media studies coursework homework evaluation questions rock pop music magazine a levels school

1. Question 6: Technology – What have you
learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?

2. Hardware
Hardware is all the equipment and physical things that have
been used in order to create the ending product.
Examples of hardware I have used:
Apple MAC computer
Mouse and Keyboard
Fujifilm finepix
iPhone 5

3. Apple MAC computer
The Apple MAC has been the main piece of hardware that I have
used to create my magazine. It is the Mac OS X, version 10.6.8.
Using it has allowed me to use the main piece of software I used
– photoshop. By using this I had to learn many different things
as it is different from windows computers, things such as
dragging a picture straight onto the desktop and inserting them
from there. But by using it, it has allowed me to create a more
professional looking ending product due to the use of photoshop
and indesign which are not available on windows computers.

4. Mouse and Keyboard
The keyboard and mouse have allowed me to be able to control the
Apple MAC. The Model Number of the mouse I have used is A1152
and the model number for the Keyboard I’ve used is A1242. The
keyboard took some getting used to as it things were in different places
and it could do different things, such as being able to adjust the
brightness and volume and also being able to take screenshots.

5. Fujifilm Finepix S8200
This camera has 16 megapixels; Sensor type: CMOS; Optical zoom: 40x; HD
video: Full HD 1080p.
It had many different setting options for me to choose from to suit the location
that I was in, there was also effects on the camera that I could select if I chose
to do this. I used the indoor setting in order for the lighting to be correct.
Before you take the photo, you half push down the button for the camera to
focus and then you push it down all the way for it to take the photo. This
function was extremely important as an out of focus picture wouldn’t have been
any good.

6. iPhone 5
Model A1429. I used my iPhone to take a photo at a concert I
was at. I used the photo in the contents page of my magazine.
In order for the camera to focus on him I had to tap the screen
to where I wanted it to focus. By doing this it would also make
it easier for him to be seen in the photo. As the lights behind
him were really bright and were moving quickly, the phone’s
camera would focus on them, leaving him in the darkness.

7. Software
Software includes all of the programmes on the computer
that helped me put my magazine together.
Examples of software I have used:
Photoshop
Indesign
Wordpress

8. Photoshop
I learnt how to do many new things by using photoshop. I used it to edit
photo’s that I took and to plan out and put together my cover, contents page
and article.
Going into ‘Image’ and then
‘Adjustments’ gave me the option of
many different ways that I could edit my
photo’s.

9. Crop tool
Spot healing brush tool
Move tool
Horizontal type tool
Line tool
These are the tools that I most
commonly used whilst making my
magazine pages.
By going into ‘Filter’
there were more
options for ways in
which I could edit
photo’s.

10. Indesign
I placed my article that I had
prepared on photoshop onto
indesign in order for me to
place the text on there and
have more options with what
to do with the text.
This option which is in the upper right corner of
the screen allowed me to choose how many
columns I wanted my text to be in.

11. This is the control panel in
indesign, I didn’t use many of the
options, as I didn’t have that
much to do to the text, other
than insert it into three columns
and re-align it so that it was
even.
The reason I used indesign was because it has
many more options for text and you can do a lot
more with text on here, rather than photoshop. I
carefully looked through the fonts until I found
some that suited my magazine. I wanted them to
be plain but there were lots of different versions of
this so it took a few times until I was happy with
the font I had chosen.

12. Wordpress
I used wordpress to keep a log of what I was doing and how
my magazine was coming together, using individual posts
and creating pages in which I would post.
I also included planning questions for my cover, contents
page and article before I did them and some of the idea’s I
had didn’t always go just as I thought they would.
I also did posts to show the before and after editing photo’s
to show the difference and to show how I made subtle
changes that had a big impact.