Digital Technology - Q1A

Digital Technology –

I have used a range of digital technology in my AS media studies coursework, I have used hardware digital technology’s, software digital technology’s and online digital technology’s.

Hardware

Laptop’s / computer’s

Camera’s

Mobile Phone

 

What I did with my hardware technologies – I used the laptops and computers for my AS media coursework to use the software and online digital technology and to upload my images for my coursework onto. I used the camera’s to take pictures for my AS coursework.

Pros/Strengths – The strengths I had using the camera were that my images came out really clearly.

Cons/weaknesses – The weaknesses I experienced with my hardware was that I used my mobile phone at first to take my images. My images didn’t turn out very well and were blurry therefore, I later swapped to using a camera for taking my images.

Software

Adobe Fireworks

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

What I did with my hardware technologies – I used Adobe Fireworks to make my pug, my music magazine covers, my school magazine and to edit images. I used PowerPoint to make presentations about my planning for my coursework. I used word for general planning and writing up notes about my work. I used Excel to store my results. I asked my target audience questions in a questionnaire format to help me with making my music magazine, once I got my results back, I put my results into excel and turned them into a graph.

Pros/Strengths – I think that Fireworks was easy to use software which allowed me to create a professional looking product. I also used Fireworks to help me with editing my photos such as removing backgrounds, editing the colours of my images and designing possible layouts for my products. PowerPoint allowed me to easily create plans for my work. Microsoft word helped me plan what I was going to do by allowing me to write my plan up. Microsoft Excel helped me turn my results into graphs.

                   

Cons/weaknesses – The cons and weaknesses I experienced with fireworks were that although I was able to create a professional looking product, my product didn’t look as professional as it could have due to the fact that fireworks did not provide all the tools I needed to complete my products to the professional level I would have wanted them to be.

Online

Blogger

Wikipedia

Thing link

Prezi

Padlet

Flickr

IMDB

Google

Survey Monkey

Pic Monkey

Scribd

YouTube

Tumblr

Da Font

What I did with my hardware technologies – I used Blogger to upload my coursework on to. I used Wikipedia, IMDB and google to get information for my coursework. I used Thing Link to evaluate different media products such as magazine covers. I used Prezi to create professional looking PowerPoints for my work. I used Flickr to upload my photos onto. I used Survey Monkey as a way to get results to help me make my media products. I used Pic Monkey to help me edit my images for my media products. I used YouTube to watch TV and film clips to evaluate. I used Tumblr for images for my coursework. I used Da Font to find fonts I wanted to use for my media products.

Pros/Strengths – I think that Blogger was a strength as it was an easy way to upload my coursework and allowed me to embed my coursework onto. Wikipedia and IMDB allowed me to easily find information for my coursework. Prezi allowed me to create professional, interesting looking PowerPoints. Flickr allowed me to easily upload my photos for my coursework onto. YouTube allowed me to easily find and watch the clips I wanted. Da Font was a strength for my coursework as there was a wide range of fonts for me to choose from and allowed me to use these fonts for more attractive fonts for my coursework.

Cons/weaknesses – Survey Monkey didn’t allow me to ask all the questions I wanted to as it has a 10 question limit which limited my audience feedback, survey monkey also wouldn’t give you the results for certain questions due to not having a membership. Picmonkey allowed me to edit my pictures easily; however it did not offer enough tools for me to edit my pictures how I wanted them to be.

Creativity –

I think that I was quite creative in my decisions I made when creating my coursework.  I think that I was creative as I tried to make my own design however, when I couldn’t make my own design, I took ideas from other pieces and merged it into one idea using my creative skills. The technology I used enhanced and allowed me to be more creative as it allowed me to do lots of different things such as editing and finding different things to use on my work such as ‘DaFont’ . My products were influenced by my social environment as I based my magazine on the type of music I like and therefore featured artists and styles I like in my magazine. I would take some of the creative skills I used in this project into my future projects however, I would not use all of the in future projects. The creative skills I would take into future projects would be using the same software I used such as Blogger, Pic Monkey, Survey Monkey and Adobe Fireworks as I think that they are useful apps that allow you to be creative and create professional looking media products. The creative skills I wouldn’t take into future projects are using too many

Research and Planning -

For my research and planning I did a lot of tasks to help develop my idea and plan what I was going to do on my final products. The tasks I did for research and planning included making a storyboard, script, and analysis of other products, treatments, developing idea, audience feedback, and layouts and picking a soundtrack to create the right type of atmosphere.

    - I used a storyboard to plan out what shots I was going to use, how long the shot was going to last, where we were going to use it and who was going to be in the shot and what will be happening in the shot. This helped me when shooting as I knew     exactly what I was going to shoot by looking at my storyboard and I saved time by not having to plan what I was doing while shooting.

-          Another thing I used was a script this was used so that the actors knew exactly what they were doing and what they were saying. I think that this was really helpful as it clear to the actors where they had to stand and what to do and what to day which made filming a lot easier.

-          The audience feedback allowed me to get opinions from my target audience this helped me develop my ideas and correct any mistakes I did. I think this was a good task as it helped get a good idea of what my audience would like to see and what they would associate with that specific genre which then helped me with my final product.

Post Production -  

For post-production, I took photos,edited and had to make decisions.

Taking Photos – I tried to take my photo’s for the genre that my magazine was for. As my photos were for an indie-pop magazine, I tried to make my photos in bright lighting with natural looking makeup with a causally dressed model posing casually.

Editing – I had to edit my photos after taking them to make sure my images were how I wanted them to be. I edited the brightness of my photos and also cropped them.

Making Decisions – I had to research similar products to mine that also had similar codes and conventions and make decisions of how my layout was going to be.

Using conventions of real media texts -