1a) Digital Technology

Using digital technology is essential when creating a successful professional text. For the preliminary task of my AS coursework I had to create a school magazine front cover and contents page. My skills with Photoshop and InDesign were  limited at this point and I had very little experience using these programmes. I then went on to create the main tsk of a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. When creating this I had more skills and some experience using digital technology. Using the skills I had developed from AS I then went on to my advanced portfolio where I had a lot more skills and experience using Photoshop and InDesign. My task for A2 was to create a fantasy film trailer, film magazine front cover and film poster.

When in AS I used Photoshop for editing my front cover and to edit the images for the contents page and double page spread. Using Photoshop with little experience was complicated and difficult. The quality of the image could have been improved but again by having little experience with photography I was unsure of the settings and how to change them to make my image quality better. This is something that I could then do when I was editing my film poster and film magazine front cover as I had the skills then to make the image look professional.

I used Final Cut Pro to edit my film trailer; I found this was a very difficult program to use. The settings were all very complicated; this is something that I had to develop as I was editing. Using the skills I obtained from AS with using new programmes I found it was easier to learn and I learnt about it a lot quicker.

In AS I was using the Canon 500D and then moving to A2 where I used the Canon 5D there was a significant difference in terms of the quality of image. I had the skills to be able to alter the setting to get the most effective image. The Canon 5D being a film camera as well I used this to film my trailer and developing the skills from photography to film was essential, but it was a lot easier as I had experience using a professional camera.

 When presenting my research I used Prezi at A2 as I found it was useful when looking back at the work I had done. I was much more comfortable with it at A2 than I was in AS, as I found it difficult to edit and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it too before. By developing these skills I found that I could then use online programs to create different parts of my research to make them easy for me to look back.

Audience research was an essential part of both AS and A2 coursework. I used Survey Monkey in both AS and A2 as it was the best source of digital technology to use to produce easy simple surveys for people to complete. I posted the survey on to Facebook to ensure that I got a wide range of results I posted it on to Twitter as well to get a lot more results. This was something I didn’t do in, AS therefore I didn’t get a wide range of results.