Evaluation Q4
- 1. Evaluation Question 4 – How did you use media technologies in the construction & research and planning & evaluation stages? Tom Ibbott
- 2. Introduction Throughout my project, the use of digital technologies has been absolutely vital and it would have been near impossible to do the project without. I made use of physical hardware, such as iPhones and a camera. However the use of software was also important, for example in the production of the final music video.
- 3. General Media Technologies Used Throughout the Project Throughout my project, I used: Blogger Slideshare
- 4. BLOGGER Throughout my project, the one constant piece of software used throughout was Blogger. As I completed different sections of my work, I uploaded them to Blogger so that they were all compiled in the same place. It also means they could be accessed anywhere by anybody, which was another positive aspect. I have presented all of my research, findings, planning, construction and evaluation work on here. The reason I chose to use Blogger was that I had used it during my AS year of Media Studies, when I created a music magazine and during that year I believe I gained some expertise and experience, thus meaning that I had no trouble using it when it came to this year. Since I had the experience already, precious time was saved when it came to using it this year and I was able to do advance skills with Blogger, such as changing the design and layout. All of these skills put together helped to create a professional look to my blog and presented my work in a generally pleasing way to the eye. As a result, I have found that Blogger is a very reliable resource and is something I would definitely carry on using in the future, as it is simple to use and I have now gained a significant knowledge regarding how to use it and its purposes.
- 5. SLIDESHARE Slideshare is another piece of online software that I discovered from my AS studies. During the AS year, I struggled to figure out how to upload files to Blogger, such as PowerPoints and Word documents. Yet after the discovery of Slideshare I was able to do this and after using it successfully in first year, I decided it was a good idea to use it for the same purpose this year. To use Slideshare, I simply have to log in using my ‘LinkedIn’ account and then upload the file, where I can then retrieve an embed code to put into a blog post. The file then embeds itself into my blog, from where it can be viewed with the rest of the blog. When uploading a PowerPoint, it uploads in a format which means the audience can view it as if it were just an actual PowerPoint rather than an embedded file, which works well because it means there are no compressions or changes made when uploaded and it gets uploaded exactly as I made the file. There are so many benefits to using Slideshare, with the main one being that it work with Blogger to enable one to embed a file into a blog post as opposed to leaving a link for the reader to follow if they want to reach the file, which is how some softwares work.
- 6. Media Technologies Used in Research Stage During the research stage, I used lots of media technologies to find and process my research: Survey Monkey Google Social Media Microsoft Word/PowerPoint YouTube iMovie Vimeo
- 7. SURVEY MONKEY In my AS research, I created a survey for my audience research to find out people’s thoughts on existing music magazines and what they would like to see that didn’t already exist. This went particularly well at AS, so as a result I decided to do it again for my A2 studies. I asked the audience a variety of questions around music videos, digipaks and magazine adverts and took the responses into consideration when doing my production work. For instance, the results of this research told us that the majority of the audience watch music videos on YouTube. Therefore, we conformed to the wishes of our audience and when we had produced our video we uploaded it to YouTube. I could have chosen to give out a paper questionnaire instead of doing it online like this, however in the modern day it is much more common to do an online survey as it is less time consuming and when using software like Survey Monkey, it generates the audience’s quantitative responses into graphs automatically, meaning I didn’t have to do this myself so it was much less time consuming for myself. Another reason that online surveys are better is that there is no human contact involved, so people feel less pressured to write positive comments and give the answers that we want. It is much more representative of the truth. We also had the opportunity to share them using social media so that it could open the survey up to a wider audience than a paper survey would have done. It also saves on printing costs. The software is actually very easy to use and it manages the data well. It’s very simple, but it does the job that I needed it to do, therefore I would have no queries or complaints about using it again. The only constructive comment I would make about Survey Monkey was that once we hit 100 responses, we realised that we could not view any more, unless we paid for the services. We were not prepared to pay to view any more responses that we received, however this was not a problem as we felt that 100 responses was a fair representation and it would mean that it was easy to work out the proportions and ratios of results.
- 8. GOOGLE Google was a very helpful resource throughout the research stages of my project. I used it to look up different artists within the genre that we were going to be making a video for, as well as for finding images that I could put on my research findings to enhance the readers’ experience. I could also research common conventions and theorists so I was aware of what was common and uncommon in the existing products. I searched up the conventions of specific genres and artists as well as the music videos in general. I then saved this research and used it all when I was creating my products. I believe this helped to boost the quality of my products, as well as boosting my knowledge of the market at the same time, which all helped to make professional products, which were also pleasing to the eye of the audience.
