Media technologies- Evaluation

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

Through out this course I have used a wide range of media technologies. Firstly, I have used this website; Blogger.com to create a blog to present my work. I did this because I thought it required a higher skill level to use and looked more impressive then your average PowerPoint slide or Word document. I did the Microsoft PowerPoint and Word programs to collect notes and do rough drafts before typing up on my blog.

The biggest media technology I have used has to be the Internet, I have used various platforms like GoogleChrome, Firefox and Safari depending on what computer I am on. I used Google and YouTube to research existing media products. I have used the website Moodle to communicate with my teachers and submit work for marking. I have used the e-mail system called FirstClass which the school uses to keep in contact with teachers and my client. I have used the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to advertise my music video on the band's pages and I used a hyperlink to make it easier for the fans to find the video on YouTube. I also used SoundCloud to give the band a place to promote their music and get the song on the web for fans to listen too.

To construct the research videos I made about media theorists I used a program called ClipGrab to get the clips of the music videos. I used Garageband to record my voice over. I edited through FinalCutPro 10  then uploaded it to YouTube.

To construct my music video I used Canon camera to collect my shots. For this I needed an SD card and tri-pod. I used the stage lighting and lighting deck to create the atmosphere for a real performance on the stage.  To edit my music video and add effects I used Final Cut Pro 10 on my Apple MacBook Pro. As the band did not have their song already recorded, I recorded it for them using the software Logic Pro.

To construct my ancillary texts I used Photoshop CS6. I also used the Canon camera to get the shots for my Digi-Pak.

I used a hard drive to transport files around and back up my work during editing.

In my evaluation to make the audience feedback video I used a flip camera and edited it on Final Cut Pro 10 then uploaded it to YouTube.

Evaluation

I was happy with using mostly all the software, I came up with few errors and issues. I think I was efficient with my time because I have a vast experience already in using most of these programs. I gained a vast amount of knowledge from last year and felt I made far fewer mistakes then last years coursework.

I did however have a problem with Blogger, as this is the first time I am using Blogger I am unsure how to change the layout of how my blog posts appear. I wanted the first blog post I wrote to appear at the top, but it appeared at the bottom and every more recent blog post would go on top of it. As this is a coursework blog not a gossip blog I think it is stupid having the evaluation as the highest post, the introduction should be at the top. The only way I could get round this was to make a contents page and date archive to try to make it easier to understand.

I feel the quality of the sound I recorded on Logic Pro is quite average/poor. This was because of again my in experience with this particular program. As I am an A Level student that is using basic equipment, I was never going to achieve a high standard of a recording studio. I do think that I have a good recorded song for the equipment and opportunities that were available to me.

I think using a wide variety of programes and different technologies has been a great bonus to the quality of my work in producing my three products, and how I have presented my theory and research work. As this is a media course I think it is important to use media as much as possible in every aspect of my coursework which I have done.