The document discusses the various technologies used to create a music magazine, including hardware like a PC, printer, digital camera, scanner, and software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Blogger, Microsoft Office, Windows Live Movie Maker, and Audacity. A PC and digital camera were used to take photos, Photoshop and InDesign were used for graphic design and layout, Blogger was used for blogging progress, and Movie Maker and Audacity were used to create promotional videos. Various roles were assumed like graphic designer, journalist, photographer, and editor.

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

2. PC and Printer The most important pieces of hardware that were required to produce my magazine cover, contents page and double page article was a PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse as they enabled me to use all the software needed. Printers were another important hardware used as it allowed me to print off physical copies of documents that were stored on the computer, for example questionnaires which I needed people to fill in by hand.

3. Digital Camera & USB Cable I used a Panasonic Lumix digital camera to take the photographs for my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. I used many of the features such as: flash, zoom and intelligent auto mode. I also experimented with shot types and the camera settings to acquire the best photographs. Once I had taken all the photographs I wanted, I connected the camera to a computer using a USB cable. Then I copy and pasted the photographs from the camera on to the computer so that I could then start making my music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread, using the software on the computer.

4. Scanner A scanner is a piece of hardware that I used during the design stage. When I created my detailed hand drawn drafts of my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread, I used a scanner to scan the drawing into a computer so that I could make colour adjustments in Photoshop and then upload onto my blog.

5. Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing application which is a very important software that I used on the PC and could not have made my magazine look professional and to a high standard without it. My main uses of this software include: making my front cover, contents page and the left page of my double page spread. Photoshop is a complex software to use and has an extensive amount of features, but I have been using this software for well over a year now and have learnt/picked up lots of skills and techniques. Below are examples of some of the stages of development- where I have used Photoshop. The first screenshot shows the original photograph and the second screenshot shows where I have cleared the background accurately using a selection tool, copied the image onto a new A4 document, rotated it and resized it. The third screenshot shows where I have added a grey gradient background and have adjusted the colour levels of the photograph to increase the contrast and add more depth. The fourth screenshot shows the final front cover which has all the headings, cover lines and barcodes.

6. Adobe InDesign Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software that I used on the PC to make my double page spread look professional e.g. positioning text and images accurately and splitting article into two columns. My main uses of this software include: making the second page of my double page spread, and to put all the different magazine parts together like a book. InDesign is also a complex software to use and has an wide range of features, but I have used this software a few times before and have learnt/picked up many skills and techniques. Below are examples of some of the stages of development- where I have used InDesign. The first screenshot shows where I added a frame at the bottom centre of the second page of my double page spread and placed my photograph into it. The second screenshot shows where I added a frame at the top centre of the page and placed my title into it. The third screenshot shows where I added frames between title and image and typed in my article about the main artist (in two columns). The fourth screenshot shows where I added a frame in the top right of the page and placed my header into it, and then resized and rearranged all the other features.

7. Blogger Blogger is a blog-publishing service that I have used to log and keep track of all my coursework and the research that lead to it. When I had completed an entire section from the task booklet I posted it onto my blog so that I could see the progress I was making, and identify what work has been completed and what needs to be done. As well as posting work created on the blogger website I also used other websites to present my work e.g. Slideshare and Scribd which were more interesting to use and ensured that there was more variety of technology used. They also allowed me to embed a code from the website into a post on Blogger so that you could view it without being diverted to another website. Slideshare and Scribd are web based slide hosting services that I used to: upload PowerPoints/Word Documents, create into a presentation, copy the embed code into a post on Blogger, and publish.

8. Internet The internet is a global network of computers and has been very useful when planning and constructing my cover, contents page and double page spread. This is because it is an excellent tool for researching as it has a very large amount of resources, and my magazine would not have been to a high standard without it. I have used the internet for many things such as: blogging, researching many magazine publishers, researching music genres, and collecting images of musicians and real magazine covers, contents pages and double page spread for research/analysis.

9. Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is an established PC office suite and the three software programs I have used are Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel as they are easy to use and are very useful. Microsoft Word is a word processing software, Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation software, and Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet software. I have used Microsoft Word for many things such as: typing out work then copy and pasting them into posts on Blogger, creating questionnaires and showing stages of development for final designs. I have used Microsoft PowerPoint for many things such as, presentations for the analysis of existing music magazines and the evaluations, which are uploaded on Websites e.g. Slideshare/Scribd, created into slideshows and then a embed code is copied into Blogger. I have used Microsoft Excel to create a graph to represent the results I have collected from a target audience feedback questionnaire (on my final product), and have copy and pasted it into a PowerPoint that is part of my evaluation.

10. Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Movie Maker is a video creating/editing software that is easy to use and can produce good quality videos. I have used Windows Live Movie Maker to create a video for the evaluation- question 4, where I have discussed who the audience for my music magazine is and have shown two examples of typical audience. Below is a screenshot showing how the program looks. To create it I used the title/caption/credits options for adding text and imported photographs by using the ‘add video and photos button’. I experimented with the different animation, effects and formats and selected the ones I liked best. When the video was done I downloaded a song from YouTube (Flo Rida- Good Feeling Instrumental) using mp3 converter on www.xenra.com. Then I edited the song in a digital audio editor called ‘Audacity’, so that it was suitable for the video and then added the music over the video. Then I exported the video as a ‘Windows Media Audio’ file and posted onto my blog.

11. Audacity Audacity is a digital audio editor and recording application that is easy to use and can be an effective tool. Before I added the music over the evaluation- question 4 video, I used Audacity to edit the song so that it is more suitable for the video. To the right are two screenshots which show what the original version of the song looked like in Audacity and what it looked like after I had edited it. Firstly I cut out some of the start of the song as it has a long introduction with a guitar, and then added a fade in effect to the start. Then I cut out the end of the song so that it was the same length as the video, and then added a fade out effect to the end. Then I exported it as a MP3 and added it over the video in Windows Live Movie Maker.