Evaluation: How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning & Evaluation Stages

(click here to read the answer)


CONSTRUCTION

Although not part of the New Media, Adobe Premier Pro was very useful in the construction of my final piece due to the fact that it allowed me to make creative decisions that aren’t available on other means of digital editing such as with linear software (Windows Movie Maker) – and as such, influenced my final project which would be distributed onto platforms such as youtube, blogger and facebook. I found that that the ability to add multiple layers onto the project helped me organise the clips. For example, after putting the music onto my project, I could then match up the lip syncing of my clips – and do so on multiple layers. After that, I was able to cut out dodgier parts of each clip such as the characters switching places or forgetting to lip sync. After that, I was able to select the clips I wanted and cut out the ones I didn’t need without having to worry about lip syncing (although using puppets helped in this area, as all they did was move their mouths up and down; thus more usable footage was at my disposal).

In retrospect, Premier pro had a variety of editing options such as changing the colour of the clip and sharpening it, but I didn’t use the technology to its full potential due to the fact that I did not know how to properly colour grade images without the help of tutorials during my AS film opening remake. However I learned a lot about Adobe After Effects after watching a tutorial about creating an RGB Split/Glitch effect. The software was hard to comprehend and it required me to keep referring back to the youtube tutorial, but I used it create the ending sting of the band logo. It was actually one of the very few parts of the music video that I was proud of. Youtube was therefore and essential tool from the New Media range now at our disposal through the internet – as the site’s premier pro and after effects tutorials taught me how to add exponential fades into my project (and example can be seen near the very end) and ghosting, which meant that one clip could be seen overlain through the other; vaguely similar to the True Detective opening credit that I looked at during my research stages. Early on during the creation of my digipak, I tried to use Photoshop in order to create each panel but learned very early on that I wasn’t experienced enough with the programme to create something good.

Therefore, I used GIMP and sites online called ONLINE IMAGE EDITOR and BAR CODE GENERATOR in order to overlay images when my computer was in for repair (online image editor) and make realistic packaging for the back panel of my digipak (The bar code). The parental advisory warning sticker was something I found on the image hosting website called Flickr, a very useful new media technology. However, the inability to save images from the site prove annoying, I had to screencap the stick so as to put it onto the product.

For the creation of my website, I used Wix due to the fact that it was user friendly and I was able to go back to my work to edit before I published – whenever I so desired. Initially, I drew inspiration from other band websites (Korn, Chet Faker, The Sex Pistols) and tumblr HTML layouts available on http://theme-hunter.tumblr.com/. Chet Faker’s minimalist design, Korn’s album cover background and The Sex Pistol’s bold fonts in turn inspired my final website, and thus the usefulness of the Google search engine is evident because without a browser, look for website inspiration would have been impossible.

Wix was also very comprehensive and allowed me to make achievable decisions over the look of my final site; the option to edit picture using wix software before adding them onto the site (Namely, the black and white images of band members) was also a useful tool which help me accomplish the overall look of the blog (which was the overall look of the album and music video as well as).

The big three were used during the research process. Well, my big three. Tumblr, youtube and Vimeo. I used vimeo to look up the music videos for Royal Blood’s figure it out music video. The video hosting website catered more to independent film makers and as such displayed music videos in widescreen and gave the option to open the video in a popup window. However, youtube gave the option to adjust the resolution of videos whilst researching my selected genre (punk) and most ‘related videos’ were immediately at my disposal down the side of the page for a music video. This made researching my genre quicker to accomplish as opposed to in the past where one could only watch music videos on television channels such as MTV and Kerrang!

Tumblr was a great help during the research process due to the search options. If I typed in a key word such as ‘punk’ or ‘grunge’ it wouldn’t just search for music videos, but also fashion blogs, fan-made graphics for tumblr user’s favourite bands and fashion as well as overall opinions of the genre from my intended audiences: young adults.


PLANNING
During the planning stages, I used Amazon to buy paint for the construction, papers masks, and a miniature drum kit. The latter didn’t make it into the re-shot as I eventually lost interest in the project due to personal issues (sorry!) but the immediacy of ordering products online was very using during the process of constructing my music video.

EVALUATION
For the evaluation, I used new media sites such as blogger to show you said evaluation (through either words or hyperlinks) and prezi, which made my answer to how effective the combination of my ancillary and main product was more comprehensible. Again, I like how simple the website is to use. Slideshare win again in user-friendliness, as being able to upload powerpoints from your computer to online was really useful in sharing my progress. However, it could take quite a while to load and the embed codes were temperamental when I hadn’t updated my flash. That goes for prezi, too. Although new media programmes were useful in the planning, construction and evaluation of my media product, technology can be unreliable and sometimes I found that doing things on paper before beginning the editing/research better helped me put my thoughts in order.