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

Throughout the process of researching, constructing and evaluating our media products, we have used a number of vital new media technologies in order to easily and successfully complete these stages of the project. We were able to utilise technologically converged tools at all three stages, and cross-media convergence as a keystone during our branding & marketing. New technologies were extremely helpful during the project, and I also personally enjoyed the ability to learn and use technologies I hadn't yet worked with.

Research & Planning:

Word allowed us to produce
 vital planning documents
like the call sheet.

-Microsoft Word:
Microsoft Word was an absolutely central software in our research and planning process. It was a tool through which we were able to produce vital pre-production paperwork such as the shootboard, costume & prop lists and call sheet. We also used the tool to create moodboards, and to paste the images of the 7 dwarves before they were printed, backed with cardboard and used for our final video.


-Web 2.0:

Tim O' Reilly
coined the term
"Web 2.0"

The relatively recent, yet hugely significant proliferation of content via Web 2.0 in the last 10-15 years has today led to countless amounts of content on the internet, which can be accessed instantly at the simple touch of a technologically-converged smartphone, or click of a mouse. As such, we have made use of a range of webtools available on Web 2.0 - including during the research and planning stage:

-YouTube:
YouTube was really helpful throughout the project, especially during the research & planning stage. As the largest online platform for music videos by far, as well as hosting videos from Vevo (a joint venture between Sony & Universal music groups - 2 of the "big three" record labels), it was a fantastic resource to use in taking references and existing music videos which could inspire our own ideas. These real-life products also allowed us to break down the typical forms & conventions of videos, and we were influenced by a number of videos - from the numerous scenarios in Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off', to the high-key, high-saturation grading, and positive feminist messages of Meghan Trainor's 'All About That Bass', and 'Dear Future Husband'.

Another useful inspiration we could take from YouTube was makeup tutorials, such as for dolls or puppets. 

Meanwhile, we took inspiration from the huge plethora of videos available on the site, such as

 'All About That Bass' and 'Shake It Off'

As well as this, the nature of Web 2.0 means that pro-sumers are able to themselves upload information to the internet, and we were able to upload a range of videos of our planning, including our steal-o-matic: a vital part of our pre-production technologies used to roughly plan the form and timings of our final video.

-Blogger:
Blogger has been the tool which we have used throughout our entire experience as media studies students to document and explain our research & creative process alongside its evidence. The fact that the URL of the page you are currently reading includes this...

We were able to express individual
thoughts and preferences on our
various personal blogs.

...clearly means that we have used it again this year. Blogger has been a useful tool throughout the process, as it has allowed us to clearly and easily display any work & evidence that we have completed during the A2 Course in a kind of hub, whilst older posts can be archived under labels. An additional benefit was that having individual blogs allowed for the expression of personal ideas, opinions and reflections in hindsight, as well as the expression of the group thoughts and ideas from work completed during the process.


-Online Statistics:

Graphs such as these were very useful
to refer to before decisions were made.

A number of websites proved to be incredibly helpful in providing statistics, facts and figures to help guide us in terms of our decision-making, such as how audiences consumed music, and which genres were the most popular amongst the British public. These sites included national media regulator Ofcom, Statista and the British Phonographic Industry.


-Shopping Websites:

We quickly and easily
ordered items online.

Another benefit of Web 2.0 has been the proliferation of online shopping websites - in our case, these included Amazon and 'ilovewallpaper.com' - which allow users to purchase almost anything rapidly and with consummate ease. These allowed us to discuss prop and costume ideas, before accessing the internet and purchasing them instantly.


-Tablet/Mobile Technology:

The relatively recent advancements to mobile phones and tablet technology in the last decade have been of colossal benefit to our project. The technological convergence of smartphones in particular has seen Web 2.0 & cameras become accessible from your pocket, which we have taken advantage of during our own project:

-iPads:                                                                                                                              iPads were the main piece of hardware which we used in order to gather references which we would then note down - potentially via the Notes app on the tablet. The main advantage of using iPads was that their portability and small size enabled far easier collating of reference points, as we were able to carry them anywhere around the media department.

