Production log 28/02/14

 

The pictures above display the transformation of my contents page from my second draft to my most recent draft for my final magazine. As you can see since my second draft I have made a number of different changes including changing the images to my own. For the first draft I placed images from the internet to give me an idea of the different kind of images I wanted to include. I have also included more text and changed the captions under each heading.  I also included social media websites for my magazine at the bottom of the page as this was major concern stated in my audience feedback survey.  After looking at Q magazine I found that the majority of their contents pages include a thumbnail of the front cover of their magazine.  I believe this was an important factor of my contents page and took a screenshot of the front cover of my magazine.  I also finished the review at the bottom of the page as this is also shown in Q magazine.

Production log 27/02/14

While in my free time at home I decided to edit another picture for my contents page. I asked another friend from my class if I could use one of her photos for the contents of my magazine.  I then edited the photo on Photoshop and increased the brightness and contrast as the image before was a little too dark. I then imported the photo to InDesign and decided to create a double page spread as after looking at Q magazine I found some of the photos to include pictures of double page spreads which are shown later in the magazine.  I then placed the text of the article and filled it with placeholder text as the reader of my magazine would not know and would therefore be unable to tell the difference.  I also included my masthead, page number and date at the bottom of the page as this is considered to be a key convention of magazines. This also made the page look part of my magazine and that it was a product I had made.

Production log 26/02/14

 

Today I concentrated on editing pictures for the contents page of my magazine. I firstly asked my friend if I could use one of her images which she kindly accepted. I then went on Photoshop and used the colour range tool to remove the white background behind.  At first I found this tool quite hard and complicated to use as I had never used this tool before. However after looking at a tutorial on the Haydon School Media website I soon became familiar with how it worked.  I also used the quick mask tool which enabled me to use the brush tool to cover over the selected parts of the picture. I found this tool to be very helpful as when I used the colour range tool it sometimes missed parts of the background or took away part of the image. After I had finished, I imported a photo of a bricked wall behind the people in the foreground.  This made the photo look my own and the texture of the wall behind made the photo look more interesting and creative.  To finish I then placed the image on my contents page of my magazine.

Production log 25/02/14

This is the poster page displayed in my magazine. This photo is from my third photo shoot where I took images on the stage of my school with lights to make it seem like my model was performing live on stage. I changed the image from my second draft as I believe this one is more appropriate for my genre. I have also included more text since my second draft to catch the readers attention.  I decided on this image as her facial expressions are quite crazy and wild which differentiate between all my other photos in my magazine as my model is shown to have very serious facial expressions and has been taken from a variety of different close ups. Furthermore, the model is shown to be holding a guitar which reinforces the overall genre of my magazine – music. The guitar is also significant as it conveys that my magazine is a rock magazine, as if the model was shown to be holding an acoustic guitar this will would signify the genre of Indie.  The background of the page makes my magazine look more interesting and appealing as the majority of the photos in my magazine have a white background.  I have also included the text ‘Alexandra Flume’ at the top of my page to notify the reader on who the artist is. The heading ‘The queen of rock’ is also important as it portrays the genre of my magazine. Moreover, the phrase is effective as if readers hear ‘The queen of rock’ they will instantly think of Alexandra Flume.

Production Log 24/02/14

Here is a sound clip describing what improvements I made to my blog. The scripted version of this production log can be found below:

During the weekend, I concentrated on my evaluations and decided to change them all to mix media formats.  I firstly looked backed through my teacher’s feedback and began improving my third evaluation question. My teacher told me to include company logos and to state why I had not used an independent company. I took on board her comments and decided to create a video using Windows Movie Maker.  This way I was able to include a variation of different images including different company logos which was part of my feedback. I also added extra information to the video describing why I did not pick an independent company such as Development Hell Limited. I also included a voice over of myself over the video to make it seem more interesting and exciting rather than a video with just pictures and subtitles.

Magazine draft 3

 

This is my third magazine draft.

Production Log 16/02/14

Today I  edited another photograph for my double page spread. I decided on this image as after re-designing the layout of my double page spreads I noticed that I had not included a photo from my second photo shoot at Ruislip Woods. I began editing the picture using the burn tool which helped me to elaborate on the smoky eye look. I also applied the burn tool to her eyebrows and hair to make her features stand out more. I found the dodge tool to also be helpful as I used this tool to make her eyes appear lighter. After I was happy with this I then used the spot healing brush tool which produced a smooth effect on the model's face, covering all crease links and marks. The final tool I used to edit this picture was the brush tool. I increased the size of the brush and changed the colour to red, I then applied the brush very lightly to the model's lips. I also decreased the exposure to 32% so the red was not over powering the other model's features. After this was complete, I saved the picture and placed in on my double page spread.

Production log 15/02/14

 

At home I continued to develop and work on my magazine. I decided to change the layout of my second double page spread as I was originally going to include box out text on the right hand side of the page, however after re-arranging the page I found my article text to be too long which resulted in it covering the box out text. So, I therefore decided to include this on my third double page with my exclusive Q&A interview featuring Alexandra Flume. I also included pull quotes to divide the text up as this was considered to be a major concern which people stated in my audience survey. I tried to make the pull quotes sound interesting and intriguing and picked out quotes from the text that I thought would suit this purpose. At the bottom of the page I also included a blacked-out image as before the page was dominated by text. I believe the little picture makes the page look more appealing and interesting to read.

