Throughout this project I took advantage of various different new media technologies in order to help me during the research, planning, construction and evaluation of my music video, digipak and website. I went through a significant learning curve with many of these technologies over the course of the project, and began with relatively little knowledge of how to use them but learnt as I went along.
Research
The starting point of this project was researching first what song we wanted to use in our music video, and once that had been decided I had to research our target audience and similar artists that have been successful. These technologies are presented in the mind map below:
Planning
Throughout our planning process we used even more technologies, although there is also some overlap with our research. These technologies are shown in the prezi embedded below:
Construction
Construction was the area where we used the greatest quantity of technology, mainly due to how much hardware we had to use to create our music video, as well as the large amount of software that enabled us to produce the digipak and website. These tools are explained and analysed in the slideshow below:
Evaluation
During my evaluation I have relied on some of my favourite online tools. The only significant hardware I've used for the evaluation is once again desktop PCs, and also my Dell Inspiron laptop, which allows me to access the internet from my home.
Google slides
This tool has been used at least once in each question of the evaluation and for good reason, as it very simple to use and has synergy with Blogger, making it very simple to insert into my posts. I've never had any problems with this software, and it allows me to fit a large amount of information into a small area without having to cram it all in.
Coggle
Out of the many mind-map tools available on the internet this is the one I have used, mainly because it is the one I have the most experience with. it has allowed me to sort out lots of information by separating and grouping together small text boxes and pictures, and also looks visually appealing. The main issue with Coggle is that images are usually extremely small when inserted and cannot be made larger, which was sometimes annoying if the picture used is not simplistic.
Prezi
Prezi was the other slideshow software I used along with Google slides, as it allowed me to create something which put lots of information into an engaging and compact presentation. Prezi has the added advantage of extremely unique slide transitions which make every presentation feel like a maze which has to be navigated by the user. The problems with prezi are the lack of control the user has over the size and shape of the slides and how difficult it is to embed prezis into blogger, with the user having to get a url from the prezi website and paste the url of the presentation into the other url, which is convoluted and confusing.
Padlet
I only used Padlet once because I didn't particularly enjoy using it, but it was still a useful way to put lots of visual information into a small area, and also let me describe and annotate the visual media. However, I don't believe it looks very good when embedded and also be warned that for some reason when I tried to make a padlet for question 3 it wouldn't work and refused to let me create any text boxes or insert images.
Youtube
I used YouTube frequently throughout the evaluation, mainly to get screenshots and GIFs from our video and inspirational videos, some of which I have embedded in full throughout the evaluation. Youtube works very well, and other than pre-video advertisements being annoying everything worked very well during my evaluation.
Surveymonkey
This was a vital website for my evaluation, especially for question 3, as it allowed me to collect audience feedback online from our target audience. We had to first create the surveys and then send them out, which took a while but was easy to do. Overall, surveymonkey is a fantastic service which worked well, other than some confusing menus when revisiting an old survey.
Giphy
Giphy was the main website I used to produce GIFs, which I used in several of my answers during the evaluation as they allow me to demonstrate techniques such as editing and movement which would be far more difficult using a screenshot. Giphy works using Youtube links, and as such I was only able to use it to make GIFs of rushes which I had uploaded, which was a time-consuming process. Giphy also had a tendency to crash regularly when I tried to create GIFs, but the GIFs it does produce are high quality and easy to embed.
Blogger,
Finally, Blogger has obviously been one of the primary tools I have used for my evaluation, as it is where the evaluation has been created. While I have many issues with blogger, such as how difficult it is to format and move images, it is a piece of software I have lots of experience in, and finished posts usually look very impressive.
Conclusion
When I began this project I had experience with only a small number of the tools I have since used, and I believe I have learned how to use several important pieces of technology and software to a competent degree from scratch. Although I would say there are some tools I didn't improve at using due to experience I already had - Microsoft Word and Youtube for example - I believe I have learned much about the majority of the hardware and software that I have used, particularly the Canon 5D Mark II camera, the Zero 88 Leapfrog lighting desk in terms of hardware and Wix, prezi and surveymonkey in terms of software.
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