PRELIMINARY TASK 

FINAL TASK

DEVELOPMENT OF TASK REQUIREMENT 

On top of all I wanted to highlight my decision of challenging the task requirement of four images across front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have followed codes and conventions from variety of magazines and I have justified my decisions across the blog. To highlight the codes and conventions I have placed real magazine examples next to my own media product. I think this gives a clear overview to why I made specific decisions. 

(SINGLE IMAGE)

(SINGLE IMAGE)

(SINGLE IMAGE)

To justified my decisions even further I have developed two versions of the contents page with different amount of images. I have already showed this within my development and I wanted to highlight that both contents pages follow codes and conventions of other magazines. This allowed me to interpret which one will make my product look more professional. To underline this even further I have used peer assessment. I carried out a class survey where I asked my colleagues about their overall opinion of both contents pages. The results were unanimous. The peer assessment showed that the single photograph makes the overall product look more professional and appealing. It also helped me to follow the idea of simplistic composition and layout. In conclusion, I think adding more images to my final outcomes would make them look more crowded and less neat. This is something I was trying to avoid. This way I managed to keep the simplicity. I also obtained a lot of help from magazines such as Mojo and Q, as I was significantly inspired by their product. I think this gives a clear explanation of why I challenged the task requirement. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION VII
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel like I've significantly improved my skills. I think the preliminary task gave me a opportunity to prepare for constructing my real media product. Without this task I wouldn't be able to make a magazine is such professional and thoughtful way. I gathered necessary experience which benefited me in many different ways. I learnt and discovered codes and conventions of real magazines but I also developed my creativity and technological skills which I can use in the future.

                     

This was a comparison particularly focused on the front cover and contents page. Besides, from developing my construction skills I also improved my research. In the preliminary task I looked at different school / college magazines however not in such depth comparing to my final task.  My analysis and recognition of codes and conventions was very basic, however these basics were really important once I moved onto my final task as I knew what to identify and how to analyse different elements of the magazines  due to the strong fundamental basics I learnt from my preliminary task. Although, in the preliminary task I looked at totally different magazine theme I managed to apply some knowledge to my final task for example; typography skills which were very significant when choosing correct fonts and applying it to my target audience as well as the magazine genre. Moreover, I learnt how to write product analysis which also helped me when analysing magazines chosen in my main task. It was vital for the analysis to be detailed in order to understand a certain product. This way I could plan my own magazine and different aspect of it including; features, demographic, geographic, psychographic and more. 

I was also introduced to Survey Monkey which allowed me to gather good quality research. From my preliminary task I learnt how to be more specific within the questions in order to get direct and useful information, as looking back at my questionnaire from preliminary task I think I could have gained much more information. This also applied to my planning which was also quite basic. For example; within the shoot for the magazine I didn't plan mise-en-scene. This was quite risky as I didn't think through who's going to be my model and why, what they are going to wear and what props I am going to include. I definitely learnt from this mistake as I planned each element of mise-en-scene before I carried out the photo shoot. I found the planning very vital as this is a process where you put all your research together in order to create something original. You need to keep in mind who is your audience, why your using certain equipment including props and costumes and who your trying to attract. I think I managed to improve those skills and I think I showed my understanding of research and planning in my final outcomes. 

In terms of the time management I also see a big improvement. Within the preliminary task I took much longer to complete the given work but this was mostly because I needed more time to understand the context. This significantly changed within the final task as we were expected to do more in a shorter amount of time. The fundamental basics from preliminary task helped me to expand my understanding and improve my time management. Besides, from that I still took quite long doing my research in the final task as this is vital part of preparation and understanding. This was beneficial as I took much shorter doing the actual construction because I had everything planned out and I had basic skills in programs such as Photoshop, InDesign or Ipiccy whereas in the preliminary task it was more about exploring, learning and trying new skills.

In conclusion, I think I have progressed massively from my preliminary task to my final media product. Although, both magazines are based on different genres, clearly from a quick overview we can see a huge improvement. In my opinion I achieved this through all the hard work which I separated into different stages including research, planning and then finally construction. All the skills that I gained throughout all these stages allowed me to actually create a professional looking magazine, which I am really proud of. I consider this journey as a great and useful experience. I am hoping and willing to use the gained skills next year as well as develop new ones.

