QUESTION 6

what have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing these products?

Software I have used…

• Dafont• Facebook• Blogger• Surveymonkey• Google• Photoshop• Windows Movie Maker• Adobe Bridge• Windows Powerpoint• Slideshare

Dafont.com

I used Dafont.com to reach different fonts in which I would not be able to access through fonts already available on the software I was using. This also gave me an advantage as the font of the magazine would not have been seen before most likely by my audience or anyone looking through magazines. It gave me the option to ‘open’ the font then ‘extract files’ which then led me to saving the font to the font folder on my computer which then imported it onto the computer. Although when using the Apple Mac’s and my MacBook at home restricted me as I wasn’t able to use the Dafont website or save the fonts to use due to the difference in software I was using which did cause problems when producing the magazine as I could not adjust my font without it changing to one already stored onto the computer.

Facebook

I used Facebook within my research for my magazine as I posted my questionnaire in order to gain audience research to then proceed with production of my magazine and know what my audience would want to see. This allowed me to gain a variety of good responses from everyone that I know although as they are all my friends it could have been bias in the sense that I could be friends with all the same age group and people who all prefer the same thing but ended up getting a range of responses that helped me know what to make my magazine like and who I would be aiming it at.

Blogger

The use of blogger played a huge part in my research and production of my magazine. It allowed me to monitor my progress through posts and be able to set up an account so that others can view my work and allowed me to get feedback on my process. Using blogger allowed me a simple way to go back and use previous work to develop my production work and to be able to evaluate my work as well as others to use it too. Labelling each category of work and the simple and easy layout allowed a quick access when I and others needed it.

Survey Monkey

This software was used to generate my own questionnaire to give to my audience through social networking to allow me to get feedback on what my audience would want from a magazine and their opinions on certain things to help me with production work. This simple and free software allowed me to gain feedback and have a clear vision of what my magazine would look like and contain which would have not been possible without gaining the feedback I did from using this software.

Photoshop CS6

This was the first time that I had used Photoshop so I learnt a lot of new skills. One of the tools that I had not heard of before when using this software is the colour grabbing tool, this is a tool that takes colour from the background of your main image or from other fonts so that the colours are co-ordinated with each other. This allowed me to use Mise-en-scene within my cover by grabbing colours from the main image and using them in fonts so that the main image matches the fonts and doesn’t look too obviously produced. Another tool that I learnt to use in Photoshop is the blending option which is shown by right clicking on a layer which allows you to use a drop shadow or a colour/pattern overlay which is a good tool to use so that your sub images or fonts stand out from the background of your pages.

Windows Movie Maker

This software was used in order to produce the video that I got from interviewing a potential buyer of my magazine to find out what they would look for in a music magazine themselves. This allowed me to use a different media to place onto my blog and show the interview that I had done in order to gain research on my audience and reliable information on what my magazine would preferably be like for my buyers.

Adobe Bridge

I used this software to produce a contact sheet of all my pictures that I have taken for my magazine, this allowed me to look at all the pictures together and indicate on my blog which photos I will be using in my magazine and then go on to production work within using Photoshop.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint was used within my research and production work in presenting my various work completed such as audience research, my pitch, contact sheets, layouts and flat-plans for my magazine, this allowed me to use Slideshare to put the PowerPoint’s on my blog to then be accessed by the viewers of my blog in a quick and simple format.

Google

Google and internet explorer was used within my production work and within my research work to search the internet for various examples of magazines and for pictures such as twitter logo and barcodes that have been placed on the pages of my magazine. Google also allowed me to search for various fonts and examples of software to use for my magazine and what would be useful to use to extend the quality and individuality of my issue.

Slideshare

Slideshare links with my use of Microsoft PowerPoint as this is the software that I used in order to place my work on my blog for others to see. From converting an embedded code into a post on the blog and appear as a full slideshow that can be viewed by any one at a range of sizes. This allowed me to also place images onto written work as you cannot do that onto the blogging post unless it’s a certain file type that can be hard to convert.

Hardware I have used…

• Canon E400 SLR Camera

• Iphone 4

• Computer

Canon E400 SLR Camera

As I already had a quality camera I used this to take the photos for my magazine so I already knew how to work the camera and what settings to use. When taking the pictures for my magazine I used the manual setting on my camera to start with but found that the shutter speed was too slow to capture enough images at a time without a blurry image being produced, so I changed my setting to auto and found this was much faster and produced better quality pictures. Having access to a good quality camera helped me to capture the exact images that I wanted for my magazine.

Iphone Video Camera

When interviewing my audience for my research I used my phone to record the video. This allowed me to put the video straight onto my computer and upload it to my blog by using Windows Movie Maker so was a quick way of uploading it and being able to analyse it fully. Although I did find a problem with using an apple phone as it was not compatible with using Windows software so I had to upload it onto my own MacBook at home and then convert the file in order to use Windows Movie Maker to then put it on my blog.

Computer/MacBook’s

When producing my work I was constantly in use of a computer which gave me the opportunity to use all the software that I have had access to within my project, although the apple software gave me limitations with using Dafont.com I found that using computers is a faster and better way of producing work as it is easily accessible to other people and myself. Putting my work on a memory stick also gave my work a more portable aspect as I could access it from any computer even at home on my own Laptop.