Starman digital

Evaluate your use of new media technologies in research and planning, construc8on and evalua8on

What is ‘new’ media technology?

Un#l 80s media technology relied upon print and analogue broadcast models

Defini8ons •  It is digital, and therefore interac8ve and collabora8ve •  It defeats 8me and space (Will Wright, creator of “The

Sims” •  It is global – creates a small world with a unified culture •  It changes ideas around ownership – higher audience

par#cipa#on, interac#on and produc#on – rise of the ‘prosumer’

•  It is controversial – Neuman (1991) suggests new media may push us in one direc#on but socio-‐economic forces pull us back in the other e.g internet distribu#on is on rise but not everyone has access to this technology

Value of New Media Technology For…

Research and Planning

interac8ve

Use of Internet

Use of search engines Advantages of using search engines: -‐  Easily accessible informa#on -‐  Huge volume of research material available -‐  Use of filters such as ‘find like’ to make search more refined -‐  All informa#on free -‐  Useful links to other relevant informa#on

NEW MEDIA IS GLOBAL AND COLLABORATIVE

Ease of Access to Informa8on / texts •  Able to research successful films similar to our genre.

By using the internet to watch trailers of films of our genre, that we are familiar with. We watched the trailer for The Exorcist which we found on YouTube. •  Able to analyze different code and conven#ons of trailers in order for us to establish signs to tell

the audience that it is a trailer, the message or parts of the storyline that it revealed and how it created a sense of narra#ve.

Able to find useful sta#s#cs on e.g. Wikipedia about our genre. Also had links to other referenced sites, which gave us ini#al ideas about the types of films to base our research on.

Simply by using the popular search engine ‘Google’ to search our genre, which made a quick start to our research.

Ease of Access to Informa8on / texts

ISSUES AROUND OWNERSHIP – WHO DO OUR RESEARCH TEXTS BELONG TO? PRODUCER? US FOR OUR OWN USE?

Ability to cross-‐check informa8on To make sure the trailer was official, we were able to cross-‐ check with the official site dedicated to the film.

Unlikely to be official

NEW MEDIA IS CONTRAVERSIAL NOT EVERYONE TRUSTS WIKI CULTURE

Checking Research

We are able to find what informa#on is reliable, from looking at the source site.

Finding unexpected informa8on Large quan##es of informa#on when looking for something

We were able to find other informa#on that we went looking for.

Using search engine, and filters to find what we want

NEW MEDIA CAN BE CO

LLABORATIVE I

N UNEXPECTED

WAYS – NOT ALL

COLLABORATO

RS ARE AWARE!

But it inspired our produc#on ident.

We can’t remember what we were actually looking for when we found this:

Finding unexpected informa8on

Finding Music One of the most important things for our trailer was the music. Most of the music we looked at for inspira#on was copyrighted. We decided to mix tracks from freeplaymusic.

Advantages Disadvantages Free Not exactly what we wanted Wide range of music Too much choice Useful filters Didn’t know when to stop

looking

Finding Trailers

Trailers were easy and free to find thanks to YouTube.

Large selec#on, can cause downfalls – not always easy to tell which is the ‘official’ trailer and which is fan made

Pre internet, trailer-‐based research would have been difficult and costly

NEW MEDIA IS DIGITAL AND CHANGES OWNERSHIP BOUNDARIES

Problems with Internet Use Disadvantages -‐  At #mes too much informa#on -‐  Difficult to check accuracy -‐  Not always relevant -‐  Can become repe##ve – most people will choose from first page of results

Most people likely to choose this op#on as star#ng point

DOES EASY ACCESSIBILITY DESTROY ORIGINALITY?

Use of Social Media

Most films have official Facebook pages. We would have created a Facebook page for our film to help promote it.

Informa#on about sequel. We may not have had a sequel but we would have had informa#on about our film and the characters.

Photographs and posters would have been available to view on our films Facebook page.

Pos#ng regular comments and pictures remind people of your film, either ge`ng them excited for the release or ge`ng them excited about the film again pushing them into buying merchandise.

A Facebook page it also a really good way of ge`ng feedback from your audience.

Imagined use of social media as part of promo8onal campaign

Trailers used to be considered the only and best way of adver#sing films. However the introduc#on of social networking sites mean that the adver#sing of films can get to the audience by just being on these sites.

People who follow these pages get updates about many aspects about the film. Best thing about adver#sing on a social

networking site = speed in which informa#on can be given out. As soon as a page is made it can be seen. Our imagined Twicer page would post informa#on on the character revealing secrets licle by licle to get people interested in the film and the characters.

Similarity between Twicer and Facebook is that they are both sites that allow audience to feedback quick and easily.

