Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When starting this course, I had little/no knowledge of how to make a magazine, as I did nothing to do with media at GCSE. Other people on the course had done media or photography at GCSE and so I felt nervous to start, however we did a Photoshop workshop at the beginning of the year which I felt benefitted me a lot as I learnt some of the basics to make a college magazine. 

When I first used photoshop I found it really difficult to get the hang of, especially because it was on an Apple Mac and I had never used one before. I found the different layers confusing and found making effects look realistic very hard. Eventually when learning what all the layers were it became handy because if something didn't look right I could just delete the layer and start again rather than delete the whole thing and start again.  

This year was the first time I had ever used an Apple Mac and so trying to adjust to it was very difficult.  Eventually I got used to it and could work everything on it properly.

When I did not have media lessons I had to try and use Photoshop on other computers such as a Dell desktop computer in my college library because the Macs were being used. I found it difficult adjusting to how different the software was on the different computers, but usually did my work on the Macs and the research on the Dells. 

 Using blogger to keep all of my media work on was handy because it meant that I had another source of backing up my work. In addition to this, Blogger meant that I could check my work and adjust it on anything such as a phone, iPad or laptop. I found the official Blogger app on the iTunes app store which was a benefit to me because I could add comments on my work on-the-go. 

I used polaroin.com to add small polaroid-looking images on my double page spread to add a vintage feel to my magazine. I found it easy to use because all I had to do was upload an image and tick a box if I wanted a certain effect on my image, and it created it by itself. I saved them and then added them to my double page spread. 

I used Microsoft Word to create the interview for my double page spread because it was easy to use and I could use spell check on that to make sure that the interview was grammatically correct. After this I copy and pasted it to my double page spread which was open on Photoshop.

I used prezi.com to create slideshow videos of my work. I used prezi to show LIIAR analysis' of different music magazines. I found it beneficial to use because they looked more interesting than just uploading images of Powerpoints.

I used GoAnimate to create an animated video to show which genre of music my magazine was going to be. 

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When I started AS Media Studies I had little knowledge on how to make a magazine, as I did nothing specifically related to any of the technology used this year, at GCSE. Other people in my class had done either Media or Photography at GCSE which stood them in good stead when it came to creating the product, and so I felt a bit intimidated. My intimidation was relieved almost at the beginning of the year when we did a lot of work on Photoshop creating a small task, which was to create perfume advert, and although looking back now it was very bad, I felt it benefited me a lot as I learnt some of the basics on how to make the college magazine front cover. The college magazine was the second transition task, that was there for us to get used to creating a magazine, ready for creating our real music magazines.

AS Media Studies was the first time I had ever used an Apple Mac computer, and so the first couple of coursework lessons I was trying to adjust to using the Apple software rather than Windows software, and it took me a while to get used to it. For example using simple things such as Word or PowerPoint felt different, due to the different layout of it all. One of the confusing things at first for me was how to even minimise the things I was on, because I had to get used to it looking like a traffic light system – red, yellow and green buttons for minimising and expanding, etc. instead of the ‘x’ and the ‘_’  for this. Eventually, I got used to using the Apple Macs and found them very useful to use when dealing with software such as Photoshop. 

Photoshop was the editing software that I used to edit all of my images on, to construct my final product. When I first used it I found it really difficult to get the hang of due to never having any previous experience on the software before. I found the different layers confusing and found making effects look realistic, a very hard task. Eventually when learning what all the layers were it became handy because if something did not look right, I could easily just delete the layer and start that layer again rather than delete the whole thing and start from scratch.

I edited the images of my artist on the front cover of my music magazine, and all of the other images on the contents page and double page spread, on Photoshop.

By editing the 'Levels' on my images it meant that I could manipulate the brightness of the photos. For example above, I turned up the brightness of the image of my artist so that his face stood out more, and I added another layer to focus on the print on his t-shirt. I turned the brightness down on this because it bared no relevance to the magazine, and I did not want it to draw attention from the text underneath the artist, telling the consumer about the main story on the double page spread.

