Evaluation of Uses ofNew Media Technology

What is ‘new’ media technology?

New media technology is any type of application meant to transfer information via digital techniques, computerized systems or data networks. Until the 1980’s media relied primarily upon print and analogue broadcast models. The use of digital technology has transformed media and given us new ways of sharing, thinking and creating.

Definitions of ‘New’ Media

• Most theorists agree it is interactive and collaborative (Shapiro)

• It removes the need to have designated times and spaces for media – it is accessible anywhere at any time

• Global- audiences are even wider• Controversial- not everyone thinks it has created a paradigm

shift or that as many people use it as you might imagine• Opportunities to be a prosumer (Shapiro) – we are all

producers now and we all have the chance to represent ourselves online. For example, we represent ourselves as a group through our blog.

New Media Technology inResearch

Search Engines- Advantages

• Made it easier to gain inspiration from products ( magazines, posters, trailers) in our genre because we could research them quickly• Gives a high volume of information• Able to filter if initial searches

revealed too much information • We found additional pieces of

research because of these search engines that we weren’t initially looking for

Internet access is the basis of new media technology – it is what allows ghe interacivity and collaboration to take place.

Search Engines- Advantages

Sites like YouTube helped us to see what a drama genre trailer looked like by allowing us to view trailers such as ‘My Sister’s Keeper’

It was also responsible for helping us find other drama genre trailers by giving suggestions for films like ‘The Lovely Bones and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’

Search Engines - DisadvantagesNot all the results from searches are relevant, and because there is so much content we have to work our way through it to find what we want.

A lot of the images were irrelevant to us- it was time consuming searching for the right one.

New media’s collaboration can quickly get out of control – there is so much material available you can quickly become swamped.

Search Engines - Disadvantages

A lot of content can be user-generated. Therefore videos could be fan videos- internet information is not regulated in any way so time has to be taken to check that information is correct.

This labels itself as a trailer for ‘My Sister Keeper’ when it is user generated

This can be mistaken for the film trailer, but it is actually the book trailer, which is very different.

New media raises questions around ownership – who owns content? What is ‘official’ content? Definitions are changing or at least being debated thanks to new media.

New Media Technology inPlanning

Animated Storyboard

Photos of drawn storyboard imported into Final Cut – so a mix of old and new media here.

Put into chronological order to see how long our trailer lasted from our storyboard.

It gave us an idea to see what we were missing and the timing of our trailer

Animated Storyboard

We added dialogue to matchour storyboard to discoverthe timing and length of our shotsin case we needed to adjust any.

We recorded our voice over and dialogue separately using a Canon camera – new media is often about combining technologies.

Video Footage

Adding prerecorded video footage helped us to see if we had planned our timing right on our storyboard, if not, this was easily adjusted in the real thing

We could cut it to approximate length on timeline

Music and dialogue added to simulate real sequence

We had to play this footage back on a video recorder as this was how it was filmed and film it using a digital camera – so this is another example of merging old and new technologies.

Problems with animatic

• Taking the pictures of each post-it note was very time consuming• As we had to take the pictures swiftly, some of the photos were not

focused properly nor looked neat

New media is not necessarily better – the basis of this task was old media – the drawings were what counted.

Presenting Planning on Blogger

Accessible to all

The blogs allow for anyone to view and comment so it was easy and simple for us to access all our work at anytime

Our blog is also accessible to anyone on the internet

Blogging is a very new media tool – collaborative, easily shared, and allows for us to represent ourselves.

Work In Progress

• The blog shows our progress throughout the year

• It includes the changes we’ve made to what we have improved

• It also shows you, from screenshots, the changes we’ve made and how we progressed

View other work

• We were able to view the other groups work on the blog

• It enables feedback for your own group as well as the others

• It was easy to find a post and comment as they’re all named and filtered.

Comments function on Blog

Anyone at anytime can give feedback

This outside feedback is probably the most useful because it is unbiased due to it being from people who do not know us

Posts on the blog can be seen by anyone

This allows people to post comments

Example of how collaborative creativity has progressed through new media technology

Label Filter

You can see anyone’s work

Allows you to filter your name, shows others which posts are yours, can evaluate yourself individually

New media allows you to represent yourself as an online identity and choose how you appear to others.

Text and Images

• We were able to combine text and images and embed videos – this helped us to engage our audience

• You can put all your work into a variety of formats into one location

Planned use of social media

• We planned more than we actually constructed within our promotional campaign

• Whilst researching you naturally thought about what to include within your promotional campaign to suit the type of genre trailer you have produced.

New Media Technology inConstruction

Final Cut Express

Advantages of Final Cut Express

• This package allowed for collaborative digital editing to take place

Allowing for collaborative work is one of the key changes brought about by new media – Shirky and Leadbetter claim this is harder but leads tp more profound results.