- 9. SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media was particularly helpful in the research stages of my project, because it meant I could easily invite people to give their opinions and form part of our audience research. I, personally, shared the survey which I created on Survey Monkey onto my personal Social Media accounts in the hope of receiving responses, which in the end worked out very well. It allowed me to share the questionnaire out quickly and gain responses quickly as well, which saved me a lot of time and meaning I only had to spend a short while focusing on this particular area of my audience research, before I could move onto another aspect of it. At the same time, I was able to do casual audience research such as sending people pictures or videos and asking for their opinions on the products.
- 10. MICROSOFT WORD/POWERPOINT Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were both pivotal throughout my whole project, but particularly in the research stage. Both are basic forms of modern media technology and have been around for a long time. But the reason they have continued to be used is because of how good they are and the fact that they are simple, but they do a job and most people like it when a software is easy to use. In my research, they helped me to present my findings in a professional way and structure it so that it looked exciting. I could have chosen to write out all of my findings and scan them into the computer, however as well as looking more professional, the use of these softwares is less time consuming. I am also very experienced with using both of these products. I have used them for many projects throughout my life, including for my AS Coursework. Therefore, with my experience and knowhow I felt that it would be a good idea to just continue with what I know rather than trying something new, as that way I would run the risk of it not being as good, or struggling to work out how to use certain aspects. Therefore, I played it safe and used these two to present the majority of my research. They are both also easily compatible with Slide Share, meaning I could embed them into my blog very easily.
- 11. YOUTUBE Without YouTube, I would have struggled with the textual analysis section of my research. I used it to research and watch existing music videos to look out for common conventions and look at the genre that we were hoping to follow. I could have chosen to watch the TV music channels and analyse the music videos on there, however YouTube allows me to choose the videos that I would like to watch rather than just watch whatever is on. This also saves time, because if I chose the TV route, a video may have come on that wasn’t appropriate for my analysis or didn’t fit the general brief or genre of my music video, thus I would have had to wait until one came on that was appropriate.
- 12. IMOVIE As part of my research, I created two videos. One was a video recording of a focus group interview between three members of the public, where they discuss the issues surrounding music videos as well as some conventions that they like or expect to see. The other was a video of myself and my group reacting to the music video for the song ‘Chelsea Dagger’ by The Fratellis. We thought this was a different way of analysing a music video to just watching it and writing about it through either Word or PowerPoint and added an extra element to our blog, while showcasing our skills. We chose to edit the videos through iMovie as it is a simple video editing software that we all had experience in, so it would be less time consuming than using a more advanced software, such as Premiere. It was only a form of research, so the videos didn’t need to look or be particularly professional, just as long as they were decent.
- 13. VIMEO We hit a bit of a stumbling block when we tried to upload our ‘Chelsea Dagger’ reaction video to YouTube, as it was not allowed due to Copyright purposes with the audio track. However, as an alternative, we uploaded the video to another online video sharing site, ‘Vimeo’. From here, we were able to get an embed code and put the video directly into our blog. The use of Vimeo was a direct example of where we, as a group, had to use our initiative to overcome a problem, and it worked successfully.
- 14. Media Technologies Used in Planning Stage During the research stage, I used lots of media technologies to find and process my research: Microsoft Word/PowerPoint Adobe Photoshop Facebook Messenger/Email iPhone 5S SoundCloud Adobe Photoshop CS5
- 15. MICROSOFT WORD/POWERPOINT Just like in the research stage of my project, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were key in the planning of my project also. Similarly to the research, I used them to present my ideas and plans for the project. For instance, when planning the music video I used Microsoft Word to devise a comprehensive shot list/shooting schedule, which we used as we were going round filming, so we knew what we needed to film and where and when it needed to be done. Furthermore, both were then inserted into Slideshare where, as previously mentioned, I could add them directly into my blog. Throughout the research and the planning stages, I chose to mix up my use of Word and PowerPoint, because it would have been dull for the reader and for myself if I just used the same format every single time I produced something. It just enhances the experience of the reader and also improves my skills, as I am then able t become an expert in more than just the one software.
