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

We used many new technologies for the research and planning, construction (production and post-production) and evaluation stages. Without the use of these new technologies, our music video, website and album would be non-existent as we relied so heavily on new software and hardware. Below is a diagram outlining the technologies we used for each stage and I will then go into more detail for each stage individually.



Research and Planning

Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the research and planning stage.

     

Summary

As we had already used blogger to post about our research and planning during AS Media, I already knew what was expected and how to use the tools that blogger provides. However, during AS we didn't need to create a steal-o-matic so this was new to me. It meant my research was a lot more thorough and I was able to gain lots of reference points due to the amount of existing music videos we had to watch. Using Adobe Premiere Pro to collate all these clips together wasn't too difficult as we had used this software during AS, but it took a while to refresh my memory. For the steal-o-matic, we only used basic editing tools such as cropping the video length so it was quite simple, however, one thing I did learn was how to alter the framing of the video so that the clips all looked roughly the same size, making it more visually pleasing to watch.

Construction (Production)

Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (production) stage.

     

Summary

I had never used the studio lights before, so our media technician had to teach us all how to use them. The most difficult part of this was remembering how to select certain lights and then change the colour filters for them. However, once we got the set up we wanted we were able to record the lights on a computer software, meaning we wouldn't have to waste time in our next session getting the rigth set up again as it would be saved on the computer. In our preliminary task for A2 Media, we filmed in the studio and used the monitors to get up Taylor Swifts lyrics so I already had an idea of how these worked and was able to use them when shooting our real video. As I was performing the whole time, I rarely did the camera work, however, we had a sessions with out media technician who should us how it worked and after this it was quite easy to get used to.

Construction (Post-Production)

Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (post-production) stage.

     

Summary

I had never used Wix before we started this coursework project and so i was excited to learn how to use it as it may benefit me in the future. It was a very easy way to create our duo's website as it consisted of all the tools we needed and was quite self explanatory. However, it was frustration to use at times as the site often crashed and was slow. Yet despite this, it was ideal for holding all MiraJax's info in one place so that it could act as a hub to all other platforms. Making social media accounts was an easy task because as a teenager myself I have my own social media and use it regularly, so know how everything works. Photoshop proved to be the most difficult part in the stage as it took the most time and we all needed to refresh our memories on how to use it. But due it to being a key part of our construction, we had to use it a lot and now I feel positive that I would be able to use it again without assistance.

Evaluation

Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the evaluation stage.

     

Summary

Most of the online tools I used in my evaluation I had already used before for other subjects and tasks. However, GoConqr was a new one for me and I found it very useful for presenting information quickly and effectively. It is also something that I can go on to use for other areas of my education when presenting something to a class for example.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I feel very lucky that we have access to all these old and new technologies and can use them all to our advantage. It is clear from the technologies I have highlighted that Web 2.0 plays a massive a role - it is what many other technologies derive from, e.g. social media and websites. One theorist, Tim O'Reilly says that Web 2.0 is what allows for mass collaboration and interactivity which is clearly seen through the huge communities on social media, for example Twitter. We benefited from Web 2.0 greatly as we created both social media accounts and a website for our duo, allowing us to reach our audience easily and leading to our duo being a success.