EVALUATION - QUESTION VI 
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

During the process of constructing my music magazine I came across variety of different technologies that significantly helped me to create my final media product as well as build skills and learn new ones. Within some of the stages I used my current knowledge which I used confidently, whereas in other stages I have learnt new techniques which needed more practise. This helped me to improve my skills.

I can confidently start with my strengths as during my production process I have used my own DSLR camera (Nikon D7100 with a 18-105mm lens) for my magazine photographs. I have used my camera for past 2 years, meaning I have a clear and strong understanding of how a digital camera works and what takes to take good photographs. This is also due to the fact that I am studying AS photography. I think I showed the gained skills within my photographs as well as planning as I knew quite well how to manipulate the artificial light lamps and how to set up a camera for different types of shots. This can be seen through my final photographs which I believe are good quality and look quite professional. Within the preliminary task I created a PowerPoint with my classmates in which we shared with the rest of the class our gained knowledge about the use of lighting, shutter speed, camera settings and other accessories. In conclusion, the provided lighting kit and a photographic background allowed me to create a professional working setting, whereas my DSLR camera helped to create a good quality shots. I particularly focused on manipulating the shutter speed to obtain good quality photographs whereas the positioning of artificial lights allowed me to work on the brightness of the images. Although, I felt quite confident with the use of lighting set I found it quite hard to set up the camera manually, as it was hard to set up the aperture (amount of light reaching the camera cadre). This is partly because we didn't have a light measurement. I think this is one of the tools which I could use to improve my images even more.

Furthermore, within my construction I have used few different editing software which allowed me to manipulate the photographs or in order to create graphical content such as logo design. I have mainly focused on three different editing soft wares including: Photoshop, Ipiccy and Photoscape. The Ipiccy and Photoscape program allowed me to manipulate my images in many different ways as they offer variety of tools and filters which I needed for image manipulation for example; brightness/sharpness tools but also vibrancy and black and white filter which I tend to use a lot within my photograph (I have showed these tools and techniques within my image developments found on my blog. Whereas, I used Photoshop software to create a masthead of my magazine due to the options it offered comparing to  Ipiccy or PhotoScape which mainly focuses on image manipulation and not graphical creations. I could comfortably mix fonts, add images and change colours during construction of my logo. Besides, from that I found Photoshop very useful while constructing my media product as it allowed me to use downloaded fonts which I specifically chose for each page of my magazine. Overall, all three softwares were well known to me, meaning I had clear understanding of how to use them however within Photoshop I developed few new skills for example; justifying the text or cropping the a figure from a full photo frame using wound tool. 

Moreover, in order to present my work I used soft-wares including PowerPoint which I have used before within my other subjects. I could comfortably present my work through the use of slides. Besides,I developed my gained skills and I used PowerPoint slides which I then saved in a form of an image. I think this was quite effective as I could work on my page layout creatively and confidently. Furthermore, I created short animations in other to present  my photographs. This made it easier for the viewer to look through my work as they don't have to scroll down, they can simply watch it. Besides, throughout my blog I was uploading my presentations onto Slide share. This website allowed me to upload my work on a open website where other people particularly media students could see my work. This can be seen as a negative thing as they could easily copy my work, but on the other hand they could take it simply as an example. This negative also applies to  Prezi, as it's a website open to other people. Final and most obvious use of technology is the Blogger itself which allowed me to present a continues journey throughout the course.

Another website which I used to present my work was Flicker. I didn't use this website throughout my blog but I decided to explore it within my evaluation. Overall, I think it's a good and quick way of presenting your work. It allows you to manage your time very well as you can access it from your phone whenever you want. I think if I would discover this website before I would use it more often, meaning I would be more familiar with the options and tools they offer. 

