Evaluation: Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation: Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

After completing the main task, it is surprising how much my technological skills have improved. Also, being introduced to various applications means that I am aware of the possibility of posting information in a more creative way, and displaying my ideas in a way that is visually appealing.

Adobe InDesign is the application that I used most during the year. At first, I was completely lost and found it very difficult to use. However, with some help, and practice from creating a school magazine as well as a mock up cover of Q Magazine, my ability to use the software significantly improved.
Once I got the hang of it, it is a very useful application, however the only issue I had with it was the lack of variety in the choice of fonts. Although this was resolved when I downloaded the free trial at home, which had a larger range.

I was quite lucky with Adobe Photoshop, as I had used it multiple times for my AS level Art, however, I didn't have to use it to the complexity as I did for my magazine.
Removing backgrounds on images was the main technique I used, however I found multiple ways of doing it, from manually drawing around an images before deleting the background, to using the 'quick selection tool,' which is much faster but less precise. 
It is a time consuming process, and I was lucky in the fact that I only used it for two images.

I had never used blogger before, and I was skeptical because I'm not a huge fan of online blogs. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Blogger is an easy to use online application, with a simple layout and design, that allows you to create posts with ease. 
Unfortunately, later on in the year, I had to to most of the blogging at home, as the school had actually blocked the website. Although, I found being able to use blogger on a smartphone particularly useful, as I could blog on the go.
I did actually enjoy using a blog to post my coursework, because I could constantly check my work, edit areas and keep track of what I was doing and how long I was taking.

I also learned a lot about photography. I discovered how important it is to take into account every aspect of the shot, such as the composition, lighting, mise en scene etc. I also learnt that the distance of the shot is important, as I had a lot of trouble with pixilation in InDesign because I took the photograph too far away from the model, and zooming in was not an option. I ended up having to do three photoshoots before I received the outcome I desired, however I think that because of these mistakes, I've learned that planning is extremely important, and I feel that I have a better knowledge of how to use a camera professionally.

Throughout this course, I was also introduced to an online application called Prezi. This software allows you to display information in a creative and visually appealing and complex manner. There is a huge variety of patterns to choose from, and the animations and transitions between various areas make the experience more enjoyable than a plain PowerPoint presentation!

Flickr is an online software that I used briefly for my evaluation. It is an online photo sharing application, that allowed me to highlight areas of my finished magazine pages, and analyse them, before publishing the analysis, where the reader can hover over an area that they want to know about. I found this to be an interesting way of displaying my work, and in an very organised manner.

I hope that the things that I have learned from using these applications will come in useful in the future.

Evaluation: Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To answer this question, I used the online application 'Flickr,' which allows me to display my images, and annotate them. To see the annotations, just hover the mouse over the desired section of the page.

Here is a link to the RIFF front cover:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95425626@N06/8700292368/in/photostream

Here is a link to the RIFF contents page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95425626@N06/8701396913/in/photostream

Here are the links for the RIFF double page spread;
Page 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/95425626@N06/8702786362/in/photostream

Page 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/95425626@N06/8702786938/in/photostream

Evaluation: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?