Imagined use of social media as part of promo8onal campaign

NEW MEDIA BRINGS AUDIENCE AND INSTITUTION CLOSER

Use of Final Cut Express

NEW MEDIA ALLOWS FOR COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL EDITING

Storyboarding The older approach would be a drawn story board.

Able to add music tracks and recording of suggested dialogue to check what works – easy to layer video and audio.

Don’t need to re-‐draw shots to re-‐order.

Easy to manipulate images and reorder them several #mes to best effect without making permanent changes. Able to export onto iphone

version so work could be easily referred to on loca#on.

Able to experiment with effects and transi#ons to work out implica#ons for filming.

WE BEGAN WITH A DRAWN STORYBOARD – ‘OLD’ MEDIA STILL USED AND VALUABLE!

Blogger

Ability to view work of other groups

Able to make comparisons with the progress of other groups. Able to share ideas and comment on work in progress.

NEW MEDIA IS COLLABORATIVE

Ordering and Accessibility Able to view research in progress at any #me. Able to view and update at home, school and on move on e.g. smartphone. Stored in chronological order with helpful post #tles

Use of text and image

Ability to combine text and image easily allows for more user friendly presenta#on of research.

Use of hyperlinks

Many of trailers we looked at hosted in YouTube. Easier to link rather than embed, also avoiding legal implica#ons. ISSUES AROUND

OWNERSHIP CAN BE CONTROVERSIAL

– CULTURE OF TOLERANCE ON

YOUTUBE BUT HOW FAR CAN YOU GO?

Use of embedded slideshow presenta8ons

Presenta#ons hosted on Slideshare and linked to via blog


Construc8on

Final Cut Express

NEW MEDIA IS DIGITAL

Trimming, Ordering, Layering

We have the ability to layer shots, and create complex visual images using different tracks.

We are able to trim and cut shots with licle risk, because we are able to use ‘undo’ tool.

The order can be changed quickly and easily as changes made in digital edi#ng are not permanent.

Using “Final Cut Express” we are able to keep all of the raw files, so if something goes wrong we are able to go back to these.

This also means that the sodware is very forgiving as you can just start again e.g. pulling this picture in too much.

Ability to return to original source material

Another benefit of using digital sodware against tradi#onal film edi#ng is that we can work on several versions of the same work. Digital media is reproducible without losing quality.

Reproducibility of Digital So\ware

Use of pre-‐packaged tools

Our trailer makes use of the edi#ng tools such as fade transi#ons. These licle adjustments the sodware provides make the overall project look more professional

A poten#al downside is a loss of crea#vity – we look at what the package can do more than what we ar#s#cally want.

With digital edi#ng packages we our able to add cut reorder the sound, which would have been very difficult on tradi#onal edi#ng methods

This shows the main audio track for our trailer.

Manipula8on of Sound

With the use of layers we were able overlay png images of e.g. BBC logo as this file format supports transparency. This simple tool meant that we could create a realis#c and convincing news report.

Impor8ng other Files

Problems with Final Cut Express •  Can be #me-‐consuming to learn. •  Does not always have the exact effects and transi#ons you are

looking for. •  Needs a certain amount of experience / competence to be used to

its full poten#al. •  We did not have the package at home and so were limited in where

we could work. •  We had effects we wanted and knew could achieve on Ader Effects

but did not have access to this package.

NEW MEDIA IS CONTROVERSIAL – WE DO NOT ALL HAVE ACCESS SO

NOT AS DEMOCRATIC AS IT APPEARS

Flash

Making of Produc8on Ident

For crea#ng the ident we used Adobe Flash CS5 this allowed us to create a quick anima#on.

We were able to use Flash to incorporate s#ll images to bring an illusion of mo#on to our ident, which added to the project.

We were able to use Flash to move our logo “Starman” by crea#ng key frames across the #meline.

We found it was easier to create a large background which will move instead of the character. This meant we were able to keep the character sta#onary so that people will focus on him and know he is important.

Crea8on of Anima8on

Problems with Flash

The problem we found with Flash is that the default frame rate is very different to our trailer’s frame rate and to adjust this can be difficult.

Illustrates the difficul#es of combining use of incompa#ble sodware.

Photoshop

Using Photoshop we will be able to fill in the rest of Michael's face either by replacing it or by adding on a small part. This technology allows us to get this kind of work done as it is reproducible and we can always return to the original, but can be very #me-‐consuming and frustra#ng.

Manipula8ng Images

Using the lasso and pen tools meant we could extract images fast and easily However, it can be hard to use for example Michael's face slightly over-‐extracted. If you got this wrong like we have here it can take a long #me trying to fix the problem as the only solu#on is to start again.

