New media technology has led to a shift from traditional print and broadcast media to digital formats accessible online from anywhere in the world. This document discusses how a production company used various new media tools for research and project planning, such as searching YouTube for trailers, Google Images for poster ideas, and blogs to share their work and receive feedback from others. It also addresses both the advantages of these new media tools, like their accessibility and interactivity, as well as some disadvantages like unreliable search results and difficulty finding copyright-free music and media to use.

1. PEACHY PRODUCTIONS
EVALUATION OF USES OF
NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY

2.  Media used to be focused around print and analogue
broadcast models.
 However, through the developments and advancements of
technology media now relies of digital technologies.
 The internet is an example of these media convergences as
the technology of video and audio streaming are rapidly
evolving.
WHAT IS NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY?

3.  New media technology has meant there has been a clear shift
in media from print products, radio and the first televisions to
the way it is now.
 New media can be accessed by everyone from all over the
world. Being global makes it easier to get an audience as we
have a much wider range of people available to reach.
 New media is full of user generated content which means the
audience get a lot more power than we have ever before.
Social media platforms help this such as Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube. These allow people to create their own personas
on these sites. We show ourselves as media students but as a
production company on our blogs.
 We can access our blogs at home and at school making it
easier to complete our work, this is due to new media
defeating time and space, you can view it anywhere.
 New media being interactive, digital and collaborative means
that we can share our work and discuss with people who have
viewed it.
DEFINITIONS OF NEW MEDIA

4. USE OF NEW MEDIA FOR RESEARCH
Using YouTube to research trailers of a
similar genre.
Google images for poster ideas. BFI statistical yearbook for target audience
research.
Magazine websites for magazine
cover ideas/information.

5. New media has made information global . We can
access all this media information from anywhere.
Due to the rise of mobile phones, tablets and laptops,
most people are never further away then a touch of a
button from a whole world of online content.
Internet is a staple in most countries around the world
and with media being positioned primarily on the
internet there are very few, if any boundaries that
would stop an individual consuming content.
Some production companies even go the extent of
creating different YouTube channels, Twitter accounts
and Facebook pages with the purpose of promoting
the same trailer in different countries around the
world.
DISAPPEARANCE OF
BOUNDARIES

6.  Search engines were a vital part of our
research stage.
 They enabled us to quickly and
efficiently research trailers, posters and
magazines covers.
 We were familiar with search engines as
they are a part of our day to day lives.
 This meant that we were aware of the
disadvantages of them as well as the
advantages, for example filtering out
the unreliable sources.
ADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
New media is collaborative and interactive

7. ADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
New media is often free media and therefore democratic
 Film websites were used to
search examples of films within
our genre
 We could research the films
other promotional products e.g.
posters and magazine cover
 Research was free to use on the
internet and could be accessed
on different devices
 We could use different filters on
the search engines to refine our
research

8. ADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
This feature is very typical of the convergence seen in new media as all kinds of
films are now widely available on one website.
 YouTube have hundreds of film trailers
available
 In the movies icon there are featured
channel options that categorise each
genre and lists them e.g. ‘top selling’
 A useful feature was the
recommendations that suggested other
useful film trailers similar to our genre

9.  A disadvantage of search engines is that you get such a wide
variety of results that we cannot be sure are all valid.
 This has to be filtered through as there are a lot of results
that’s are not right for what we were looking for. For example
we have to look for the production companies channel
because then we know these are valid trailers.
SEARCH ENGINE DISADVANTAGES
Instead we could have
accidently used an unofficial
trailer. Which would not have
been useful as it wouldn’t have
used trailer conventions.

10. DISADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
Increasing accessibility and collaboration sounds like a good thing, but is new media
making us all think the same? How much of the potential information are we
actually accessing? Does the volume intimidate rather than widen our minds?
A disadvantage of search engines is that often
the content may not be reliable or true as what
comes up may not necessarily be written by
someone who is knowledgeable about media
It also eradicates a sense of creativity as often
the top 5 results will be the most commonly
clicked on meaning people are researching the
same thing and not approaching it from different
perspectives.

11. DISADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
Volume of information makes any real
cataloguing and filtering almost impossible.
It can become difficult to find exactly what
you want. Google will bring up keywords
from your search but cannot read your
mind.
Unless you know a specific website that
will give you the answer (e.g. IMDB or BFI)
it is very difficult to find information you
are not sure about yourself.
For example when we researched statistics
for paranormal movies there were more
results for the phrase “Comedy movies” as
that is what the majority of people would
want from this kind of search.

