Evaluation Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

There has been a great proliferation of new media technologies due to the expansion of Web 2.0. David Gauntlett believe Web 2.0 is a faster, more collaborative platform that leads to an audience shirt from passive consumers to active 'prosumers', as it is more connective due to its collaborative nature. New technologies were vital throughout this process and you can see below how vital they were during research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of this project.

Research

Below is a Padlet showing the useful online resources I used on web 2.0 to draw inspiration for the desired aesthetic I wanted to achieve for the creation of the artist Layla Obi.

Planning

The slides below show and explain the technologies that were used for the planning stage.




Neither 'Whatsapp' nor 'Blogger' were new technologies for me, as a teenager I use 'Whatsapp' all the time, especially for group chats with other teenagers, so it was a useful platform in which everyone was accustomed to in the group. As a media student I am also used to using 'Blogger' to keep my projects organised and make sure I have reference points to refer back to for planning different media projects.

Above is a stealomatic that was created through the use of Adobe Premier Pro, a YouTube to MP3 converter, and youtube research into inspirational music videos. It created a platform in which we could follow to create structure for our shootboard and, therefore have a clearer understanding of the aesthetic and shots we were trying to achieve for our music video for 'Blue Lights'. It felt like quite some time ago to the first stealomatic I had created and so I had to re learn how to create an effective stealomatic in order to show our desired shots to the timings of the song we had envisioned them to go. The stealomatic became very useful for seeing what shot ideas worked well for the video and how the storyboard, shootboard and music video should be structured.

Construction

Below is a Prezi explaining how and why we used certain technologies in the construction (production) stage.



Below is a Prezi explaining how and why we used certain technologies in the construction (Post-Production) stage.




I think perhaps my greatest learning curve for technology during this project was in post production learning how to use Photoshop effectively. Due to the fact that I had never used Photoshop before, I made sure to watch videos on Youtube to learn how to use it properly to create desired effects such as the use of the mirroring tool as well as seeking the skilled help of the media technician over certain queries. Overall, I feel very pleased that I have been able to gain this technological skill over the course of post production, as I am proud with how the album cover turned out, and I feel it will be a useful skill for other media projects in the future.

Me editing the album cover on Adobe Photoshop

Evaluation

The webtools below were all useful for the creation of informative, concise and interactive posts on the blog for my evaluation. They were useful in order to present my points in an interesting manner combining different evidence together such as videos, gifs and images.

Prezi

Prezi was very useful for creating smooth, eye-catching presentations with nice themes and animations. This allowed me to display information easily and present it well. One of the only problems with Prezi was that it did not support the use of Gifs.

The Prezi presentations made for the Evaluation

Google Slides

Google slides was another tool that was very handy for creating simple presentations that could be embedded onto the blog. I felt it was even easier to use than Prezi.

Padlet

Padlet was a very useful tool for showing information and evidence during the evaluation stage. It could display a lot of content in one condensed frame, preventing posts becoming too lengthy.

Padlet documents created for Evaluation Questions

Makeagif

This service was very simple to use when it was working. I could import specific YouTube segments from clips to show evidence or inspiration on the blog.

Mindmeister

Mindmeister was a useful platform to brainstorm ideas. I used it for Evaluation Q1 to brainstorm three theorists that were inspirational for decisions made in the construction of our media product and the conventions that the media products followed.

Survey Monkey

This online platform was vital for Evaluation Q3 in order to obtain feedback from our target audience that we could analyse and so judge the success of our media products. It gave anonymous answers to questions we had set the public over our music video and artist, so that we could judge if our media products could appeal to our target audience. The only problem with Survey Monkey was that we could only be limited to using nine questions.

Conclusion

To make efficient progress during research and planning, construction, and evaluation stages. My knowledge for using webtools and new media technologies has greatly increased.There has been a great proliferation of media technologies in the digital age of the past decade due to the expansion of Web 2.0. I feel that through utilising webtools and technologies we have been able to greatly increase the quality of the media products we have produced.