Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Name

What you did with it?

Pros / strengths

Hardware

Camera

Software

Adobe
Fireworks

I filmed all my footage for

The benefits of
my trailer s using the
using a camera to
camera, when using a
do the filming for
camera I had to consider
my products is
the different ways in
that the camera
using the camera; for
allows me to
example I had to learn
acquire high
how to use a tripod and
quality moving
the different settings on
image, where as if
the camera.
I used a phone the
quality of the
image would be
considerably
worst.
I created my print
The software
products using adobe
enabled me to
fireworks
make some really
professional
looking print
products

Cons /weaknesses

The weaknesses of
using the camera,
was I had to
constantly make
sure that the
camera was in
focus which didnt
make the filming

Fireworks wouldnt
always let me get
the positioning of
a piece of text or
an image exactly
where I want it
and sometimes I
found the software
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Online

Software

Prezi

I created presentations
using this technology

Name

What you did with it?

PowerPoint

I made a PowerPoint of
my layout sketches on
PowerPoint

a bit time
consuming when I
just needed it to
do something
simple.
Prezi enabled me
Sometimes the
to show my
technology would
findings in a
not get the text to
creative and
the exact size I
dynamic setting,
would like for the
this makes my
textbox; this made
work more
the overall
interesting to view. appearance
sometimes a little
bit messy.
Pros / strengths Cons
/weaknesses
The software is
The only weakness
straightforward to in using
use and I was able PowerPoint to do
to get my work
my layout
done quick and
sketches was that
effectively
it was harder to
import into
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Online

Blogger

I used blogger as a
medium of displaying my
coursework.

blogger than other

uses of
technologies
The sites is easy
The weaknesses in
to use and keeps
using blogger are
my work organized that sometimes
as you can order
the software
all your posts from wouldnt properly
alphabetical to
display images
date and time
and they would
sometimes
become encrypted
causing the image
to go blank. This
was a major flaw
in blogger as some
of my important
pieces of
coursework were
in image format
this mean that I
had to redo some
pieces of work.

Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Online

Emaze

Name
online
online

Prezi
picmonkey

I used Emaze to create

presentations

Emaze is great for

presenting
PowerPoints in a
creative and
dynamic way as
they had a variety
of styles and
themes to choose
from when
displaying my
presentation which
makes it nicer to
look at.

The only weakness

with Emaze is that
importing pictures
to Emaze
sometimes proved
quite difficult
whereas with Prezi
you could search
for the image you
want from the web
and press import

What you did

with it?

Pro/strengths

Cons/
weaknesses

I used pic monkey

to edit my photos

Pic monkey
allowed me to edit
my pictures with
full artistic ability.
The site allowed
me to crop, use

The only weakness

with using
picmonkey was,
the site required
pictures of a
certain size
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

different filters,
add back drops
and overlays to
make my images
look more
professional

otherwise the
images could
become blurry and
the quality of the
image wouldnt be
up to standard.

1. How creative do you think you were in the decisions you made when creating your
c/w?
I personally think I was creative in some of my coursework but I think my creativity only
came out in my work as the course progressed this is due to the fact my confidence in using
the software and technology increased and I then became more willing to express
individuality and originality with my print products. I started to consider different ways I
could shoot the images of my models instead of taking too much influence from other
existing magazines like NME.

2. Did the technology enhance your creativity or not?

Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

I would say that digital technology has helped increase my creative abilities; as there are more
possibilities of making my work different with digital technology for instance, with editing my
photos I could manipulate them using special effects like filters, glows and bokeh blurs which
can create a different representation to the original image.

3. What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did you use? How
did it relate to your interests/vision for your music magazine?
In the process of planning the creation of my music magazine I pieced together mood boards;
collecting images from magazines that have a similar content to what I want publish. I also
researched my target audience target audience and what they are interested in what kind of
style they like and what they buy into. By doing this research I could take influence from the
different styles of images and text. For example I noticed that a lot of the magazines that my
target audience were reading had red mast heads and the majority of their texts were in sans
serif font. I looked into the music my target audience were interested in and what images
were used on these artists album covers to establish a few styles in which I could

4. Was your product influenced by your social environmental (e.g. your interests)?
I would say that my product was heavily influenced by my social environment as many of my
images were influenced by fashion featured in the Britpop era which was an iconic time for the
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

indie rock genre. I felt that styling my models in this attire would give off the representation I
needed in order to make my models look like real indie rock stars. I also featured items like
freebie that my target audience would

5. Was this original or did you add something extra to an original media text?
I feel that my product last year was too heavily influenced by other magazines on the market and
therefore it lacked some originality in some components, for example my front cover lacked
originality but as my skills progressed my contents page and double page spread featured more
artistic and creative ability. If I did this project again I would try to think about style of the
magazine individually without looking at other magazines as it is easy to fall into the trap in
making a magazine which is very similar.
6. Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you been influenced
to engage these skills in any other projects?
Even though my some parts of my AS product lacked some originality I did learn some vital
creative skills towards the end of creating my products; which I could take forward into A2 for
example the way I edited pictures and how I started to compose my models in pictures and
using new software to present my work in a more innovative and abstract way.

