Evaluation Question 4:

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

Exmples of different technologies and in what parts we have used them for..


Research and Planning:

• Blogger, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Megavideo, Vimeo, Amazon, Pla.com, IMDB, Google, Google Books, The Guardian, Kerrang, NME, Q, Mojo, Wikipedia, Scribd, Divvshare, The scanner, portable harddrive, email, Skype, Msn messenger, Podcast recorder, DV Video cameras, iMovie 06/08, 'Money For Nothing' book and 'Experiencing Music Video' book by Carol Vernaillis. 

Construction and Exhibition:

• Standard definition dv cameras, high definition (HD) cameras, iMovie 06/08, Final Cut Express 4, Coral Draw, Quicktime (media player), VLC Media Player, iTunes, a digital SLR camera, podcast recorder and most of the technologies from research and planning as well.

Evaluation:

• video cameras,  hyperlinks and pictures (to make the blog interesting and attractive so people will read content from it), Youtube, Scribd, various books, screen captures and also many of the technologies and programmes mention in the research and planning and also constructions and exhibition stages. Blogger really helped me to make my work interactive, appealing and very easy accessible for others to get to and consume.

We used Final Cut to edit our footage and the music video as a whole and we really feel like we have tried to use all of its tools and effects to the maximum. At first we found it quite hard to get used to as it's quite a big jump up from iMovie 06 that we used in our AS project but after not much much time at all we quickly got used to it's functions. It's definitely a big step up from using iMovie 06 last year because there is just so much more complex and there is lots of scope available for creativity and our video would just not be the same at all if we had cut and edited it and done all of the post production on iMovie 06. 

Professionals within the media industry such as directors and the Cohen Brothers especially (for their new film 'True Grit') (this was mentioned on the Final Cut mini website on the Apple website  very recently) use Final Cut (the very same editing software programme that we used and worked with to create our music video) in the post production process of making their films. This proves that it's a very good piece of software and the effects and tools that are on it must be good if professionals like them are using it in their editing process. Time has changed and in past years editing suites have been massive places with lots of desks to do not very much work at all but recent technological advances have made things like this available to do and editing and most of the post production process can now be done on an apple mac even on the move. In the article they talk about how they only had a very short and limited amount of time to edit and produce the film in so they chose to use "Final Cut because of its efficiencies and speed, enabled us to meet the deadline" 

If the Oscar winning Cohen brothers use software such as final cut to edit some of their films then it must be a good program and especially as we are only A2 media students it gives us a great head start to go onto creating other films, music videos and just projects in general that could one day help us to win some awards!