HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

Technologies I used.

Whilst producing our product I used a range of technologies throughout my research, planning , construction and Evaluation. Using these technologies made it easier to document my work online and also enabled me to find new ways of documenting and uploading my work using multimedia technologies.

Research

For the research section of this project I used a range of internet services. The internet proved the best way to get research as it gave me many sources which is good for research, compassion and documenting my findings.

What I used : For the research section of our project I used websites such as Google.com and Unsigned. Com. I used Google to research RnB Trios and Music videos produced by RnB artists. Unsigned. Com is the website I found through Google which gave me a list of RnB artists to chose from.

Why I used it : 21st Century technology has allowed easier access to online websites and information faster and also provides diversity of choice. Before technology developed I would have had to find another way of researching videos and then have too write up my results which would have been time consuming and inaccurate. This is why I chose the website Google . It gave me information from anywhere in the world, for example 114,000,000 search results related to RnB artists came from London UK , and within 16 seconds Google had shown me the list of the websites. Unsigned.com was also a fast and reliable internet website because it came up as one of the top results for RnB groups and then provided a list of artists which were hyperlinked to a specific website for the artist with their music, contact information and biographies. This free access website was easy to use and gave us accurate information which we then used to contact the group whose music we wanted to use.

What could have worked better?: Google and unsigned .com were very reliable sources and I believe that these were the best websites to use because of their free and easy access and their fast and reliable results which contrasts to pre 21st century technology where everything would have to be handwritten and harder to document.

Research continued

What I used : I used a social networking site called Twitter to further my research and contact into the band Thicke which we found on Unsigned.com. The group also turned to YouTube for more research into music we would like to make into a music video which is where we found our final choice for a bands Ruff Diamondz.

What I did: Twitter allowed us to search their names and took us to their personal twitter page where we were able to direct message themand ask them if we could use their music.Unfortunately they were unable to provide their music however this allowed us to turn to YouTube where we searched for artists and came across the Band ‘Ruff Diamondz’ .We then used the information posted on their YouTube account to reach the Hotmail of their record label where we asked for their music and was approved.

Research continued

Once we had found our band we needed to research other bands of the same genre and same format so we could compare, so I used YouTube to search up bands for example, I typed ‘Destiny’s child’ into the search bar and looked at the range of videos I could use for my research videos.

What I used: I used Blogger to share my research onto the web. What I did: Once finding a video I used the blogging website

Blogger.com to upload my findings and share it with others. I was able to do this by the service the internet provides which is the ‘Embed code’ on every video on YouTube. Having the option to grab an embed code from youtube meant I was able to take any MP4 or MP3 file from youtube and upload it anywhere it also allows anyone else I want to share the file with, to take it using the embed code and share it anywhere else.

Images from online Research

PLANNING

Planning

For planning I used a mixture of internet and presentation technologies to show the planning of our product. For example I used Facebook and Slideshare. As well as using all of these I also used YouTube to post videos onto facebook.

Slideshare

Without Slideshare I would have been unable to upload any of my PowerPoint or word documents. This is because without an embed code I am unable to post my presentations onto Blogger. Slideshare provides the service of converting my presentation into a format which supplies me with an embed code which I copy into Blogger.com. After creating my posts I uploaded my work to Slideshare by using the Upload selection and then took the embed code from the presentation and copied that into Blogger.com.

Facebook

Facebook was used to grab images of the girls in our girl band to upload onto PowerPoint so that we could create a presentation. Facebok is another social network website which allows posting photographs and videos/video links on a wall where it is accessible to the public. This is where I copied photo’s from to create a PowerPoint about our girband. This is also where information was retrieved for the band biography which we used in our digipak.

Advantages: Facebook allowed interactivitty with other friends of my choice who could comment on the videos I upload and give me feedback as we went along with the production of our music video. The feedback we received was more accurate according to our target audience because they were friends the same age as our group and they are also in our target audience age range.

Disadvantages: Facebook didn’t reach the whole public because my account is a private account. Only people who knew me and my group members could comment, this means that only a certain selection of people could give feedback to us. It would have been better feedback if people of younger age but still in our age range, commented because we could compare our feedback to see if there were any changed we could have made.

Additional computer services used whilst creating my planning blog

One additional feature I used was Paint. Paint allowed me to create the design for the digipak. Paint allows the creation of posters and Layouts by using different shapes and drawings. For example I created our Digipak using the ‘Shapes’ service where I could draw out the template for our digipak, after this I can fill the box with any colour for the background and then I took images from Facebook and copied them onto paint to create the image of the girl band on the front of the digipak. I also used paint to experiment with the colours I could used on the digipak.

CONSTRUCTION

Construction

The construction section of this project included capturing images which show the creation of our product. I used both a camera and mobile phone to do this so that I could capture video’s as well as images from the making of our video.

