USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES YouTube tools playlists embedding

See this post for help (previewed below).

Creating new Blogs

This 2020 Ppt replaces the earlier post:

A2 blog setup 2021 on from DB3igs

...

You will need a gmail account to complete this.

Your task is simple: carefully following the instructions below, set up a new blog and start adding to it with the tasks at the bottom of this post!

ONCE YOU HAVE WORKED THROUGH THE 10 STEPS BELOW, CHECK YOU'VE SET   (1) 'WORD VERIFICATION FOR COMMENTS' TO NO;   (2) 'COMMENT MODERATION' TO ALWAYS (YOU NEED TO PROVIDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS) [both of these through DESIGN-SETTINGS-COMMENTS];   (3) TIME TO GMT [through DESIGN-SETTINGS-FORMATTING];

Read the following carefully; take the time to think of a brief and memorable URL:

PREVIEWS OF THE BLOGGER SCREENS:

COMPANY BLOGS

Some of these are good; too many not, so here's a quick guide/checklist...

• who's it for? what's its purpose? who are the audience? aside from attracting marks (TgtAud, UseICT, Pres'n, Comm'n), its a commercial business' site, aiming to attract interest in its current projects ... and future commissions for more vids/ads/dpak designs
• that means you've got to remove initials from post titles, and...
• references to school/students/class
• you're professionals for this blog, NOT students
• does your blog blurb (text you've added below title) reflect this? Keep any blurb below the title simple but clearly directed at an audience who may wish to commission work from you. Have you included an email for enquiries about new commissions (could be made up - or, and why not, could be yours as you never know: your vids are pretty damned impressive after all!) Blurb eg: 'a 21st century horizontally integrated media production company! MUSIC VIDEO – PRINT/WEB ADS – CD PACKAGING'
• you're NOT the artist; you're employed/commissioned by their record label/management to create this promotional material - so YOUR company blog would surely feature a tiled background image of your vid (and would change over time to help highlight new content, e.g. to the mag ad, dpak cover - take a screenshot before you change background, and blog in your main blog about this)
• having said that, just as bands'/acts' official FB pages do, you could occasionally note YT vids or media appearances by an artist who you're currently creating material for!
• you could pose a simple Q: 'who is the aud for [artist] today?' If you agreed to mutually post responses with other group/s you could find these very useful for aud rich (+Eval). 
• tie any polls firmly into aud feedback you will benefit from and can legitimately discuss for Eval Q3 (you could use PollDaddy instead of/as well as blogger's tool). A simple e.g.: 'we have room for ONE more track on the new CD: YOU choose which its to be!' - and list a few tracks [don't copy/paste my words/ideas, find your own!
• have you looked at any actual examples for pointers yourself?
• Facebook pages are also useful for ideas + pointers ...
• and you really should set up a FB page, so easy to do [UseICT, TgtAud...] - help each other out with comments/likes!!!

Lets consider an eg... GG/TW's TwoTwigs blog has too few updates; posts lack text which would help show its aimed at a particular audience/seeking to create a dialogue (no polling either, another opportunity to interact with audience lost there); the news feed topic is much too general; the blurb doesn't accurately reflect what you'd expect from a company; there's no background pic; wording of top links list is questionable for this sort of blog. BUT...there's a clear logo (itself hyperlinked to the Twitter feed) and link to Twitter. I think we should really be seeing FB/Twitter icons in 2012. How does yours match up? Has this blog changed much after 12.4.12 (3am) when this screenshot was taken?!

