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.
