Evaluation - Technologies

In order to create my media products, I needed to uses a variety of techniques and a range of technology. This was used to enhance the visuals of the magazine, as well as making it have the cutting edge of a slick design format. Not only was different technology and equipment used for creating the products, but also for the research and planning, using web-based software to present my research in a concise and professional manner.

I used the college PC as my workstation. The PC was used to upload and download images (Barcode), use new software, research and many more uses. This PC’s the focal point of my media coursework and is pivotal to his unit. 

First of all, I was introduced to an online site called Blogger. Blogger was very important for the presentation and documentation of my research. Owned by Google, Blogger offers an interface for people to post their findings upon a blog for others to see. For my media coursework, I had to add various items to my blog as the coursework progressed throughout the year. I found Blogger to be a very easy and understandable format to present information and images. I've also acquired skills to embed links to other software’s such as Prezi as a .html format to upload them to my blog in the software’s style. Adding tags to different blog posts can almost add a contents-esque structure. This adds ease of access to my blog posts, going by the section of work, rather than the post date. Blogger has become easier to understand throughout the coursework phase and has become an easy, presentable format of displaying my media research.

FlipSnack is a web-based presentation software used for several of my blog posts. It offers an alternative viewing perspective of information and adds variety and colour to the research, as opposed to plain, concrete word documents. FlipSnack was first introduced during my research and planning phase with my Textual Analysis on existing media products. The concept was easy to understand and learning to embed the codes has become more natural throughout the course. The word documents needs to be saved as a PDF file before being uploaded into FlipSnack. FlipSnack offers a flip-book animation, scrolling through images on one side, with accompanying information and research on the other. Personally, the FlipSnack software is user-friendly and adds a whole new element of variety to my blog. I went on to use this programme for two other blog posts, Moodboard Analysis and my Original Images Photobook. Overall, it’s safe to say FlipSnack is a trust-worthy, reliable web-based software to use. FlipSnack welcomed me to neat presentation and a way of displaying information in a slick, stylish and modern way.

Prezi is another web-based presentation software used for my blog post. In particular, it was used for B: Evaluation: Forms and Conventions. Rather than a word document or PDF file listing the magazine etiquette I used with perhaps a few images, the Prezi software added a suave concept to standard information. It’s smooth flowing transition between different frames displays information in a vibrant manner. Through my experience of Prezi, I found it the hardest software to use and understand. The placement of frames, the transition and the web links can be incredibly complicated to start from scratch. Luckily, Prezi offer templates to give a helping hand for the presentation – which is exactly what I did. I used the mobile/tablet images template, as it is appropriate reflecting the technologies I have use in the process of creating my product. It can also link to the younger aspect of my target audience and the potential to display my product through digital versions as well as social media interaction. A disadvantage of using Prezi is it’s reliability. I've found that on the College Network, Prezi has crashed several times and is very unreliable. Once embedded into my blog, the Prezi format adds professionalism and shows my understanding of new technologies. I've adapted to being introduced to this programme and have found it challenging at first, yet come to grips with the transitions and criteria as I progressed through my evaluation on forms and conventions.

The main fundamental point and the software used to create, edit and improve my three media products is Adobe Photoshop. I’ve had previous experience of a similar graphic manipulation software of Serif Photoplus X2 during my Media Studies course at GCSE level, however, its use was very limited. To say I was, comfortable with Photoshop straight away is an understatement. I found the software difficult to adapt to, with many tools complicating my intended purpose. I used Photoshop for my preliminary task magazine “College Life”. Looking back on the magazine, it looked very un-professional, incorrect use of colours and fonts and the image seemed stretched. This was due to me only just coming-to-terms with the Photoshop software. I began to improve rapidly with the software, by creating four moodboard’s, the audience and the advertiser’s moodboard looking the most impressive. Several tools I used for these Photoshop software is altering the colour saturation. This emboldened, or dimmed images to make other looks prominent. It adds different dimensions to the moodboard and I believe at this point I fully understood the know-how of Adobe Photoshop. There are many advantages of Photoshop including the wider variety of tools to use and array of items you can alter to make more apt for the target audience. With the tools being so vast, I physically, couldn’t use them all, perhaps the only flaw of Photoshop’s design (and it’s not really that bad!). Photoshop was the source of my three media products, my front cover, my contents page and my feature article. The colour abstractor tool was incredibly useful in creating my pull quotes (feature article). The magazines house style was of a black, white and red colour scheme. The red used for the pull quotes was taken from the exact colour of my Jim Deacon Electric Cherry Stratocaster Guitar, which was used as a prop for my front cover, contents and feature article to symbolise the rock genre. This exact colour of the colour was then put into text for contents numbering and the pull quotes, adding consistency to the magazines style. Photoshop is a complex software to learn and adjust to, yet is endless use of tools and capabilities proved to be a vital part of my products creation, indeed.

Another piece of vital equipment used was my personal camera. Rather than booking in for a camera from the college’s media department, I opted for my own camera, with the better graphics and image stabilisation to help shoot a better image for my products. The camera used was a Canon Powershot SX600 HS. I've had previous experience of this camera so was very easy to understand and use. Once image were taken, they were transferred to the college system to be placed in Photoshop and the Original Images FlipSnack presentation.

Accompanying my camera was my camera tripod. This gave me direct and accurate height to shoot the image, as well as maintaining its position to obtain the highest quality image.

My electric guitar and my guitar amplifier was also included in my magazine. These were used as props to convey the rock music scene and to symbolise the rock genre and rock culture.

Overall, I used a wide variety of software, technology and props for my media coursework. They all contributed into the creation of my media products and was used to display my research and hard work in a stylish manner.