• frequent updates help drive traffic to a site
• just as with main blog, that means updates on plans, shooting schedules, actual shoots, rough cuts - and really highlight the idea that blog readers can have THEIR say on the vid; their ideas + feedback will be considered
• think about stickability (a recognised technical term): features on your blog which will encourage folk to spend time there;  ‘Sites we like’ is a common links list you see on many
• any news feed/RSS must be specific and relevant!
• Twitter feeds are great (see pic at bottom) ... BUT don't look so great if they're never updated!!! Swillob (see bottom), ST and HBK all set up Twitter accounts, interacted with each other ... and then ceased operations ... 100+ days ago!!!!
• altho its still the norm for vids to be produced sep'ly from print texts (getting less so with convergence tho), you should cover ad/dpak too (you could write as if you're getting the info from another co yourselves, or as if its all in-house)
• that means drip-feed: slowly reveal track listing, cover design, DVD contents, availability on various formats - even, at a late stage, invent reviews!
• remember, this is a commercial outfit: have you provided iTunes links for the artist/track?
• links lists are an important blog feature: perhaps to help entertain/attract (back) an aud you could links list sim artists, or vids you like etc etc? ('stickability' is the term for content + features that encourage users to stay within a site, something FB is very successful at. Note that FB links are set to open up a new tab or window, which you can also select when setting up links lists; this means your site always stays as an open tab)
• behind-the-scenes vids also help drive traffic, and any shareable multimedia features (from jpgs to URL/embed code of pod/vodcasts/vids) may go viral - can you evidence any of your content being virally shared/spread? (ask others to post on it in blogs/FB + send you a screenshot)
• recent comments can be highlighted thru a gadget - again, work with other groups to mutually gain comments for this purpose!
• and finally: proofread posts, including checking for orphaned pics. avoid excessive blank space; i generally position images to L or R of text (and use caption text) depending on its size, and rarely publish posts with a series of images with lots of blank space around them - because that looks simply awful!!! 
• i also learnt quickly enough that blogs with dark/black backgrounds within the main posting frame cause too many problems: grey/blue text rendered unreadable for instance. far too many of you seem oblivious to this incredibly obvious point

Here endeth...

This is a long text-only post: no hyperlinks, no images (with captions) or embeds to liven it up [and then I went and added to it. repeatedly improving upon it, not being satisfied with it - there's a lesson in there somewhere for you folks...]; you should generally strive to avoid this!!!

Another 2012 eg: Swillob. Good background image, but there's actually nothing to immediately scream THIS HERE PRODUCTION/DESIGN COMPANY IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON A MUSE VIDEO!!! The blurb explicitly cites the A2; the post titles keep the main blog format; there's no text to try and develop an interaction with/address the audience. Presumably, looking at the top links list, this co only produces vids, doesn't design ads/CDs?! How would one contact this company to commission more such work? There's no contact info. Why would you label the logo pic with the words 'the company logo'?! The Twitter feed is potentially great ... just hasn't been updated for 126 days!!! Screenshot taken 12.4.12 @ 3.16am ... perhaps its undergone some changes since then!

Group pic/info on blogs

A perfect example of what you're aiming to do below: the blogs/YouTube channels of the others in the group AND the company blog all clearly highlighted, and a nice touch of making the pic link to a post on the group.

I've seen one example of pointless 'info' such as nicknames; a bit more maturity should be shown - keep details to your media attributes, which can include past work, festival success, and music tastes, film/TV tastes if you think its relevant (ie this influences your work/ideas). If you're assigning roles (may be more than one for each person), detail what this actually means/entails.

Company blogs

A really simple job but one which showcases your use of new media technologies, and also links to how you've gone about attracting an audience: setting up a separate blog for your production company.

Here's the JoyDiv blog from last year (also linked through their QR Code): http://newtransmissionrecords.blogspot.com/

Note the branding! This can be largely a place where you copy in podcasts + behind-the-scenes vodcasts, but also build up to release. A good place for a poll too!

Setting up your new blog [Hwk for Mon 27th]

Everything we've already done, and will do in June/July, forms part of the process of your A2 Coursework unit. Therefore its vital we reflect this work straight away in our A2 blog! Remember, the key principle behind a blog is that it logs the work done throughout the long process up to the final hand-in date (likely to be Xmas 2011 [including the ancillary texts], with January to complete the Evaluation).
Therefore your homework for Monday 27th June is simple: following the instructions below, set up a new blog and bring it up to date!