G325 Critical Perspectives in Media

Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Section A , Question 1a Skills Evaluation of Production

3. Research & Planning

Go back to your AS coursework and list all of the separate tasks you undertook as part
of the research and planning.
Looking at existing products
Pro- It made me aware of popular conventions and how magazines are often
displayed. Helped me make my work look more professional
Con I relied too much on existing products thus leaving me with a product with a
lack of originality
For my A2 coursework I will still look at existing products but I will not rely solely
upon them as I want my product for A2 to be more original.
Looking at magazine audience databases
Pro- It made it easy to find who my target audience was by looking at who bought
magazines in a similar genre magazine
Con- searching through the database proved a little bit tedious
I will use something for A2 as this was very useful to see the kind of people that
buy into my kind of product making it easier to market my product however I will
have to find this for a film instead of a magazine.
Formulating surveys for target audience
Pro- I could gain opinions on what my target audience like/ dislike which helped
make my product more successful.
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Con- people may not have fully read the questions and they could have ticked any
random boxed which could be the information I collected may not be relevant.
Instead of solely using software like survey monkey I will ask people in person and
social media to be sure that my questions are being properly answered.
Annotating magazine front covers to establish conventions
Pro- This helped me gain an understanding of the conventions used in magazines
and how they were used.
Con- This showed me what was mainly featured on magazines and didnt allow me
to create something original.
This was useful for AS however after studying print products extensively last year I
feel that I am confident with the magazine conventions however I will make note of
what the conventions of trailers are to help me establish what is frequently used in
trailers.

4. Post-production

Front Cover
WWW: The layout of the cover is very neat and there is constancy with the house
colours.

Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

EBI: The photography is quite week and the background is plain white which makes the model
look like he has just been pasted on the front cover which in my opinion doesnt look very
professional. And some of the text is just about visible and it needs a drop shadow or a slight
change tone in colour to make it stand out more

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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Contents Page
WWW: the staging of my model and the costume I used fits
the genre of my magazine very well.
EBI: the contents page doesnt look very professional the
text is all different sizes and fonts which shows a lack of
consistency and it doesnt look like a magazine you would
buy in a shop. The text needs to be consistent

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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

Double Page Spread

WWW: Photography improved for my
double page spread along with text
wrapping
EBI: The magazine lacks originality as it
was too heavily influenced by existing
products for example the colour
scheme heavily resembles NME

5. Using Conventions of Real Media

Texts
Original Answer
I've challenged the conventions of my double page spread by including two main images instead
of one main image and a whole page of text.

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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

My double page spread mainly conforms to indie rock magazine genre, the article I wrote includes
risqu subject matters like drugs and partying, this develops the conventions of and indie rock
magazine as I have kept in line with what that particular target audience want, this target
audience to read about their favourite artists, they want bold exposing and compelling articles as
well as the artists talking about their music and what their motivation is, all of this I have included
in my double page spread
My double page spreads do follow all the conventions of an indie rock magazine, I made a few
changes but nothing drastic as i didn't want to challenge them or change them, because after
carrying out some market research and doing some audience feed back of my own I developed
products people liked and didnt like from this feedback I made an informed decision to keep in
line with a certain style. the mock ups that weren't that successful with my target market were not
successful because some of my mock-ups it didn't keep in line with the same style as my front
cover and contents page making it look less professional.
My Contents Page also follows the codes and conventions of indie rock magazine I have used
things like features, images, headlines and titles so the page is easy recognizable to the target
audience.
Although I would say that my contents page does challenge the conventions of a music magnetize,
as my contents page is spread across two pages making it more like a double page spread.
normally in a magazine the contents page is over one page however i wanted to have a prominent
focal image taking up the centre of the page. then on either sides of the image I wanted
information on articles with their page numbers. I think i have done this effectively and I think it
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Annabel Truman Different Uses Of Technologies A2 Media Theory- Mr Love

creates an interesting and focally engaging display, all though this isn't in line with the contents
page conventions I feel it still creates the effect I want. By challenging the conventions my
magazine will stand out from other magazines that are available to the target market, because my
magazine is different it would could entice more potential readers.
My front cover follows the code and conventions of an indie rock magazine I have included all the
features expected from a front cover, my main image includes a screaming face which connotes to
the indie rocker vibe of loud and disruptive behaviour

How would you now do things differently? Write a new paragraph briefly considering this question
(e.g. Weaknesses you would fix)
Looking back on my previous work I completely disagree with my former answer I feel that work
lacks a lot of originality and that work was played to safe. I relied too much upon existing products
and I conformed to the conventions of indie rock magazines too much creating something that has
already been made. Instead of religiously following the conventions I feel that I should have gone
against some of the codes and conventions of an indie rock magazine to make the magazine more
dynamic so people would have more interest for it. This is a lesson I will take forward into my A2
coursework; sometimes playing it safe isnt always the best method as playing it safe can lead to a
lack of originality, quality and creativity.

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