Evaluation 6 Blogpost

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

During the development of my media product there are several new and unknown technologies, which I have had to familiarise myself with in order to construct my music magazine, contents page and double page spread.

Social Networks

Whilst constructing my product social networking sites have help whilst gathering feedback for my media product. I have used social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger to gather feedback for my product. Whilst already being a member of Facebook and Twitter I have had to develop my understanding of the site Blogger, from which all posts from the preliminary task up to now, have been posted on.

Cameras and Computers

One of the most important aspects of a music magazine are the pictures which feature of the front cover, contents page and double page spread. To take my photographs I had my own Nikon 3500 DSLR camera, I already had some knowledge of certain camera techniques that enhance the image by just looking at the angle, framing and composition of a shot that I took. But by looking on YouTube for some camera tutorials I have developed my knowledge further by discovering new, more professional techniques, such as the Rule Of Thirds.

There was also a change in the PC’s I used. Whilst being a frequent user of a Windows oriented computer, my knowledge and skills of using a Mac computer were lacking and I had very little knowledge on how to use and navigate one. For the entirety of this project I have had to use a mac and become more familiar of how they function and work, as these are more frequently used in media institutions that would publish my product.

Programs and Websites

For the most part of constructing my product I have used certain computer programs in order to put my ideas together. Whilst primarily using Adobe Photoshop to edit my original images and put my magazine’s front cover, contents page and double page spread together. Before this project I had some knowledge of Photoshop and how to use it, but to ensure that my media product looks professional I had to further develop my knowledge, I did this by looking at tutorials on YouTube. These helped me gather information on how to correctly cut an image out of a background, use blending techniques to make my cover appear more professional and text tools to ensure my text on the cover is suitable. I also used Adobe Illustrator for the text on my contents page and double page spread. I used this software because it enabled me to edit the text to how i wanted it arranged on the page. By using this software i was able to organise my text into paragraphs and
columns, this software also allowed me to justify my text. I was also able to add a drop capital into my text which is a regular convention on music magazine double page spreads.

There are some new websites I have used to create blog posts whilst constructing my media product. One of these being Prezi. Prezi is an online presentation creator that allows me to create and design my own presentations. Whilst never having used this website before I decided to use it in order to show the conventions of a contents page and double page spread, and give some variety to the type of blog post I did. The online presentation creator allows a user to zoom in and out of the presentation at specific points, set by the user, in order to draw the audiences attention to certain text or images. By using this website I had to develop my knowledge of presentation software, I did this by practicing a few times on mock presentations before applying the knowledge into a real presentation. I learnt how to draw the audience’s attention to specific details by using different zoom tools, such as the hidden bracket and the circle tool. I also used SlideShare, this allowed me to upload presentations to the Internet and therefore be able to post them onto my blog. By using this website I have been able to use Microsoft PowerPoint, a program which I was already comfortable with using, and then upload the presentation onto my blog.