Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
What is new media technologies?
'We define "new media" as interactive forms of communication that use the Internet, including podcasts, RSS feeds, social networks, text messaging, blogs, wikis, virtual worlds and more!
New media makes it possible for anyone to create, modify, and share content and share it with others, using relatively simple tools that are often free or inexpensive. New media requires a computer or mobile device with Internet access'. - (follow this link to find source)
'New media is a catch-all term for all forms of electronic communication that have appeared or will appear since the original mainly text-and-static picture forms of online communication'. - (follow this link to find source)
Below is an image of all of the new media technology I used when creating my media product. I have used a montage of images as well as annotations to show the new media technologies I have used and for what purpose.
1) Blogger - Blogger is classed as a new media technology and is an online website where you are able to sign up and post blogs on a topic of your choice, from media work to a general day to day use. Blogger is one of the most important and well used media technology I have use throughout the course. It works as an online portfolio working with other programs like 'YouTube' as a platform for us to show our media work. Blogger allows us to edit, add and delete parts of our work easily. With the easy use of being able to link your work, add photos, videos, links, sound clips and drafting your work before posting it and even being able to edit the HTML coding yourself. All of my work displayed on this software has been put onto my blog using these techniques. Blogger is an easy to access site and very efficient. This site was very useful throughout AS and A2 media and the coursework would have been significantly difficult if we didn't have blogger. The ability to write the coursework on this software makes it easier to do in an IT advanced society.
2) Photoshop - Photoshop is the programme where I have edited all the images I needed within my A2, the software is very complex but we are able to find out any instructions about it on the internet. This was very helpful for me as before A2 media I had never used photoshop before so I had to learn the basics before I could start. Although it took me quite a lot of time to understand it and become fluent when using it, I consider it to be a useful software to use as gives you the best quality product. I used this software mostly when creating my postcard front and back and my film review. Using photoshop has been very effective when creating my postcard and film review. It helped me to manipulate images to create a great effect.
3) Canon 550D - This new media technology was crucial when looking at the pratical side to my coursework. With the use of my camera as well as the teachers camera my coursework could have suffered. I used it to take photos for my postcard and my film review. I also used it to take pictures when we were filming this was so we could use these as evidence as well as using them to make my blog more visual through the pre-production, production and post-production. I also used the camera to take photos for the location reeces in the pre-production stage. The camera was a vital piece of equipment within my media production, the shots taken were a high quality due to how advanced the camera was. Without the camera it would have been difficult to take photos for my postcard to a high standard and quality.
4) Adobe Premiere Pro - This new media technology was provided by the school and the software that we used to edit all of our media products. I used this software to capture, create a rough cut, and edit both the visuals and the audio. This software was easily laid out with useful tools and effects to make Adobe Premier Pro the ideal programme for us to use. Without the use of Adobe Premier Pro the editing process of our project would have been more difficult. Adobe Premier Pro gives off a high quality product which is not found in many other editing softwares.
5) Internet Explorer - I used this new media technology to do my research throughout the process of pre-production, production and post-production. Internet Explorer was a useful software when looking at trying to research into background information as well as looking for visuals. Without this software I would have struggled to find out things I didn't understand or look up defintions from other people on a media term.
6) Wikepedia - This software enabled me to research from a well-known source into any information or topic I needed to know. It provided me with information throughout the course from information of certain films, media technologies and rules that are set when filming like the 180 degree rule. Wikepedia was a very useful website as it was able to give me information on nearly every topic. Without this website I would of needed to use other search engines to find the information needed.
7) Copyright free music channel - This new media technology was used mainly in the post-production stage. I used this software mainly to find uncopyrighted music to put at the start and end of my film. This was one of the most vital pieces within the A2 course. As we were not able to use uncopyrighted music of a high quality we were recommended to use this website by our school so we could find uncopyrighted music of a high quality and from a reliable source. This website had different audio tracks that were uncopyrighted from a variety of genres. Without the use of this website we wouldn't have been able to access music so easily and it would have resulted in us having to pay for uncopyrighted music or we would of had to create our own sounds or as a last resort having to get rid of music altogether which could have significantly reduced the quality of our work.
8) Flip camera - The flip camera that was provided to us by the school was a piece of new media technology we used. The flip camera enabled us to use different styles when presenting our work. The flip camera was used majorly when gaining our audience feedback, we used this easy, portable camera to video our target audience giving feedback on our film. This was a useful piece of equipment in the pre-production and the evaluation as we were able to collect feedback that we could then evaluate. The flip camera was useful in the sense that I was able to provide more information without having to type it out and also allowed me to gain a higher mark for using different types of IT. If the flip camera was not available to us we would have struggled to make our videos and would of had to use a different type of video camera of a reasonably good quality.
9) PD150 Camera - This piece of equipment is a high definition and quality camera that we used in our A2 pratical section of the coursework to shoot our short film and we felt that having used a lower quality camera last year that the difference was definately noticable and that this year the quality of our project was a lot more advanced in terms of the visual as well as the audio. If we didn't have this camera then we would have struggled to make such a high quality film and would of had to comprimise with the cameras we used last year.
10) YouTube - This new media technology is a widely recognised and highly used website that helped me during the course of media studies in AS as well as A2. It was especially useful when researching into short films in the pre-production as I had never really taken an interest in short films before YouTube helped me to research into the format and layout of short films and how others with a more professional background made their short films and the length as well as the different narratives as well as genres. YouTube is also an important software for the distribution of your film. It helps you to distribute your short film to wider audiences. YouTube also helped not only to gain an understanding of the format of short films as well as the distribution of them. Youtube was also my main software after creating videos as I put them onto YouTube to transfer them onto my blog, to create more visual elements within the coursework. Without the use of YouTube I would have struggled to complete all the tasks explained earlier and to distribute my film I would have needed to have attended short film festivals to get my film widely recognized.