Digital TechnologyWhat skills did we learn?

G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media

Question 1a)

Software AS • Adobe Photoshop (image manipulation)

1. What did the image manipulation program allow you to manipulate? E.g. graphics necessary for the magazine.

2. What crop tools did you use? E.g. Marquee (magic wand), Lassos, and colour converters such as Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn.

1. Which tools did you use to match your fonts to act as part of the mode of address?

2. How did you use Photoshop to aid your house style e.g. picture boxes, shape tools (arrows, stars etc), colour, font etc

3. How did you manipulate photographs? E.g. lighting effects such as brightness and contrast and shadow effects.

4. Explain how using layers helped organise your work and construct your front cover.

Desk Top Publishing – DTP

1. Explain how you created your DPS e.g.putting text and pictures into boxes.

2. Did you add Frames and backgrounds?

3. How did you develop an understanding of the conventions of print layout (drop caps, columns, headers, anchorage of text over image).

How did you ensure layouts (for house style) were the same?

How did you engage with print conventions – not using more than

two fonts – sans serif for titles. Did you look at contrasting fonts and

juxtaposition of elements on a page?

Weblogs

• You used www.blogger.com to organise your planning materials. Blogger is an example of Web 2.0 technology (O’Reilly, 2004). This means that the technology is interactive – audiences can post and edit content on the blogs – it links to the idea of two-way communication, communication is no longer linear (one way). Web 2.0 software is collaborative.

• How did your blog help in terms of audience feedback?

• You also uploaded planning materials and evaluations to your weblog. What did you use to edit short videos and audio files that had been recorded e.g. Windows Movie Maker, I Movie? What did your editing programme introduce you to? E.g. timelines, dissolve and fade transitions, and the layering of audio over images.

Hardware AS

1. What camera did you use to take photographs for your preliminary college magazine mock up task?

2. How did you uploaded the photographs to the desktop computers?

3. You then used the software discussed to crop these photographs. This initial task helped you learn composition and framing skills in terms of shot types.

Software and Hardware A2 As filmmaker and designer Mark Towse (2002) details

digital video (DV) to be one of the most important advancements in motion picture technology since television. Film and video production is now not only done rich film production companies, but can be done in the home owing to cheap software and hardware.

• Which editing software did you use to edit your music video?

• You edited footage on a timeline – how did this enhanced your knowledge of layering various video footage and audio?

1. Identify a few of the edits you used in your music video e.g. cutaways, cross cuts, jumpcuts, parallel editing etc

2. How did you ensure your work was precise?3. How did you ensure the audio matched the video

footage?4. Did you use any special effects? E.g. freeze frames,

sepia/black and white, slow motion, speeding up

Again, you used blogs throughout the planning, construction, evaluation of your A2 coursework – explain how your skills in using blogger have developed.

Comment on the digital technology you used for your ancillary products and how your skills have developed since AS.

Please think of these questions as part of your 750 write up.

• What are the pros and cons of the software and hardware at AS in terms of skills development?

• What are the pros and cons of the software and hardware at A2 in terms of skills development?

• How did you use your AS digital technology skills to aid the construction of your ancillary task at A2?

• What were the pros and cons of developing skills from AS print to A2 video production?