evaluation question - what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this...
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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Media Evaluation QuestionsMolly Masters Lyric Magazine
BloggerI have actually used Blogger before for personal use, and found this gave me a bit of a head start when coming to use it for my media
work.I actually found it very useful to use Blogger to create a 'journal'
like space to record my progress. For example, I was able to write blog posts as frequently as I wanted, which in particular came in
use when I was doing my research and planning. I enjoyed writing posts about the media institutions and being able to share them on
my blog.From using blogger, I also gained an insight into the world of
'blogging'. I was able to understand how people could read my blog and track my page views, and also the methods of operating my
blog. From the simple things like editing my blog posts, to designing my layout, as well as learning to being able to add links and photographs of my progress, I feel I have learned a lot during
the process of using Blogger.
MicrosoftObviously Microsoft software is a standard tool used at school,
and I have had plenty of experience with it in the past. For this particular media product, I have not so much used
Microsoft in it's construction, but definitely throughout the research and planning as well as in the evaluation. I have used Microsoft Word many a time to mock up my contents pages or to type up a blog post at home, as well as used PowerPoint to present information (such as my evaluation
question on Slide Share). PowerPoint has been an extremely useful tool and during this process I have learnt to use Master Slide, a function within PowerPoint which allows you to keep
the same colour scheme, font and layout through the whole of the presentation. I found this extremely useful to keep a
theme ongoing in my presentations, hopefully making them look a lot more professional.
Apple Mac Computer and Software
Before I started this media course, I had never used an Apple Mac computer, and it has been one of the most
complex pieces of technology to grasp! However, despite this, Apple Mac computers retain a lot of useful software
which have been of great help during my construction. For example, the programmes on it are easy to use and
effective, as well as the high resolution and large screen making my photographs more clear to view and distinguish between qualities. In addition to this, Safari was a piece of Apple software I had never used and was perplexed at first as to how it worked, however, as simple as it may be, this
version of the internet has been extremely useful, and being able to easily use more than one tab has allowed me
to multitask whilst blogging and working.
Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Premier
Adobe Photoshop was a programme I had encountered during my GCSE media projects, but I had never used Adobe Indesign. Both of these programmes worked
very well together when I was constructing my media product. For example, many a time, I would need to process and edit a photo using Photoshop facilities, and then I
would ‘Place’ it into Indesign in order to use it as a part of my magazine photography. This is evident in my work with my photograph of Emmie Moon, with which I edited
into black and white with Adobe InDesign and then imported into Adobe Photoshop to use as the central image for my magazine front cover.
Despite a few problems with importing/ placing images at the start, I found it reasonably easy to get to grips with Adobe editing software, as the buttons were clear
and the Apple Mac computer made it very easy to function and work with other programmes on my desktop.
Furthermore, although I didn’t choose to do a film for my media product, I used Adobe Premier software to edit the video of my focus group and gained a large insight into
the complexity of the work that goes into film editing. I learnt the basics such as cropping a video and adding title slides and sound effects. But nonetheless, this was
a valuable experience which taught me skills I can retain for the future.
DSLR Camera – Canon 550dA DSLR camera was another piece of technology I had never used before, and was very excited to do so. The whole operation of the camera was new to me, so it took a while to accustom to the settings, zoom lens,
memory card slot location and its use in general. I first used the camera when I was doing the construction for my media product, and in doing this I used the Canon
500d for my photo shoot. I really enjoyed being able to explore portrait and landscape pictures and also using
the zoom and different functions (such as flash) to receive high-quality and high-clarity picture. I used this same camera again for my focus group/interview and
was able to appreciate the microphone and film features of the camera, and it produced a focussed and clear film to show for my evaluation piece. In terms of what I learned from using this piece of technology, I
would easily be able to generalise it as learning to use with such a complex piece of photographic equipment
of which I have encountered. In using this, I also learned how to take correctly positioned and focussed
pictures, which I have always been interested in.
Photography Lights I used the lights during my photo-shoot as I was going
to be doing a lot of close ups on Holly’s face, and I wanted the light to be behind her to create the right
contours and shadows. I had no experience of working with these pieces of technology before and had a
health and safety briefing from my teacher to learn various majorly important rules when working with
the lights. For example, to set them up correctly with lots of space between the wall plug and the light,
because if it is too tight then there’s a risk of someone tripping over the wire or the wire breaking.
Also, I learned not to touch the bulb or the back of the light whilst they were in use or approximately 10-15
minutes afterwards (allowing them to cool in this duration period)as these areas get extremely hot and
dangerous to the skin. I used three of these lights/lamps in a three-point
system (one behind the model and one on either side of her) and their purposes were fulfilled and I was very happy with my images as they were of a high
quality thanks to the lighting I set up.
Tripod – Velbon DF 50 I used this tripod once during the filming of my focus group, and it was very interesting (as simple as it is) to learn how to correctly set it up. I was very surprised to learn how much of a difference a
tripod makes to the angle and positioning of the camera and
how much of a better quality my focus group video came out after
its use (as opposed to a handheld camera only).
Prezi Prezi is an online software which I used to create an
interactive presentation for a number of my evaluation questions. I found it fairly easy to operate, but in using it, I
learned how to make my presentations even more interesting and accessible to my audience. Prezi allows for the presentation to be controlled by the audience and
encompasses a range of elements such as lots of different colour schemes, a spider diagram-esque layout, as well as the
ability to add photos and videos which made my presentations a lot more interesting to my audience. I was also able to link my Prezi documents to my blog, which was
very useful as it meant more viewing options for my audience.
Slideshare Slideshare was another programme which came in
useful when I was doing my evaluation questions. It is an online programme which allows you to share your Powerpoint presentations with other online users, as
well as allowing you to share it on a blog. It was relatively easy to function and I learned it was simple to just add my Powerpoint onto the software, convert it into an interactive video and allow my audience to
see it by linking it to my blog. I feel this software actually makes presentations easier and more
interactive for the audience to view, and it makes them easy to share online.
DaFontDaFont is an online website which
envelopes millions of different fonts produced by artists and designers,
many of which are free for non-commercial use (such as my media product). On this website, I was able to navigate through many different ‘genres’ of fonts and pick the ones
which suited my magazine the best. I previously completed a blog post in which I deduced which font out of a
shortlist I’d chosen would be right for my magazine. DaFont was a great
piece of technology as it allowed me to compare different fonts and easily
download the one which was right for my media product.
In conclusion, I have very much enjoyed finding out about new technologies which are in action in the media world, and it has been very interesting
to put my knowledge of theory media into practice. For example, converging many different uses onto one device, like the Apple Mac computer. I feel that
during the development of my media product I have learned lots of new techniques and actions, and have gained a valuable insight into how to
operate these media technologies which I can use again in my future work.
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