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

I have used a wide range of new media technologies to research, plan, create and evaluate my musical package. Many of these were new to me at the start of this project. The more complex software packages have been difficult to learn initially, but with so much practice have become very useful skills to have learnt moving forward.

Software Packages have included:
Adobe InDesign and Photoshop
I used these software packages to create my digipak images, integrating images and text to create my designs. The CD design with its circular text was a challenge at first, but I mastered the technique with help from the internet!

Da Font and My font
These are online applications that I used to develop the Saffron logo. I couldn't find the right font within the Microsoft font library, so looked on these two sites to gain a wider selection.

Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
I used these packages to write initial copy for my blog posts and produce images to then later save as JPG and PNG files for pasting into my blogs. I was able to easily resize images, group and convert to other formats ready to place in the blog.

I used the internet extensively to research the various elements. Using Google Chrome I accessed YouTube, Radio websites, Google Images, Wikipedia and individual artist websites.

The filming was all very new to me but I was able to learn new camera skills and use new equipment:
Canon Digital SLR camera to take still photographs for the digipak. I experimented with different lighting, focuses, zooms and use of flash.
Sony video camera to take video footage. I used the video camera, hand held, on a tripod and even in a moving vehicle to generate different effects. Zooming in and away, panning shots, different angles etc.
I had a problem transferring the video files from the video camera to the computer and needed to buy an additional card for my computer. Storage was also an issue moving around such huge files, but a borrowed external hard drive helped hugely. I also learned just how much footage was needed to create a 4 minute video - hours and hours to select from!

This was my first use of Adobe Premier Elements video editing package. It took a while to get to fully understand this, but it gave me the opportunity to experiment with its many special effects and features. I felt that most of the FX were over the top for my requirements for a more natural look and feel, and chose to use simple fade transitions, colour enhancements, panning and some lighting effects. However, I did find the 'time stretch' feature particularly useful to more precisely match clips with the music beat (exactly place the footsteps on the sand sequence, and bubbles under the lilo in the pool etc.). I had some issues with clips moving when adding in new sections early on, but I found that by creating additional video tracks I could avoid this added complication. Adding 'text messages' to the video enabled me to use the 'title' function, which looked really effective and added narrative to the overall piece.

This project has given me the opportunity to become familiar with writing, designing and releasing blogs. I have used the 'Blogger' site for this purpose. Having to use the blog almost as a diary helped to keep a constant flow of work happening and helped to distribute the work load evenly. I had a few issues with deleting some blog files by accident, but soon learnt to save work regularly and back up the files! I also had problems uploading my final video on to the blog via YouTube, so instead presented it on DVD.

This project has been extremely enjoyable and a fantastic way to research and learn many new and exciting skills. It has also given me the opportunity to appreciate my surroundings while selecting locations for video shoots - I would not normally have noticed a rusting shed on a beach or discarded farm machinery in a field!