Evaluation Question 6:What have you learnt about

technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

While constructing my music magazine, I have learnt much about the technologies that are involved in the process and they have vastly improved my media product than if I had been without them. I employed many different technologies, one obvious one being an Apple Mac computer, but this included programmes such as InDesign and Photoshop, which I had a very limited understanding of before this process.

PhotoshopPhotoshop is an image manipulation programme which enabled me to edit the images is had taken. Before the use of Photoshop for my product I had very little knowledge and experience in how to apply the technology effectively and professionally. I used the programme to edit and format the images used in the magazine. For example, I edited my cover image from a whole picture with a natural background, to just my cover model and a black and white shadow, with no background:

I changed this colour on my front cover as I felt that the original background, although it was eye catching, it made the cover lines harder to read…

I achieved this effect by selecting the Pen tool and cutting around my cover model and her shadow and then selected the background to be wiped clean, leaving just my model and her shadow. Her shadow, however, still had a tint or orange (the colour of the natural background) so I used the select tool, which selects parts of the image with the same colour. I then changed the colour of this to black and white because with the natural background colour on the shadow, it would have looked out of place:

Without technology, this wouldn’t have been possible.

InDesignInDesign was a programme that I had never heard of before starting the production of my product, therefore I learnt most about this technology in the process. It was essential for the production and design work of my front cover, contents page and double page spread and I now understand the importance of such programme in the magazine production industry, it became responsible for aspects like the text and picture formatting as well as the extra features on the page such as plugs and borders, amongst others.

InternetThe internet was very helpful during the post-production stage of my music magazine. It enabled me to research some of the techniques that existing magazines have employed and so that I could collect fact and statistics of the success for different existing music magazines. This shows me how popular these magazines are, and the genre of music that is generally the most preferred by their audience.

I also used the internet to produce the blog. This technology enabled me to produce a clear comparison between my preliminary task and my final product showing the improvements. It also shows my evaluation of both products and the experience I have gained in the production and post-production stages of my magazine. Is this technology wasn’t available, these would have had to be handwritten, which would have been very time consuming and less neat.

Microsoft WordThis technology enabled me to prepare my written text for my double page spread and also to draft my blog posts.

Microsoft PowerPointThis technology has proved very useful during my evaluation. I’ve learnt that these make the text more interesting as it can easily be split up into bite-size amounts with pictures and perhaps animations. Also, people can interact with the presentation to change from one slide to another making the reader feel more engaged in the presentation.

Overall, technology has been and essential part of just about every stage of the production and post-production of my product. Without the technology, my product look much less professional and of lesser quality. It would have also made me a lot less organised and it would have slowed the process of production down considerably. I also now understand the importance of such technologies in the magazine production industry as without the programmes, they wouldn’t be able to produce the product.