Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

Looking back at the Preliminary task of creating a music magazine front cover, Contents page and double page spread; This meant that I had to learn several new skills to be able to take all of the necessary photographs which would suit my target audience which was found through audience research I had carried out, I then had to organise when and where I was taking my photographs and what of, and then once I had the correct photographs I was able to begin editing while again learning new skills based on new software which I hadn't used before all the while managing my time sufficiently.

I am pleased with my result but disappointed as I knew that I was able to do better. Firstly, I had to carry out all of my audience research which was easily done which I actually enjoyed doing, it was based on asking people questions and finding out their opinions. Although I was Ill for 2 weeks which meant that I was behind everyone else and needed to catch up, and ensure I meet all over deadlines.

I then had to plan based on what I had found out what each page would look like and what details would be included and by doing several sketches I finally came up with the final design that I wanted for each of the pages. I am a very indecisive person so I found it hard to finally decide on what I wanted, and I even changed my final sketch for the better as it enhanced my front page drastically ensuring that some of the most conventions where followed.

I then had to think about my pictures, Originally I wanted two Mixed-raced girls to be my Medium shot on my front cover, however one of the girls was unreliable and wouldn't conform when she was free which meant that I chose to only work with one of the girls. I was able to take some good pictures during the lesson however, before even touching the cameras I had to learn how everything worked.

I learned how the softbox and the light worked and the best way to position the reflector, and also how dangerous the trigger was, which all meant that my knowledge was progressing severely.

Once being taught I thought that I had everything down and understood however from the outcome of a few of my pictures it was clear that the lighting wasn't as it should have been which meant that one of the pictures I really wanted to use, I couldn't as the light was reflected across the whole picture making it uneven. I finally decided on the picture I wanted to use but then changed my mind as I thought I could create a better one.This involved getting two of my friends in the same place, dressed accordingly while I had the camera, I like to think I am a very organised person and I like to think that everything went to plan, we all met and I was able to take pictures, making the models pose in the ways needed, which worked well for the many different pictures I used on my double page spread. After that photo-shoot I changed my mine once again and returned back to my original front cover idea leaving my newer photos for my double page spread.

I had originally used Photoshop so setting up wasn't hard, I was able to use the skills I already had although when incorporating dafont.com, psbrushes.com and several of the things I was unsure that photoshop could do, things got much more tricky. I had to sit down and play with photoshop and try and make what I saw in my head on the computer which was a lot harder than I thought it would be and it also resorted in me changing and adapting my ideas.

One example of my progression which is shown through my work would be my contents page, as I started with that I made the background physically by using the stamp tool and then I was introduced to psbrushes, which meant that I had wasted a lot of time however I couldn't afford to lose time on my double page spread by going back and fixing my contents page so I had to leave it. This is evidence of how my knowledge of photoshop and the skills which I didn't know could have helped me from the beginning.

Before evaluating this I believed that I was a lot better at keeping time, however I did eventually run out of time on my Front cover as I left it till last which on reflection I wouldn't have done, but I managed to make the deadline with work that I was pleased to call mine, Several others said they liked mine, my teacher also liked it eventually after suggesting critical improvements.

Certain negative aspects to my progress in my work would have to be that if I had managed my time wiser then I would have been able to give each of my pages more details which would have overall given it a much more professional style. I had definitely improved as I have had the ability to reflect my creative thoughts onto my front cover, my double page spread and contents page.

Feedback

I was very curious what people thought of my work, when asking them generally what they thought, the comments were very vague and simple so I decided to put my work on facebook and asked my friends to give me constructive criticism, it was optional so i'm hoping that they were attracted to it and wanted to see it.

Overall the comments seemed to be pretty positive and people liked the colour consistency which went throughout all three of the pages, and also where I had positioned my photos on my double page spread and also on my contents page which was influenced by a collage I had seen a few months ago in Dulwich picture gallery. Improvements which were suggested where to re-position my coverlines and maybe add something else as it seemed to simple and empty which I would agree with. One person also suggested that I included more of a column structure to my article on the double page spread, all of which are practical and fair comments which I would agree with.

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

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When first planning my magazine, I stuck to all of the conventions which make magazines much more recognizable for example:

1. Conventionally speaking, I have kept my masthead at the top of the front page and also top the left which follows the norms of how magazines are usually edited reason being that in shops when being sold there wont be enough space to show the whole front page and have to overlap several of the magazines meaning that even when this happens, Any magazine will still be noticeable and representative of the whole magazine.

However this wasn’t my original plan as firstly I intended of having the Masthead in the centre of the page with the effect that someone had ripped the page to reveal the masthead, this looked like this.

But because my Photoshop skills wasn’t enhanced enough to reach the effect I wanted and it wasn’t as easy as I first thought which made me rethink and realise that by challenging the conventions it has to be perfect in order for you to have that change that could be possible, although not everyone likes change; Which again made me adapt my masthead to use the convention of it being on top shown through Number 1.

One way in which I developed the conventions would be that most mastheads include some sort of sign or design which takes place of one of the letters but also relates to the magazine at hand, I went for more a simple and clean look and let the font relate to my magazine. I also slanted to masthead which isn’t what you normally see when looking at different magazine mastheads.

1. Another convention which I used would be including a Medium close up as the main image of my front cover, which most magazines do and the reasons why I did is because even though its following conventions, its still representative of my music style which is what the magazine is based on.

2. Usually when looking at a Rock Music magazine, on the double page spread you would see several different shots of the one person/band that the article is written about all showing different poses, or different angles all representing them in a different way. I followed this convention by taking several different pictures of the 2 people in the band in which I wrote the article on and placing them in my double page spread.

3. I also developed the convention of columns which is usually noticed on all articles however based on the positioning of my images, the columns would have been to thin in width making columns not appropriate although I overcame this by splitting the article across the double page, metaphorically making the line dividing the pages the line dividing the article making it visually seem like columns.

4. One similarity I noticed throughout most Rock magazine contents page would be the simplicity of listing what is included in the magazine, I have used the convention of having a name related to certain parts of the magazine which are there every week which jump across several pages, as well as the featured this week. I have also developed it by having small summaries of what is included within the main subheadings which aren’t a normal convention.

5. Another convention I have followed would have to be the images used on the contents page which shows more than one group interviewed for the magazine, however I have developed it by having more than one picture of each band which isn’t usually seen, the reasons why are so that I am giving the audience more on each band which initially should want to read about them and get them interested and even start listening to their music.
   
   
   6. One main convention of Rock music in itself would be that it targets Caucasian males, I have gone Against that convention by using Black models for my magazine which in itself is going against what would normally be expected of a rock magazine. My intent is to give those who are not Caucasian and who do enjoy the music a platform and let them have their chance of making it in the industry, By making this choice i could be creating a Change.