- 16. FACEBOOK MESSENGER & EMAIL As part of the planning stage, once we had decided on a song, we had to contact the relevant authorities to ask for permission to use that song for our video. Initially, as a group we had chosen the song ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ by The Courteeners, so one of our members emailed their record label, Polydor for permission. However, after a while, we made a group decision to change our song as we felt the song ‘Not So Sad’ by Faux Pas fitted our brief better and was the better song choice based on what we had found from our audience research and textual analysis. Since they are only a local band from the same area as us, one of our group members actually knows a member of the band, so he was able to contact his through his own personal Facebook Messenger account, meaning we didn’t have to spend time searching for an email address and contacting them. Therefore, the use of social media in the planning stage was very important, as would the role of Email have been had we chosen to stick with the initial song choice. The use of email was also significant for once we had recorded our group discussion, as we were unable to transfer the file from a phone to the computer by using just a lightning USB cable, therefore we had to email it from the phone to an email account connected to the computer to transfer the file.
- 17. APPLE IPHONE 5S As part of our proof of planning, we decided to record one of our group meetings. Using an iPhone, we set up a sound recorder and then we carried on our meeting as normal. We could have used a professional sound recorder or microphone, however when we decided we would like to record it, it was very last minute, so it was too late for us to book out a sound recorder and none of our group owned one that we could use. However, the use of an iPhone actually went really well. The sound came out clearly and you can understand what is being said. The use of phones was also important in the planning stages, as we could have group discussions when we weren’t together if we had things that we didn’t have time to plan in class. As a team, we used a group Facebook chat to communicate with each other and send across any files that needed transferring between each other. In the modern day, it’s well known that phones are an important part of our society and within the planning of our project, we definitely made good use of them as a group. Digital technologies were extremely important here.
- 18. SOUNDCLOUD After we had recorded our group discussion, we then had to decide how to present it. We discussed the possibility of adding an image and creating a movie file, using this as the audio track. However, as we had already showcased our movie/video making skills through the Chelsea Dagger analysis and the Focus Group Interviews, we felt it would be good to do something a bit different. Therefore, we uploaded the file to Sound Cloud, which is a common site for sharing audio tracks, and is often used by unsigned musicians to get their music out there. In fact, the band we are focusing on, Faux Pas, use Sound Cloud a lot to upload their work for their fans to see. I also had prior experience using Sound Cloud, so I was familiar with the software and how it worked, so I decided that it would make sense to showcase our skills this way. It is a very easy to use software and fills what was a gap in the market before they came along, as there was never really a free online audio site like this where individual artists could share their music.
- 19. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5 During the planning stages, I used Photoshop to create mockups and draft versions of both the digipak and the magazine advert. I chose to use this software as I had experience of using it during my AS studies. As a result, this made the process of producing the drafts and mockups quick and simple, because most of the problems I encountered, I had previously come across during my AS production year meaning that I knew how to solve them. When I found a problem that I was not able to solve, I used Google to search up what to do and usually this gave me the answers. Overall, Photoshop sped up the process due to the vast experience I and my group already had of using the software and this meant that it was a fairly simple planning stage.
- 20. Media Technologies Used in Production Stage During the research stage, I used lots of media technologies to find and process my research: Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera iPhone 7 YouTube Premiere Photoshop
- 21. NIKON D60 DIGITAL SLR CAMERA When first shooting our video and taking the images for our digipak and magazine advert, we chose to use this camera as it is a modern, professional camera, with a lot of good features. Personally, I had very limited experience using this camera before, besides taking a couple of still shots using it for my AS Coursework. However, all of my other group members had used this in other contexts and were comfortable with how to use it. Therefore, we had enough expertise in the group to use it to a high standard. As I was less experienced, I followed the lead of the rest of the group by watching how they use the camera. After a significant part of the project had passed, I managed to pick up how the camera worked and my skills of using it had developed massively. On our fourth shooting session, I was the only crew member present, therefore I had to be comfortable with using the camera and I felt like I used the camera successfully and took professional shots by using a tripod and shoulder mount to balance the camera. My skills developed and I was able to use the focus and contrast comfortably as well as controlling the shooting mode.
- 22. IPHONE 7 On our fifth shooting session, we hit a huge stumbling block. Our camera would not work and our reserve camera was also out. Therefore, we had to make a quick decision whether or not to continue with filming or come back another day and refilm using the camera. We decided, that since we were already at the filming location, we would use an iPhone 7, as we had seen a number of past A2 music videos filmed on one and the camera quality is also very good. It turned out that actually our shots looked better than the ones filmed on the camera! As a result, we used this device for all the rest of our filming and also went back and refilmed a number of the shots that we had already recorded for continuity purposes. We kept the live performance shots, which were filmed on the camera, however every other shot was filmed on the phone. The use of digital technology was so important here, because it completely transformed the quality of our video. If I were to do the project again, I would use this from the start as the standard is actually lots better than that of the professional camera. This is a perfect example of where we managed to overcome a problem as a team and it all turned out for the best, as I believe our music video looks very professional and if you weren’t aware, it would be very difficult to recognise that it was filmed on a smartphone.
