’.

How did I use them?• 14, Fireworks – to create my print products I used the software Fireworks, which was

very helpful as it included a number of features so I could crop and change the colour of my photos, add text and many, many other things. Although there is other editing software, I doubt any would be as effective as Fireworks in the production of my texts.

• 15, Soundcloud – To share audio interviews with my audience members that I recorded I used ‘Soundcloud’ which allowed me not only to share sound files, but add them into a playlist and embed them on to my blog. Without Soundcloud I may have had to add image files to my sounds and upload them as a video on to YouTube.

• 16, Thinglink – to analyze previous print products (I chose the example of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier) I used ThingLink which allowed me to upload image files and add texts to different areas on the image. This allowed me to clearly see the codes and conventions of the texts alongside real texts. Without Thinglink however I could have just analyzed the products on my blog.

• 17, slideshare – In my planning I researched how to use a tripod for my filming and completed a PowerPoint Presentation, which I shared online via slideshare. The technology was very easy to use and allowed me to embed the presentation on to my blog, without it I may have just had to add image files.

• 18, Gmail- I used Google Mail or ‘Gmail’ to e-mail my group as well as my actors to arrange filming as well as to transfer files to different machines in my research. Gmail allowed me to attach PowerPoint's, Word documents and sound files which could then be accessed through Google Drive or downloaded. Without Gmail however there are many other e-mail services.

• 19, Google Docs – Google docs is a software similar to Microsoft Word but online and attached to a Google Mail account. It allows its users to embed word documents onto blogger, which I used for some of my documents. This is not a feature that Microsoft Word has and image files would be a lot less effective.