Afreen Shahid - Question 6 Media Evaluation
- 2. EQUIPMENT During the production of my media product, I used a variety of technologies including hardware and software. I have been able to learn much more about these technologies due to using them often. The technologies that I used has also helped me produce my final piece of work. I was able to develop skills for certain technologies for example the SLR Canon camera. In the past I have had experience of using it but this time I had to think about more factors for example the lighting and the ideal background. The SLR camera also gave me the opportunity to see the images instantly and I could decide if the picture was perfect. I also had the ability of producing a large amount of images due to the amount of space the memory card had. This was beneficial as I had a lot of images to choose from to use in my media product. The camera also was a high quality camera so the pictures I ended up with was in great quality so there was no need to really edit them as much. I ended up learning how to take the best picture by testing different angles and I also learnt how to adjust features on the camera for example the focus button allowed me to capture a better picture.
- 3. MACBOOK PRO I have also learnt a lot about my laptop and the features available on it for example when editing videos like my interview with the band, I was able to use iMovie which made me learn and adapt new skills. It was easy to get used to as it had a user friendly layout to it. My laptop has also helped me convert files into the appropriate file to upload on my blog. Additionally, I also had Photoshop on my laptop which yet again helped me to do construct my magazine whenever I wanted to. The MacBook also helped me save all my files as it has a lot of spare capacity available on it. Software's like Microsoft Word enabled me to draft my blog spots to see if I have made any errors before posting it onto my blog. I also used Microsoft PowerPoint to present my research like mood boards and I also used it to gather different fonts to use in my media product.
- 4. SOFTWARE - ADOBE PHOTOSHOP The main software I used to create my magazine was Adobe Photoshop. I decided to create all three of my pages on the software. I had a go at Adobe InDesign which was great for aligning columns especially on the double page spread but it did not work out for me. I was not able to create my potential idea of double page spread on Adobe InDesign as it did not let me move my image properly. That’s why I decided to choose Adobe Photoshop and I had a lot of experience on the software by creating my front cover and contents page on it. It allowed me to edit and crop certain photos before hand unlike Adobe InDesign. Adobe Photoshop is one of the useful technologies that had allowed me to edit my magazine to make it look more professional. It holds creative features to edit and adjust images and fonts. I have also gained more experience in using Adobe Photoshop as I discovered to use features like the magnetic lasso tool more confidently then before. I also used features like a drop-shadow to make my magazine look more realistic. I have learnt what different features stand for by testing them out and I have also learnt how to edit a page layout.
- 5. THE INTERNET! (SAFARI) The internet was really beneficial because I was able to find my research from online by different sources. Additionally, I had the ability to also look and compare my magazine with different rock magazines online. This included looking at how certain magazines used typical conventions and applying it to my magazine. Additionally, there was a variety of websites I used when creating my magazine. First of all, I used Blogger for the first time to document the progress of creating my magazine. It also holds all my research on it. When creating my magazine, I used blogger to look back at certain blog posts like “Reader Profile” and posts about the genre rock to inspire me. By using blogger, I am used to all the features on it!
- 6. WEBSITES When conducting my research, I had to present it in a fun way. I decided to use the online programs like SlideShare, Flickr, and Prezi. I got used to each program easily as it was very simple to use and it also made my research stand out as it was an effective way to illustrate different research I had found. They were also very fun to use as they included a lot features and I gained skills in which I could use in the future in different projects. To also edit my photo’s, I used a website called Befunky. They had a range of different edits to choose from for example “Orton” to “Greyscale”. There was also the opportunity to adjust the edits to make the photo’s look professional and not too edited. Befunky has made my skills increase by testing out different photos which made my magazine look effective as the pictures weren’t too dull or too bright. Another important website I used was SurveyMonkey to create an online survey which I asked my target audience to answer. SurveyMonkey helped me gather my market research in which then I used to create my Reader Profile. The results on the SurveyMonkey survey was vital as it was mainly from my target audience and their opinion was valid. The website has helped me build my media product by following some responses that were given.