A2 Media: What skills have you learnt from the Production?

I have learnt various things when constructing my newspaper; furthermore I have enhanced my knowledge of using the Mac computers. The main programme I used was indesign which I had never used before, so I found myself having to learn how to use it as I went along. I found that indesign was the best choice for me as I was able to set the layout of my pages out clearly in this document.
I learnt the following skills while working in indesign:

How to layout my page.
How to keep to the conventions of my newspaper.
How to use various tools in indesign to for example draw lines in which to divide up my page into sections.
How to transfer pictures easily from other documents.

Also, I was able to make use of skills I had already learnt from my AS production last year. However this time round, the alterations and changes I made to my pictures were more simplistic.

One of the most important techniques I learnt throughout the course of this production was how to construct my newspaper. By looking at different local newspapers;

I viewed the newspapers front page and masthead to get an idea of the different ways in which newspapers use conventions to create their newspaper pages. It was interesting to see how (even though they all are newspaper from the same area) they varied in their layout design. I've seen that basically adverts, stories, mastheads etc. are just positioned different around the page suggesting that there is no particular convention to a newspaper layout. All the newspapers still maintain a professional look of a newspaper despite their differences. However, they have similarities in the number of adverts, pictures and stories, also where stories are placed.

Other technologies I used for the first time were garageband in order to put my radio advert together. At first I found it difficult to get the hang of it, finding that I had to experiment with the programme before putting it to actual practice. I learnt a lot about how to produce my podcast/sound file easily and efficiently still sounding effective. I found that I could import sounds from different Internet sites such as soundbible, which enabled me to get the church bells and bird effects I wanted for my background noise. I also learnt how to record voice on garageband. My friend and I really enjoyed this and had lots of laughs in the process of creating. Overall, garageband enable me to work with sounds to create something on a bigger scale which you could pass off as a radio advert.