How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and Planning

- Throughout my research and planning stages of my coursework, one main technology I used was the iMac computers, they introduced to a whole new world of design techniques in the form of ‘Photoshop’. Running through my research and planning there are aspects of my research that involved primary research into regional magazines by physically buying magazines to gain more knowledge. Presentation techniques came from ‘Prezzie’ and ‘SlideShare’, both of which I needed to find tutorials for to use to the best of my ability. Another aspect which I needed to find tutorials for was the use of the digital camera and lighting techniques when producing images for my final piece and ancillary tasks.

Research

• During my research stage into Regional Magazines, Magazine Websites and Billboard Advertisements, I solely used the internet to conduct the main bulk of it. After producing adequate research into the many regional magazines and examples of web pages, I conducting primary research by purchasing magazines and finding billboard advertisements in my local area.

• Another aspect of my research would be from YouTube, I spent many of my first lessons increasing my knowledge on the design of regional magazines and certain editorial processes to increase the realism of my piece.

• E-mail, Facebook and other social network sites also assisted in my research as contacting my focus group through the web was a much easier process.

Planning

• Planning my coursework enabled me to go through many stages of drafts before settling on my final piece. In relation to planning using digital technologies, along with sketched drafts, I produced drafts on ‘Photoshop’ and drafted my two hyper linked webpages on ‘Weebly’.

• The planning stages were constantly being altered throughout my coursework as I encountered many problems. One of the key things that effected the planning and overall design of my magazine was the weather, this ended in me altering my front cover and entire issue to a winter magazine instead of a summer issue.

• Creating many final drafts on ‘Photoshop’ of my billboard advertisement enabled me to chose a final piece that would include

a level of professionalism and referring to my focus group enabled me to do this.

Construction• During construction of my final regional magazine and two ancillary tasks, the

introduction of my planning and research was key in enabling me to gain the right ideas and plans for the magazine. Again, I used ‘Photoshop’ which was my main production tool along with ‘Weebly’ when creating my two web pages.

• As I produced a music magazine for my year 12 coursework production, I was well introduced to ‘Photoshop’ as a programme already, but some aspects such as creating the design of my magazine advertisement was new to me. This new form of post-production along with creating my web pages, gave me the opportunity to research tutorials in how to correctly use ‘Weebly’ to create a much more professional feel to my website.

• To produce the high quality images used across all three tasks, I used a Cannon digital camera to take the pictures needed. Once again, I had previously used this camera in my year 12 coursework but gaining a more in-depth knowledge of this piece of certain equipment was key to a successful final piece so I once again looked at many tutorials and received advice.

Image Creation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQV_ub-llMk - Tutorial on advertisement creation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPOGXYJtafw- Tutorial on removing a background.

• During my post production, creating an advertisement was one of the main tasks I wanted to have a sense of professionalism. Using a few tutorials on how to create an advertisement and removing a background from an image, I successfully produced the final piece which is included in my final regional magazine production.

Before After

• A display of my final regional magazine pages and the billboard advertisement ancillary task, all of which were produced using ‘Adobe: Photoshop’

Evaluation• When completing my evaluation of my A2 coursework production, I used

programmes such as ‘Prezi’ and ‘Slide Share’ which enabled me to present my questions in a more user friendly way. This created a more visual evaluation which included many images of my final piece, drafts and creative processes, allowing to see the many stages of production I went through.

• In the image below you can see the layout of my evaluation which I created on Microsoft Word, also, this ‘Slide Share’ was originally created on Power Point.