What have you learnt
about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of creating the front cover, contents page and double
page spread for my music magazine I used a large range of different
technologies and I have discovered how each have pros and cons, how they
impacted my final product and how well I worked with them.
Blogger-
Throughout the entire of our coursework I have had to use the Blogger
software to upload my work and show my progress with each task. The software is
very easy to work with and allows me to share my work with my teachers, peers
and the moderators to get feedback on my work and then make changes. The fact
that the software can have embedded videos, presentations and images helps make
my posts more interesting and it easier for me to present my work. I was also
able to access previous students blogs for inspiration and guidance when I was
struggling on what to do or what direction to take my work. Blogger allows you
to create drafts and then go back to post them when you like, this was helpful
and allowed me to edit posts as I went along. Another good thing about Blogger
is that I could label all of my posts so that it was easier for my teacher and
the moderator to navigate my blog. The only problem I have faced with this
software was during my research stage when there was an issue with the order my
posts were going up. I managed to overcome this issue my reverting all my posts
to drafts and then re-uploading them in the correct order.
Serif PagePlus X6 and X9-
During the very first part of our coursework we had to create a
school magazine using the Serif PagePlus X6 software. At first I found it very
difficult to figure out what tools I needed for each task I did and this
slowed me down quite a bit. However by the time I had finished my prelim task I
had mastered the basic techniques and created a simple magazine cover and
contents. Trying out this software before we had to use it for our main task
was very helpful as it increased my confidence going into the main construction
part of our coursework and it helped me follow the codes and conventions of a
magazine by being able to easily switch between the pages I was working on.
Within this software I was also able to cut down images in the cutout studio
and change fonts and text so that it fit the codes and conventions of real
media products.
I also bought the software and installed it on my computer at home so I
could continue work at home and sty up to date with my work. The only problem
that I faced was that during our construction process there was an update and
the school computers had changed from PagePlus X6 to PagePlus X9, this didn't
cause too big an issue but I had to take some time out of my construction to convert
all my pages so that I could continue work on them in the new updated software.
Internet explorer-
This technology was extremely useful and was my main media
platform in the research, planning and evaluation section of my coursework
as I needed the internet to access sites like Blogger to upload my posts, Prezi
to present my planning and Google to do research on music magazines, publishers
and target audience. I was able to find what I needed quickly and I could
bookmark pages that I needed to go back to at later stages.
Prezi-
This software was very useful in my planning stage as I could group all
of the sections of planning into one presentation that was quick and easy to
use. It looks more interesting and is less conventional than Microsoft
PowerPoint and so I opted to use this instead. Prezi was also very helpful in
the fact that I could import images into my presentations so I could annotate
my work very easily, I was also able to add titles to make to clear of what the
presentation as about. I was also able to embed Prezi power points
straight onto my blog posts very easily and tis made it easier for my teachers
to see my progress and for the moderator to view my work. The only con of this
software is that it is everyone's default from power point- meaning
that it is so widely used that it isn't very 'alternative' anymore and so
can be very boring to an examiner who must look through hundreds of similar
presentations. This is why I only included a couple of Prezi power points
in the entire of my media coursework.
Popplet-
I used Popplet in my evaluation section of my coursework to present my
answers to an evaluation question. It was very easy to use and I could place my
information in a wind map layout which made it like it almost flowed from
one part of my answer to another. It was also vey easy to embed onto my blog
and free to use. The only problem that I encountered with it was that I
couldn't post images very easily but for the answer I presented it worked fine
with just text.
Windows Paint-
This software was very helpful in my construction process as I was able
to create an album cover for my artist that featured on the front cover and the
double page spread. I learnt that it is very important to use your own images
as I was going to use one I found off the internet of some trees yet my teacher
told me that all images needed to be my own and so I took my own image and
replace the one I had found with it. The software allowed me to do this quickly
and easily.
Sony DSLR-
During the planning section of my coursework I had to take photos of my
model to put in my magazine as my artist. I used a Sony DSLR camera as it
allowed me to adjust focus, saturation and aperture and it was very precise. I
was able to produce a large range of high quality images to choose from for my
magazine and I had no problems with the camera as I had one of my friends who
does photography help me out with working the camera. At our school I was able
to book out a photography studio that has black and white backdrops and this
allowed me to get an even bigger range of images. I learnt that by using a high
quality camera I would get high quality images that would look good on my
magazine cover as they would look more professional and closer to what real media
products look like.
Phone Applications-
After taking my images is used apps on my phone to edit them to make
them seem more professional. I used the app YouCam to edit out any blemishes
from my models face and the app Photo Editor to clean up the images and play
around with filters. I had no problems with these apps but they helped me and I
learnt that good photo editing software can sometimes be free and that software
like Photoshop isn't always necessary to get a good outcome.
