A2 Evaluation - Question 4

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

Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my production, new media technologies were extremely crucial in the role they played in aiding the quality of the three products. Without such advanced technologies, my group and I would not have been able to create such diverse and professional looking products.

For the research part of the process, I used a lot of technologies, including Google (and Images), Youtube and Blogger. These three websites helped me to gain insight into pre-existing music videos, magazine adverts and digipaks. Google helped me to find inspiration of ancillary texts and Blogger subsequently gave me a platform to compile all my research onto to talk about and refer back to later on. Youtube was also helpful in discovering music videos I could use to gain inspiration from. Having Blogger always open in a separate webpage allowed me to put any research I found from Google and Youtube in it straight away. It was also useful in allowing me to compare between what I had found and choose what I most liked. For example, I created a blog post titled "Music Video Inspirations", where I talked about five different music videos I gained ideas I could develop in my own unique way. One music video, "All I Want" by the indie band, Kodaline, made use of drained saturation in their editing. I therefore analyzed the use of this in Blogger after watching it in Youtube and employed it into my own music video. I went further than this, researching whether the elements that I chose to inspire me are conventional of the indie genre; some actually were not and therefore it was helpful as a producer to see if it would be useful to subvert these conventions. 

I found that this method of research was a beneficial way of producing a more successful piece of work as I was extremely organized in knowing exactly what elements I wanted to include in my own production; furthermore, the use of new technologies strongly aided as the information was so readily available. Blogger proved to be the most helpful of the technologies in my research stage as it allowed me to embed images or documents so I have as much guidance in my production as possible.

In the planning of my production, I used Blogger again as I noted down any ideas and analyzed my own work. Blogger allowed me to talk in depth about my own ideas, which meant I could constructively criticize my own work and see what could be changed and made better. I used the research I made into indie artists' work to aid in planning my own production; I used Blogger to make in-depth analysis of why certain conventions and micro-elements would be appealing to conform to or even subvert. As well as using Youtube to research and then plan for my music video, I also used Google Images to help plan my ancillary texts. For example, I made two separate blog posts called "magazine analysis" and "digipak analysis" where I looked into Gabrielle Aplin's magazine advert and digipak, as well as two other indie artists. I then used this research to draw out my own magazine advert and digipak, which I then took a picture of and uploaded into new blog posts: "planning individual magazine advert" and "planning individual digipak" and analyzed the elements I chose to include. Using these new technologies was extremely useful as otherwise I would not have been able to gain research from various locations, e.g. Youtube and Google Images, to then plan my own products.

For the actual construction of my products, I had to use more advanced technologies; I used software such as Final Cut Pro X to edit my music video and Photoshop CS6 to create my ancillary texts. However, I also used hardware, such as an SLR camera and a tripod, to professionally capture various shot types at different angles to make my music video more successful. Furthermore, using such a proficient camera means I could acquire a high resolution of shots, as well as allowing for larger frames. Therefore as I was using an SLR, it was beneficial to use Final Cut Pro X to edit the footage as the software supports 4K style of filming; my work would effectively work far more professional this way.


Overall all of the technologies did have more benefits as they allowed me to go through a piecemeal process that meant I was on track with my production and I knew exactly what I was doing. This also meant that I had a note of everything I had done, am doing and have planned to do in my production so I would have the desired outcome. As I had never previously created a production based upon the indie genre, technologies such as Youtube and Google allowed me to research the conventions; however as I did extensive research into various indie artists I was able to see how they used these conventions. For example, some artists manipulated conventions, even subverting them to make their video more unique and dynamic. The most important of all the technologies involved was the use of the Macs, as without this hardware, I would not have been able to have access to the professional software such as Final Cut Pro X or Photoshop CS6, which unlike other software, do not have as advanced tools one can work with. Furthermore, using technology such as Youtube was an extremely helpful way to quickly gain public feedback, as it is accessible to all, and I could share it on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to get a wide range of opinions. Conclusively, without digital technologies I would not have been able to create an as appealing video as otherwise.