Evaluation - The Use of New Media Technologies Within Our Project

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of your project?

The main impact of new media technologies, on our project, has been the internet. For our research we were able to use a search engine to quickly identify relevant fan websites and artist websites to collect data, and assess who our target audience was. We were also able to analysis artists similar to the one that was chose, using sites such as youtube and spotify, that suggest songs you may like. The use of the internet made it possible to find videos we wanted to watch, and we were able to watch them at our convinence, instead of relying on a radio or a television to possibly show the songs we wanted. Web 2.0 is interactive, because of these people are able to leave comments, talk about a product etc. This enabled us to look at what people thought and how they compared certain artists to others. Using youtube and the print screen function, during our research we were able to capture certain moments and analyse them, because of this, it was easier to notice different shot types, use of lighting, mis en scene, props, locations etc. This media technology allowed us to physically look at other videos and artists and helped us to decide what techniques to use, and how well they worked.

To edit our video, we used iMovie. As none of us in the group had ever used any video editing software, we decided that it was a good starting point for beginners, even if it isn't the most accurate editing software. used a digital camera to film with and then uploaded it to iMovie, because we used a digital camera we were able to change what we used easily, rather than using film which would have to be cut together. We filmed the majority of our video, and then came to the conclusion it wasn't what we wanted, and we were easily able to change our footage. It also gave us the opportunity to quickly cut together the parts of film that were needed, and then later refine the lengths on the shots, and easily sync up the music and action. For my ancillary task I used photoshop CS4, I'd only previously used photoshop for my AS task. As I wanted to create something similar to existing media texts, I downloaded relevant fonts. I also used masks for the background. For the photoshoot for the ancillary task, I used plain backgrounds, such as a black curtain, to make it easier to edit.

Using a blog to document all of the progress towards making our products was the most beneficial part of the available new media technologies. I used the website Scribd to embed powerpoints, without converting the powerpoint into another form. I was also able to upload pictures of screen shots, and add links to other relevant blog posts. Social networking site, Facebook, allowed us to directly recieve feedback, after uploading our work, making it easily accessable by our target audience.