- Tools I used: Colour converting tools (red eye corrector, colour variations) shape tools, contrast, rightness, grid view, layers, cropping tools (marquee/wand tools, lassos).
- Photoshop: When using this program I am able to edit images and the page layout in order to create my music magazine. The software allows me to insert text and image by using different and interesting editing skills. I can manipulate the colour scheme I had picked, the contrast, brightness and layout of all the elements I included in making my music magazine. when producing and editing my magazine I made use of each tool that was included in the Adobe Photoshop software. For example the various cropping tools making my image smaller or bigger and shaping it it a different way to fit on the page. I also played with the magic wand but it didn't look right with the style I was going with but was very straightforward to use which allowed me to crop around the image leaving it with no background making it look effective and professional. But I decided to use the colour effect tools such as colour variations, red eye correctors to give my final image different effective eye catching look to it as it fits my genre of my magazine better. I adjusted the colours to match the overall neutral colour scheme and the brightness tool to give it a hip-hop/rap style. I also improved the quality of my images by removing the red eye on each person to give it a realist look. When it came to the fonts I decided to use I looked on dafont and went through the different styles I could use to fit my genre. I used the font tool to help me manipulate the text within my magazine to appeal to my audience with the layout and the colours used. Including these elements in making my magazines it allowed me to effectively adjust them to my audience and convention. To get the overall look of the genre I was going for the use of colours, layout and the shaping tools really came in useful as these made it easier to see the style of my magazine and made it look very realistic. The photographs themselves could be changed easily by using the brightness, contrasting colours and special effects to give it that overall professional look to the images. These tools can also be used on other elements of the magazine for example the masthead, as I can manipulate the colours and shadow of the letters to make them stand out more. Using these elements also help me to create the overall look of hip-hop/rap style by matching the layout to the convention rules which helped me clearly layout the contents and elements of the magazine. Using the layer system on photoshop allowed me to keep my work organised and separate in sections that were easy to access and manageable to use. When it came to my double page spread I used the grid view function which allows me to align the content of the page and makes it easier and more accurate to see individual elements on the page by separating the A3 page into two A4 pages.
- Website I used: www.blogger.com
- How I used this website: When completing both of my AS and A2 coursework I kept a blog which allowed me to keep all my research and planning materials on. The website I used was www.blogger.com which is a example of an 'web 2.0 technology', this means it is an interactive technology, making it a two-way and combined system which came in very useful as it allows the audience to give feedback through leaving comments on each blog post. This gives other people who have blogs and my teachers and peers to look at my work and give advice on my research and planning ideas. This gives me extra feedback on what iv done well and what needs improvements getting my work to a high grade overall and making decisions earlier on in the process of making my product.
- What I uploaded: When I was going through the planning stage I uploaded elements to my blog that included music videos off youtube which I enjoyed and thought would work well with my product, giving me ideas as well as presentations to show these expanded ideas to the class and my teachers. The technology I used included Animoto videos, animatic story board, youtube videos, draft videos and my final music video for my A2 coursework.
- How I created these: The youtube videos I decided to upload onto my blog were done by embedding them onto my blog post but these weren't created by me they were original videos giving me inspiration. The animoto video I created was made on a website called www.animoto.com which was used for both of my pitches in AS and A2 to show to the class my ideas. I embedded these onto my blog. When it came to making this video it involved placing images, text and music into a basic format, which used little skill to make. I used animatic to show my story board, this program allowed me to insert images from my hand drawings that I had taken photos of and place them in a timeline along side the audio file I had chose to be playing in the background. This is more advance than the animoto video but was also very basic to use. Creating drafts and my final music video took much more skill and time. For the making of my video I used final cut pro which was on the mac computers, this program allowed me to insert clips from my filming and cut the down to the exact time and place I want them and in the correct order on the timeline. I was able to lip syncing the clips quite easily but muting and un-muting the clip to find out if I had matched it up with the audio track, this is similar to other technologies iv used through the year and premier elements. However final cut pro was much easier to use and allowed me to make more specific and advanced changes to give my product a professional and realistic look. For example I could edit the look of each shot such as lighting, brightness, toning and contrast. I could also add extra features in-between the shots like fading in and out and lyrics showing on the screen. In my A2 blogging work my skills had improved a lot as I blogged more and got more feedback from teachers and peers.
In my AS coursework I started with using a digital camera for taking photographs of my preliminary task that were of a normal standard of quality that I believe could be improved. I then transferred them onto my desktop that allowed me to adjust to the program and learn the basics before starting my coursework It also allowed me to see the areas I didn't completely understand and need help with. This showed me the things I need to resolve before starting my product as I wanted to be able to use the software easily. It also helped me understand the importance of framing the photographs and other tools on the page that would help me to give a better overall quality to my work. For example using a plain background will make the actors stand out more. I the end I used my friends Iphone as I could adjust the light and brightness on their and could also add effects which was very straight forward and quick to use and it also look very professional and realistic.
In A2 I did take photographs for my ancillary products and used a digital camera this time round. I also used the premier elements 11 to edit my photographs and to lay them out on the page in the right areas. However because I didn't use this technology in the end last year I wasn't to certain on how to use all the tools and it took me a while to get used to it again. I used a few different tools just to make sure the overall images look professional and as realistic as possible. I also used a digital HD camera to film my music video. Every shot I took was saved straight onto the SD care reader which stored all my filming and then I copied them onto the computers hard drive system and my video required a large amount of memory space. When it came to editing my video I used final cut pro, this program allowed me to place clips onto a timeline and lay them on top of the audio. I put all the clips onto the timeline in the right space them spent a considerable amount of time making sure the lip syncing was accurately matched up with the actress, this also helped to match the audio video. I also made sure each clip came in at the right time and the lyrics that came up on the screen matched the audio too. I used other adjustments to within the program, for example the brightness and contrast.
