Friday 19 February 2010

Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Bell (2005) suggests "As new technology becomes increasingly embedded in everyday niches, it is common for youth to interact with dozens of digital devices throughout a typical day, and many spend hour-upon-hour learning about and manipulating computer devices such as laptop computers, handheld computers, game consoles, cell phones, pagers and radio audio players"

The danger here is that because we use technology so much we don't register and simply forget that were using it!

Here is a list of the technology I used throughout my coursework and also how/why I used them and whether they were useful or not:

Internet research

  • Google images- I used this throughout all my course and used it to look at for research or to collect images for the blog. Its not very important but helps give you a visual idea of something and makes the blog look more "tidy".
  • Yotube- I used Youtube throughout all my course and used it to do a lot of research and to upload videos like my main media product. I think Youtube is very useful and important as it allowed me to look deeper into research by offering a vast amount of texts to look at, however I would still be able to complete my coursework without it.
  • Specific websites like:

http://www.stopmotionpro.com/

http://www.brickfilms.com/

Sites like these I used when researching and planning. They helped give me ideas on what I wanted to do and expresses the correct way in doing it. I found sites like these very useful as they helped my greatly to complete my main media product and without them I wouldn't have been able to produce the Lego side of my media product.

Blogging- Ive used blogging since day one of my coursework, its mainly been used as a intrapersonal commentary and evaluation. It holds everything including my main media product, my ancillary texts, my research and planning, my ideas. It is basically a mechanical brain that holds all my memory's and thoughts on this course. The blogger has been effective for many reasons including, keeping ideas I can go back to when ever I want, controlling my time management and giving me the opportunity to put all my work "under one roof". Without the blog I would struggle on a huge scale to achieve what I have done as it holds and controls everything I have done in this course so overall I think the blog is very useful.

PowerPoint- I used PowerPoint once which was for the production of my "pitch" back at the beginning of my course. The PowerPoint was useful as I could use it as another source of new technology to add to my work and its easy to use. However I only used it once for a reason, I think a good PowerPoint presentation is too time consuming and its not very important in terms of what I wanted to do so overall I think PowerPoint is pointless.

SLR cameras-still images and stop motion animation- I used the SLR cameras throughout the whole course. I used them to practise and film my Lego sequence. I also used them to take images to go into my treatment and research and planning. These are one of the most important pieces of new technology I used as it allowed me to be creative and film want I wanted to do. Without them I wouldn't be where i am now and would have had to stick to the standard Digital cameras which would change my whole media product. So overall the SLR cameras are very effective and useful.

Lights- I used the lights only when filming and doing photo shoots. I didn't use them much but when I did they were a huge help as they provided me with detail and contrast in the images I wanted. They also played a major role in my Lego sequence as I had to use them to block out Shadow when filming using Lego which was very useful in aiding me to complete that task.

Panasonic video cameras- filming and capturing- These were used throughout all my course mainly when practising and filming. To me personally they weren't as important as the SLR cameras as they didn't have different functions and were very simple. But without them I wouldn't have been able to film the second sequence of my media product with Jordan so they were useful in achieving that aspect of the course.

Photoshop CS2- I used this technology at the very end of my course where I produced my magazine front cover and DVD cover. It was useful for producing the ancillary products as I believe it was the best type of technology to produce them but apart from using it for that part of the course I didn't really need to use it, but it was useful in terms of creating something detailed and containing all the conventions I wanted.

Premiere Pro 2- This in my opinion is one of the most important new technology's I used. I used it in the later stages of my course for editing and creating both parts of my media product with the SLR and the Panasonic video cameras. I also used it to create blogging posts like directors commentary. Using Premiere Pro was a huge strength for me in terms of my course because it gave a me a huge amount of creativity I could use to produce my final media product. Without Premiere Pro I couldn't achieve anything so its one on the most important new technologies I used.

File types- I used file types all the time in my course to change different types of files to another like, avi and jpg. Even tho they don't seem that important on the whole scale of my media product they helped me a lot when uploading videos to the blog and on Youtube etc. I think file types are very useful as they enable you to move work around in a quick efficient way.

Facebook-I only used social networking sites like facebook at the very end of the course as there were no reasons to use it before then. I used it to post my media product and ancillary texts and get audience feedback. This was effective as it worked, but not on a large scale and it can be a huge distraction from the actually media product itself so overall I didn't find facebook useful at all.

I could improve my production if I had new technology's like the iPhone as it has the Internet and apps that could help me with my media texts. It is like a portable blog but is always there which would help me hugely as if I had fresh ideas I could jot them down straight away so I don't forget. Also it is small and would always be with me so I could do work whenever I wanted which would save a lot of time, and time management is not my strongest point so it would be a huge benefit.

Even tho I used a huge amount of technology in my production work I don't believe I suffered from technological determinism. I believe I controlled the technology skillfully to do exactly what I wanted it to do which is illustrated in my media product. However limitations in the equipment and the lack of knowledge effected my creativity as I couldn't use every sort of media 2.0 I wanted so I had to deal with what I had. The equipment that was available to me was a huge help as I knew how to use it and use it to the best of my advantage. I didn't really think the equipment was a hindrance as I was happy I was able to use something! I found media 2.0 most apparent on Youtube and social networking sites like Facebook as you could see all the media being produced shared and distributed all over the world!

Using all this media 2.0 has been an excellent way of mixing technology and creativity together, I have been able to use media 2.0 like Premiere Pro and SLR cameras to be creative as they of so many options to explore and I used this to produce a unique media product which is the "wonder of media 2.0".

Nowadays we are all becoming film makers, producers, directors, photographers, distributors and critics. In 1999 these were all preserve of professionals. Therefore I believe one of the key effects of new media technology is that the line between "professional" and "amateur" has been blurred and distorted.

Looking at originality It is easy to see that new media technology makes it very easy for people to copy other peoples work which is a big danger from a legal point of view. If everyone is so saturated in the works of others, how do we escape the inevitable repetition that will happen as a result?

I escaped the grasp of a media saturated society using new technology like Premiere Pro to create a media product that was unique and hard to follow and copy. However the technology I had which was available was a big hindrance as it was so common and others could use it the same way I did.

I have used media 2.0 to move my work into new directions by using activity and passivity together to produce a media text containing interactivity and making my media product a key term of globalisation.

Below are links of resources I used to help me answer this question and understand the concept of new technology throughout my course:

Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWNXg7Vt-ig

http://www.theory.org.uk/aboutweb2-0.htm

http://www.theory.org.uk/mediastudies2.htm

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