Our group using iPads during a group meeting.

-WhatsApp:                                                                                                              Immediately after beginning the project, we set up a group chat on instant messaging platform WhatsApp. This was a fantastic way to establish rapid communication of ideas, inspirations & references - including on-the-go if need be (for instance if a group member was absent). As well as messages, the ability to attach photos, videos and web links was also of enormous benefit.

(Please click to enlarge) WhatsApp was our group's main form of communication.

-Phone Camera:

The phone camera
was very useful to
document the process.

The technological convergence of smartphones in the past decade, integrating cameras, the internet and other advancements into mobile phones, has been hugely advantageous to our project. It has allowed us to take photos throughout the course of the project (particularly during the research and planning stage) to document our work and to use as evidence of the process later on our blogs. We were also able to quickly & easily send these photos to other group members via WhatsApp, email, Bluetooth or any other means of sharing - though unfortunately transfers of large, or multiple, photos was often impossible, as the processing time would have taken an age due to the amount of data being transferred. 

Below I have detailed the advantages and disadvantages of the most important pieces of technology during the research and planning stage:
(Please use the arrow keys, or press the yellow arrows to view the slideshow)

Construction:

-Hardware:

-Canon 5D Mark II camera:

The 5D Mk. II was the
camera used to capture
most of our shots.

The Canon 5D Mk. II was the camera which we used for the majority of shots in our music video. The tripod (and dolly) on which it was positioned allowed us to adjust the camera's position to capture footage from a range of different heights, angles and positions, whilst we also had the opportunity to film handheld shots due to its lightweight, portable nature. The fact that we shot our video entirely in the studio was a huge bonus when using the camera, as we weren't required to transport it at any stage. As well as this, perhaps the main positive was its very high, 1080p HD quality, and the ability to manually adjust factors such as ISO, white balance & colour temperature meant that we could enhance the look of shots for a particular scenario (such as deliberately lower colour temperature for the colder aesthetic of the grey-blue puppet setup).

My breakdown of the features of the camera plus the lens which we used.

We also used a 24-105mm lens with the camera, and this high focal length was key in allowing us to capture close-up shots without a loss of focus or quality. Our main problem with the camera was having to focus each shot before we captured it. Whilst manual focus mean that we could ensure a particular area in shot was focused, and allowed us to use focus pulls in our final video to vary shot types, having to zoom and focus each shot before pressing record was incredibly time-consuming. Also, any drastic movement of GiGi's position in a shot could lead to a loss of focus and waste more time as we would have to re-shoot, or worse have to include an out-of-focus shot in our final edit if its loss of focus went unnoticed.

-Canon 550D camera:

Our "slow-motion
camera", the 550D

We also used a second camera - the Canon 550D - to film slow-motion shots. This was because of its ability to shoot footage at a higher frame rate (60fps compared to 25fps for the 5D Mk. II), which we could then slow down in post-production to achieve a far smoother slow-motion shot. Although this camera could not achieve the same 1080p quality of shot as the other Canon camera, and the 18-55mm EFS lens which we used didn't possess the same focal length either, it was still very important to use for the slow-motion during the conclusion of the narrative in the final chorus:

Had we used the 25fps 5D Mk. II camera, the footage would
have looked extremely choppy and stuttering when slowed down.

This was also the camera which we used for promo shots. In this case, we used auto-focus, which cut out the need to spend too much time achieving the perfect focus on a particular area of the shot.

-Zero88 Leap Frog Lighting Console:

Our lighting desk. The console is visible
to the left of shot, with the monitor in the
centre of shot displaying our memory log.
The sheet on the console contained all the
references for any colours we wanted to use,
and there was another which we used to
pinpoint the locations of each light.

As well as using the 650W ARRI turret lights for floor lighting, we also used the lighting desk to control the far larger-scale 1000W studio lights. Using the lighting desk was absolutely integral to our project, given the amount of different setups we had in mind, thus the amount of different lighting setups and colours required. As such, the lighting desk enabled us to tint the set in a range of different lighting colours, and added a professional-looking element to our shoot. This was a huge advantage of using the system, though in hindsight the most helpful aspect was the memory log, which allowed us to set up and save our numerous lighting setups as "memories" before our final shoot, which we could simply & quickly select and launch later on when filming and save enormous amounts of time and effort.

