The document discusses how new media technologies were used throughout the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of a media studies project. It provides examples of using Photoshop, Premiere Pro, YouTube, and social media to research styles, find inspiration, communicate with professionals, construct graphics and videos, and gather audience feedback. The project included a music video, digipak, and magazine advertisement that were all informed by online research and created using various software programs and production equipment.

1. How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages? Alex Chenery-Howes OCR Advanced Portfolio in Media Studies Student No: 297675

2. AS and Transition Work My research was heavily inspired by what I had learnt in my AS Media Studies, in which I was taught in New Media technologies such as Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro. I also learnt the importance of using participatory cultures, social networking and online communities in generating feedback, receiving constructive criticism and overall evaluating my work. Here are screengrabs of some of my AS Media work, the heavy use of photoshop brushes, unusual and experimental fonts and a cohesive colour pallette had a heavy influence on my A2 coursework.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoYGr6aGGfc Experimenting With Animation When I was initially planning my music video, I was receptive to the idea of creating a music video heavily influenced by cut-out animation and the video for Toothpaste Kisses by The Maccabees, this is evidence of how I used New Media Technology Google Images for the photos, YouTube to research cut-out and stop motion animations, as well as researching a suitable song, as well as Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop to create the animation. I learnt how to use key-frames to animate PSD files in Adobe Premiere Pro, and I was inspired by the comparison between cartoon-images and photography, as well as the juxtaposition of pleasant, whimsical cartoon characters, icons of American popular culture and stark, brutal images of wartime photography.

4. Internet Research When I was researching inspirational directors such as, whose styles are referenced to and influenced by my music video, I contacted several inspirational directors via email, after researching their style and artwork on their official websites, and asked them questions about what inspires them, and if they had any advice for an aspiring music video director such as myself. I found their advice very insightful and saved screengrabs of their emails. Weird Fishes by Radiohead. Directed by Toby Stretch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNRCvG9YtYI Cows and Cows and Cows by Cyriak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY

5. Music Video/Director Research Bug Videos Moodboard

6. Unsigned Band Research Myspace/Jamendo I wanted to show evidence that I was scouring my area, and the online community for a band that I wanted to work with, failing that a downloadable track by an unsigned artist that would correlate well with the video that I had in mind, evidence of how I used the New Media in my research and planning can be seen through my research on Myspace.com for unsigned bands in my area, Jamendo for downloadable tracks, as well as appealing through social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr and CCNBlackboard. I have also kept record of conversations and discussions between myself and potential collaborators.

7. Internet Fashion Research How the research influenced my video As a Film Studies student, I know the importance of micro-aspects, how meaning can be created and how insight can be conveyed about the characters through what they wear, the official website for Skins runs a blog that talks through costumes and styling of the characters, how what they wear is relevant to their character’s personality and intentions. I wanted to use heavy grey knitwear to create a sense of vulnerablility and protection, and created a look for my character through clothing selections on Topman.com, as well as Lookbook, a social networking site centred around fashion, where people upload and discuss what they are wearing, to tell others where they get their clothes and give fashion advice. I included a screengrab to show how the New Media research influenced my music video.

8. Online Digipak Research I have included screenshots of Play.com and HMV, websites I used to research influential and inspirational digipaks as an example of using New Media technologies. This research was helpful in showing how bands can be represented through visuals, how the style of music can be deduced through how the digipak looks, and how digipaks can be presented in a way that appeals to its target audience.

9. Research Of Styles and Fashion for Photoshoot Before A Level Media Studies, I had never conducted a photoshoot or even been inside such studio facilities, my research into styling and fashion shows how I wanted to create a specified, distinctive image. These screenshots are of fashion magazine websites, as well as fashion/photography blogs, an excellent example of how participatory cultures have influenced the construction stages. Below is a photo taken from the shoot, as evidence of how my research has directly affected the construction.

10. Digipak Construction It is evidentiary that the internet played a huge part in researching and constructing my digipak. I have included screenshots of websites I used for typography and Photoshop brushes, I have also included a screenshot of my booklet and displayed the direct influence of New Media Technologies on its construction Font inspired by internet research and taken from Dafont Fractal design taken from Brusheezy Experimentation with shutter speed and focus Constructed with Adobe Photoshop CS3

11. Music Video Construction Media Studies gave me the opportunity to handle professional camera equipment and editing software that I had previously no experience with, my music video was shot with both a Sony A1 (HD1080i) and a Canon Legria 200 HD, it was editing using Adobe Premiere Pro. When it came to certain effects I used, they were a direct result of internet research. I used several online tutorials uploaded by users (an example of participatory culture). I was inspired to do the sped-up tracking shot by the work of Chris Cunningham, who often experimented with speed for a surreal effect. Other certain music videos such as Come Into My World by Kylie Minogue inspired me to experiment with split screens, cropping and layering. http://www.videocopilot.net/ An Example of a Tutorial I Used: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/demon_face_warp/

12. Evaluating my work A huge part of evaluating my work was audience feedback, I used social networking sites such as Facebook, participatory cultures such as YouTube and Tumblr and student forums in order to directly approach my target audience and ask them for feedback. The majority of the feedback was positive and constructive, praising the editing, the concept and the surrealistic tones, one of the most important things was a suitable correlation between the music video and the track, this was pointed out and approved by respondents. I asked my audience to complete an online survey analysing the video, digipak and magazine advert, if they not just stood out as individual pieces of work but if they complimented each other as a collective. Responses ranged from compliments to constructive criticism, and I have taken all useful advice on board.