6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? To create my media product I had to use lots of various technologies and software's; some of which I had used before and some of which I had not. Either way, I found the process of learning how to use different software's very enjoyable and worthwhile, as this, in the end, allowed me to create my music magazine as best I could. First, our media class had to learn to use PBWORKS.COM, which allows us to upload our work; process and evolution of the music magazine we each created. At first this was slightly confusing, learning how to create pages and upload images and documents. Eventually it became easier to use and was simple to upload and edit anything we wanted. This also allowed the class to comment on each others work and deliver feedback to the group. My blog comes under three headings on the sidebar: Planning & Research Construction Evaluation

I also used Photoshop for the majority of my main task. Before this task I had used Photoshop many times so was very familiar with it; the tools, processes and availabilities that could be made with the software. Photoshop allowed me to create exactly the media product I wanted. I was able to use different tools, settings, colours, effects, etc that would make my music magazine original. It came in extremely handy when I needed to edit images. For example, I used the blur tool in the background of several images, which portrayed the sense of rush and excitement, and also in turn made the images more professional and serious. I was also able to use tools such as the sharpen tool, smudge tool, crop tool, magic wand tool, rubber tool etc to make the images as best as they could be. Overall, Photoshop was the best software I could have used to create my music magazine; it allowed me to do exactly what I wanted with the media product, and although it was frustrating at times, it was extremely useful and worthwhile.

FOR EXAMPLE: (editors image on contents page) Original image change saturation film grain effect Use elliptical marquee tool sharpen tool+ contrast+ brightness

I also used WINDOWS MICROSOFT WORD, PUBLISHER, EXCEL and POWERPOINT. I used Word for making my questionnaires, keeping track of my evolution of the music magazine as I went along. As I went along creating my music magazine, I have kept a record of everything I have did- from what I edited on Photoshop and how, to what I would include in my questionnaires before I had created them. I used excel once I gathered results and statistics from questionnaires and surveys I made for my target audience. PowerPoint was used effectively to portray results/ information. A program I used for my main task which I had not used before was ANIMOTO. On this website, I created a video to portray my genre of my magazine, which was Indie Rock. I was able to include pictures/images and sound/music to convey this. Each of these programs/ softwares that I have used have proved extremely useful in helping me create my music magazine media product!

I also used PREZI. This is an online- brainstormer/ mind mapper. It allows you to collect your ideas and make a presentation via brainstorm online. This came in extremely useful when I was collecting my thoughts on what to include in my magazine! It was really simple and easy to use, and created a very effective outcome, which was a lot more interesting than could have been done on paper! For example…

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT I HAVE USED: I used my Canon EOS 40D camera to take the shots for my music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. I really enjoyed using different shot types and angles to portray my artist in different ways. Overall, I took more than 300 photos which I then narrowed down to less than 10! By using YouTube I was able to research different bands that I wanted to convey to my audience, such as Death Cab for Cutie, The Pretty Reckless, Snow Patrol, Bon Iver and many more. Google proved extremely useful for the creation of my media product. This was the main tool for my research; from researching music magazines, to companies and distributors, to researching artists and bands, and lots of other elements which helped me create my magazine.