12. DISADVANTAGES OF SEARCH ENGINES
New media is changing the concept of ownership over media products. We are
increasingly all producers and consumers (prosumers) and it is harder and harder for
institutions to control and ‘own’ their own products.
If you search for example “The
Vampire Diaries” you may not
necessarily click on the official series
and may instead be taken to fan
products. There are also review
videos, fan versions, mash ups,
parodies etc. meaning you cannot
always tell initially what is “official.”

13. When researching music we had to try and find copyright free
music. Rather than spend hours searching for music that suited
our trailer, we decided to get a relative to create the piece for
us.
We explained the outline to our trailer and discussed different
ideas. Together we came up with the basis of what we wanted
and then over the space of two weeks my brother built on the
track until eventually we had what we wanted.
The track was written by my brother and then built up and
mixed on logic.
FINDING MUSIC

14. There are many disadvantages with Free Play Music and
YouTube. Firstly it is very difficult to find music that has the
right vibe for your piece and is copyright free. We began our
music search looking on copyright free music however found it
impossible to find anything to suit our genre.
FREE PLAY MUSIC AND YOU TUBE
DISADVANTAGES
We found websites such as
these extremely limited and
restrictive so decided to
make an original piece that
we knew would fit with our
piece.

15.  As we used our own music we didn’t need to use these
programs but we did have a look through them before
choosing to make our own music.
 Many of the content on YouTube is not copy
right free meaning we couldn’t use it.
 Free Play Music had such a large variety of music it was hard
to get to listen to most of them and
choose between them.
 This meant it took a long time to go
through it and found very little that actually
went with our piece out of the large variety.
FREE PLAY MUSIC AND YOUTUBE
DISADVANTAGES
These sites enable people to share with a wider
community but the volume of work can overwhelm
and make good work all but invisible.

16.  We presented our planning on
our blog.
 This was through multiple
digital platforms such as a
video to present our
storyboard and separate
photos for it.
PRESENTING OUR PLANNING ON
BLOGGER
Blogging is very ‘new media’, it encourages interactivity
with different people, accessibility, democracy and
collaborative working.

17. STORYBOARD PRESENTATION
 We made use of videos to
show a dialogue between the
group and show how we came
to decisions for things such as
our storyboard etc.
 We also used PowerPoint to
present our information and
research in a clear, precise
way that could be read
quickly and with ease.
We focused on creating posts that made use of new media technologies and the
blog’s multimedia format illustrating new media’s relationship with technological
convergence.

18. ANIMATIC
Creating our animatic was a way in which
we showed we understood the potential
value of new media technology far more
than last year. We began this year, as last,
with a paper storyboard; but we then
photographed each image, added it to
FCE and created an animatic version of
our trailer. To this we added dialogue,
voiceover, music, effects and so on and
were able to use it as a guidetrack when
editing the real trailer, which was
especially useful at the half-way stage of
filming as we had something with which
to ‘fill in the gaps’ and could have a better
idea of how our work was progressing.

19.  Our media subjects blogger meant we were able to view,
compare and interact with other media groups from our
school.
VIEW OTHER WORK
This meant that we were able to give each other feedback. New media is
associated with creative communities and this is a great example as we are able
to make ones of these communities through Blogger.

20.  We used a large amount of formats to upload from blogger
this includes:
 Uploading videos
 Adding links to YouTube videos
 Links to articles
 Photos
COMBINING TEXT AND IMAGES
We mixed these formats with text
along side it to explain the
meanings of them or to expand on
what they show and how. We also
wrote a lot about our progress and
what we have done to improve. By
mixing images and text we are
contributing to the ‘snacking
culture that has been introduced
by new media. They don’t have to
read heavy text but can break it
up with images and other
formats.

21. Viewing each others as well as our
own progress is a vital part of our
project. We uploaded work as we
went along, such as out initial
storyboard. When changes were
made to this we updated the blog.
This allowed us to keep track of our
progress and also let us see how
much work we needed to do.
It also allowed us to evaluate each
other’s work and give them both
negative and positive feedback to
help the overall project improve.
This also kept us working as a
team, motivating us to work harder.
WORK IN PROGRESS

22. KEEPING IN TOUCH
It is easy to forget about common new media uses such as email, text
and so on, but they were also vital to us as ways of keeping in touch.
We communicated as a group via Facebook and used email to keep in
touch with teachers who were part of our cast, to make arrangements
with the shop where we filmed and so on. These communication
methods are easy to take for granted but are all part of new media.

