BY JAC K T O P P I N G

EVALUATION QUESTION 4 – HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE

CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

YOUTUBEYouTube was a crucial part in the research and planning stage of the course, as well as the progress of our media products. This is because it allowed us to view several professional music videos of our chosen genre to view conventions commonly found within these videos, as well as provide inspiration for our media product. As the website is free and easy to use, it provided us with a wide and varied choice of real-life media texts to view and reference to make our final product seem as authentic as possible. It helped establish common themes, shot types and styles of the videos found within these genres, playing a large part in the conception of our video.YouTube was also the media technology that allowed us to share our first cut and final music video, allowing us to gain feedback from our target audience on parts that we could improve on or conventions that we got right. This feedback enabled us to listen to the opinions of those who had a great amount of knowledge of the indie genre that, coupled with my own research, helped make improvements to my final video that made it the best that it could possibly be.

BLOGGER

Blogger was a useful media technology to use in showing the overall evolution of my final media products, as well as any ancillary tasks that I carried out. The format allowed me to upload and keep track of all the stages of work that I created throughout the course this year. The website allowed my peers to give me ways in which to improve any posts that I had made, helping me to enhance my progress – aiding my work to be organised and clear. The website can also be converged with several other media texts – i.e. YouTube, SlideShare – through the ability to embed links containing different media technologies. This helps to make the website and your work appear more professional and authentic.

WIX

Wix was a vital media technology in helping me to create and finalize the website for my in-task band. When developing my website, Wix had a variety of tools and designs - that catered to several different music genres - to help craft a website that reflected a real-life media text. It also provides you the chance to upload your own content, such as photos and videos, to further add the environment of a professional website. Additionally, it was very easy to group different content into pages – adding realism to my final website.

PHOTOSHOP

PhotoShop enabled me to create a digipak that I truly believe is of a professional standard. This media technology contains several different tools that I used to edit the pictures that I had taken to use in my digipak – such as colour effects, eraser tools or shaping tools. I believe that using these tools really helped to make the final digipak as organised and real as possible. I also believe that as my understanding of the course improved, as did my usage and ability at PhotoShop.

EXAMPLE OF USING PHOTOSHOP FOR MY DIGIPAK

BEFORE

AFTER

IMOVIE

iMovie was instrumental in the editing of our music video. During the editing process, iMovie featured loads of different tools that made it easier to piece all of the footage that we had shot together to form the final product that we set out to make. Examples of these different tools included colour effects, that allowed us to tone down the colouring to meet the gritty tone that we wanted in our video, as well as transitions that we could use to change scenes in a more organic and unique way. The technology on iMovie also enabled us to split and place our footage in the order that we wanted them in our video, and was incredibly easy to transfer the video on to YouTube when finished – opposing a difficult and arduous process to upload our video.

SLIDESHARE

In choosing a format to publish my evaluation, as well as showing a process in detail, I have chosen to use SlideShare as it is an incredibly easy media technology to use. It is incredibly quick to upload a piece of work on to, and converges well with technologies such as Blogger through methods such as embed links. Additionally, on Blogger, SlideShare posts are easy to view and use – keeping my work organic, natural and different than an ordinary A2-Level blog.

TWITTER

Twitter was a great media technology in using social media convergence to build on my in-task band’s profile. We used a Twitter account to keep fictional fans of the band up to date on real-life tasks, such as merchandise, the official website, and our final video itself. This added different layers to a profile that could have easily been used just for show, by adding an element of realism to it. The technology itself is incredibly easy to use and limited to a certain number of characters, making what you state on there unique and challenging.