Technology used Websites/Web applications: YouTube
Research
Effectiveness
Used to find out about the conventions of a music video and the styles of different genres of artists
Issuu
Used to convert my work, e.g. PowerPoint presentations, in order to put my work on to my blog
Used to find: information on music videos/artist chosen, to get on to other websites, to gain ideas about branding & branding of artists already on the market Used to find artist to create texts for, e.g. music vieo
Very effective, easy to find varies types of music videos, easy to use, found all the videos we wanted to watch, however I was not always able to gain an embed code from the video Effective layout, allowed me to show my work a presentable manner, but sometimes took time to convert work/ problems with trying to embed work Very effective, found most of the information we wanted, however did not give many unsigned artist websites Effective, as was able to find a song that I felt I could create successful texts for, but took time to find good artists (due to opinion of what good)
unsignedartist.com
Research: In the research section of my work I used new media technologies, such as the internet, to find unsigned artists to use for my work and websites, such as Google and YouTube, to find music videos, so I could analysis them and find out what the conventions of a music video were. I found using new media technology in the research section of my work reasonably easy, as I am used to using the internet on a regular basis I did not have trouble finding what I needed for my work. The only trouble I had with using new media technology in this section was trying to use unsignedartist.com, as I had never used this website before and the website itself was quite big, it took me some time to get used to it and the website was not very clear so I made to spend time trying to find what I needed.
Technology used Hardware: PC/IMac
Planning
Effectiveness
Used throughout my stages of work to produce my texts on and get inspiration for my own texts, e.g. looking on the internet on the PC
Flip camera
Used to gain audience feedback and to take pictures with, e.g. if my partner or I saw something that would look good in our music video or ancillary texts we would take a picture of it for inspiration
Effective, as I have used a PC/IMac before I found using it easy and effective n what I wanted to do on it. However, as there are many different commands on an IMac that are different from a PC trying to remember them all was difficult Effective, as helped develop ideas for all texts and were able to carry the camera around this us in order to take pictures whenever we saw something that we thought would inspire us
Software: Word
Websites/Web applications: BlogSpot
Used to create practice texts for our main product, e.g. writing for the Samaritans shot, and ancillary texts, e.g. title of the band on the digipak
Effective, as were many fonts to choose from and could change easily from one font to another, but took time to find suitable font due to so many
Used to show all my work, e.g. weekly reflection blogs of what work I had done that week, and get inspiration for my own texts, e.g. looking at previous work done on the course.
Very effective, as I have use blogger fro myself and for my work I am used to how it works and how to present my work in a blogspot, however, I did have some trouble trying to place images were I wanted them to go Effective, as was laid out in a clear fashion and was easy to get around, although I had never used this website before so it took me some time to figure out where aspects that I needed where, e.g. where the ‘create new questionnaire’ button was Very effective, as using Facebook allowed me to ask a large group of people what they thought of my text at one time. However, as I gain many comments on
Survey monkey
Used to create questionnaires to gain audience feedback on what they liked and disliked about the music video in its draft stage
Used to collect audience feedback on the final edit of my partner and I’s music video , e.g. I asked my ‘facebook friends’ what they thought was successful in the music video
YouTube
Used to find music videos in order to develop my ideas on what a music video should be like and used to upload my own music video pitch in order to gain feedback
Issuu
Used to convert and publish my PowerPoint and Word documents so they could be posted in a BlogSpot Used a lot during the planning stage of my work to find good locations for filming through looking at Google images of forests in Essex, for example. Also, helped expand ideas and continue research for texts
what people thought I was unable to see all the comments at the same time Very effective, as allowed me to view a large range of videos from various genre, however, was unable to gain much feedback as my video was not advertised t well, so most audiences did not know the video existed Effective, as I have used this website before, but sometimes took time to convert work Effective, as were able to view a large range of images without having to upload them and allowed us to find many different websites in the researching stage
Planning: Similarly to in the research stages of my work, I mostly used new media technology in the form of the internet on a PC to plan and show my work, e.g. using blogger.com to discuss how my work had been going in a reflection log. The best form of new media technology that I used in this section, in my opinion, was using the internet website YouTube, as it allowed me to view many videos and evaluate them in order for me to plan how I wanted my music video, magazine advert and digipak to be like, i.e. If I was going to stick to the usual conventions of the three texts or go against them.
