LO1 Technological convergance and production techniques

Technological convergence and production techniques:

As with all new technologies the advent of technological convergence (as outlined in Jenkins’s 2008 theory) and the beginning of the Web 2.0 era has led to media products being both easier to create and distribute to audiences. In this report I will explain how technological convergence has impacted the three major stages of production of a media product (these being pre- production, production and post- production.) 

Pre- production: 

Whereas before interactive media was available to the producers of a product the planning of the nature of the product that was to be produced would require a meeting between everyone who was to play a leading role in its creation, new media has allowed this prosses to be completed with members of the project all around the country or even the globe.

This is achieved via interactive media utilised by the people taking part within such meetings these applications include (however, are not limited to) sites such as Google docs, which allows different members of a production team to write their ideas on a form and be credited for their input. This is very helpful to anyone in a leading role over a project as that if they are interested in an idea put into this form it is easy for them to discuss it further with the team member who thought of it as that their name will be given within the document on the section they composed. This is also a technology which doesn’t require the whole production team to meet in one location as they once would have as this is such an advantage as that it means that members of a production team can potentially take part in the planning for more than one product at any given time as that it no longer requires their complete focus to plan one that means that this convenience can directly lead to the audience gaining more media in a shorter amount of time due to the added convenience to the creators. Another tool which gives added convenience within the planning stage of media would be the ability to create planning documents (Ie: Mind maps and Mood boards) online via websites such as Canva mood board creator  [https://www.canva.com/create/mood-boards/] and Mindmapfree.com mind map creator[http://mindmapfree.com/] These are both low-cost tools to use which allow you to create professional planning documents on the internet and share them easily with other members of the team. This could be to share ideas for a narrative (on a mind map) or a particular stylistic quality (in the form of a mood board.)  

Production: 

Much like pre- production it has become very easy to use low cost tools to produce a media product using pieces of equipment which are becoming more available to the average person. There are hundreds of examples of production software that is now available to anyone who can afford what is becoming a smaller price. For example certain parts Adobe creative suite allows the production of professional products across multiple media sectors such as Photoshop and InDesign for print products as well as Animator for film. This large collection of professional software being affordable has been very beneficial in the independent media world  as that it allows smaller creators to create products which can compete with those created by much larger creators. 

Another example of this increased access to production technology would be the decreasing cost of camera equipment. For example it is now possible for a creator to by a 4K Sony camera (ultra HD) for under £1000 meaning that for one investment they can create great looking video products. 



Post - production: 

In terms of post production technological convergence has again provided equipment and software which has made the process far easier for anyone to perform. Good examples of this would be Adobe premier which is a program for video and audio editing and Lightroom for image editing.
Pre- production is such an easy thing to do now that there are even multiple smartphone apps that seek to make video editing easy for a user to do anywhere. The most popular example of this would be Magisto.