When I did not have media lessons, I had to try and work on other computers. I usually used computers such as the one seen above, to work on my coursework in my college's library. I found it difficult adjusting to using software such as Photoshop on the Dell's, because I had only just gotten used to using it for the first time on an Apple Mac, and then I was having to work out how to use it on a Dell computer. In the end, I usually decided to do my actual coursework creating the product on the Macs in the media classroom, and used the Dell's in the library for my planning and research, and to write under screenshots during the production of my work.

Using blogger during the production of my AS Media coursework was useful and handy, as it meant that I had another source of backing up my work. I could do this by uploading the production of my product as I was creating it, so that I could see where I could improve and what else I had left to do. In addition to this, by using a website such as blogger allowed me to show my thought process  especially during the research and planning stages of my preliminary coursework. In addition to this, Blogger meant that I could check my work and adjust it on anything such as my phone, iPad, laptop or computer. I found the official Blogger app on the app stores on both my Sony Xperia Z3 smartphone, and my Apple iPad, which was a benefit to me because I could add commentary on any work I had uploaded, without worrying about going to my next lesson or rushing to do my work on the library computers, I could do my work on-the-go. A final point on the benefit of using Blogger during my preliminary porfolio, was the fact that it was used as a platform to upload and display all of my other work that I had created on sites such as Prezi and GoAnimate, which will be discussed further down this evaluation question.

I used 'polaroin,com' to add small polaroid-esque images onto my double page spread. I did this because I wanted to add a vintage feel to my magazine, and by using a digital polaroid picture, gave the page more depth and made it more eye-catching for the consumer. I found this website easy to use, as all I had to do was upload the image I had chosen to use, and tick a box if I wanted a certain effect on my image, and it processed my demand and created the polaroid picture. I then saved them as a JPEG, opened them up on Photoshop and decided which ones I wanted to copy and paste onto my double page spread.

Above shows a screenshot of the Polaroid images I created, that I chose to use on my double page spread. I added these onto my double page spread on Photoshop, and then added a dark outer layer to make them stand out. I did this because the background of the main image I used on my double page spread was quite dark at the bottom where I wanted to place my polaroid images, and therefore by creating a darker outline for them, they'd stand out more. I also chose a font that I had not previously used on the other parts of my preliminary portfolio production, and so by using this handwriting kind of text, it would also make these images stand out more than they would if they did not have any text alongside them.

I used Microsoft Word to create the interview for my double page spread. I wanted to make the interview look realistic, and so I created a plan on what I could write in this fictional interview, and using Microsoft Word was very useful for this. I created it on there because it was easy to use, as I was used to it after having to use it to write many essays over the years for homework for each subject, and as well as that it allowed me to use spell check to make sure that my interview was grammatically correct. After creating the interview, I copied and pasted it onto my double page spread which was open on Photoshop, and altered the sizing to make it fit onto the page.

I used 'prezi.com' to create slideshows of my work. They were useful in displaying my work without just typing out blog posts and writing a long paragraph or essay, or a PowerPoint uploaded as images, it meant that I could upload my presentation in a entertaining style, meaning that you can flip through different sections of my work. I used Prezi, for example, to show LIIAR analysis' of different music magazines, as can be seen below:


This shows how Prezi can be used, and uploaded easily onto Blogger, as all I needed to do was embed the code of my Prezi slide onto the HTML section of the blog post, and it would embed onto the post.
It can be seen from above that using Prezi meant that I had a entertaining and more interesting way of uploading my research, planning and thought process of my preliminary portfolio.

GoAnimate was used in the process of constructing my product, as I used it during the research and planning stages of my coursework. I used this website, as it is used to create and distribute animated videos. It allows users to develop both narrative videos, in which characters speak with lip-sync, and move around, and video presentations in which a voice-over narrative speaks over images and props. I used mine to show which genre of music I was going to focus on, in relation to the music magazine I was about to create. I decided to focus on the indie genre, which can be seen through my GoAnimate below:

music mag genre by meg gore on GoAnimate

This shows again, another way of uploading my work onto Blogger, without just typing it out in a post. By using sites like this, shows how I can use different media technologies accurately within my work, making it fun to look at, and more likely to be able to stick to, if I set it out in an exciting way.