“Digital Technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed using developed using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

'I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.' Bill Gates.

I agree that “Digital Technology turns media consumers into media producers” as I believe technology provides people with access to creative ventures that are far beyond their natural ability without it. Technology provides tools and added levels of manipulation that encourages ideas and allows people to make and produce their own products of a professional standard. In the past when computers were only available to the minority of the population and were just being developed, the prospect of average people using them for their own products would have seemed absurd. However my journey from AS to A2 has proved that now anyone can gain access to software such as Photoshop and form their own ideas into professional pieces.

The consumption of media is also vital in a person's production of media. As with all my products such as my AS music magazine, I was required and benefited from the analysis and viewing of current products that allowed me to broaden my knowledge and awareness of current conventions, and direct my creative path. As with the process of Tim O'Reilly's DIKY triangle, I used technologies such as Google and YouTube to gain data, extracted information that was relevant to my task, gained the knowledge such as common features of current magazines, and used my wisdom to understand it apply within my work to create a realistic looking music magazine. As well as aiding my direction, research and planning helped me consider the possibilities of media products and not be scared to make things my own, and create limits to my creativity  Such as on my magazine cover I added paint brush strokes for the background of my subtitles, to mimic the bold layouts of current magazines and interpret the bold aspects in my own way.When making our music video my creativity definitely developed in the formation of our animatic. To make our animatic we used our scanned shot pictures and movie maker to form a basic version of our vision. The benefits of using this technology to layout our ideas was that it allowed us to visualise if they would work and see areas of improvement in our work, where shots should be added or removed. We could reassess our work from another perspective and so fuelled our ideas and creativity of what we'd do next. Without this technology we may not have re-developed our initial video idea in the same way and not form the same creative ideas that resulted in our final product. 

With our music video we also used the editing software, Final cut pro, to bring all our shots together. This technology provided us with extensive possibilities for the development of our work. It especially helped us become more creative, as when exploring the tools available we discovered different effects we could apply to shots we didn't even know were available. Therefore the technology itself provided some of our ideas and made our video more complex and creative then we even imagined. Effects and tools we were able to apply to our work were things such as filters to change the appearance of shots, change the timing of our shots to make them slow motion and add zoom to maintain interest. This software meant that even if the initial shots hadn't quite captured what we hoped or lived up to our expectations we could tweak and change them to transform them to something that worked. This development process is a perfect example of how media consumers can be producers. As even with our amateurish knowledge of filming and no experience, we could mask some of our mistakes and allow the software to do some of the work.


With my A2 ancillary products I used Photoshop to bring the elements of my Digipak and poster together in a fast and simple manner. When forming initial drafts of my work I was very unsure how my products should look, and used the technology to play around with ideas, sometimes even making mistakes that fuelled inspiration. This is why I believe in Scott Adams' quote 'Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.' As with no clear plan the technology still allowed me to be creative and produce a professional product through trial and error. This is how my first draft and final products looked so different as the possibilities of Photoshop meant I could change every aspect I wanted to, such as changing colours and exposure of images, turning and warping my photos to be at different angles and levels and adjusting my fonts till they were exactly how I wanted.

To conclude I believe that access to digital technology during all aspects of my media production has always made me more creative, it has allowed to from research and gain ideas and explore these ideas in a manner that has always made them quick to change. One brilliant aspect of digital technology is that nothing is permanent and can always be adjusted if you change your mind, like me my ever changing Digipak. This means that even though professionals may get things right faster. Amateur media consumers such as myself can reach the same goals through a slower exploratory process and still be creative.