We used the blur tool to make the background around some important names in order to make them stand out more. Both these examples show how digital edi#ng packages can be used to enhance and manipulate images.

Photoshop allowed us to use many tools. We used it to create the ‘X’ made of broken glass which was an early idea. We where only able to do this because of Photoshop by blurring the edges of the ‘X’ and making them more transparent.

Manipula8ng Images

Products such as magazine cover are clearly images composed of many layers. Being able to overlay other images allowed us to create a magazine cover that look authen#c. The problem we faced when overlaying images is remembering which layer you are on and adjus#ng this when carrying out manipula#ons.

Layering Images

Manipula8ng Photos

With the poster we also used the ability to layer text over images to create our final product.

Photoshop also allows us to change the original background of our main. It allows us to extract what we want from the photo and put it over a different background.

Able to blur the edges of the extrac#on to make it blend into the new background becer

Able to adjust the side (height/width) of the image to cater the expecta#on for the trailer

Able to enhance and sharpen images to make them stand out and look more effec#ve

Manipula8ng Photos

Our plans for the poster kept changing because we were limited to Photoshop’s capabili#es.

We wanted the character to be trapped in a computer screen. This proved too difficult. Ended with just a large image near a computer screen.

Disadvantages of Photoshop

Can be difficult to replicate effects achieved through manual use of tools.

The smudge tool worked well against ‘Taran#no’ But was less effec#ve when we tried to reduplicate the effect. This is something we need to come back to.


We tried to extract the image You see using ‘Quick Selec#on Tool’

Due to the original image being against a brick wall, the tool struggled. You’d have to select each brick individually. This is #me consuming and can affect the resul#ng image in nega#ve ways.


Shows the need for experience to know which is the right tool to use e.g. here the pen tool.

The colour palece is another issue. We needed to find a range that would match well together, but, as you can see, some come off too dark whilst the bright colour looks a lot brighter.

The red and purple don’t match with the black background.

The colour scheme works well along the bocom, these are all layered through Photoshop.


Shows that new digital edi8ng cannot replace human ar8s8c understanding / effort – the package is only as good as its user.


Evalua8on

Blogger

Blogger The comments made about use of Blogger for research and planning apply here and won’t be duplicated.

Evalua#on work is online world to see. Anyone can view it and give you feedback at any#me. Not only can you get comments any#me you can get comments from anyone.

Availability to Others

In fact, our outside comments were very limited – new media does not have the volume of users you might expect, or perhaps products get lost in the volume of material.

With this comes poten#al problems. Our comments were mainly helpful because we had another media class comment on our work in order to get good feedback. However because our work is on the internet it means anyone can view it meaning you could get comments from outsiders who aren't being serious or are even abusive with their comments. Preven#ng this means preven#ng legi#mate comments

Availability to Others

Use of annotated images Photos put on the blog with annota#ons and comments. Allowed us to look through the photographs with the comments we had made and compare. Able to return to this post at any #me.

Use of label filter

Able to filter by name label. Can see everybody’s work or just your own.

Work in Progress for Feedback

Progress of work evident

Able to return to work for ideas.

Means that the evalua#on process is taking place throughout the course, not only at end.

Choice of Format – New Media Technology

We have chosen slideshow technology for this evalua#on because: -‐  It relies on images and only brief comments

-‐  It was easy to work as a team, crea#ng new slides and adding to / amending the slides of others

We have been able to share this PowerPoint by uploading our finished presenta#on to Slideshare and linking to this on the blog.

Choice of Format – Audience Feedback

We evaluated our audience feedback by recording a discussion as a group and edi#ng this on Final Cut, adding in suppor#ng images and bullet points of key ideas put forward in the form of text boxes created on Live Type.

We felt this was a suitable format as we needed a combina#on of debate (about the value of the feedback) and illustra#on (showing the changes we made as a result of the feedback).

Choice of Format – Genre and Form We presented our ideas about the ways we had followed formal and generic conven#ons in our products by crea#ng contact sheets of key moments from the trailer and key sec#ons of the print products. We were then able to discuss the ways in which these replicated or broke genre conven#ons in bullet points below. We used either Photoshop or Paint to construct the contact sheets depending on what sodware we had available.

Choice of Format – Combina8on of Products

Task shows how new media technology now allows us to work in mul#media ways = original presenta#on is quite heavily edited here to add interes#ng visuals. Quite #me heavy – we are at the half way point in this screen shot.

Creates a big file size, exceeding Blogger maximum in best quality. Reduced quality is watchable but best seen on DVD – Blogger not good for large file size sharing.