Another significant software which I have used throughout the course was the Survey Monkey. I found this website very useful to use as it allowed me to reach wide range of responds in short amount of time. Due to programs like this I could easily improve my time management during research period. For both preliminary task and the final task I used Survey Monkey to find out about what my audience is going to be, what I am going to include within the magazine, what are their interests and what they expect to see. In both magazines I obtained quite a range of responses which made my research more realistic. Using this program allowed me to learnt how to structure open and closed questions in order to gain needed information. Besides, from that Survey Monkey provided me with a variety of options including; multiple choices, drop down answers, text boxes, comment boxes and more. This allowed me to make my questionnaires very professional and realistic. I could repost the link through social media or email in order to gain wider audience or I could also make the questionnaire open meaning that anyone can answer it. This is a definitely good website to use when you need to find information from wide range of people in short period of time. Another reasonable element of Survey Monkey is that is automatically analyses your gathered data. I found this very useful while looking at my results as I could analyse it using graphs that were very clear. I easily saved time during this stage, as after carrying out my paper questionnaire I had to apply the results onto Excel in order to create pie charts which would make my questionnaire easier to read.  

One of the main programs which I have used was a desktop publishing software InDesign. I used this program to construct my front cover, DPS and contents page for both magazines. Looking back at my preliminary task I can say that I was mostly developing and gaining new skills as I haven't used this software before. Overall, I found this program very useful during construction process which allowed me to create margins and grid lines that were extremely helpful when putting the magazine pages together particularly because of the relation to my layout plans. Although I felt more comfortable with using InDesign during my final task I still found some elements challenging. In order to overcome this weakness I watched YouTube tutorials which significantly helped me to understand InDesign tools for example; how to place and format text. This is one of the links which I used - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_YO1-CR6UA. Another problem which I faced was the fact that I had access to InDesign only in school as I couldn't access it on my home laptop. This was a problem for me as it affected my time management. I had to plan out my time during each construction of each page. During this time I took a big advantage of Adobe Photoshop, which I could access at home. I could easily create magazine elements such as masthead, manipulation of images or font change, as I could easily download new fonts which were not accessible on InDesign in school due to the legalisation. I found interfering these two programs very useful in many ways. I could manage my time better, but it also motivated me to develop my skills on both programs rather than one. 

In conclusion, I benefited from all listen above softwares which allowed me to gain new skills as well as to develop my old ones. I am willing to use them later on in life as they all helped me to present the work in many different creative ways. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION V
HOW DID YOU ATTRACT YOUR AUDIENCE/ ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Another vital element within my DPS which would attract the audience is the use of language which I referred back to magazines such as Q or NME. Following the length of the page, the use of word 'EXCLUSIVE' in a large font would definitely attract my audience to stop and look at it especially because it's followed my the artist's name which is written in large and bold font as a wob. This contrast between the font and the background would defiantly bring readers attention. Another very eye catching code and convention which would attract reader's attention is the use of pull out quote which is placed directly within the text. The use of language within the pull out quote ''My whole starting point is that I have nothing to loose'' is very strong and confident. I think this would attract the audience as they would want to find out more about what he is saying in the interview. It makes the readers think he is a strong and confident character, and this is how the audience might want to be viewed. 

Furthermore, within my double page spread and front cover I tried to use personal pronouns as this is a common language technique used to grab reader's attention. For example; 25 festivals to blow YOUR mind' or 'You can't lose yourself'. This would definitely grab reader's attention as the the magazine content is directly aimed at the reader meaning they would feel more engaged with the magazine feeling as if they were part of it. 

Looking back at my contents page I used few other techniques than a photograph which I believe would strongly attract my audience. One of them is the contrasting and simplistic colour scheme which underlines the good aesthetics of the page. At the same time it makes it easier for the audience to read the features, meaning it would attract them to read the page. Another element within the contents is the division of the contents features, which is one of the common codes and conventions found within the contents pages in other magazines. This would definitely attract the audience as again it would allow them quicker and easier reading. They could easily find what they are looking for and under which heading depending on their interest. This is again supported through the large numbers of pages placed on the side of the features, that allows the audience to automatically find a particular feature on a certain page. To make it even more clear I used rich and vibrant red that stood out on a white background around a black font text.