Quicktime

Quicktime is one of the newest technologies i have used in the making of my coursework. 

Here i have created a video using quicktime. This will show people who view my blog how i changed an image using photoshop to make it look better. The image i changed, was one that i had taken and cut part of the guitar out of. As there was a bit of the guitar missing i thought that this would put a negative side on my magazine, and i really wanted to use this image as i thought it was quite appealing for my target audience. 

I have never used quicktime before and as i was away in a lesson that Miss Lea had shown the class how to use quicktime i was unsure on how to use it. After stressing how to use it, i finally got the hang of it and created my video. Once i worked out how to work it, its actually very easy to use. 

Evaluation;4- How did i use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

  I have used many new technologies throughout the making of my music magazine.

MAC

Firstly the most obvious technology that was new to me was the Mac. I had no experience on a Mac before, it was hard to establish how to use and work the Mac but after alot of practice and help from other students i found my way around. I used the Mac to create all my coursework on Photoshop, i used the interent on the Mac for blogging, uploading, researching, downloading fonts etc.

PHOTOSHOP

I have used photoshop to create my front cover, contents and double page spread. I used various tools and to edit and change images. It took alot of time to work out how to use photoshop as i had never used it before. Using photoshop to create my magazine was a huge success as it gave me a variety of different tools. Once i knew my way round photoshop i found it very enjoyable to use.

BLOGGER

I have used Blogger to create my won blog with all the work and progress i have done throughout the making of my magazine. I think it a very useful and good way to keep all my coursework as it looks attractive and is easy to access. I have made my blog fit with the housestyle, genre and theme of my music magazine. I also found it useful for feedback from other followers to my page, as i could create polls and have comments from them. I never used Blogger until now and i feel it was good and easy to establish, it was fun and enjoyable to put together and make my coursework look a success.

POWERPOINT/SLIDESHARE

I used powerpoint of images together, uploaded it to slideshare  so i could display it as a slideshow on my blog. Using this reduced the amount of space taken up on my blog, and made it look more attractive. I have never used slideshare before but will be using it in the future as i found it a huge help and success and very easy and quick to use.






DAFONT

Dafont was very useful and helped me alot in the making of my music magazine. I found fonts that were appealing and went well with my choice of genre. I had never heard or used dafont before but i found it very useful to use and it was easy and quick to use. It made my magazine more appealing for my target audience. 

SCANNER

I used a scanner to scan some of my coursework onto the mac so i could upload it to my blog. Some of the logos i created by hand i scanned into my blog. I already knew how to use a scanner so this was no hassle to me. It was quick and simple. 

GOOGLE

Google was a massive help in my coursework as i could research other music magazines, collect images and research anything i needed to. Google is very easy to use and easy to copy and paste from. 

PAINT/WORD
Word and paint i used a lot at the start of my coursework as i wasn't familiar with photoshop i found it easy to use a programme i knew how to work . I used it to change parts of my name and logo, to test out fonts and to save some documents of coursework. 


DIGITAL CAMERA

For each photoshoot that i did i used my own digital camera to take my photos. It was quick and easy to use and upload the images as i have used a digital camera many times.  

Evaulation;3- What have i learnt from audience feedback?

Feedback has really helped me throughout, I took in to account what my peers, class, family, teachers and also target audience have said about my work and improved my magazine so its more successful and target audience are attracted to it.

After taking some images for my first photo shoot I presented them to the class and asked them which images they liked and disliked. I also looked at them to see if there was anything I could have done with images in Photoshop to reach higher standards.

 On one of my images that I wanted to use, part of the guitar was cut out. It took some time on Photoshop to adjust but once I finally found my way round and had some practice using different tools I think the over all image was one of the best.

I also used online polls to see what some people online thought about my ideas, which really helped as I was unsure on what to call my magazine but after doing this I was sure what I was going to call it.

Getting feedback from class mates and after creating a questionnaire, and getting people of all ages and genders to complete them, it helped me to decide on lots of things I wanted to know about my magazine I was going to create. Certain logos, images, names, genres and colours people were going to like best on my magazine and which were most appealing for my target audience.
When i had all the completed questionnaires, i then put my result together in pie charts so that it was easier to see which names,logos, genre etc people were voting for the most. I think choose the ones that had the most votes as it told me which was going to be more appealing for target audience. 

With my front cover I was told from my class mates I needed to change a few things which would make the page look more attractive. This was the artist name in purple ‘Violet’ needed to be stood out by using an inner glow, I took into account what they had said and after testing it out I think it also looked more attractive. They also told me some other changes that needed to be done throughout the magazine and by the end I did them I think it reached higher standards.

My teacher and a few other students were unsure on my white background for the contents page and DPS, I also thought it looked very dull but was unsure what colour I could have done it instead. I played around trying out different colours and asked a few other people and we all agreed on a colour. After I thought the pages looked  better.

Evaluation;2-How effective is the combination of my product and ancillary texts?

Looking back on my preliminary task i believe that i have made massive improvements since then. When i was asked to first create a school magazine in Photoshop, i didn't really know my way round Photoshop or how to use some of the tools. Comparing my preliminary task to my music magazine you can see that there are some big changes of ideas and skills. At the time of creating the preliminary task i remember believing that i completed the task well and didn't think the school magazine i had made, looked that bad. At the very start i had no idea how hard it was going to be, it took me some time to start my preliminary task as i was rubbish with Photoshop! As i started finding things easier and my way around Photoshop i thought i had got the hang of it and created a good piece of work. Now i believe that i didn't know half as much as i do now with Photoshop. My image that i used on my front cover school magazine is also not as high standard as the ones i used for my music magazine. Although we spent a day with a photographer in school with him teaching us some of the skills he has and idea, i still feel that i wasn't at all ready to create a magazine that would be really successful. I now feel more comfortable when taking images and adjusting them in Photoshop as i have new improved skills.
When i look back at my preliminary task i believe i didn't use any thought about the conventions i could have used on the magazine. I don't think i took any of the 'media side' into account when creating my preliminary task, such as not using rule of thirds, the golden line lures etc. My front cover wasn't very evened out and the quotes and cover lines weren't at all attention grabbing. The colours i used wasn't the best as i didn't think about any conventions. I also did not include a logo in my preliminary task and didn't think about the magazine name with alot of thought. 

I believe my music magazine is a great success compared to my preliminary task, i used good conventions, put thought into it and used some good images. 

Evaluation;1

Music Magazine

DPS Plan