Often, the effect of the lighting on the
studio would unfortunately look
completely different on camera.

Whilst the sheer amount of buttons and options seemed daunting at first, it was really enjoyable gradually learning about and becoming very familiar with the relevant features of the console. Perhaps the disadvantage of using the console was that, whilst we could instantly launch lighting setups on shoot day, it was exceptionally time-consuming having to refer to where each studio light was positioned during the setup before the shoot, as well as exactly which colour and intensity it required. As well as this, the visual appearance of the lighting would often appear completely different to the naked eye in the studio than it did on-camera, which would require constant adjustment - including adjusting the camera's ISO & white balance features - until we were eventually satisfied with how the lighting would actually look in our music video.

Demonstrations of the features of the lighting desk

-Software:

-Adobe Premiere Pro:
Premiere Pro was the editing software which we used during the post-production stage to edit our video. It was another central piece of software to use, as it essentially brought all of the rushes which we wanted to use together, before we could cut them down and add any visual effects to add more visual appeal to our target audience groups. It was, of course, a big help that we had used Premiere Pro beforehand for previous media projects, as we already had expertise and confidence using the software.

Our Premiere Pro workspace. The various layers are visible on the left-hand screen.

Rendering was the main
downside of using Premiere
Pro, but was an obvious 
necessity to ensure 
high-quality footage. 

One of the most helpful aspects, besides having previous experience with the software, was the multi-layered layout of Premiere Pro. This clearly separated video from audio, and allowed us to make alterations to a shot on one track, without having to move or adjust the shots either side of it. The main disadvantage was the time it took to render shots. Not only would rendering take a considerable amount of time in itself, but also a yellow render bar would often appear above a section of the sequence, meaning those particular shots hadn't fully rendered. This would mean we had to render the whole sequence - and this would take far longer than rendering just one or two shots.

A breakdown of Premiere Pro's relevant tools.

-Adobe Photoshop:
Similarly important to our project, Photoshop was the software which we used to create and edit our digipak. This was also another piece of software which we'd had previous experience with. It was mainly used to not only position each aspect of the digipak in place (text, focal image, background image, etc.), but also to retouch and enhance the focal image of GiGi in order to achieve a professional-looking final album cover.

A snippet of our Photoshop workspace (in this case, using the magnetic lasso tool)

(Please click to enlarge)
A breakdown of the tools available
which we used on Photoshop.

Once more, the use of layers was very useful to organise our work, whilst the sheer amount of tools (see right), such as spot-healing brushes to enhance GiGi's complexion, and lasso tools to establish an outline of GiGi and refine the edges of the image, was another great advantage at our disposal. The drawbacks of the software were mainly that the large number of layers meant it was sometimes difficult to find an aspect of the digipak which we wanted, and also contributed to a large file size. This in turn would often bring the program to a standstill, as "full scratch disks" would mean that we were unable to save or use any tools on the digipak workspace.

This was often an annoyance.

-Wix.com:
Wix was the technology which we used to construct our website, and was the software which I personally was responsible for and completed the most work on, having eventually been put in charge of completing the website. In my opinion, it was both an extremely simple and enjoyable tool to use. The biggest advantage of Wix was the range of widgets & templates which it offered to help create a website to a professional standard - this included the social media feed, scrolling image bar and quiz tool. As well as this, there was no need to learn coding, and the nature of the site was as easy as simply clicking and dragging tools onto the page; whilst the majority of features and tools (as well as our actual ability to create a website) were free to use.

A couple of analyses of the website

As the hub of GiGi's marketing campaign, we were able to achieve synergy through consistent branding across our website and other products, and create a symbiotic platform by integrating social media sites which we had set up for GiGi, such as Twitter & Instagram feeds. The main issue with Wix was that the information on some pages was cut off at the sides if we used monitors which weren't as wide as those we edited on.

