Key concepts 1A
- 1. How does my coursework relate to the key concepts? Chrissie Bishop
- 2. Digital technology Digital Technologies is used to describe the use of digital resources to effectively find, analyse, create, communicate, and use information in a digital context. This encompasses the use of web 2.0 tools, digital media tools, programming tools and software applications.
- 3. How has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your production? For my AS coursework, I used digital technology in a various amount of ways. I used Photoshop to edit the images for my magazine as there is a huge variety of tools that you can use to make the images look more appealing and suitable for the magazine. Photoshop is very widely used by successful magazines in the industry therefore I felt that it was necessary to use it. I used tools such as the Magic Tool, enhancing saturation and colour levels as well as playing around with the Actions. I used InDesign to create my magazine as it is a lot easier to use than Photoshop (which we used for our GCSE magazines). InDesign enables you to view the document as a magazine and you can use various different tools such as the Master page which quickly and effectively adds the same text to all of the pages. This makes adding page numbers and the website name of the magazine very easy and saved me a lot of time which I can instead use to improve my magazine elsewhere. Paragraph styles has also been very effective as it also saves time and matches the fonts up when necessary. I also used PowerPoint's, Word documents and Scribd a lot whilst planning tasks and used Scribd to upload the documents to my blog. As I am not used to using these programmes, it took quite a while to get the hang of using all of the new tools however it was quite easy once I knew how to use them. To takes images for my magazine, I took my model to one of the media classes in our school and we used a variety of different equipment such as cameras, lights and white screens to mimic a professional photo shoot and create the desired look for my magazine. I used a Canon SLR camera as it enabled me to take high quality images which is mandatory for any successful magazine. As my magazine needed to be completed to the best of my ability, I felt it was necessary to use a white screen as it allows the audience to focus on the model and nothing else. White screens are effective because they are very simple and plain, and can easily be edited on software's such as Photoshop to enhance the image. The lights enabled me to change the way my images appeared and allowed me to create the best looking images for my shoot, and the lights also allowed me to cast the shadow I wanted so that the editing process was a lot easier and smoother. The lights and the SLR camera were the most important to me as they created high quality images which made my magazine look professional and realistic.
- 4. Creativity • The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness. o I used creativity within my AS coursework as I wanted to create something that followed the typical conventions of a magazine whilst being somewhat original and unique at the same time. I did this by doing photo shoots in locations that differ from the norm of my Indie genre and which stand out. I also added an Instagram page with photos from the artist’s page to enhance interactivity with the audience of the magazine. I looked at other magazines such as Q, Kerrang! and NME for inspiration on what house style to use, story lines and even images in terms of poses. I chose a red, black and white colour scheme as it looks professional and very sleek whilst also representing both love and anger – my genre of Indie/alternative seems to represent both of these issues. I also chose story lines such as the ‘50 gigs you have to see’ and a list of all of the bands and artists on the front page to give the audience a huge glimpse of what is inside. In terms of poses, I had my model looking directly at the magazine in the standard issue with her screaming insanely with a rocky edge in the subscription special magazine. This enabled me to take advantage of the different poses available.
- 5. Research and planning • Research: the investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. • Planning: A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective. • When planning and researching for the project, I used a wide variety of programmes such as Prezi and even creating videos on Youtube to express my ideas. I looked directly into what I wanted to add to my magazine such as searching the internet for inspiration.
- 6. Post production • Post-production refers to the tasks that must be completed or executed after the filming or shooting ends. This includes tasks such as the editing of raw footage to cut scenes, insert transition effects, working with voice and sound actors, and dubbing, to name a few of the many pre-production tasks. Post-production is the third and final step in film creation. It follows the pre-production and production phases.
- 7. Using conventions from real world texts • Looking for what is normal and established within existing media products. • A convention is a rule, method or practice established by usage. Theories • Uses and Gratifications: the concept that audiences use the media to satisfy certain basic psychological needs. Often audiences will watch t read something to suit their needs. • The Hypodermic needle: the idea that audiences