Technology used Hardware: Panasonic GS230 Camcorder
Production
Effectiveness
Used to film footage for all of the music video and updates on how work, e.g. used before we went filming to explain sudden changes in the music video, such as why we had to include a girl in the video
Tripod
Used with camcorder when filming the music video to ensure that the footage was smooth and not shaky
Effective, as have used this style of camcorder before I knew how to work it, but HD camera would have given video more definition and improved work. as would have emphasis lighting more Effective, as I have used a tripod several times before it was quite easy to set up and connote with the camcorder, however as we filmed in a forest location where the ground is not smooth I did have some trouble making the tripod balanced
Software: Fireworks:
Websites/web applications: BlogSpot
Issuu
Used to create: digipak, magazine advert and small print details and features for all three texts
Effective, as I have used fireworks before, but took time to learn all tools on this software, as I have not had to use all the tools before, e.g. Lassoo (which I used a lot)
Used to show all my work, e.g. reflection blogs on what I had done this week, in order to show evidence of my work
Very effective, as I have used blogger several times and found it easy to produce blogspots that explained what I had been doing, however, at times I had problems with placing images in the places I wanted them to be Effective, as I have used Issuu before, but sometimes took a long time to my convert work
Used to convert and display my work for my blog in a presentable way
Technology used Hardware: PC
Websites/Web Applications: BlogSpot
Post-Production
Effectiveness
Used to produce and edit all my work on, e.g. edit footage for my music video
Effective, as I have used a PC several times, although some of the software on it I had not used before, e.g. final cut, so hard to take time to learn how to use
Used to show all of my work and produce evidence of what I had done
Effective, as have used several time before, although sometimes I had trouble placing images of what I had produced and taken pictures of in the place I wanted them to be Effective, as I was easily allowed to upload my video without too much waiting for my work to upload, but limited number of feedback as not promote Very Effective, I used Facebook regularly I know how to use it quickly and efficiently. Also, as the video was shown to large group of people it allowed for good quality and quantifiable feedback Effective,as have used this software many times now, but sometimes took time to convert work
YouTube
Used to show and gain feedback for my music video
Used to show and gain feedback for my music video from my ‘Facebook friends’
Issuu
Used to convert and display my PowerPoint and Word document work in a suitable way, in order to put this work on blogger.com
Software Final Cut
I used Final Cut to edit the footage for my music video
Effective, as was able to add a range of different effects to my work, such as, additional blur, but as I had never used Final Cut before this, it took time to get used to using it, but did offer more tools e.g. different and more effects than IMovie
Construction: (production and post-production tables) (Production) When filming the music video, my partner and I used the new media technology of a Panasonic GS230 Camcorder. As we had already used this design of camcorder in our previous work, we had enough skill to film the music video how we wanted it to be and this skill allowed us to play around this different movement, e.g. pans and be confident in making decisions about how we wanted to film. (Post-Production) In the construction stage of my work I used new media technology to create all three texts, using programmes such as Fireworks and Final Cut. Using Final cut helped me develop my skills in creating video pieces, as I had never used this programme before, it forced me to play around with different tools and effects to get to grips with it. Although this took some time, it helped me to see that there was a lot I could do with my video to make it stand out and, either, follow the conventions of a normal video or go against these conventions. For example, adding a drop shadow to the music video, I found, made the video darker and less easy as visual piece, which goes against the usual visual conventions of a music video, although we felt that this effect worked well with the dark themes of our video. I also feel that by using Final Cut I could create a more eye catching piece, compared to my video that I created with my parent last year, using IMovie. This is because Final Cut offers a large arrange of tools to modify a video and so helped make the video fit the genre of the band I used.
Technology used Hardware: PC
Websites/Web Applications: BlogSpot
Issuu
Evaluation
Effectiveness
Used to produce blog posts on and to look again at the texts produced in order to see what I would change if I could redo them and what worked well
Effective, as have used a PC several time and, by now, I am used to the software it provides
Used to show all of my work, e.g. in a reflection blog of a week, in order to Show evidence of what I had done in that week
Very effective, as have used several times now and I can quickly and efficiently create a blog post, however, I am still having trouble placing images in particular places Effective, as have used several time now, but sometimes took time to convert work
Used to convert my work and display it in a way that looks professional
Evaluation: In the evaluation stage of more work I used new media technology, such as a PC and websites such as issuu.com to convert my work from a word document to a PDF in order to put my work on to my blog. Although I had not used issuu.com before, it was easy for me to use it because I have used similar converting websites in the past.