1. Evaluation By Lauren Selby
Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?

2. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Click on the links below…
• Internet
Blog
Wikipedia
Google
Social Networking Sites
• Mobile Phones
• Transferring Data
• MS Office
• PhotoShop
• Premier
• DV Cameras
• Digital Still Cameras

3. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
To record all of the work for my
coursework, I used a blog called Tumblr.
Using Tumblr enabled me to write up all of
my research and my planning with an
addition of pictures, audio clips and videos.
I could also use power points for my
evaluation and put them on Tumblr.
By using this blog meant
that I could show different
skills I have learnt through
the different stages of the
course and it also made the
blog more interesting to
look at as it wasn’t one big
Click the image to go
chunk of text. back to list

4. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Wikipedia
Wikipedia was used mostly at the start of the project
throughout the research stage. When we had to find out
about Florence + The Machine, Wikipedia was the main
source we used for information to the background/facts.
We learnt where Florence got her ideas from, why she did things in a certain style
and then to basic facts of how she started in the music business to how successful
she has become.

5. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Google
I used Google when finding inspiration for photo shoots. Depending on what photos
where most popular determined what we needed to be aiming for when re-creating
our media products. Google is very easy to use and because of how quick you get
results, it is the best program to use when researching.
Google was also effective if we needed specific pieces of information. Wikipedia gave
you a lot of information in one big chunk of text whereas Google can define your
search to one page that may become relevant to your own work.

6. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
We used YouTube for our video research. This was the
newest piece of technology that related to our research but
it wasn’t necessarily the one that gave us the most feedback.
It allowed us to research similar artists to Florence + The
Machine and see what they included in their videos. It gave us more
material and ideas to work with in order to make an idea that suited
the genre as much as possible.
By having access to YouTube, we could also show our video worldwide.
It gave us a broader audience to receive feedback and it didn’t confine us to only people
we knew. YouTube enabled us to look at other videos (by other A2 students or Florence’s
videos) and compare ours to see if it looks like a real media product and to see how
effective our product was.
Facebook
Overall, the only need for Facebook was for audience feedback. It made getting
comments quicker and easier and we ended up getting more detailed
comments on Facebook than on YouTube.

7. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Mobile Phones
We used our mobile phones schedule our filming days i.e. because we
were filming at one of the actors homes, we would use our phones to
find out what time we needed to be there, if we needed to bring
anything last minute or if anything had changed since we last met.
We also used our phones to get some feedback on our video. Some
feedback we got through texts was:
“I think the bits towards the end are very professional”
“You’ve done a good job”
even though the texts were not as detailed as what we received
through Facebook/YouTube, it still gave us a general idea of the target
audience’s opinions.

8. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Transferring Data
Another way of transferring
data was through Email
(hotmail) and memory sticks.
It made it quicker and easier
if there was a certain piece
of work that we all needed.
We also used Hotmail to contact the record company when
trying to get permission for our song.

9. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Microsoft Office
PowerPoint
I used PowerPoint for my evaluation. Through using this technology enabled
me to create an evaluation which contained audio clips, videos, pictures,
hyperlinks etc... It makes the evaluation look more interesting and it allowed me to
use more skills because of the development in new technology.
Word
Word permitted me to type up all of
my work through all of the stages of my
coursework. Using word gave me a
backup in case my blog stopped working
and make uploading my work onto the
internet a lot quicker and easier.

10. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
Photoshop
stages?
By having access to Photoshop, enabled us to create our Digipak and advert. Because
of the advances of technology, it made our products look more professional and more like
the conventions of Florence + The Machine’s products.
We used Photoshop to create the overall products
and the detail that was on the individual pictures. An
example of this is on one of the pictures, there was a
telegraph pole in the background. We thought this
made the composition of the shot less professional so
we used Photoshop to delete it. We then used the
Before... ‘smudge’ tool to blend our editing in with the rest of
the background and intensified the colours of the After...
bunting. However, using this tool could have been a
technique we improved as you can see where we
have attempted to change it.
We created the collage (it is on the inside middle panel of our Digipak) to relate
to the nature theme Florence has throughout her media products. To do this we
edited all the pictures we had of natural settings along with some pictures of our
body parts to break up the collage, this made some focal points within the
collage. Next Page

11. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Photoshop
For the advert, we started off with a plain, black
background but then added circus themed tape to
coincide with the props that were in the picture (it is
this tape that spells out ‘Dog Days Are Over’ in the hay)
and what is actually in our video (hung up around the
forest scenes).
As well as this we added Florence + The Machine’s type
face to the advert along with other information about
what singles are featured on the album. These points
were what we thought were most prominent in
Florence’s advert and therefore thought it would make
our product look more effective. This is something we
wouldn’t have been able to do without using new
media technologies (Photoshop).

12. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Premier
By being able to use Premier, we were able to create our music video. We could edit
all of our clips together to create our plot, change the opacity of the clips to make
the video look more aesthetically pleasing and change the speed (slow down and
speed up)of the clips to fit with the tempo of the music as well as making the video
more entertaining.
We also put some of our clips in reverse. By doing this it made the video interesting
and enabled the audience to watch the video until the end without becoming bored.
In the beginning, Premier was quite difficult to use
but this was due to it being a new product to me.
Once I had used it for a while and had experimented
with the software I started to add effects to the video
using the skills I had learnt i.e. Changing the opacity,
cutting clips at certain points/splitting them, putting
them in reverse.
Next Page

13. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
Premier
stages?
If I were to do this again, I would have added more special effects as I don’t think I
learnt as many skills as I could of done when using Premier. There are also some cuts
that could be smoother than what they are so that would be another part I would
have changed if I had more technique in using the software.
However, by having this software has developed how we can make our videos.
Before we might have only been able to use software such as Windows Movie Maker
which wouldn’t of given us a very effective or professional final product.

14. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
DV Cameras
By using DV cameras we were able to capture our footage.
Once we familiarised ourselves with the buttons (zoom in,
zoom out, record etc...) it was easy to use this technological
device. As it came with a tripod, this enabled us to have all
four characters in the shot as well as making the shots
steadier/smoother.
However, parts were handheld to create the impression we
were being chased or followed i.e. When we were running
through the forest. The shot did then become blurry but it was
an effected that related to the plot. We also used the DV
camera to record our audience research which helped us to
gather more information about our target audiences opinions.

15. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Still Cameras
We used the still camera to create our Digipak and our Advert.
By doing research into Florence + The Machine a lot of her
pictures are posed. Because of this we decided to do that
form of photography in our ancillary texts. We noticed that in
her pictures, most of them did not just have a plain, white
background (it had scenery in it or it was set up with props) so
this is what we based our photographs on but then came up
with our own settings based around our video ideas/location.
Next Page

16. Florence + The Machine’s Photography

17. Our Photography