A2 Media Evaluation

1. By Sam Oswick
Question 1
How did you use new media
technologies in the research, planning,
construction and evaluation in your
project?

2. RESEARCH

3. Logic Pro for quality recording and
editing of sound files from our focus
groups. This technology enabled us to
remove background noise and
interference using various tools
embedded in the software meaning we
managed to get clean recordings of our
focus groups to listen to back over.

4. HD Cameras to capture video footage of our focus
groups as well as our target market interviews. We
didn’t need to use fancy industry cameras with
expensive lenses as the shots we required were
simple still long shots mounted on a static tripod.
Because of this, we found that the filming process
was very straight forward, as we didn’t have to
spend much time at all trying to work out shot types
and angles.

5. Social networking in the form of Twitter, Facebook
and MySpace to broadcast our research
questionnaires to a wider audience. We found that
sharing a digital link online with social media
websites was easy and quick to do resulting in a
wider range of feedback. However, we did come
across some negative uses for this technology as
some of the answers we received in our
questionnaires were not taken seriously meaning
some of the feedback we received had to be
instantly dismissed.

6. Premiere Pro to edit our target market
and focus group footage together. We
decided to use this software as the
editing required wasn’t very complex at
all, therefore, we didn’t need to use a
more in depth editing software such as
Final Cut. The technology did have
some useful tools and functions on
offer to us such as colour correction
and video effects however; we did not
need to use any of these as we just
needed to create a simple video for us
to refer back on.

7. PLANNING

8. Prezi to show our initial ideas for our music video. We
decided to use Prezi over possible alternatives such as
Powerpoint because we found that there was much more
you could do with the software to present your ideas in a
visual way. As we had many in depth ideas for our music
videos, we needed to present them in a way that wouldn’t
bore people; therefore we made use of Prezi’s “path”
feature which enabled you to create different paths
between different slides which resulted in a fun and
interactive way of presenting the ideas. Having used the
software before last year in AS media, I was able to develop
my skills on the software by experimenting with new tools
and functions to make the presentations even better.

9. Photoshop to design initial and developed ideas for our digipak
and website. Although we only had to design roughs, we still
thought that Photoshop would be the appropriate technology
to use as its industry level meaning we would be creating
professional looking products. This came in handy when
designing the actual products as we could refer to our already
realistic designs that meaning we didn’t have to completely
start from scratch. We also used Photoshop to design our band
logo instead of using a simpler program such as Publisher. The
reason for creating it on Photoshop was because you can layer
individual parts of the image making it easier to move certain
things around. Furthermore, you can save the finished designs
as

10. PowToon for our Final Product Choices task. We chose to use
this software as we had already used Powerpoint and Prezi so
we wanted to vary up our use of technologies as much as
possible for two reasons. Firstly so our coursework contained
a wide range of variety in terms of how we presented our
work but secondly, we wanted to challenge ourselves by
learning how to use unfamiliar technologies such as PowToon.
Having never used the software before, it was hard to get my
head round it at first but after spending a couple of hours, I
was able to create an effective presentation using the
software.

11. Infogr to present our production roles. This is a
technology that I had never used before and did
not know how in depth the software actually was.
Looking back on it, I would have produced this
task using a different piece of technology as I now
understand that Infogr has much more uses than
just listing words such as adding graphs and charts
with annotations which would have been more
fitting for one of the research tasks we did.

12. CONSTRUCTION

13. Final Cut Express and Premiere Pro CS6 to edit the music video. When we first
started to edit our footage, we decided to edit on Final Cut Express as the
software was available to us in our college for completely free meaning we could
all work on the video when we wanted to. I found the technology to be very
useful as it featured numerous amounts of tools that we used to help enhance
our music video. We used the “colour correction” tool frequently to change the
tone of the lighting on some of the shots that looked too bright or dark. I also
found myself using the “razorblade” tool frequently to precisely split audio and
video clips apart so I could use two different segments from the same clip instead
of having to import the clip into the timeline again and trim it down manually. I
also made use of the “video transitions” tool by inserting fades into some of the
videos transitions. One of the problems we found with Final Cut Express was that
it took a very long time to render a clip when it had been altered making the
editing process become very tedious and time consuming. To speed up the
production of our music video, we decided to transfer the files to one of our
group member’s computer as he had Premiere Pro CS6 to edit the files on. This
meant that we all couldn’t edit the music video when we wanted to, however, we
all found the time to go round and help edit it. I found Premiere Pro CS6 a lot
easier to use than Final Cut as I preferred the layout and the simplicity as the
majority of the tools that I required were available on a toolbar. Furthermore, the
software doesn’t take any time at all to render files when adding enhancements
to video clips meaning the process was a lot quicker than we planned.

14. Squarespace and Moonfruit to create the website for our
band. Like the music video, we changed the software
midway through creating the product. We started on
Squarespace and during the short period that we used it for,
we learnt a lot about webpage designing. It was a very good
technology as it offered lots of tools that professional
webpage designer’s use, however, only the first month of
use was free meaning we would have to pay a monthly
subscription to use the software again. After doing some
research, I found Moonfruit and I instantly fell in love with its
easy to use interface. The tools were laid out clearly on the
top of the page resulting in a quick website building process.
One of my favourite tools that Moonfruit offered that
Squarespace didn’t provide was the “Add Widget” tool. This
tool enabled me to add a TwitterFeed and s YouTube Video
Player to our page which gave it a social networking focus.

15. Photoshop for creating our Digipak. Having used
the software last year in AS Media for the creation
of my music magazine, I thought it would be the
best way to create our digipak as the possibilities
are endless with the varied amounts of tools that
the program offers. I also thought it would be useful
to use as it would develop and further my skills on
Photoshop which it did. I found myself playing
around with the “Image Adjustments” tool the most
when creating the Digipak as it had to look sketchy
and some of the photos we used on our digipak
looked too clean.

16. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I think I can say that I used a wide
range of different technologies during the
process of creating my three media products, If
I’d have to pick two that were most beneficial to
me, I’d have to say they were Moonfruit and
Premiere Pro as they were two technologies that
I had never used before. Using Moonfruit helped
me learn more about web design which was a
completely alien topic to me before the start of
this coursework and Premiere Pro furthered my
understanding of editing.