Camera

What we used: We used a HD camera to first begin filming our project . After experiencing some difficulties we used a 4G Phone to complete the filming. We also used Imovie to upload our clips.

What we did: we used the camera to first film screen test of our chosen band members to see how well they worked on camera. The camera came with a tri pod which make it easier to put on a stand and hold steady this worked well until we had problems with our camera and so we decided to use an iPhone to capture the remainder of our video. We found that the quality on the iPhone was just as good or even better than the cameras and allowed us to edit right on the iPhone, because we were using apple mac computers, the iphone linked easily to the mac and we were able to upload our footage.

We uploaded our footage to the movie making programme imovie where you can cut and edit your video into a full project and then upload it to youtube where you can receive an embed code and share it across the world wide web.

Mobile phones

I used my mobile phone to capture images of the filming whilst it was happening. Theses still images could be uploaded Facebook and Youtube as a slide show .They could also be used in Slideshare. After using the Smartphone I could record/film and snapshot the making of our video as well as uploading them via a cable which we plugged into the computers using a USB wire and then transferred the photo’s onto the Apple Mac computers and then either onto a PowerPoint/Word document or Straight onto Blogger. Having access to this technology allowed easier filming and quicker uploading time, it also created a protection for our movie because if I needed to upload again I would have the footage on the phone and be able to upload it again. The iPhone made our collection of our clips easier to sort and edit.

Disadvantages: were that occasionally the images didn’t come out well and they had to be adapted using PC programmes. Using a phone also proved difficult at times because we wouldn't hold it on a tri pod like the camera so the footage was shaky and some things had to be re-filmed.

Advantages: The phone allowed us to film anytime we wanted and gave us great quality footage.

Website1

Whist creating the digipak I used a website called Kizoa. Kizoa allows you to create slides, collages and frame your pictures. I used this website whilst constructing the digipak by uploading the snapshots I had taken whilst creating the digipak. This website allowed me to make a slide show of all my pictures by uploading my snapshots to the website and then dragging them into a timeline whilst adding effects. This made my collection of pictures easy to organise. It was a quick and easy task and worked better than PowerPoint and Prezi as the website predicts your moves and asked you if you would like to upload all your pictures at one time or is you want to apply the same effect to all of the slides. It also moves the images together unless you want to move them individually. This website proved the best out of all the websites I used.

Website 2

To construct our digipack I also used special websites for the fonts we wanted. A webiste called Graffiti creator which allowed me to write what I wanted to create in a box and the alter the style, colour, background and also allowed me to add special effects. From here I downloaded my design and then copied it into paint where I added it to our digipak.

Website 3

Another website I used to do the writing on the digipak was MyLiveSignature. This was a website that created a signature for me online. We wanted to have signatures on the digipak so that the girl band could have their own individual part to the digpak, we also thought it worked well with the digipak style. This website asked me what I wanted to say in the signature and then gave me options of fonts , sizes and colours as well as the slope of the writing. I downloaded the signature and then added it to the biography page of our digipak.

EVALUATION

Evaluation

For the evaluation of the Media product I used Apple Mac computers and a Presentation website.

The Apple Mac computers Provided us with a built in camera and we used this to film our audience feedback for our evaluation and planning section of our video. We were able to sit big groups of people in a room and film them whilst we asked them questions. This was helpful as we didn’t need to find anyone to hold a camera and we could record straight onto YouTube where we could upload it and then share it to various other websites. This was one of our most helpful media technologies.

Prezi

Prezi is another Presentation creation website but it allows you to do more than PowerPoint. This is because I can upload and watch videos from it and I used different paths on the presentation to control what the screen shows. On example of my usage of Prezi is when I used it to document my groups usage/development and challenge of conventions of similar music videos. I also signed up to the website when I have my own account and I can upload all of my videos to one place. Having Prezi online allows me to have an embed code on every presentation I create which makes it quicker and easier to upload. This is different from PowerPoint as I would have to upload it to Slideshare first. Online access also allows me to create my presentations quicker and select photo’s from other websites e.g. Google.

Summary

By using all the different technologies to create and present my work. I have been able to document, upload and share all of my work as well as keep it online so I can create copies and access it easily. The technologies I have used have also taught me about how I can use different multimedia technologies to create a piece of work which I can then share with the public for feedback. Using the internet website ‘Google’ proved unreliable when I searched specific things as it gave me multiple search results with only 60% of the results relating to my search request, however, it was helpful when I needed to search up bands and music as it gave me results from different time periods and I was able to compare different products. Many of my presentations and images were uploaded and created using computer technology. This made it , quick and easy to produce and share work and allowed me to present my findings publically.