How has your developing understanding of Digital Technologies enabled you to be creative?

How has your developing understanding of Digital Technologies enabled you to be creative?

In my foundation and advanced portfolios, I relied upon digital technologies heavily to create my music magazine and soap opera trailer. Using certain technologies has allowed me to create a more professional. Some of the technologies used; were used for both pieces of work, however, different ones were also used.

At the start of our foundation portfolio, we were put into small groups and given preliminary tasks which we needed to create. For our first preliminary task we had to use a stills camera and take pictures of a cover star, which would appear on the front of an “Aquinas College” magazine. I had studied media at secondary school and but I didn’t really know what I needed to do to take a good picture that would allow for a magazine. Using the stills camera we realised that pictures for magazines are mostly taken portrait, contents pictures may need to be taken slightly to one side to allow room for columns and other things. On the stills camera, I learnt that you can add guide lines to help gain a better position of the ‘star’ so eye contact and eye level were at the correct position for putting it onto the publication.

The first pictures I took for my AS coursework, my music magazine, I realise now looking back at them that they could have been better ways to take them; I didn’t have enough experience or skills with cameras. I used NME Magazine (music magazine, rock genre) as a case study for my coursework, particularly a “Skins” cover (programme about rebellious teenagers); this then inspired me to use a teenage star for my magazine.

To create my music magazine I had to research my target audience, I looked at what genres my target audience likes bands and clothes, I did this using surveys and creating Prezi mood boards, Prezi is an online presentation programme.

To create a brand identity I had to create an easily recognisable masthead and keep the same colour scheme throughout the publication; so I chose red, black, white and yellow. I took the idea from NME because I was trying to achieve the same target audience as they had already got. The masthead/ name of my magazine I created on paint and publisher; on publisher I drew a square and two triangles which I rotated 90oC (degrees) so it then looked like stop rewind signs found on a CD player. Once I had done that I saved it as a picture and imported it into Paint, which then allowed me to add a white and black outline, similar to NME. Had I known the programmes better I may have made it more complicated or better designed.

To make my music magazine look more like a real music magazine which would be found in shops or newsstands, I used internet search engines like Google and Yahoo; I looked up past and present NME covers. I used other internet websites for my product.

After deciding which image I would use, I used Picnik; an online programme which allowed me to “auto-fix” my image and add effects to it. I had to “auto-fix” my image as I took it to far away and it was blurred the lighting was not very good as well, looking at what I did wrong I can now improve on my original piece. Other programme used to modify my image was Photoshop. I used this to cut out my cover stars; I did this by using both the “lasso tool” and the “quick selection tool”.

To create my publication I used Publisher, I choose this programme because I found it easier to use having used it in secondary school, however, had I asked for help learning Photoshop I believe I could have created a better more realistic looking magazine. On publisher, I used it to create word boxes, word art and putting the pictures together, I did not change the background I kept it as a white background.

A2 coursework required me to create a soap trailer; we were required to work within groups for our main product and ancillary products. Our first ancillary was a practice soap opera, to prepare and create this we used online internet movie players like ITV IPlayer to watch soap operas to learn the storylines involved. We used PCs to take print screens or the soaps to create storyboards. We also went out and took our own storyboard images using stills cameras. Using skills learnt last year we were able to take better pictures although not yet perfect.

We then had to record our preliminary soap trailer using HD camera recorders; I had had previous experience using a video camera at secondary school although the skills used were very basic. Before we could record it we had to research shot types and how they were used we did this via internet search websites like Google.

To edit the footage that we had we used Apple Macs, the programmes were a part of the iLife suite, and these programmes include iMovie, we learnt how to cut and crop our footage. We also learnt how to add transitions and insert title cards.

Using Youtube, which is an interactive worldwide video sharing internet site, sharing and bleak viewing, I looked at songs to put on my trailer as non-diegetic sound. Once I had chosen my song off Youtube I then had to covert it using a Youtube converter which turned it into an mp4. I then just inserted it into iMovie over the top of my trailer without much editing.

We did the same steps for our main final soap opera trailer, however I believe that my editing skills improved as I learnt how to remove and add effect to sound or to put sound over a clip. Also I used more different things whilst editing such as a microphone to create a voice over. A programme called a keynotes which is similar to Powerpoint Presentation however it allows you to be creative. I used this programme to create a better series of title cards than what could be created in iMovie. Also this time I used the music the same way however, before putting over the top of my trailer I used GarageBand to edit my music properly which I think gave it better timing. Also I used ducking on iMovie which made it easier to hear what the actors were saying.

After finishing my trailer, I imported it into Youtube, making it viewable to the public. I used online social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with my group and the audience/ public. This included me publishing links to my work and my Youtube trailer. To publish my work for submission, I used a website called Blogger and slideshare.

To create other ancillary products such as the billboard and the soap opera “trashy” magazine, we used a SLR camera to take sharp good images on a green screen. I believe using this camera instead of a stills camera, as it gave a better picture.

For both products, we used Photoshop to cut the pictures using the “quick selection tool” but since AS year I have learnt how to cut out the images giving better edges which are smoother. However, you could still see reflections of the green screen on the stars, this is something I could have changed or improved upon.

Liverpool

• For our Billboard ancillary, as a group, we photographed each character against a green screen, we later cut the characters out using photoshop and imposed them against a brick wall. 
• This connotes that they live in an urban area
 
• Brick walls can also separate people, it reflects that people in the soap need to be separated, such as separating the fight. It can also be used to hide people for example a drug deal that needs to be kept secret.
 
• The slogan 'where everbody knows your name' was taken from a previous soap opera 'Cheers'. This could represent that there is close friendships in the soap, and that they all know each other. This follows the convention set by soap operas such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale or Eastenders, where everybody knows everybody on their street, or in their village. It also connotes the audience knowing who all the characters are and what is going on in their lives.
 
• We have also used the correct branding and colours for our billboard as it is ment to be shown on E4.