Evaluation Q4

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

What is new media?
One source describes it as:
‘New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century. Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, interactive and impartial. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media

Without the use of these new media technologies the construction of our products as well as the necessary research and planning would have been very difficult if not impossible to carry out and present.

Firstly, it was important that we carried out research into existing media products to be able to understand the codes and conventions of teaser trailers and the secondary print components, as well as genre conventions of the thriller/action genres. Without the developed new media communication that can be used to share these sources, such as ‘YouTube’ and other web 2 technologies, where files both audio and visual can be uploaded, downloaded and accessed readily and easily, my research would have been greatly hindered, as the ability to analyze existing products would have been limited simply due to the limited availability and access to such a wide selection of resources that new media offers.

New media was also an invaluable tool in planning and preparing to carry out filming and other elements of the production process. The most beneficial new media communication for me was the ability to use email and web 2 technologies, particularly ‘facebook’ as well as mobile phones and texting, to contact people instantly and easily to plan and arrange convenient times to carry out certain tasks, particularly filming. It also made communication between me and my partner much easier, as we could upload data sources and files such as storyboards and designs and email them to each other so as we could view them directly and instantly and make changes, making the whole design process particularly for the print based components much easier than would once have been possible. However, the print based publications themselves are not new media.

I also used new media in the construction stage of production, predominantly to film and edit the main practical component of my campaign, the teaser trailer. Arguably cameras are indeed not all classified new media technologies, however as we used modern camera technology that no longer uses film stock to capture visual image and audio, but instead uses a computer-based technology to record onto a hard drive, we did use new media technologies to capture the footage for our trailer. This new technology is much more versatile and easy to use due its easy interaction with computer technology to upload filming and work with it electronically. The use of modern new media computer software in the form of ‘imovie’ also allowed us to easily manipulate the raw footage to create an interesting and complex structured trailer, with relative ease and flexibility. This computer software in the form of ‘Photoshop’ also allowed us the same flexibility and manipulation in creating the secondary elements. The revolution in advancing and developing new media technologies make the practical components of producing media products much easier and more dynamic. A less prominent use of new media but a highly useful tool in using new media technologies is also the use of informative ‘chat rooms’ and information websites such as one I used below

http://www.ehow.com/how_4484264_import-video-imovie-using-mac.html

Which allows you to easily access unlimited amounts of help and information on working with new technologies, which can be uploaded by anyone and accessed by anyone, to make using new media technologies and software easy to understand.

Finally, I made use of new media in the evaluation stage of post-production. Firstly, the simple ability of being able to access all three components electronically from any computer so I could show different people to get my audience feedback. Also, obviously the use of a blog to present all my planning, research and evaluation is a use of new media. Like all the other new media technologies and commutations I have pointed out they have,

‘characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, interactive and impartial’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media

As I found from research was the criteria common of new media technologies. These new media technologies have allowed huge developments in all stages of producing media products which are then easily accessible to be enjoyed and interacted with by a vast audience.