- 23. ADOBE PREMIERE CS6 For the compilation and editing of our music video we shortlisted a few possible softwares that we could use. In the end we chose to use Adobe Premiere, as we believed it was the most advanced and professional and between us, we also had significant past experience using it. We chose to use this as opposed to iMovie, because it produces higher quality videos and although we used the former in our research and planning stages to save time, the quality was much more important than time here. We would prefer to have a quality music video that took time to create than a bad one, which we managed to put together in a week. Throughout the process, we all had a go at editing the video and we all developed our skills. Adding effects, removing audio and enhancing contrast were all techniques that I picked up along the way and I now consider myself much more informed with the project. Another benefit with using this software was that, unlike most video editing softwares, you do not have to edit the video in chronological order, and you can edit something towards the end of the video, before adding something at the start and focusing on the middle. This lacks with simple, less advanced programs such as Windows Live Movie Maker.
- 24. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5 For the same reasons that we chose to use it in the planning stage of the project, we picked Photoshop as our image editing software for the production section. We also used Photoshop to focus on the individual images, which is not something that we did during the planning stage. When adding images to the digipak and magazine advert, we paid particular focus to each one before adding them. I edited them all, so that they fitted the general look that we were going for. For example, we had to make sure that they conformed to the colour scheme convention that we were going for (See Evaluation Q.1) by the effect(s) that were added.
- 25. YOUTUBE As discovered in our research, YouTube is a very popular video sharing software in the 21st century. From our research we found out that the majority of people that watch music videos watch them via YouTube. Therefore, we chose to upload our finished video product to YouTube to conform to the demands of the audience. I have plenty of experience with using YouTube, so it was no problem for me to upload it and get it quickly shared round various platforms for feedback. The above is another reason that we selected YouTube to upload our video, as it is so easy to retrieve a link that can then be embedded into Blogger or shared onto social media platforms to get feedback from the audience.
- 26. Media Technologies Used in Evaluation Stage During the research stage, I used lots of media technologies to find and process my research: Adobe Premiere/Social Media Microsoft Word/PowerPoint HP 15 Notebook PC
- 27. ADOBE PREMIERE/SOCIAL MEDIA Both of these softwares have been spoken about in detail previously in the presentation. However, during the evaluative stages, they were used for a slightly different purpose. Both of these were used significantly for audience feedback of the products post-production. We interviewed three public members and filmed them on an iPhone 7, since we discovered this was the best thing to film on from our production stage. These films were then imported onto Premiere, where we could compile and edit them. Since we had spent a month editing a video on Premier, we were very comfortable and familiar with the software already, so creating a quick video like this was no problem at all. Social Media played a different role in the audience feedback. Similarly to the way it was used in the research stage, I uploaded the video to my personal Facebook account and asked people to leave comments giving their opinions, positive or negative on the video, so that we could go and evaluate them, make any last minute changes and decide what we would modify for next time. Though we probably could have done our audience feedback without the use of digital technologies, they were very helpful and sped up the process hugely.
- 28. MICROSOFT WORD/POWERPOINT Once again, Word and PowerPoint were used to present the evaluation in a professional way. I do not need to go over the benefits of using them again as they are mentioned in fair detail earlier in the presentation.
- 29. HP 15 NOTEBOOK PC For my evaluation, I did it all on my personal laptop computer as I am much more comfortable with using this, as opposed to a college desktop device. This also meant that I was able to get the process done as quick as possible, because I am very comfortable with using this device and I know almost everything that there is to know. Furthermore, I could use the software to take screenshots and upload images into the Word and PowerPoint files to enhance the evaluation, so they weren’t all just text, as this would create a dry experience for the reader, which I was intent on avoiding. Without the use of a laptop or any form of digital technology for the evaluation, the process would probably have lasted longer than the actual production work, because it would have meant handwriting thousands of words. Yet, the use of a computer, especially my own means this can be done quickly as I am used to using it and typing quickly.
- 30. CONCLUSION Throughout this presentation, I think I have clearly demonstrated just how important digital technologies were throughout the whole project. None of the project would have been possible without the use of both digital software and hardware. It helps to speed up the whole process of the project, while it also means that I was able to gain new skills that will only be a good thing in the future, since we live in a world full of digital technology and that is not something that will change anytime soon. How did you use media technologies in the construction & research and planning & evaluation stages?