23. Social Media is a huge part of everyday life in today’s society
thus one of the most efficient ways to promote and advertise
films. We planned to use sites such as Twitter, Tumblr and
YouTube as a way for audiences to interact with cast members
through Q&A sessions and videos.
Comment and share sections on social media sites also allow
viewers to interact with each other, giving them the opportunity
to share with friends and express their views.
PLANNED USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

24. New media has made promotional tools such as available to firms and more
importantly, free to consumers. It is the two-way nature of social
media(receiving and creating / redistributing info) that makes it so
appealing and successful. It is a classic new media tool.
Facebook allows products to move onto a
social media platform by creating pages
which have photos and teasers. This
promotes engagement with the audience.
Facebook also has a section called
‘Trending’. This is where production
companies can advertise.
PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN - FACEBOOK

25. Use of New Media for
Construction

26. FINAL CUT EXPRESS

27. ADVANTAGES OF FINAL CUT EXPRESS
The availability of this kind of
technology makes us all into
prosumers (Shapiro).
 We were able to create two
different versions of the trailer on
two different computers to enable
us to achieve a quality of work that
is high and of a good standard.
 We were able to make copies and
have different versions of the
product.
 It came with pre-packaged effects.

28. MANIPULATING SOUND
By using the pen tool,
it enabled us to make
points on the pink
line which indicates
the level of volume in
order to make the
sound quieter and
louder in certain
places, for example,
when there was
dialogue. We used
the cursor tools to
move the line up and
down as much as we
wanted to.
If the volume was too
quiet and you
couldn’t hear
dialogue properly, for
example if cars were
going past or it was
windy, or if it was too
loud, then we were
unable to increase or
decrease the volume
of the whole track.
We re-voiced some
clips, which was
time-consuming.
We were able to add effects to our audio, by adding cross-fades which meant that our audio
could fade in or out. We used this when we wanted to change to a scene with a very different
ambient sound so that the tracks flowed well into the next scene.

29. ADVANTAGES OF SOUND (FINAL CUT)
It allows us to manipulate the volume of the
tracks for example making the speech louder
and the music quieter so that the audience
can hear the characters during any key
moments.
We were able to move the narrative
around and layer the sounds so that it
would run alongside music as well as
short amounts of other dialogue.

30. LAYERING SHOTS
A key advantage of digital editing is the way
that you can layer your footage. By this we
mean the ability to use the audio and video
layers to build a piece vertically as well as
horizontally. By layering images over each other
we were able to create a distinctive trailer fell
using overlaping scenes and audio (L and J
cuts) to build a detailed picture with an
impressionistic aim rather than chronologically
placing shots side by side. Without digital
editing, this would be very difficult to achieve,
especially as we were able to adjust shots and
move them around as much as we wanted as
no changes made or positionings were
permanent.

31. MANIPULATING MATERIAL
We found we were able to be more experimental with our trailer as we
were able to undo changes if we did not like them. This reversibility is
one of the reasons new media is associated with creativity.
We were able to cut and edit shots as well as rearrange them without a worry of
not being able to reverse these changes.
We were able to layer material and create different effects by combining filters,
changing speed, reversing shots, using stop motion animation by taking frames
from different sections of consecutively filmed footage and so on.

32. EFFECTS
Thinking more creatively is one of the key changes in thinking brought
about by new media technology. It offers easy solutions but does not
stop you providing your own creative ideas.
Using a digital editing package gives you access to all kinds of different effects.
These are often pre-packaged, such as transitions such as cross-fades and
dissolves, filters such as colour enhancement and so on. We did use these, but
also tried to be more creative such as creating some basic stop motion effects.

33. PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop was a invaluable tool over the
course and without it we wouldn’t have
created half the images and products that
we did.
The software enabled us to be creative and
produce what we had imagined in our
heads which we wouldn’t have been able to
do on paper or other basic programmes like
paint.
As a result our final products looked and we
were able to improve our skills for future
work on Photoshop.

34. MANIPULATING IMAGES
Photoshop relies on the use of
layers in a similar way to FCE.
Again, it shows most of the
advantages of a digital editing
package. It enables you to add
effects, such as the gradient
overlay to the ‘Ruby Moon’ title and
the glow effect added to ‘Focus’.
You can layer shapes as in the
smaller images on their
backgrounds and highlight key
images such as using the burn and
dodge tools to emphasise the high
level of contrast of the main image.

