The document discusses how various technologies were used to create an indie music magazine. A digital SLR camera was used to take band photos, and Photoshop and Quark Express were used to design pages like the cover and spreads. Blogger was used to track progress. Photoshop created effects like black and white photos with color on band members. Fonts from Dafont gave the magazine an indie look. Issues with college servers slowing saving time created challenges. Overall, technology was very helpful for the project despite some technical difficulties.

1. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

2. To create my magazine I used many different pieces of technology to help me. To take the pictures I used a Digital SLR camera, To create the front cover, contents page and double page spread I used Photoshop and Quark Express. To keep a track on my progress I used the internet and went on to Blogger.com.

3. Using this technology has enabled me to achieve my task of creating my magazine. When taking my photos I needed to get the right look on my band so I decided to take my band pictures at night when it was dark. I needed the cameras to create the right image so using the flash and adjusting the lens really helped to keep all the band members in the picture and to keep the picture clear and not blurry. The SD card in the Camera allowed me to take as many pictures sas I neede to and allowed me to change and take a look at the pictures before putting them on to my laptop. It was really easy putting my pictures onto the laptop all I had to do was slot the SD card in then transfer onto ‘My pictures’ this was really easy to do and meant I had more time to concentrate on creating my magazine without having the trouble of downloading the pictures onto my laptop. Once on ‘My pictures’ it was really easy to access all my images and choose which images I am going to use for the magazine then I could delete all the images which I had not chosen or didn’t like. To transfer the pictures onto Photoshop and Quark Express was easy because all I had to do was transfer the picture onto the page then crop it to fit whilst holding Shift to make sure that the picture didn’t blur.

4. Using Quark Express and Photoshop helped to achieve creating my magazine. I used Photoshop to create my front cover and contents page this was easy to do as Photoshop is easier to use than Quark Express. To create and give my magazine a Indie/Mod look I used fonts from Dafont.com that looked as if they would be indie and used these in the magazine like ‘Impact Label’ which gave my magazine that Indie look. To create my front page main image I used Photoshop to make the whole picture Black and White then used the history brush on the band members to bring back the original colour on the band members. I used new layers to put all my font in and to give it the Indie effect I used mainly one type of font but changed the colours to black and red. Using Quark Express was a bit harder as to get the images I wanted I had to create picture boxes to import them. When writing my paragraphs I did not go for the Grid look as I wanted my double page spread to look as unique and scruffy as possible because I was following a band on tour. It was harder to create the double page spread as I had to find a way to put the 2 pages together and keep it fitting to the main screen. Quark express was harder to manage than Photoshop as I could not create a lot of effects on my pictures so I had to do the effects in Photoshop then put them into Quark express which was more time consuming and harder to do. It was easier to write on Quark express than Photoshop as I could create text boxes without having to create a new layer meaning I could move easier. However during the period of creating the magazine our college servers were going down and malfunctioning so it took a very long time to save in Photoshop and many times the pictures would not save.

5. To keep a record on where I was in creating my magazine and make sure I was up to date with everything I used Blogger.com where I posted blogs once every week to keep track on where I was and what I had to do. This did help because when I was creating my magazine I needed to know what I needed so I looked at previous blogs to see what I had put on there. Every week I saw myself learning something new without knowing it and putting it on to Blogger.com. Blogger.com also helped to put all my research and planning in one place which meant I did not have to waste time searching for the research in ‘My Documents’. It also helped because when creating the magazine I could look back on the Target audience research then look at the comments then take the comments into hand and create on them in a way my target audience would like. The research was clear and easy to read which meant it was easier for me to look at what I have done.

6. To get my Audience research I used social networking sites like Facebook to upload my moodboard onto then I got people to comment on the moodboard so I knew what my target audience liked and what they would want in my magazine. Using this really helped as it meant my magazine would have more of an Indie effect as the people I asked to comment on my moodboard were an Indie and liked the moodboard so this helped to make my magazine the best it can be.

7. Technology has also helped to create this evaluation as I am using Powerpoints, Blogger.com and even videos to create my magazine evaluation this makes the evaluation a lot easier as I do not have to continually write loads and loads of paragraphs. Using Videos and powerpoints makes the evaluation more eye friendly and more interactive as it is fun to do and read. Using powerpoints allows me to use more images and makes it easier to evaluate each little bit. The images make it more interactive to look at and it makes it better to read as the images can act as a example on what I am talking about. Using a video means I can interview my target audience on what they believe my magazine is like and if they like it or not. This makes a good interactive evaluation and means it can be uploaded to blogger to complete the evaluation.

8. Overall technology helped a lot to create my magazine and to help me through the creation stages. However due to snow we did not have technology for a week and I had to come in and lend the camera on the day of heavy snow, also our servers were malfunctioning so it made it difficult to access programs and do work without it crashing or taking too long to save. So without the malfunctions which disrupted us a lot technology was useful in creating my magazine and it meant I could get that Indie look that I was looking for.