WHAT TECHNOLOGIES DID YOU USE TO CONSTRUCT YOUR THREE PRODUCTS?

Software & Hardware

Regional Magazine, Billboard Advertisement and Radio Advertisement

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS4 PHOTO & DESIGN SOFTWARE I knew from the very beginning that I will be using

Photoshop to construct my front cover, contents page, double page spread and billboard poster.

I used Photoshop many times before in the past during my GCSE and AS Level coursework, and I felt really confident using the basic and more complex tools on this particular software – I designed my Pop music magazine during my AS Level year.

I had a good guideline of what to use and where; e.g. Drop shadows / Stroke.

I found it easy to move and edit images and text around on the print page, and I had no problems whatsoever when creating my productions on Photoshop – however, I did have to do some extra research on how to turn the colour of the sky from white (cloudy) to a sky blue.

GARAGEBAND AUDIO EDITING SOFTWARE

I used GarageBand to edit every audio recording within my radio advert - and then I edited all the recordings together on Final Cut Pro.

I was cutting and fading sections out to the recording of the voiceovers (Stacey and Charley Flowers) and the music bed (the piano solo).

I originally found it quite difficult to understand as the tools weren’t exactly equal to the other softwares I had used – my confidence did slightly grow the more I used this software, however, I am honestly still quite hesitant when using GarageBand.

MICROSOFT OFFICE PACKAGE

This software is designed to type up a large volume of text, and I used Microsoft Word to type up my article based on the mining disaster in Silkstone for the double page spread – which I then pasted onto the two pages on Photoshop.

The reason being is because I could easily edit anything I wanted to and have a clear view of what I had written.

I am very comfortable when using Microsoft as I don’t find it the most difficult software to use due to how common I use it for other pieces of work.

FINAL CUT PRO X VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE

I used Final Cut Pro when editing the voiceovers, the ambient sounds and the two music beds together within the whole radio advert.

I was very comfortable when using this software and I knew whereabouts the large variety of ambient sounds and tools were – e.g. the blade tool was the main resource I used when perfecting my radio advert.

I wanted to finalise my radio advert on Final Cut Pro instead of GarageBand as I had a lot more of a further understanding on Final Cut Pro, and I didn’t want to finish my production on a software that I didn’t know much about.

In relation to my production, I only used YouTube to upload my radio advert as a video, and then onto my blog.

For my radio advert, I decided to add an image of the front cover of my regional magazine onto the blank black screen – so there’s something to look at whilst the radio advert plays.

I had used YouTube many times before when uploading a variety of videos onto my blog, especially for my ‘Research, Planning an Evaluation’.

An example of where YouTube partly helped me to present my ideas effectively was with the ‘Bloopers’ video, found within the research section of my blog (under ‘Topic Research’). I had filmed and put together a ‘Bloopers’ video of the amusing comments my Grandparents, from South Yorkshire, had made during an interview about their life/knowledge on the region. I wouldn't have been able (or would have at least struggled) to post this piece of creativity in presentation if I couldn’t use YouTube (as I generally upload my videos from ‘Final Cut Pro’ onto YouTube, and then onto the blog).

Furthermore, the software helped me to gain creative ideas from other people and how to learn/improve new technical skills within my ‘research and planning’, before the production of my regional magazine and two ancillaries. YouTube contains a wide variety of useful tutorials made by people from all over the world, such as the ‘5 Things You Need To Know’ video on how to use tools on the software ‘GarageBand’ for beginners – supports Guantlett’s theory of ‘making and doing culture’, that web 2.0 has empowered the audience to make their own product.

Without YouTube I would have struggled to learn and use specific hardware or certain tools on softwares (as there wouldn’t have been any tutorials for myself to learn from), therefore, would have affected my final productions – highlights how useful YouTube was during my research, planning and production.

• This particular software additionally helped me diversify my skills a little more, as I was primarily working in print.

• It also links to my brand as a niche regional brand which benefits from user distribution and user generated filtering online.

• As an intellectual audience, I believe my audience would be interested in my ‘making of’ videos as they would want to access my whole brand; however, this applies more to the secondary audience more than the primary who wouldn’t necessarily be digital natives.

CANON PC1677 14MEGAPIXEL COMPACT CAMERA

I used this specific camera to take high quality photos for the front cover, the contents page ,the double page spread and the billboard poster advertisement.

I preferred using this camera as it was easily accessible and it was effortless to carry around as I travelled from place to place within South Yorkshire to take the variety of photos.

At the same time, it took clear, focused, high quality photographs of landscapes and certain subjects; e.g. Wentworth Woodhouse.