Advantages of Final Cut ExpressWe were able to use layers to be able to add multiple audio tracks and images to help create on shot.

It was easy to cut shots that we had to make them the right length and get rid of the unnecessary parts.

We were able to use the effects that it offered to create certain effects that we wanted. E.g. making one of the shots slow motion.

Manipulating Images

It allows us to cut and re-order material easily without it being permanent, because it can be quickly changed back by the use of the undo function.

The fact that everything that was done was reversible and non-permanent allowed us to be experimental, and as a result becoming more creative - and new media is associated with increased creativity or a least different kinds of creativity.

Material can be layered , and this allowed us to create effects by adding slow motion, making the sound levels varied at several moments

Disadvantages of Final Cut Express

It is quite a complicated editing package which took a while for us to know what it had to offer.

it was easy to lose track of what layer is which. For example when trying to edit one of the audio tracks.

As we had not used it for a while it took time to remember how to do certain things, for example, how to import images, so we had to spend time relearning how to do it rather that editing.

Pre-packaged solutions

What you may want to do might not be possible as you are limited to only what Final Cut Express offers you. For example, a certain effect may not be accessible, so you would have to find an alternative.

New media is associated with enhanced creativity but we sometimes felt we spent more time looking for a created solution than we did thinking what we really wanted to create ourselves.

Accessibility

• It’s very expensive so it is unlikely that many people have this package at home – not as accessible as some technology

• Very complicated, so time is taken to learn how to use it and you may be disrupted by lack of technological competence.

• This package was not always compatible with other packages, for example when trying to transfer bit of footage to blogger, quality was lost.

New media is associated with ease of access – this is not always the case, especially where cost is involved.

Photoshop

Manipulating images

We were able to use several different effects on one image to create the effect that we wanted.

For this image, we used drop shadow, outer glow, and colour overlay to create the effect that Sarah was ghostly.

Layering imagesWe used lots of layers to be able to create this magazine cover.

Each layer had a different purpose.

It was good because it allowed us to put different images in front of others. E.g. Jason in front of Sarah or the text on top of the flash.

It also meant that it was easier to work on individual parts of the cover without effecting the whole cover.

New media has changed the way we approach creative tasks – this kind of layering is a key part of this change. Creativity has become broken down into smaller components.

Layering images

Each layer had its own purpose.

Splitting it into different layers meant that we were able to put different effects on each layer.

Advantages of Photoshop

• We were able to use the tools that they had to get the effects that we wanted, E.g. Sarah looking ghostly.

• Working in layers.• Easy to extract

images.• Had a wide range of

fonts and colours.

Disadvantages of Photoshop

• One main disadvantage was that you had to remember what images/text was on which layer.

• Only were able to use the effects that photoshop gave us so therefore had to compromise some of our ideas.

• Very difficult package to use when have limited experience

Schumm suggests your technical competence is the key factor in performance – new media technology is available, but you need to learn how to use it effectively which is not always easy.

New Media Technology inEvaluation

Blogger

All of the comments that apply to the use of Blogger for research and planning (availability / accessibility / labelling / filtering / collaboration) apply here and don’t need repeating.

Audience Feedback

A special mention should be given to the use of the comments function to gain audience feedback. This is a very valuable attribute of new media technology, the ability to collaborate with others outside of your own circle in a wider professional community.

Evaluation Format – Edited Presentations

Where we felt a discussion was complex or might have a variety of viewpoints, we filmed our discussions and then edited in evidence to back up our views. Blogger’s ability to allow a multimedia format was invaluable in this way.

Evaluation Format - Slideshows

The technological convergence allowed by new media technology has enabled us to present this evaluation as a PowerPoint uploaded to slideshare and embedded in the blog.

Evaluation Format - Contact Sheets

Using Photoshop, we were able to make a collage of key shots as a group to illustrate our use of conventions. We then made our own separate comments. This was another key value of new media – being able to mix between being able to work collaboratively and alone.

Evaluation Format - YouTube Tutorial

We were able to make this tutorial by recording a commentary on successful promotional campaigns and then editing it with slideshow-style visuals in Final Cut. We have used these kinds of tutorials ourselves when coming across problems and therefore we feel that this is a very user-friendly and efficient format for sharing professional knowledge, creating the professional communities associated with new media.

Summary• New media is invaluable – without the technology

associated with it, we could not have completed our coursework.

• It is also invaluable for the way it creates a certain kind of mindset – ways of thinking when approaching work.

• We found it most valuable in terms of enhancing collaboration and creativity.

• We found that it was not always as accessible and easy to use as you might think.

• There were times when we found ‘old’ media more useful and were best served by paper and pen.