35. MANIPULATING IMAGES
Photoshop is not primarily a
text-based package but it
does allow you to add text
easily as the layers here
show. You can add effects to
this text such as the gradient,
drop shadow and outer glow
added to Ruby Moon. You can
also link text layers together,
as we did with the billing
block text, so that the whole
block can be moved around
as one object once it has
been completed.

36. DISADVANTAGES OF PHOTOSHOP
New media is associated with what
Manovich calls “creativity of
selection” – bit at the same time,
you can only choose from what is on
offer so that might be a limitation
on creativity.
The programme limited you to a select number of tools which you could
pick from. Because of this, initial creative ideas were stopped as the software
simply didn’t have the tools available to create what we had in mind.
Photoshop CS5 is also an old programme and occasionally became slow
when lots of layers had been created on the same file. This caused frustration
as we were unsure if the computers had frozen or the programme itself.

37. Use of New Media for
Evaluation

38. FILMED PRESENTATIONS
As Blogger allows us to embed video,
we took the opportunity to film several
of our presentations.
This meant we could cover a lot of
ground as we can speak much faster
than we write. It also allowed us to
support what we were saying with
helpful visuals.

39. LABEL FILTER ON BLOGGER
The label filter allowed us to see who
had posted what on our blog and this
meant our blog posts were easy to re-
visit and were organised.
Also if you clicked on one of the name
tags then all of the posts done by this
person would come up, making
accessing blog posts quick and easy.

40. COMMENTS ON BLOG
 Comments on the blog
were really helpful and
allowed us to get outside
feedback that therefore
helped us improve our
coursework.
Collaborative work and availability of feedback is another key
element of new media that we took full advantage of.

41. MULTIMEDIA FORMAT - SLIDESHOW
Using a slideshow was a
chance to work well
collaboratively. We could
share the slides out between
us and were able to amend
anything we though needed to
be amended. This was a way
we were able to give feedback
more easily.
We were also able to use a
good mix of text and image.
We had to be concise for this
as it was a very long topic.

42. MULTIMEDIA FORMAT – CONTACT SHEETS
It allowed us to use Photoshop
to create an overview of our
work. This creates a mood board
of our piece, allowing us to
assess genre easily, looking at
the general impression created
by the shots, colours, locations
etc.
We could also assess the form
by ordering the shots and seeing
their flow across the contact
sheet
It was a way for us to work together and produce the contact sheet and
then we were able to evaluate it separately after and come to our own
independent conclusions.

43. MULTIMEDIA FORMAT – CULTURE SHOW
Using multiple media formats to present our ideas was very useful as it allowed us to
consider the evaluation topics from different angles and explore some key ideas in
more depth. This presentation allowed us to voice the criticisms we felt could be
levelled at our piece and counter them in a TV Culture Show style debate. This meant
we could both show awareness of the limitations of our work but also give reasons
and alternative ways of looking at genre and form.
By using LiveType to create annotations
over the video, we were able to present
our arguments and ideas clearly with
each point made distinctively different
from the rest.
This also helped anyone watching the
presentation follow what we are saying
and see the examples we refer to
without having to search for them
themselves.

44. MULTIMEDIA FORMAT –
YOUTUBE TUTORIAL
YouTube was a good choice of format
to share professional opinions and
expertise about running a campaign.
It allowed us to use an established
online trend of tutorials for less
experienced people in key areas of
media, and also to imagine out a
whole campaign with other products
we had not made and to place the
three we did make in this context
It would work well on specialist film
sites. We were able to use a lot of
visual evidence to explain our
success.

45. Presenting part of our new
media technology
evaluation as a mix of old
and new media (Word /
Photoshop) allowed us to
raise criticisms around our
uses of technology but also
defend ourselves in a more
engaging and playful
format, as we showed the
mix of old and new we
argue for in the format of
our presentation.
Multimedia Format –
Court Room Report

46. New media has so much potential to change the
way we create – it makes you focus on a
creativity of selection, work collaboratively and
opens up a whole community of ‘experts’ for you
to work with remotely.
However, the skills of old media are still very
valuable e.g. old-fashioned hand-drawn
storyboards.
New media has its issues – ownership,
plagiarism, availability, cost and reach are key
ones. How many people out there are actually
working in these ways?
Summary of Evaluation