Production log 14/02/14

Today after school I continued to edit pictures for the double page spread of my magazine. I decided to pick a picture with a musical instrument - microphone to reinforce the main genre of my magazine which is music. I then decided I didn't want a colour picture and I had already used a black and white effect on two different pictures so I decided to colour in the image in black to create a blacked-out effect. I firstly went on Photoshop and then duplicated the layer. This was important as if I didn't like any of the changes I could easily go back to the previous layer which would include the first image I used. I then used the brush tool and increased the hardness of the brush to give a bold, thick outline. I then increased the size of the brush and began highlighting the main part of the model's body. After this was complete, I then decreased the size of the brush and went along the outside of the model's body to create a straight bold line. I found this the hardest part as if I pressed to hard and went off the line then the outline of the body would have a curvy line resulting in the picture looking of bad quality. Once this was complete I saved the pictured and imported to my double page spread. As you can see the two images above convey what the picture used to look like and what it looks like now once I edited the photo using Photoshop.  

Magazine Draft 2

 

Production log 09/02/14

 

This is a animated version  describing what improvements I made to my blog for homework. The written version of this production log can be found below: 

 

For homework, I continued to work on the planning stage of my magazine. I firstly looked back at my blog and saw that I had not finished the promotional methods for my magazine. I began by including factors such as social media for the section – modern promotional methods. I included pictures at the bottom of the slide to make the page look less boring. I also included a final slide called ‘other’ which talks about the promotional method of ‘word of mouth’. I decided to include this method as I believe it suits my target audience of men and women from the ages of 20-34. After this was complete, I decided to create examples of these promotional methods on Photoshop. I found this task more fun as I was able to show my creative ideas.

 

Evaluation: Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since completing my magazine I believe I have learnt more about the different software’s and have developed my skills further in the programmes Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. At the beginning of the academic year when I was working on my preliminary task, I found it hard to demonstrate my skills as I had never used the programmes before and so was unfamiliar with the different tools and buttons I could include to make my magazine look sophisticated and professional.

For the preliminary task, I only completed a rough sketch of how I wanted the cover and contents page of my school magazine to look like whereas for the real product I completed several different documents that contributed to the planning and research stage of my magazine. I found this to be very helpful as it gave me a clear idea of the different components I needed to include in my magazine to suit the genre and audience of my magazine.  I believe these stages helped me to develop my skills to make my current magazine look professional.

Looking back at the preliminary task, I noticed I used a similar layout to my final product. For example, the front cover of the school magazine I created includes a full bleed image with sell lines placed around the image as well as the masthead at the top of the page written in bold letters to appeal to the reader.  For the preliminary task I involved the caption ‘the top selling school magazine for Haydon’, alike the preliminary task for my final product I Included the caption ‘the uk’s favourite top selling magazine’. On the other hand, there are some features that I changed since the preliminary task including the colour scheme. For my school magazine I used the colour scheme dark blue/purple and black as I believed these colours were relevant for the genre of the magazine and suited the logo of Haydon School. However, for the final product I included the colour scheme of red, white and black to emphasise the genre of pop/rock music and to appeal to the dual gender.  I believe the change in colours benefitted my magazine and enhanced the quality of and professionalism of my final product.

Production log 07/02/14

Today I had my third and final photo shoot with my model Sophie.  I decided to take pictures of my model on the school stage with a black background behind as after presenting my magazine, one peer suggested I did another photo shoot as my photos looked like they belonged in a fashion magazine.  I thought the location of the school stage would be a perfect setting for one of my photo shoots as I wanted to recreate a scene that looked like my model was performing live on stage at one of her concerts.  I also used background lights which my teacher helped me to put up and then began taking pictures of Sophie from a variety of different angles. I directed my model so it looked like she was playing the guitar as I wanted my photos to look spontaneous rather than planned. I believe the guitar was a key element of this photo shoot as the guitar helped to reinforce the genre of my magazine which is pop/rock.  

Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

 

Evaluation: Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation: Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Production log 04/02/14

Today in lesson we continued to do media presentations based on audience feedback. When it was my turn to present I gave out printed versions of my audience feedback survey for my peers to fill out, this helped save time and gave my classmates an opportunity to give me feedback on the specific pages I was individually talking about. I found the presentations to be really useful as they gave me a clear insight on the different changes I needed to make to improve the quality of my magazine. These improvements included:

·         Increasing the size of the letter A displayed in the background on my double page spread to fit the remaining of the page.

·         Re-thinking about taking another location photo shoot i.e. the school stage as my magazine looked too much like a fashion magazine.

·         Changing the layout of a picture of my model on one of my double page spreads so the image is wrapped around the text featured on the page.  

Overall, I found this task to be very helpful and took on board all of the comments to help meet my magazine at a high standard. A video version of my presentation can be found on my blog, followed by results from the audience feedback survey.

Video of my Magazine Presentation

Contact Sheet 3

After receiving feedback from my fellow peers and teacher following my magazine presentation I decided to do another photo shoot with my model on the school stage.  As I had previously stated in my location ideas I wanted to use the school stage as the scene of a live concert with my model - Alexandra Flume as the main act of the stage. I took on-board this idea and placed two 300 W head lights at the back of the stage and pulled the curtain from behind the stage to darken the background. I also gave my model an electric guitar to hold to make her look in character while she pretended to play. This also helped reinforce the idea of it being a live concert. Throughout the photo shoot I changed the positioning of the lights so I could picture my model from a variation of different angles - you can see this from the contact sheet.

Evaluation Q3) What kind of institute might distribute your media product and why?

Magazine Presentation

This is a PowerPoint document displaying my magazine presentation. I have included images of the different pages from my magazine so I can ask my peers for feedback. I have also included a question page which asks students which magazine front cover they believe is most appropriate and best suits the genre of my magazine - pop/rock. I have also conducted a audience survey which I have printed out to give to my peers so they can fill this out while watching my presentation.  I will have to present this to the class next lesson.

Evaluation: Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?