Below I have detailed the advantages and disadvantages of the most important pieces of technology during the construction stage:
(Please use the arrow keys, or press the yellow arrows to view the slideshow)

Evaluation:

-Web 2.0:

-Slideshow Tools:
Webtools such as Slides and Emaze were very helpful, as they allowed me to create, embed and display slideshow presentations on my blog. This ability to embed the presentation on the blog was particularly important, as it allows viewers of the blog to easily, conveniently and instantly access information which has been condensed and displayed artistically on a blog page, as opposed to a mass of text.

(Please click to enlarge) Slides - an example of a slideshow webtool.

-Prezi:
Presentation tool Prezi was perhaps the most artistic method used to present information on my blog. It allowed me to create presentations with eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing themes and animations. Similarly to slideshow tools, it was a useful method of displaying and conveniently embedding information on my blog text rather than multiple paragraphs of text - even if each Prezi was incredibly time-consuming.

An example of a Prezi which I created.

-Imgflip:
Imgflip is a website which enables users to create gifs and memes from images or videos. This was really beneficial to refer to snippets of music videos (including our own) when providing evidence on our blogs, which in itself saved having to upload the entire video. Once more, it varies the content on the blog from just text and images to heighten its visual appeal.

We were able to upload videos from Youtube and extract a 4-second snippet in gif form.

-Padlet:
Padlet was a further tool which I used during the evaluation phase, in order to condense content - including videos, images and text - into a convenient frame. This meant that lots of content for one particular area of research or evidence could be condensed, which prevented posts becoming too lengthy. There was also the option to share and/or expand Padlet documents via the blog.

Padlet.

-Mindmap Tools:
Mindmap tools such as Mindmeister & GoConqr were also useful technologies during the evaluation stage of the project. As was the case with so many other methods of presentation to display information and evidence on the blog, it was a helpful method to vary the content on a page to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the blog.

Mindmap tools such as GoConqr (left) and Mindmeister (right) proved very useful

-Survey Monkey:

Part of a survey page

One of the most important pieces of technology used during the evaluation phase was Survey Monkey - a website which was vital to us when gathering audience feedback easily, remotely and efficiently. Having created a survey using a very simple layout, we could then share the survey via email & social media, before analysing the audience's responses via built-in graphs and tables which examined answers to each question on a survey - an example of this is graphs for the final question which was scored out of 10.

Another useful feature was the prevention of taking
 the survey twice, as this could skew or fix results.

Below I have detailed the advantages and disadvantages of the most important pieces of technology during the evaluation stage:
(Please use the arrow keys, or press the yellow arrows to view the slideshow)

In Conclusion...

To understand the scale of how many different forms of technology - hardware & software - were used at each stage of the production of our media products, I have produced a mindmap detailing the technologies used at every stage.
(Please press the play button and use the arrows at the top of the mindmap to navigate)

Overall I believe that, personally, I have used a sufficient range of new media technologies in order to easily and conveniently make progress during the research & planning, construction and evaluation stages. I have also relished the chance to take advantage of a number of technologies and webtools for the first time, as well as consolidate my skills using others which I'd previously had experience with.

In hindsight, I have surprised myself in just how many new media technologies I have used overall (as detailed in the mindmap above). This is largely as a consequence of the proliferation of new media technologies which fortunately have become available over the last 10-15 years, and this proliferation is in itself due largely to the expansion of Web 2.0. This idea was expanded upon by David Gauntlett, who stated that Web 2.0:

-is faster, more collaborative creativity
-fosters connectivity due to its collaborative nature
-harnesses collective intelligence
-leads to an audience shift from passive consumers to active 'prosumers'

In using tools & software via Web 2.0, I feel that I have been an active prosumer of media throughout this project; blogging, posting on social media, constructing & completing online surveys amongst other activities during the evaluation alone. Meanwhile, this pro-sumption of technology whilst working on the project is also in addition to any other web-based activities in my spare time.

On the whole, these new technologies were undoubtedly very beneficial to our project. I am pleased that I have expanded my personal range of skills when using a number of new webtools and technologies, and I believe that we have utilised them as a group to the best of our ability at every stage in order to produce three quality media products.