4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

New media technologies were incredibly important throughout the course of the project. They played a huge role in the construction stage in particular, however we were surprised at how beneficial new media technologies were in the research & planning and evaluation stages as well.

Research and Planning
Web 2.0 was a crucial technology in the research and planning stages. I used the internet extensively to look into what was currently popular in the music industry. The speed at which you can find out current trends is one of the most useful features of web 2.0. 

When researching into the genre and finding a song to use, I used Youtube, Spotify and Soundcloud extensively. These platforms were particularly useful as they can be accessed via the internet and so easily used on portable platforms for example mobile phones. I could also find and listen to music for free by using these rather than buying music the traditional way. The most useful factor of these new media platforms was the way in which they suggest songs related to the one you have just listened to. This allowed me to stay within the genre and certain type of music, while easily discovering new songs.
This video shows how easy it was to find music using these forms of new media:

We also used the internet in the planning stage in order to research and order props online. This was much faster than the traditional way of shopping and physically going into shops. Again, this demonstrated the use of web 2.0 as a fast and instant media technology.

using the internet to buy props

Social media played a huge part in the organisation of our project. We used Facebook to communicate extensively throughout the planning stage of our project. Initially, we used our Facebook group page in order to post matters to discuss and then comment on them. However, we found that it would be much quicker to use Facebook chat to communicate as this is instant. Chat was useful as it is accessible on mobile platforms and I could quickly reply on my phone. We were also able to have multiple group chats, for example with the group alone but also with the actors.

Created with Padlet

Using our Facebook page to organise the shoots, click here for Facebook page

Construction

To film our music video, we used the Canon 5D mark II as our main camera. This camera produced an extremely professional look and was by far the best of the cameras used. We also used the Canon 550D and Canon Legria HFG30. This was due to practicality reasons, with the 5D being in use at the time of our location shoots. These cameras both film in full HD and so still provided us with sophisticated looking footage. We also used the Go Pro as not only did this allow us to slow footage down to 30%, we could also put it in a case so that it could be placed directly in the paint fight. Upon reflection, using so many cameras was not hugely beneficial to our video. This is because the difference in appearance of footage left the video looking noticeably disjointed, and so disrupted the flow and professional quality.
There were advantages and disadvantages to using these cameras, and these are discussed in the following video which was made by Molly, Maisie and I.

For Lighting in the studio, we used the Leapfrog Zero88 lighting desk in order to control many Arri Readhead 100K lights. Lighting hugely improved the appearance of our studio scenes, and from the use of this equipment we learned the importance of lighting when filming videos. Molly, Maisie and I made this video to explain how we used the lighting desk along with its pros and cons.

For post-production of our music video, we used the editing software 'Adobe Premiere Pro'. As I have used this program before, I was fairly competent in using it and so thought there was little more I could learn about it. However, due to this project being on a far more professional scale than any previous project, I learned a lot about the Pros and Cons of this software. The following presentation discusses how we used the software, as well as its positive and negative qualities.

Evaluation
In order to gather and present feedback on our media products, I used various forms of new media technologies. They were all web-based, further demonstrating the use and importance of web 2.0. Here, I have discussed how I used these technologies:


Throughout my evaluation I have used a wide range of web-tools in order to display information rather than just writing answers in essay form. This not only improved the appearance of my posts, it also allowed me to express my answers in more efficient and interactive ways.

Imgflip
This was possibly my most used new media technology in my evaluation. Imgflip allows you to create Gifs from videos or images. Being able to create gifs straight from Youtube was particularly helpful, meaning that I could create gifs straight from our music video. It also has the ability to create gifs from images, which I also took advantage of to present pictures in a more interesting way.

I chose to use Imgflip over alternative online gif makers as it produces gifs with a reasonably fast frame rate and so they don't appear jumpy. It also produced gifs of better quality. Here I have compared a gif made with Imgflip and MakeaGif:

Imgflip

MakeaGif

The main disadvantage of using Imgflip is that it has a limit of ten seconds per gif. This was sometimes frustrating when I wanted to display a longer clip. In addition, as you increase the length or size of the gif, the quality somewhat decreases.
Overall, I found that Imgflip was one of the most important new media technologies when writing my evaluation.

Padlet
I also used Padlet extensively throughout my evaluation. Padlet was a really useful way of presenting images and text together. It is very easy to use, with the ability to simply drag image onto the wall from your own documents. One of the factors I liked most about Padlet was the extensive ability to personalise and create a wall that looks nothing like another. For example, you can add your own background and drag images and text boxes into any formation desired. There is also the ability to add Gifs which some web-tools do not provide.

Blank Padlet 'wall'

Adding a text box by double clicking & dragging images around manually

However, the problem with embedding padlet into blogger was that there wasn't enough room to display a whole wall. Therefore, I had to make my Padlets very small and take up a minimal section of the screen, as displayed above. This problem, however, was easy to overcome. Overall, I really liked using Padlet. Its ease of use was great, and it produced impressive displays of information for minimum effort.

Creating Presentations
In order to create presentations I have used Prezi, Powtoon and GoogleSlides.These all came with pros and cons, which I have discussed below:

I found that due to its practicality and simplistic design, GoogleSlides was the best form of presentation software I have used in my evaluation. It allowed me to express what I wanted to say in a simple way rather than distracting from the content in the way that other web-tools might.

Blogger
I have used Blogger as the form of new media technology on which to display my work throughout the course of the project. I have used it most extensively in the Evaluation stage.
Blogger is a really useful blogging site as it allows for the free and easy creation of a blog in which multimedia can be displayed.
One of the highlights of Blogger is the ability to embed almost any type of new media within your own blog. This was particularly useful for the evaluation stage.

Different forms of media embedded into my evaluation

Fonts in Blogger

Another useful thing about Blogger is the ease of use. It is incredibly simple to create posts, and edit them after creation. There are more formatting options in Blogger than in most Blogging tools, and so it is easy to create a blog that is individual to you. For example, the font options when creating a post.


However, the main issue with Blogger is the difficulty with moving around images within posts. It is common for images to get inserted in the wrong place, for example at the top of a post, and then for it to be impossible to move the image down without going into the HTML.

With regular use of Blogger, I did find it easier to format posts and move images around. This is because Blogger makes it surprisingly easy to understand basic HTML and notice where things are placed in a post. This was particularly useful and I feel that I learned a lot from it.
Despite some difficulties, I found that Blogger was definitely the most practical and appropriate form of new media technology for displaying my A2 Evaluation.

Conclusion
New media technologies have been invaluable to my project. Despite having some difficulties, they have mostly been fun and easy to use. These technologies have allowed me to produce media content to its full potential, and have proven that they are essential to any media project. I feel that our music video would not have been as successful without new media technologies as they brought endless opportunities to the project.