Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over

time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.


In AS I made a music magazine in the style of the mens magazine Homme, the
contemporary mens fashion magazine Dapper Dan and two alternative gentlemans
quarterly magazines; Fantastic Man and Jocks & Nerds. In A2 I made a music video and
a poster/digipak combination both had an avant garde styling and were aimed at the niche
scenester target group.

At the beginning of AS I created a school magazine. As this was aimed at a varied
audience and not the previously mentioned scenester more niche audience it needed to
follow conventions of a magazine. To follow these conventions certain elements and tools
of digital technology had to be used. I began to learn that images would need to be
cropped and sized in accordance to my layout. I had decided to use a Z cover layout. I
used Photoshop and so the crop tool could be found on the left tool menu and belong to
what looks like a square protractor. This tool allowed me to take elements away from
images that I had previously taken. As I decided to use a white screen for my images the
background that was not white needed to be removed. The magic eraser tool allowed me
to remove a specic colour from an image, this would save time and room for error. The
magic eraser could be found on the same menu as the crop tool but could only be
accessed by right clicking the standard erasure tool. I did not know this at the beginning of
the project and so valuable time was wasted. I used this tool to remove the the
background of my key image so it looked clean. I used the image movement tool as it
allowed me to move my key image around the page until he was in the correct position to
follow the Z structure/layout.
In order to add a header, captions and pull quotes I decided to externally import font from
the website Dafont instead of using the preset fonts which could be found in the text
menu of Photoshop. Because I made this decision it meant that the imported font would be
black and white and would include a white background. To amend this problem I used the
previously operated magic erasure to delete the white background and the elements of the
letters which should appear transparent. I then used the bucket tool to ll in the white
letters with the colour of my choice. I used these tools and this method for all of my
lettering. I matched a vast amount of font colour with that of my header because this
followed conventions of magazines such as Q and FHM. If my original decision changed
throughout the project and I needed to move multiple layers I could use the lasso tool.
Throughout this process I found elements very time consuming and full of silly mistakes.
This came down to the lack of knowledge revolving around the tools available and the lack
of experience when using them. I felt that I created a product which although took a lot of
time, did not look professional.

Following the prelim exercise I found myself creating my nal magazine. Clear progression
was noticed immediately when I began the project this time around. This main magazine
was not aimed at a generic audience and so I did not have to follow conventions. I instead
used the skills I had learnt in my prelim magazine and adapted them in order to create an
alternative styled magazine. I decided that the crop tool would not be needed to the
extent that it was in the rst project because instead I would be taking images that would
include only the white background it was in front of. My cover image was an extreme close
up similar to what would be found on the cover of Jocks and Nerds and Dapper Dan.
This style of image would dominate the cover, no border was to be used and so no major
crop was necessary.
I also decided to minimise my use of the magic eraser tool because I needed my images
to have a slightly different white background to the static white which would dominate the
page. This again follows a similar style to that of Dapper Dan, Jocks & Nerds and
Fantastic Man. I did however capitalise the use of the magic erasure when removing the
white space from the background of my font like I did in my preliminary. My contents page
included a vast amount of font but as I had previous experience with this tool, the time
taken to use it was minimal and the outcomes were much more professional. I became
more and more internally set out to produce a minimalistic, avant garde styled magazine.
This decision meant that everything had to be laid out perfectly. To ensure this I began to
use the command apostrophe shortcut which would allow me to compare my images and
text to lines which would show wether my elements were level or parallel. I used this tool
throughout to ensure my nal product was aesthetically pleasing on the eye. On reection
it is clear that my product looked a lot more impressive even though conventions of a
mainstream magazine were not followed. The time taken over individual projects were
shortened due to experience, lack of error and keyboard shortcuts which I had learnt over
time.

At the beginning of A2 I created a music video for a band named The Kills. To produce a
video relevant to the genre of the video, once again I needed to use certain elements and
tools of digital technology. For this project I used Final Cut Pro.
The tool which I found the most important was the blade tool which allowed me to take a
slice of a lm reel and move it around in accordance to the videos story board. This tool
could be accessed through the shortcut (command +B). The blade proved difcult to
master because the a tiny move on the mouse would select extra milliseconds which I did
not want.
Another tool which was needed in order to create my preliminary product was crop. This
allowed me to select the area of the clip which I needed and remove elements which I did
not. These unwanted elements included unwanted background or poor lighting. Another
tool on the same menu was also very helpful. The styles menu allowed me to convert and
change the clip I had recorded by adding movement, zooms or styles such as ken burns
or changing brightness and saturation. This allowed me to add elements to my clips
without me having to re lm.
The layer element of Final Cut Pro allowed me to layer clips on top of each other so I could
prevent there being any gaps within my production. Similar to when using photoshop for
the rst time I found using the tools on nal cut time consuming because errors were made
on a regular basis. My end product again did not look as professional as I had wanted it to,
however I felt that the increased level of experience would benet my in the future.

Toward the end of A2 I set out to make two different products. One was a poster/digi pak
project for a ctions band of my choosing and would require the use of Adobes Photoshop
again. The second project was create my nal music video, once again using Final Cut
Pro. Moving back to Final Cut Pro with some previously adopted experience made tasks a
lot easier. I found myself more contents when using the blade tool (cmd + B), I could select
the correct elements of video I needed quickly with rarely any errors. I also learnt how to
gain or minimise my selected piece of video without having to press undo and go back on
myself. A simple move left of right with the blade would allow me to grab smaller or larger
chunks.
I also found the cropping skill to be different this time around. I decided to use a white
background behind my performers throughout and so minimal if any cropping was needed.
I decided to do this following my problems in my preliminary. When cropping before it was
difcult to keep my image clean as a crop would mean the image left would need to be
zoomed. The lack of crop this time around kept my images clean and professional.
I did however use tools upon the same menu as the crop tool. This time around I used the
brightness and saturation tools. During production/lming we had problems with lighting
throughout. These tools allowed me to match the colours and tones of each individual shot
to create a form of continuity. The original use of these tools in my prelim allowed me to
rstly be aware and know what outcome I would receive if used. If I had not been made
aware of these tools in my preliminary I most probably would not have used them in my
main product and quality of the product would have been damaged. Ultimately it would not
have looked as professional as it did. On the same menu I found that my shots could be
edited by slowing or speeding up. Again this tool was only found due to my previous
knowledge of the menu it was in.

Overall I found that my skills in the creative use of digital technology developed hugely
over time. I found myself originally with no experience having to search forums upon the
internet giving me instruction of basic tasks which I needed to complete. I then gradually
moved on to a more experienced level which would allow me to venture out of my comfort
zone whilst minimising error and time. The level of my production was increased ten fold
allowing me to create professional looking products on both photoshop and nal cut pro.