What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Hardware
To help me produce my products I used a range of hardware. Hardware I used included an Apple Mac, a DSLR and tripod and an iPhone.
I used the Mac at college for some of the software on it to help me produce my actual products and edit some videos together for my TA interview
To record the interview and to later on take my pictures I used a DSLR camera. I used ones at college along with a tripod to record the interview to keep it steady but with my model photos and product images I took them with my own DSLR at home or on location.
I also used my iPhone to help to get in contact with my model through text to tell her when and where I was meeting her and I also used it to take less important pictures to update my blog with (like peer feedback).
Photoshop
As I was doing print and a billboard a majority of my work was done using photoshop which I have both at home and at college so I was able to spend a lot of time working on my products and developing my skills. I had previously used Photoshop at AS but I did still develop some skills such as how to add boarders to images. I also overcame issues such as how best to place my model on a black and white background and over the title on my cover. One other thing I overcame was on my billboard the original image was slightly blurred and so I used the sharpen tool to create a sharper, more professional looking picture. By using Photoshop I think I achieved a more professional and polished looking product.
Wix
Wix was a product I had had no experience with before the start of A2 and so I was quite worried about using it, however, I ended up feeling very confident with it in the end and feel I produced a very professional looking product.
It took a little bit of playing around to get used to the way pages were constructed, for example I kept mixing up how to swap over pages for a while and I didn't know how to resize images to fit templates properly for a while but I got used to the tools and ow to manipulate things to be how I wanted them to appear.
I added in such things as a scrolling gallery into some of my pages and linked pages together to give a more professional feel.
iMovie
I didn't use iMove an awful lot, it was just to help me edit together my target audience video. However, this was a program I had never used before and so it took a bit of time getting used to how to trim and place clips in a sequence I wanted and how to put voice overs over a clip that it previously wasn't in.
Online Tools
To show my work as being media rich I used a wide range of online tools to help me present my work. The main one that I used was Blogger but I used a wide range of other to make the presentation more interesting. Tools that I used include Prezi, Slideshare, Flickr, Slides, Animoto, Powtoon, Surveymonkey and Youtube.
Some of these online resources such as Surveymonkey and Youtube I had had some experience with in the past but the majority that I worked with were new to me. With the likes of Prezi I learnt how to add extra sections on which I was unaware you could do for a start and I learnt how to control the time scales and pictures on Powtoon which I had never heard of before entering A2.
Social Media
I used social media a little bit throughout my work, mainly to talk to my target audience and get feedback on my products. I also used it to promote my survey to get results for what my target audience was looking for and who they were. I also used Facebook to get in contact with the photographer I used for my artist focus and whose images I used when recreating some existing products.
Blogger
Blogger was the main online product that I used throughout my A2 year. I used it to record my research and planning, developments in my products, my evaluation and my final product.
I showed the development in my work in a range of ways through Blogger, including using presentation devices such as Prezi and Slideshare and embedding Youtube videos into my work to demonstrate my knowledge of different media outlets for displaying work and also to make it more interesting to look at.