ONCE YOU HAVE WORKED THROUGH THE 10 STEPS BELOW, CHECK YOU'VE SET 'WORD VERIFICATION FOR COMMENTS' TO NO; 'COMMENT MODERATION' TO ALWAYS (YOU NEED TO PROVIDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS) [both of these through DESIGN-SETTINGS-COMMENTS]; TIME TO GMT [through DESIGN-SETTINGS-FORMATTING];

You'll know how to do this by now; the key thing is to follow the instructions below precisely as regards the name/URL [if you don't you'll have to restart with another new blog!]:

1. Sign in to blogger
2. Click on Create New Blog
3. For name, type in your A2Vid2012-ForenameInitial    [note the hyphen after A2Vid2012]
4. You should end up with a URL like this: http://A2Vid2012-DavidB.blogspot.com/ (again, please note the hyphen, and where the capital letters appear)
5. For address, type in a brief but relevant URL (remember, this will appear on promotional materials; it must also be appropriate for an IGS student). You might have noticed I try to make my blog addresses easy to remember: 'musividz' instead of, say, 'musicvideoa2mediastudiesatilkleygrammar'!
6. The layout tools have changed, so you'll need to ensure you make your blog wide enough to avoid problems with embedded video clips and Scribd docs. In DESIGN---TEMPLATE DESIGNER you can 'ADJUST WIDTHS' [ask if unsure!]
7. Once its set up, please email me straight away (so I can be your first follower!); I'll put up a links list for all when everyone has done this so you can look at, and comment on, each others' work, throwing your own ideas and reference points into the mix etc
8. Once you've done this you can create a new post and quickly blog on what we've done at this early stage
9. If you haven't already, add yourself as a follower of http://musividz.blogspot.com/ 
10. You can start blogging any thoughts/research/useful examples as of now!!! Remember, you're trying to evidence the process that underpinned your eventual productions.

ONCE YOU HAVE WORKED THROUGH THE 10 STEPS ABOVE, CHECK YOU'VE SET 'WORD VERIFICATION FOR COMMENTS' TO NO; 'COMMENT MODERATION' TO ALWAYS (YOU NEED TO PROVIDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS) [both of these through DESIGN-SETTINGS-COMMENTS]; TIME TO GMT [through DESIGN-SETTINGS-FORMATTING] (and, yes, i do know I've repeated this!)

What have we considered so far? See the blog post on 1st lesson + your own notes to refresh your memory! What terms/concepts can you think of we've raised so far? Have you already had some initial ideas for a vid/track choice? Your initial list of common codes and conventions? The different factors of FAG: format, audience, genre. The quiz contains a lot of new learning too...

CHANGING POST DATES!!!

I've realised there IS a way to change the publication dates of posts; its a little cheeky but...

Here's how: if I clicked PUBLISH now on this post its date would be 3rd Feb 2011. For ever!
BUT ... I can click in POST OPTIONS and change the default setting at POST DATE AND TIME to SCHEDULED AT and type in the ideal date!

See pic below

Feedback on blogs so far

I've been adding plenty of comments and talking to each group (shall see all today), but here's a few points that keep coming up:

• PODCASTS: keep up with the weekly podcast; don't ignore these because you're doing vids/vodcasts. A simple weekly update/what's next is fine for a podcast, where a vid/vodcast will be focussed on a specific issue
• LINKS LISTS: also to highlight multimedia, provide several links lists
• RESEARCH: some of you have done highly detailed posts on certain aspects; few are providing clear summaries. Its key you show you've researched the band and their vids plus the genre and its conventions. Overall, that should be 5 vids individually plus 5 vids as a group, so totalling 15 as a pair or 20 as a trio. Don't go OTT on individual vids, but do provide a clear summary of the codes + conventions you've observed AND ...
• INFLUENCES: be explicit on how research has influenced your idea - DO LOOK AHEAD TO THE EVAL Qs!
• VODCASTS: genre/band conventions are key; this makes for an ideal vodcast. Aim for 3+ vodcasts as a group, most likely band/genre, audience, casting
• AUDIENCE: any media work that fails to address audience specifically and precisely is seriously flawed! Emmie/Megan have an excellent eg of practical aud research to back up their target aud. So long as you're clear on your genre and target aud each group could/should do something similar, having created questions and stimulus material (might be vid clip; pics; the track itself - perhaps using mobiles)
• EARLIER WORK: many of you haven't utilised the earlier work from lessons on music vid; Elizabeth's is a good example of a blog which does! This still needs an overall summary of conventions observed and influences on production, but the Lady Gaga post is a good example

Remember, the fundamental principle is that your research influences your planning; keep evidencing and making explicit how this is so.